Retrospective: Unholy Wife, The (1957)
Dennis Schwartz
William Durkee/Jonathan Latimer; cinematographer: Lucien Ballard; editor: Edna
Warren; cast: Rod Steiger (Paul Hochen), Diana Dors (Phyllis Hochen), Beulah
Bondi (Emma Hochen), Gary Hunley (Michael), Tom Tryon (San), Arthur Franz
(Father Stephen Hochen), Joe de Santis (Gino Verdugo), Tol Avery (Carl, D.A.),
James Burke (Sheriff), Marie Windsor (Gwen); Runtime: 94; RKO; 1957)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A ponderous melodrama that even becomes more awkward by the film's end. It's
told in flashback as the convicted murderer, Phyllis Hochen (Dors), tells her
story about how her perfect crime went wrong and how she ironically got
convicted for a crime she didn't do.
The blonde bombshell Phyllis and her girlfriend Gwen pick-up wealthy vintner
Paul Hochen (Steiger) and his best friend Gino (de Santis) in an L.A. bar. They
have come down from the San Francisco Valley for a vintner's convention. In a
whirlwind romance Paul asks the Londoner Phyllis to marry him, and he accepts
her 6-year-old son Michael from a previous relationship with an American Air
Force sergeant.
Back in the rich man's beautiful estate and vast vineyards, the bored housewife
meets a handsome rodeo rider named San (Tryon). She has an affair with him, but
is anxious because she has not been able to get away from her husband to see him
for the past 6 days. At home with her elderly mother-in-law Emma (Bondi),
Phyllis prances around in a tight red evening dress. She fires a gun just to
scare Emma, who thinks she hears a prowler around the house. The shots fired
prompt Emma to call the sheriff. The Hochen tradition is to never lock the front
door, as the grandfather who came from Switzerland established that tradition
because this country was so good to him and he thusly said so must its people
be. The sheriff comes by to check out the complaint and brings along Paul's
brother, Father Stephen (Franz).
Phyllis figures she can kill her husband by making it look like an accident now
that a prowler has been reported to be on their premise, and when someone comes
through the door she fires. But it's not her husband, as she expected, to her
bitter disappointment. It's Gino she killed. She then plots to get her husband
to say he accidently killed him, getting him to believe he wouldn't be convicted
for an accidental shooting, as she lies and tells him she's a parole violator
who if she admitted doing the shooting would have to go back to prison when the
cops took her fingerprints. When he goes to trial, it comes out that she planted
a letter on Gino making it look like he was murdered. Paul is convicted and
sentenced to die in the gas chamber.
Warning: spoiler to follow.
Paul's brother finally gets it out of Paul that his wife killed Gino. He says
that he took the rap because he found out he couldn't for medical reasons have
kids and doesn't want Michael's mother to go to jail, as he wants to leave the
winery to Michael. With Paul scheduled to die that night, San is over the house
and is in the wine cellar when Phyllis tells him how she framed Paul. Emma
overhears this, but has a heart attack upon hearing the news and can't speak.
The doctor prescribes for her a powerful pain-killing pill that is fatal if more
than one is taken within an hour. When Emma, by hand signals, answers her son's
questions, Phyllis comes in to give her the medication. When the district
attorney goes in to question Emma further, he finds her dead from taking 4 pills
within the hour and charges Phyllis with the murder. The execution of Paul is
put off, and Phyllis while in prison confesses to the priest and the court that
she murdered Gino.
REVIEWED ON 7/19/2001 GRADE: C-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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X-RT-RatingText: C-