If you mention the name Lily Damita today, you'd probably find few people that would remember her. Some, like me, would remember that she was one of Errol Flynn's wives. But very, very few would remember her as an actress. This is because she never made that many films--and this probably was because she was a terrible actress. Now it might not have been entirely her fault--after all, English clearly was not her first language. And, in the 30s and 40s, Hollywood was trying again and again to replicate the Garbo appeal by hiring a wide variety of European vamps--most of which were not particularly good--and she was just one of many such actresses. But when you see "The Woman Between", the limitations of her talents are clearly demonstrated.
Damita plays a woman who is torn between her loving husband and her husband's estranged son who she met on a cruise. Not knowing who she was, she fell for him and plans on running away with the younger man. Now her is where it gets weird--even when the two young lovers realize the score, they STILL plan on running away...sort of like a reworking of Oedipus!
So why do I give the film a 3? Well, due to Damita's performance and most everything else about the movie, I was planning on giving it a 1 or a 2. After all, Damita mostly stares into the camera and does a great impression of a woman suffering from Diverticulitis! The other actors are often quite bad (particularly the whiny daughter) and there is a lot of very sloppy exposition in the beginning of the film--where friends explain, very rapidly, the back story in an incredibly unnatural and awkward manner. However, the husband (O.P. Heggie) was quite good--too good for this thankless film. I liked his performance.
