Bad for Each Other (1953)

Director:  Irving Rapper

Writers:  Irving Wallace, Horace McCoy

Composer:  Stock music

Starring:  Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Dianne Foster, Mildred Dunnock, Arthur Franz, Ray Collins, Marjorie Rambeau, Lester Matthews, Rhys Williams

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  GHOST SURGEON!  Forced into the medical shadow world by the love of a money-hungry woman!

Plot:  A doctor returning from the Korean War to his hometown in Pennsylvania must choose what next to do with his life

My rating:  6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah.

Ah, remember the days when 9 out of 10 doctors recommended Lucky Strike cigarettes?  Here's two of 'em...

L.S.M.F.T., Baby!

This is one of four flicks on the DVD, Bad Girls of Film Noir Volume 1.  This is not a film noir although it's got a bad news broad that hovers near the center of it.  Helen (devilishly played by Lizabeth Scott) is rich and horny.  She wants Dr. Tom Own (Heston) to bang and to mold into something he doesn't want to be.  This could've been a film noir if there were some crime going on but there isn't.  She sits out a good chuck of the picture while Tom works his brilliant surgeon ass at a practice that caters to wealthy clients.  He's all about the money, see?  He grew up poor In Coalville, USA and after his successful stint in the Army, he's ready to make the big league buckaroonies.  The thing is, he goes through the trouble of buying Helen a ring and has a meaningful talk with her wealthy father (who objects to the marriage because he knows that she will ruin him just like she had the others) to marry her but he never follows through with it.  Instead, his professional life takes center stage for a while to the point where you think the film makers totally forgot about the marriage thing altogether.  Then, in the final minutes of the film, we find out that he's still single and has a change of heart where he feels that he needs to be, as in he no longer wants to sacrifice his integrity to be rich and successful, that money isn't as important as he thought.  Whew.  That's a lot of explaining.  But even with that in mind, I found it entertaining.  Scott knocks it out of the park being super sultry.  Heston does his usual admirable job, but there's a scene that features Marjorie Rambeau (as the rich, elderly Mrs. Nelson) at a dinner party after her surgery, that stole the show.  That broad could act and she doesn't hold back.   I was so impressed I might've given myself to her.  Either that or it was the 2-7 glasses of white wine I drank while watching this.  Despite the abrupt ending and the absence of anything that qualifies this to be a film noir (shame on the the marketing team).  This is an entertaining straight up drama with a lot going for it.