Gift für den Anderen (1951) Online

It's fascinating to watch the wife and husband duo go at each other playing anything but a loving married couple. What makes this, of all of Bette Davis' movies rich is that the set is her own home; and, what a place it is. Not a palace, but a very British type of country home.

Davis' & Merrill's acting is superb; the plot is thick; the script worthy of Davis' fantastic articulation & conveyance of attitudes contrary enough to part the Red Sea.

Everyone's got their favorite Bette Davis film, if they're a fan of the US classics from Warner Bros.. Mine is this "Poison...," because it's the 4th time the dynamic duo act together but the first time they both have leading roles; it's filmed in their own home which reveals so much about Davis' tastes & I could feel her comfort with the set; the mystery.crime.drama is unsettling; and to the end, I watched wondering how Davis would get out of the ugly situation in which Merrill's held her.

There's something very different about this movie because Davis put on the production herself outside of a domineering studio. Considering the year & women's social inferiority in the workplace, even in Hollywood, it's remarkable that Davis pulled "Poison..." off so well.

Real life married couple Bette Davis and Gary Merrill went to the United Kingdom to do this feature film based on a play by Leslie Sands. Another Man's Poison had no run on Broadway so I had no cast in which to compare the movie cast with. I would dearly have loved to know who the original British cast was, that would prove interesting.

With her clipped New England speech, Bette Davis like Katharine Hepburn had no trouble doing occasional English roles, Davis in fact did the best of them all, their good Queen Elizabeth on two occasions. Here she's something less than a Queen, she's a willful manipulator of people and events something I'm guessing she picked up in her profession as an Agatha Christie type mystery writer.

Before the events of the film start we learn that Bette is estranged from her husband whom none of the villagers in the small hamlet in the United Kingdom have met. She says he's in Malaya growing rubber on a plantation, but in fact he's a bank robber and he came there looking for her to give him shelter and a hideout. Instead because she's got big eyes for Anthony Steel, the fiancé of her secretary Barbara Murray she kills her husband and hides the body.

When to start the action in walks Gary Merrill her husband's accomplice in the robbery and also a wanted man. When the local veterinarian Emlyn Williams comes to call Merrill pretends he's long lost husband and Davis backs him up.

Which starts a relationship of convenience for both Davis and Merrill both stuck with each other, but both needing each other to some degree. But with Bette manipulating to trap Steel at the same time the whole situation just simmers to a boil in the end.

Best in the cast is Emlyn Williams. His veterinarian comes over like a country bumpkin, but he's really quite astute, almost like a rural English Columbo. Over here they would have the veterinarian the lead in a television series.

Not top drawer Bette Davis, but in fact her bravura acting style carries this film over some rough patches. Another, a lesser actress might have not done as much with the material, but Bette Davis certainly could and did.

I appreciate this terse movie's smart script, staging, and tight editing, especially upon second viewing. Of course the nosy neighbor veterinarian serves mainly as a plot vehicle, but the role is well acted. Gary Merrill's George Bates seems lacking some refinement of expression. He plays it like an open book, and makes Bates a totally sympathetic character. The story hinges on the power plays between Bates and devious Janet as, chained together by their crimes, they struggle for the upper hand via her scheming and his brute force. Their tortured relationship could have a plausible chance for success, given the plot circumstances, but the secretary's fiancé Larry is in the way, creating a tension that draws the characters to the unhappy climax. Davis is in good form, and this is an entertaining film.

Since there is a finite number of Bette Davis films available for viewing in 2006, one has to value each for what it is. Although "Poison" may not be in her top 10, Davis is the master, and it is infinitely preferable to experience it than not.

Okay, it's not an Oscar-winner, but this movie is a lot of fun, especially if you're a Bette Davis fan. The setting, a spooky, isolated British mansion, is strongly portrayed; by the end, you really feel like you've spent time some time within the oak-paneled walls. Bette looks just like she did in "All About Eve" -- same hairstyle and similar wardrobe, so it's easy to imagine that this could have been a Margo Channing movie. And of course her costar is Garry Merrill, with whom she also starred in "Eve." This was adapted from a stage play, so I think it's interesting to pay attention to the structure and limited changes of location, which are an indicator of its stage pedigree. This one shows up on TCM once in a while; sit back and enjoy.

Another in a long line of Davis' deliciously evil roles. This film has the same feel as "The Little Foxes", but with a bit more scenery chewing. I was a little puzzled as to some of the plot developments, but on the whole such things don't mean much when you're watching Davis and Merrill try to outmaneuver each other.

I didn't care much for the rest of the cast, but what does it matter? Davis makes it a very satisfying experience.

Another Man's Poison is directed by Irving Rapper and adapted to screenplay by Val Guest from the play "Deadlock" written by Leslie Sands. It stars Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Emlyn Williams, Anthony Steel and Barbara Murray. Music is by John Greenwood and Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Robert Krasker.

A whole bunch of fun if expectation levels are correctly set. Another Man's Poison is essentially a one set piece (confirming its stage origins), with primary focus on just five people and a horse. It's a tale of murder, deception and carnal desires, the latter of which is wrung out via Janet Frobisher's (Davis) affair with a much younger man who happens to be the intended of her secretary.

Frobisher is quite frankly a bitch, something which Davis attacks with relish and no little amount of histrionic camp. She's the fulcrum of the story, but all the other key characters here are either stupid, ignorant, devious or all three in one go! Oh yes, this is a regular hot- bed of people you really wouldn't want to be hanging around with for long.

It's these characterisations that along with Krasker's photography just about earns the pic its film noir badge. The script isn't up to much - where stories about changes being made by Williams and Davis and Merrill (hubbie and wife) being unhappy – are common place, but it never outstays its welcome by being boring and Bette being batty is always good entertainment. 6.5/10

I am getting more and more into Bette Davis' style, which is on fine display in this feature where she plays a mystery writer who gets tangled up in her own sordid tale.

Davis kills her own estranged husband and then gets set up by his criminal friend who thinks he can successfully hide under the guise of Bette's unknown husband. This poor character has no idea who or what he is up against when he takes on Bette. For that matter, her poor secretary has no idea either when Bette suddenly decides that she wants her fiance.

While I found most of the supporting cast to be quite bland and annoying (the neighbor), the movie does a great job highlighting Bette's talents and is quite enjoyable to watch.

I'm sure it's all been done before, but if you are a Bette Davis fan like me, then you know that few do it better. A lovely-haired Davis and then-husband Gary Merrill play off of each other alternately uninterestingly or with fireworks, all in the same film. Merrill's performance is pretty uneven. I can't say I've seen too much of his work, but he's usually better than he is here, given the fact that his character is betrayed-angry-man-done-wrong. Here his performance lacks energy.

The double-crosses come thick and fast in this one, so the viewer must pay attention to the (sometimes quite good) dialog, or confusion may strike.

The other couple in the film, Larry and Chris (Anthony Steel and Barbara Murray) are bland to say the least. Steel is given more to do than Murray, and gives a semi-convincing performance as Bette's toy boy, but the character (as well as Murray's) is underwritten. The film is definitely a Davis vehicle, and she runs with the ball like the pro she is. Murray's lot is mostly stuck in reaction mode, but she does OK with what she has.

Goofy-looking Emlyn Williams plays pesty-neighbor-from-hell Dr. Henderson decently, and looks as though he is having a ball doing so. The Mr. Bigley character, representing, I suppose, a colorful local type, comes across as dense and reprehensible. What were the writers thinking there, I wonder.

The plot takes elements from various scenarios that we've all seen, and the result is not extremely coherent, yet very entertaining. The directing is great, with some wonderful shots. I enjoyed the film throughout.

I especially like the ending, and its retribution – as Davis' character says (something along the lines of): `thanks, I hadn't thought of that idea, but it'll work out fine.' Oh, the irony.

Bottom line: its strengths overcome its weaknesses – there are much worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

Still fresh from their success and newfound love in "All About Eve," Bette Davis and Gary Merrill made this independent film, "Another Man's Poison," based on a play by Leslie Sands. Davis is Janet Frobisher, a successful mystery writer living in a mausoleum of a house out on the moors. When her husband's partner in a bank robbery comes there looking for him, Frobisher announces that he's in the study - dead from the poison she gave him (medicine intended for her beloved horse, Fury). While they're attempting to dispose of the body, Frobisher's paramour, whom she summoned earlier, arrives with his fiancé (who is also Frobisher's secretary). The bank robber, named George Bates, introduces himself as Frobisher's estranged husband and settles in.

This is a neat, atmospheric story with an edgy, vital performance by Davis. Merrill, ruggedly handsome, is appropriately gruff and sinister. Though his character thinks he and Frobisher might really have a chance at playing house, his competition is the very handsome, young Anthony Steel, a popular British matinée idol of the '40s. Emlyn Williams is marvelous as the nosy, annoying veterinarian who keeps stopping by.

"Another Man's Poison" seems to have been made rather cheaply - the print I saw was not of great quality, and the lighting is on the dark side. Though the setting is somewhat static because it was originally a play, the film is very intriguing, and Davis always worth seeing. Highly recommended.

Overblown melodrama with Bette pulling out all the stops and putting any idea of subtlety aside. If you enjoy films where she turns in that sort of performance as opposed to her quieter work in films like Dark Victory or Watch on the Rhine than this is for you. Reunited with her Now, Voyager director but certainly not on a script of that calibre he seems unable to rein her in, everybody else tries to compete and while the rest of the cast turn in decent performances when Bette struts into view blowing smoke and popping her eyes no one else stands a chance. Filmed directly after one of her best performances in All About Eve and with new husband Gary Merrill in tow she apparently didn't think much of the script and as she sometimes did when faced with less than stellar material she plays to the balconies. Deliciously grand and over the top.

I agree with other reviewers who found merit in this film. Maybe because I watched it "on a dark and stormy night," I found the film to have quite a few endearing qualities, including a sufficiently gloomy and Gothic setting, solid acting, a big dash of melodrama (sometimes unintentionally funny), some brilliant catch phrases, a couple of handsome equines, some much-needed tawdriness, intriguing real world background, an astute and meddling detective type, and of course Bette as the menacing, manipulative author of thrillers (undoubtedly as sordid as her behavior). I mean, what's not to like? Sure, the plot has some real twists that are beyond suspending disbelief, and the quality of the film isn't the best, but if you're a fan of the genre or Bette, then this is a must see. But first, pour yourself a stiff drink. Preferably, direct from the bottle.

In New Yorkshimore, the adulterous writer of mystery novels Janet Frobisher (Bette Davis) is surprised by the stranger George Bates (Gary Merrill) that is waiting for her inside her isolated house nearby a lake seeking out her husband George Preston. Bates tells Janet that her husband and he had robbed a bank; however her husband panicked in the heist and shot a guard. Janet tells that she is alone and surprisingly reveals that she had poisoned her husband and shows his body in the office. Out of the blue, her nosy next door neighbor Dr. Henderson (Emlyn Williams) pays a visit to her and George introduces himself as Janet's estranged husband that was traveling in Himalaya. Then they decide to dump the body in the lake, but Janet's secretary Chris Dale (Barbara Murray) and her fiancé and Janet's lover Larry Steven (Anthony Steel) arrive for the weekend and George dispose the corpse alone. Along the next days, the situation becomes tense with the quartet while Dr. Henderson snoops the house. When George kills Janet's horse Fury, the cynical writer plots a plan to gets rid of the inconvenient George.

"Another Man's Poison" is a theatrical film shot practically in one location with a plot about murder and adultery that is indeed a witty mouse-and-cat game. The fantastic Bette Davis plays the role of a devilish selfish woman that only loves her horse Fury. Emlyn Williams performs an irritating character and only in the end there is an explanation for his annoying attitude. The conclusion is ironic and the black-humor is moralist in a certain viewpoint. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Mulher Maldita" ("Damned Woman")

(There are spoilers) Breaking into the mansion of famous mystery writer Janet Frobisher, Bette Davis,for a prearranged meeting with her husband Preston bank robber George Bates, Garry Merrill, is shocked to find out that his partner in crime had been murdered by his estranged wife. Janet who's been having an affair with her secretary Chris', Barbara Murry, boyfriend Larry, Anthony Steel, had been surprised to find her old man, Preston, getting into the mix by using her home as a safe house to later, when the heats off, take off on a steam ship out of the country with his fellow bank robber Bates. Janet gave the fugitive a drink laced with a strong sedative that was prescribed by local veterinarian Dr. Hnderson, Emlyn Williams, for her horse Fury that put Preston to sleep forever.

With one of the bank guards shot and seriously wounded during the robbery by Preston Bates want's to save his neck from the hangman's rope, if the guard dies and he's caught by the police, to have Preston admit he was the one who shot him and even has Preston's gun and the fingerprints that go along with it to prove it. Bates efforts are now all moot since he's, Preston, no longer around to face justice.

We now have this very complicated scenario in the film where Bates, after he and Janet deep six Preston's body in a nearby lake, impersonates Preston as his now wife Janet secretly connives to also murder him in order to keep Bates from implicating her in her husbands murder. It's never really explained why Janet murdered Preston in the first place all we know is that she did the guy in just because he may have gotten in the way of her affair with Larry but why kill the man since he was separated from Janet for some three years and couldn't care less if she was having a love affair with Larry or anyone else? All Preston wanted was to get away from the police and check out of the country.

For all her smarts Janet is outsmarted by Bates, who's on to her back-stabbing tactics, at almost every turn with him surviving a near-fatal car crash, that she secretly arraigned for him, and then for some reason not at all fully explained, in fact as Bates' was about to tell her just before he suddenly fell ill from a poisoned drink that Janet gave him, why he killed her prized horse Fury. Bates claiming that the horse broke it's leg, a bald face lie on Bates' part, and that he was forced to shoot it gets Janet to lose her composure and almost spill the beans on herself to who really Bates' is and why he's impersonating her husband, because she murdered him and got rid of the body.

While all this is going on both Larry and Chris drop in at the Frobisher Estate for a stay over the weekend which makes things even more confusing with Larry finding out that his secret love, Janet, is now back with her husband! At the same time Chris begins to realize that he's, Larry, dropping her for not only her boss, Janet, but for a much older, Janet is 43 and Chris is 22, woman to boot!

The big break in the case comes from non other then the friendly and somewhat overbearing Dr. Hernderson who it later turns out knows a lot more about both Bates and Preston that he's been letting on, which is total ignorance, and is himself playing some kind of mind game, like a junior Sherlock Holmes, on his own to trap both Janet and Bates and bring the two scoundrels to justice. Dr. Henderson is beaten to the punch by both Janet & Bates at the end of the movie by the two playing an even bigger, and deadlier, game or trick on each other.

Not one of Bette Davis' better films but her interaction with Garry Merrill, her husband at the time, is really worth watching as the two try to one-up each other in trying to pull off the perfect crime at the others expense with both ending up on the losing side.

Mystery novelist Bette Davis has taken a house on the Yorkshire Moors, an inhospitable mausoleum that puzzlingly draws a number of unexpected visitors. One evening she returns home to find a stranger (Gary Merrill) ensconced in an easy chair. He has come to settle accounts with her ne'er-do-well husband, with whom he pulled off a robbery in London that ended with a policeman's being shot. Unfortunately, Davis has just poisoned said husband, whose body stiffens in the library. A quick shift in circumstances has Merrill posing as the husband, an inconvenience since Davis is also having an affair with the fiancé of her young secretary....

Another Man's Poison started out as a stage play, with the result that it's talky and contrived. Hardly a scene goes by without interruption from one or another of those visitors crashing in through various doors. Among them is snoopy veterinarian Emlyn Williams, whose lucky patients are generally dumb. Davis and Merrill plot against each other with all the ingenuity of Elizabethan revenge tragedy – even Davis' pet steed falls victim to the murderous ploys.

Between Davis' spectacular comeback in All About Eve and her startling second comeback in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, she had some lean years with poor parts. When she lacked a full-blooded character to play, her acting became sharply mannered and elocutionary, as here. Fans of thrillers written for the British footlights, like The Mousetrap or Williams' own Night Must Fall, may find Another Man's Poison reasonably satisfying; it's a contraption, and once it's over there's no need to think back on it. But it is decidedly lesser Bette Davis.

Bette Davis, as usual, is compelling in this 1951 film. However, after she and Merrill were in the far superior "All About Eve," the year before, nothing could top that and this film certainly doesn't.

Even with Davis pulling out all her murderous treachery, this doesn't save the film. The problem is that it is confined to one scenic view and rather becomes difficult as Davis, who has killed her husband, is visited by Merrill, who helped the dead man rob a bank. Merrill assumes the role of Davis's husband as no one supposedly has ever seen the latter.

People just go in and out of the house providing no intrigue whatsoever. Davis even tries to make it with Anthony Steel, a much younger man who is the fiancé of her secretary.

Emlyn Williams has his moments as the suspecting vet. By the way, just don't drink to anything the picture offers, both Merrill and Davis did and look how they wound up.

Leslie Sands' stilted play "Deadlock" becomes a poor-choice vehicle for Bette Davis and Gary Merrill, following their joint-success in "All About Eve". After killing her spouse, a scheming woman is visited by her husband's best friend, who passes himself off as her husband once other people begin dropping by. Irving Rapper, one of Bette's best directors from her peak years, is sadly unable to elevate this ridiculous material, in which Davis is curiously aloof and restrained until the outrageous finale (where she thankfully pulls out all the stops). Production and supporting cast second-rate. Mainly for Bette Davis completists. ** from ****

Even an excellent cast can't redeem this appalling and ridiculously plotted so-called thriller that Bette Davis and her then husband Gary Merrill made in Britain in 1951. She's a crime writer who has murdered her husband and he's a bank robber on the run who poses as the dead husband, (don't even think of asking how any of this came about). She's also having an affair with her secretary's financee, (Anthony Steel), and then there's always the nosey vet from the neighbouring farm, (Emlyn Williams). It was based on a play by the actor Leslie Sands and you can tell, (Val Guest, of all people, did the adaptation), and was directed by Irving Rapper. It's far from one of his best efforts. In what may be her worst performance Bette camps it up like a parody of herself with only Emlyn Williams coming out of it with something like his reputation intact. Needless to say, it wasn't a hit.

That extended opening scene is like a showcase for real-life marrieds Davis and Merrill. Looks like she may be introducing them as a couple to American audiences. It's an apparently low-budget British production with a small cast and a single rural location site. As the conniving Janet, murderer of her inconvenient husband, Bette gets to evil-eye and puff her way through 90-minutes of theatrics. And with a ton of unflattering close-ups. At the same time, George (Merrill) tries somberly to deal with Janet's schemes, as they cover up her husband's murder in a secluded British estate. Only pesky Dr. Henderson (Williams) gets in their way.

I'm not surprised the film is rarely mentioned among Davis's triumphs. The plot shenanigans are convoluted, theatrics abound, and talk is only relieved by spectacular scenes of the Yorkshire moors. Moreover, calling the results noir, amounts to a stretch. I did, however, like the upshot scene, a neat bit of irony. Nonetheless, showcasing the two leads tends to over-shadow both story and character. Good thing directors Rapper and Guest do their best at pacing the difficult material. Anyway, whatever the drawbacks, the film should please fans of Bette; but for others, it's mainly a matter of taste.

The cleverness of a best-selling mystery writer gets her to see if she can get away with murder, but you know it's going to catch up with her. Bette Davis is the calculating American author, living in seclusion on the Moors and determined to let no man get in her way. It's very apparent that she loves her prized horse Fury more than any other man.

The visit by a stranger (Gary Merrill) exposes at least one of her crimes as he is there to find her estranged husband whom she calmly tells him is lying in the other room....dead. Certain he will end up being made an accessory, Merrill arranges to get rid of the body for her, but when the local veterinarian (Emlyn Williams) keeps stopping by, Davis and Merrill pretend (reluctantly on Davis's part) to be husband and wife. The doctor had made a compound for the ailing Fury which taken in large doses can be fatal, and Davis pretends she used it all up, hanging on to it just in case she needs it again. She's in love with her secretary's fiancée, and even though it is apparent that she's obviously a decade older than him (at least), has managed to seduce him. As the game between Davis and Merrill gets more dangerous, each of them uses a one-upmanship on the other, but it is very apparent that nobody will be the winner in this deliciously wicked game.

While Davis referred to herself as a character actress who happened to play leads, she hadn't really begun to play character parts at this point even though she was past the age where most leading players turn to character or supporting parts. She still has the Margo Channing/Tallulah hairstyle, and is even a bit portly, but it is obvious that she is still using her sexual wiles to keep the men in her life under her thumb. Like a female spider, she uses those desires to lure men to their doom, and even with much subtlety in her performance, it is obvious to the audience that she is quite deadly. Only on a few occasions does she allow those typically famous Bette Davis theatrics to take over her performance. She has met her devious match, however, in Merrill, and intellectual match in Williams. It's surprising that the writers did not have any of the characters playing chess together, because the plot is exactly like that, and when certain characters get "checked", you know that it will take only one move for them to get "mated".

While certainly a fascinating melodrama (and Davis is always fascinating even in the most outlandish of stories), this suffers from too many implausibilities and even some tediously slow moving dialog scenes to be totally successful. But once it does get off the ground, it really becomes mesmerizing, and like a bad car accident, it is difficult to turn away from it. Davis's final moments on screen are fraught with tension as it becomes more and more obvious that her sins have obviously driven her mad. After having been so noble as her lover in "All About Eve", it's nice to see Merrill step up to the plate to toss her a curve ball. Anthony Steel and Barbara Murray's characters are nowhere nearly as interesting as Davis, Merrill and Williams', and as a result come off as rather bland.

I awarded this film 6/10 and you can see how Bette Davis is gradually moving to her later horror style which she reached her apogee in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?".It is so obviously a filmed stage play with 95% of the action filmed in Betty's Yorkshire country house but there are a few token scenes of her and her co-male actors riding over the Yorkshire moors however.An irritating continuity problem is when actors open and come through the front door seemingly without keys and suddenly appear inside your living room this still happens in stupid "soaps" like "Eastenders" especially when the home-help has not started her duties!I only saw this film because someone uploaded it onto "Youtube.com".Gary Merrill plays a less sympathetic character than he played in "All About Eve".A slightly above average film.

ANOTHER MAN'S POISON is a solid piece of psychological noir, benefitting immensely from a performance by the inimitable Bette Davis. She plays a crime writer holed up in a spooky old mansion, visited by a series of men who may or may not be out to get her. It's a cunning little film with a plot that involves murder by various means, with poison playing a big part in the proceedings. A well-chosen cast holds things together nicely and if the whole thing feels rather low budget, Davis is so memorable that you won't care about the shortcomings.

I don't believe there's an American actress who has turned in a finer set of performances as Bette Davis did from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. But by 1950, her star was in decline. The scripts were not as good. Some of her performances seemed a tad over the top. But she was still a force to behold...and enjoy.

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, it wasn't stormy. But it sure was dark! Much of the early part of this film is so dark that I would guess the studio lighting was by flashlight (and only 1, at that). Really, this film has an awfully cheap look to it. The film also suffers from atrocious cinematography or significant deterioration of the film stock...or both (at least in the print shown on TCM).

Another problem here is Gary Merrill's facial and body hair. Yes, I'm serious. From scene to scene his 5 o'clock shadow varies from heavy to light. And, if he were still alive, I'd suggest he shave his chest for the cinema! Shades of the Wolf Man! This must rate as one of Bette Davis' worst films. How she ever selected this -- particularly after her recent success in "All About Eve". Think it's just my misguided opinion? Many reviewers feel it's what led to a sharp decline in her career! So who is responsible for this being such a monstrosity? I'd like to blame the director, Irving Rapper, but he directed Davis in "Now, Voyager" (1942; one of her finest films), and "The Corn Is Green" (1945). I don't know much about the writer, Val Guest, so I'll heap a pile of blame on him. But in regard to both jobs, I've seen better in high school plays.

And then there are the actors. If you want to see Bette Davis overact, and act poorly, this is your chance. I adored her in the 1940s, but here she had lost her touch. And Gary Merrill...well, I remembered him as being a decent television actor...but perhaps I have a faulty memory, because here he is just terrible. Emlyn Williams...truly annoying here. Anthony Steel as a boy friend of two women...forgettable. Barbara Murray as one of those women...forgettable.

I don't know if I've ever given a "1" before, but this is one of those films you watch to see just how bad it is. Enough said.

This film is quite an ordeal to sit through. Bette, and real-life husband Merrill, are totally miscast. The scenery chewing in this stage-to-screen British contraption must be seen to be believed. Some of the supporting cast fares well. but Davis is at her post-"All About Eve" worst.

Soon afterward,she followed this low-budget "indie" with "The Star," another embarrassment(even though she was nominated for an Oscar for the latter!!).

The plot is muddled. Characters do things for no particular reason. And, what's with that prying veterinarian neighbor?? His is one of the most annoying portrayals ever put on screen......after the first scene, you want the guy knocked off by Davis, preferably in a painful manner.

This is worth seeing ONCE, if only to see how a top actress should NOT conduct her career.

This film is very uneven. At times it comes alive with great dialogue and performances. Merill and Davis are great, as is the man who plays the doctor. The second couple's performances are passable. Very stagey, this film is definitely watchable and entertaining, but at times you'll wonder why the characters are doing what they are, and at other times you'll just wait for something to happen. The ending, which I won't spoil, is a head scratcher, and leaves one character's motivations up in the air.

I'm a BIG Bette Davis fan, so her tendency to overact doesn't usually bother me, but "Poison" is way over the top. The plot is ludicrous by any standard, and without the charm that Bette clearly displays in her other movies (Jezbel, for instance,) to bolster it, the movie falls flat.