"Deception" is a handsome and extremely well acted film with a wisp of a plot. Bette Davis and Claude Rains give master classes in the art of doing a lot with not much material. It's three parts women's picture melodrama of the 1940s, with a final quarter that nudges the film into film noir territory. Irving Rapper, who directed Davis, Rains, and the film's other lead, Paul Henreid, in "Now, Voyager" does the directing honors here, and it's striking to me how much chemistry these three actors again generate on screen. Enjoy the film's opulent settings, especially Davis's loft apartment and Rains' baroque mansion.
Grade: B
Grade: B