This Is My Love (1954)

Just as birds descended from dinosaurs, so the film noir of the forties morphed by the mid-fifties into the women's picture; the histrionics of the Technicolor 'Leave Her to Heaven' (1945) evolving into Douglas Sirk's throbbing fifties melodramas.Occasional additional forays into Technicolor along the way in crime dramas like 'Desert Fury' (1947) and 'Rope' (1948) gave hints as to the way colour could embellish thriller material; and the fuzzy Pathécolor employed on 'This Is My Love' - along with the incredibly stagy sets - draws us gradually into what initially seems to promise to be a rather bland romantic drama, but proves anything but. The presence of Dan Duryea warns us that peril lies ahead - and the fact that he's in a wheelchair, in which he proves a pretty nifty mover - simply heightens the pent-up menace he brings to his part. (And wouldn't you know it, he depends on medication administered by his long-suffering wife and sister-in-law to keep him alive?) Practically everybody in the film turns to be nursing bottled up emotions threatening destructively to burst their banks in true 50's style, and... but I won't spoil it for you. Worth seeing.

I have always been a Linda Darnell fan and this movie is her at her finest acting ability.I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end. It's a storyline that delves into the subject matter of heartbreak,infidelity, disappointment, and abuse. How many people are at a loss when dealing with life's complexities? It makes one think about about one's own shortcomings and vulnerabilities. I felt for her through out the movie considering everything she had gone through. It's been about 50 yrs. since I've seen it. Maybe I would see her role in a different light now.Great acting especially by Linda Darnell. At this point in her career it seems her movies ended. It was such a shame because she seemed to finally be cast in a role that could prove her ability. She was very talented and beautiful.It's too bad she was never appreciated for the great actress she was. I'm also a Dan Duryea fan and this role was made for him. His reputation for playing mean,angry,abusive men casts him in a role he sinks his teeth into. He is a very convincing actor who makes the plot come together. It was the first time I saw the actor Rick Jason and what a head turner. Also irresistible sex appeal. He was perfect in the role as a charming and handsome womanizer. The setting takes place in old Cali. The old diner gives you a sense of the Calif of back in the day. The romantic beach scenes also take one back to Calif before all the development. The channel on TV that shows old classics has a place on internet to vote for films, fans would like to see come out again. If you're interested go and vote for this one.

Directed by Stuart Heisler {The Glass Key} and starring Linda Darnell {Vida Dove}, Faith Domergue {Evelyn Dove/Myer}, Dan Duryea {Murray Myer} & Rick Jason {Glenn Harris}, This Is My Love is a Noirish potboiler dealing in sexual repression, deception, heartbreak, sibling strife and murder. All of which sounds like the film should be a most potent piece of work, sadly the film never rises above being a ponderously paced story that's devoid of a blood pumping heart.It's a shame this vastly underachieves as a drama since the performances of the three principal actors are very strong, especially Darnell, who as Vida Dove neatly blends a smouldering sexuality with a tinted confusion of the life she is leading. Based on Hugh Brooke's story, Fear Has Black Wings, This Is My Love is filmed in Pathécolor and theatrically released out of RKO. Never released on DVD and mostly forgotten by all but Darnell/Duryea purists, Heisler's film hints at being far more intriguing than it actually is. It's not so much that one finds themselves waiting for a plot spark that never arrives, it's the overriding feeling that the finale here will be a let down. The very nature of the piece telegraphs where these characters will end up, thus rendering the ending the damp squib it ultimately is.It's a testament to Darnell, Domergue and Duryea that they have given the characters some substance, managing to hold the viewers attention span by way of their craft. One scene as Darnell's Vida shouts down at the wheelchair bound Murray is worth sitting thru the movie for. But it's a rare moment of heat raising as the tepid screenplay, staid direction and the woefully bland performance of Rick Jason swamp any chance of movie ignition. There's some value with Franz Waxman's score, and Connie Russell popping in to sing the title song is a bonus. But much like the sisters Vida & Evelyn Dove in the picture, I too felt boxed in, and that is something I'm sure the makers wasn't aiming for. 4/10

Linda Darnell stars as Vida, a sexually repressed spinster living with her vivacious sister Faith Domergue and Faith's crippled husband Dan Duryea in this quasi-noir romantic potboiler. Vida's a dreamy small-town Emma Bovary with unrealistic writing aspirations and a boring beau she barely tolerates and when handsome Rick Jason comes to the family diner where she and her sister work, he asks her out. Vida ruins every chance for happiness she ever had and this time is no exception because her self-pitying and depressing personality drives him into the arms of her married sister. This in turn tears the heart out of Duryea who's deeply in love with Faith but only half a man thanks to a terrible accident that ended their professional dancing career. He's become an embittered male shrew who delights in torturing Vida and this cuckold blames her for his wife's infidelity in a particularly vicious fight which drives Vida to go running for the medicine chest poison. Clever -and no slouch in the vindictive department herself- Vida's dark side sees a way to get even with Duryea and frame Domergue for his murder at the same time...Based on the novel "Fear Has Black Wings" and filmed in garish color by producer Allan Dowling and released by RKO, THIS IS MY LOVE comes as a nice little sleeper surprise for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Miss Linda Darnell. Comparing Linda to Bette Davis may sound amazing but it's awfully hard not to see what I mean. Darnell's Vida is a cross between Charlotte Vale of NOW VOYAGER and the ruthless Regina Giddons of THE LITTLE FOXES -especially when Vida just listens as Duryea dies screaming from the poison she gave him. All three protagonists are only half-alive in a claustrophobic house of hate, recrimination and regret which boils over, not unlike WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?. Linda Darnell does excellent work here. Bloated but still youthful, she encodes her character with the beauty Vida must have had in the bloom of youth and layers it with pent-up resentments seething just below the surface. One couldn't ask for more from the lady. This portrayal shows what Linda learned after 15 years in the fabulous Dream Factory called the Studio System where beauties like Hayworth, Tierney, Turner and Lamarr also learned to act in due time. Many feel A LETTER TO THREE WIVES is Darnell's best but some of the characterization depends on the lady's hard gloss/hard-bitten glamor but her Vida in THIS IS MY LOVE doesn't and she's also given stellar support. Alternately evoking hatred and sympathy in the audience, the much beloved character Dan Duryea comes perilously close to going over the top -but just try and look away. Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose", Faith Domergue, isn't too bad trying to please everyone while making the best of a god-awful life and when a little happiness comes her way in the form of Rick Jason, it's hard to begrudge her. Cast and audience are torn as sympathy must go to Linda's Vida also. Duryea was Vida's beau back in the day until Faith took him and after living together for years, something wretched was bound to happen. Rick Jason is OK in a Tom Tryon kind of way as the tall, dark Adonis who hits town and ignites the fuse. Great as slice-of-life Americana, the film has 1950's vignettes galore; there's a few colorful dance palace scenes as Jason takes both sisters out for a whirl and glimpses of every-day Americans working/living at the diner. Stand-out is an old biddy with nothing better to do than come in, order apple-pie and eavesdrop on other people's love lives.Highly recommended. You'll see why after you see it.Jerry "Leave It To Beaver" Mathers, his look-alike sister Susie Mathers, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer ("The Little Rascals"), William Hopper (Hedda's son and "Perry Mason" regular) and Ed Wood Jr.'s frequent leading lady Dolores Fuller all appear in small roles.Linda, as most fans know, died as a result of burns sustained in a fire in 1965 and Dan Duryea died of cancer in 1968. Faith died from cancer in 1999 (in England) and Rick Jason shot himself in 2000.