Deception

Christine teaches piano in New York. After the war her lover Karel, whom she believed dead, comes back; he is a cellist who got out of Europe. They marry. But Christine did not live alone in those years: the celebrated composer Alexander Hollenius kept her and they were involved. Hollenius will not let it go. He offers to write Karel a concerto, and the rehearsals become a torture. Irving Rapper directs. Bette Davis plays Christine, Claude Rains plays Hollenius and Paul Henreid plays Karel. The three were reunited after Now, Voyager, and it was made for Warner Bros. The character at the centre is Hollenius. Claude Rains plays him not as evil but as insufferable: courteous, witty, generous, and belittling whoever he speaks to with every sentence; it is among his most cited roles. The subject is a lie growing. Christine has only to hide one thing, and after that every move requires another. The music functions inside the narrative. Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed the cello concerto for the film and the piece later entered the concert repertoire. It did not meet expectations commercially and remains among the least known of Davis's forties films. Who it is for: viewers who like classical Hollywood melodrama and Claude Rains. Who it is not for: the narrative is confined to three characters, close to the stage, and the ending is rushed.