The Two Mrs. Carrolls

1947 Drama | Suspense/Thriller
66%

Humphrey Bogart plays a psychotic killer who disposes of his wives through slow ingestion of poison in The Two Mrs. Carrolls, made in 1945 but shelved for two years because of its similarity to Gaslight. Bogart is Geoffrey Carroll, an artist who paints a portrait of his wife as The Angel of Death and then meets Sally Morton (Barbara Stanwyck), with whom he quickly falls in love. In order to get rid of his wife and take up with Sally, Geoffrey slowly poisons his spouse by lacing her nightly glass of warm milk with liberal doses of toxic chemicals. He sends his daughter Beatrice (Ann Carter) away to school and, while the daughter is away, his wife dies. He immediately marries Sally and they appear to be happily together. But a few years pass and Geoffrey begins to work on another Angel of Death portrait of Sally, this time after he falls in love with his attractive neighbor Cecily (Alexis Smith). As before, Sally begins to grow weak from the daily nightcap of tainted milk. But complications set in when Cecily demands that she and Geoffrey run away together and the local druggist, Mr. Biagdon (Barry Bernard), presents Geoffrey with a blackmail demand. But Geoffrey overplays his hand when he once again tries to send Beatrice away to school. Sally now begins to suspect her husband is a serial killer. Borrowing a gun from a friend, Sally must defend herself against her deranged and murderous husband.~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide