An Act of Murder

Tame by today's standards, but probably was a water cooler topic back in 1948. March and Eldridge give strong performances in this somewhat overly melodramatic drama dealing with terminal illness and euthanasia.

I face a steep incline with this film. It's almost disposably frivolous at first, and then things get serious and every single person makes absurdly wrong decisions. I don't demand that films contain only characters that do the right thing, but it is reasonable to expect that a film know the difference.

I've been watching many Fredric March & Florence Eldridge movies and I still didn't know they were married in real life! Here as a married couple who's life is turned upside down with the wife gets terminally ill, & it becomes a morality piece on mercy-killing. Eldridge is someone I mainly associate with 'lady of the house' roles. Never anything deep, but perfectly likable. Here however, there is more drama for her, so it was nice to see her get that chance. It's a good drama overall, actually.

Cheesy, but nice.