Rent Deception (1946)

3.6 of 5 from 61 ratings
1h 50min
Rent Deception Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
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Synopsis:
World War II separated pianist Christine Radcliffe from her great love, cellist Karel Novak. Unexpectedly reunited with Karel, Christine desperately strives to hide her wartime dalliance as the mistress of a wealthy, sadistic composer. She'll lie to keep her shameful past a secret. But will she also murder?
Actors:
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Directors:
Producers:
Henry Blanke
Writers:
John Collier, Joseph Than, Louis Verneuil
Studio:
Warner
Genres:
Classics, Drama, Romance
BBFC:
Release Date:
16/07/2008
Run Time:
110 minutes
Languages:
English
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.37:1
Colour:
B & W
Bonus:
  • Commentary by Film Historian Foster Hirsch
  • Warner Night at the Movies 1946 Short Subjects Gallery:
  • Vintage Newsreel
  • Oscar-Winning
  • Technicolor Sports Parade Short Facing Your Danger
  • Technicolor Specials Short Movieland Magic
  • Classic Cartoon Mouse Menace
  • Trailers of Deception and 1946's A Stolen Life

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Reviews (2) of Deception

Deception, a lesser known Bette Davis fillm - Deception review by BM

Spoiler Alert
04/11/2014

This film has wonderful performances by the main characters and worth seeing if only to see Claude Rains fussing over ordering an elaborate meal to the exasperation of Davis and Paul Henreid. One of my top ten film scenes.

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

A Suite for Cello, Piano - and a Triangle - Deception review by CH

Spoiler Alert
09/04/2021

What is it about classical music that brings out the enjoyably preposterous in Hollywood? One might think of John Garfield's beachside violin playing in Humoresque, but even that is restraint beside Deception (1946). Directed by Irving Rapper who, dying in 1999 at almost 102, lived long enough to find – one likes to think - his name the butt of many a musical joke far from the concert halls of this movie. It opens with Paul Henreid playing Haydn's cello concerto to acclaim in post-war America. Among the smartly-dressed audience is pianist Bette Davis, who thought that he, her lover, had died in the war. They are re-united with such passion that they decide to marry the next day. This brings a new turn to the notion that the cello is the musical equivalent of the human heartbeat.

All of which would be wonderful but for the fact that her lavish apartment, view and all, has been funded by the conductor and genius composer Hollenious (Claude Rains). Cat-stroking Rains, his hair distinctly bouffant, is outraged by this turn to events, his performance – jealousy incarnate – so much the higher camp that it is well nigh the last staging-post before the summit of Everest.

Especially when he finds that Henreid is the necessary cellist for his latest masterpiece (a work created by Korngold, who himself had fled Germany). Rapper, who had worked with all three of them on Now, Voyager, plays the situation – from a play by Louis Verneuil – for all it's (its?) worth, never shying from dramatic montage which plys close to noir inside and out as the torrid comes to the fore.

Hokum, of course, but brilliantly done, so much so that one might call it the thinking man's Amadeus.

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

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