Undercurrent *** (1946, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum) – Classic Movie Review 10,039

‘An Irresistible Force That Draws a Man and Woman Together!’ ‘Please Don’t Tell The Terrific Ending!’

A considerably aged, craggy-looking Robert Taylor is rewarded for his three years’ wartime US Navy service with a good vehicle and the best of co-stars in Katharine Hepburn and Robert Mitchum.

Vincente Minnelli directs the tense, taut, atmospheric 1946 film-noir-style melodrama Undercurrent, in which handsome, wealthy industrialist Alan Garroway (Robert Taylor) turns nasty after marrying bright but dowdy middle-aged bride Ann Hamilton (Katharine Hepburn). It’s the old story, marry in haste, repent at leisure. But why is Michael Garroway (Robert Mitchum) prowling among the trees?

This little-known, little-seen movie is unfairly neglected. Among a top-rate cast, there are three excellent star performances, with all three unusually cast, or four including that of Edmund Gwenn, who is outstanding as Hepburn’s scientist dad, Professor David ‘Dink’ Hamilton.

Edward Chodorov’s screenplay is based on the novel You Were There by Thelma Strabel.

There is a rumour that Mitchum and Hepburn had a stormy working relationship. Hepburn is supposed to have told him during a row on set: ‘You know you can’t act and if you hadn’t been good looking you would never had gotten a picture.’ But Mitchum on various occasions denied the rumour that they didn’t get along.

Also in the cast are Marjorie Main, Jayne Meadows, Clinton Sundberg, Dan Tobin, Kathryn Card, Leigh Whipper, Charles Trowbridge, Billy McClain, Bess Flowers, Sarah Edwards, Ellen Ross, Betty Blythe, Milton Kibbee, Jean Adren, Forbes Murray, Wheaton Chambers, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Morris Ankrum, Barbara Billingsley, Dorothy Christy, Eula Guy, Harold Miller, Jack Murphy, Laura Treadwell, James Westerfield and Hank Worden.

Undercurrent is directed by Vincente Minnelli, runs 116 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Edward Chodorov, George Oppenheimer (uncredited) and Marguerite Roberts (contributor to treatment, uncredited), based on the novel You Were There by Thelma Strabel, is shot in black and white by Karl Freund, is produced by Pandro S Berman, is scored by Herbert Stothart and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (composer, additional music), and is designed by Randall Duell and Cedric Gibbons.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,039

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