A spooky psychological drama, The Second Woman is often misdescribed as film noir but really it’s much closer to being overwrought melodrama of the sort Douglas Sirk used to make. That’s probably misdirection on my part – because there is no sotto voce examination of social mores going on here. Instead we’re asked to try and figure out who’s not being entirely on the level. There’s lots of misdirection in the film too.
Robert Young eventually wound up playing the avuncular, reassuring medic Marcus Welby MD on TV but is in his element here, playing against his cosy image. The question the film asks of his character, successful architect Jeff Cohalan, is: how sane is he? Has the loss of his fiancée in a car accident twisted Jeff’s mind? And is his new relationship with sweet young Ellen (Betsy Drake) a very bad idea on her part?
Jeff is rich, which is one reason why Ellen might be interested. He lives in a swish modernist house built out on rocks overlooking the sea. He’s also a second-generation Irishman with all the attributes of the Plastic Paddy – charm, blarney, references to the old country (like his pets Shamrock and Mr O’Grady). But Jeff’s physician, kindly Dr Hartley, is relatively certain Jeff is having paranoid and possibly psychotic episodes, which might explain the extraordinary run of bad luck Jeff suffers, starting with the death of his pet dog and quickly escalating from there.
The film’s alternate title is Ellen and it plays as if it’s going to be a vague re-run of Rebecca, with Ellen as the second Mrs de Winter and Jeff in the domineering Laurence Olivier role. But in fact our lead female character is a gigantic feint. Though time and detail is lavished on Ellen – she’s a successful actuary with a career of her own – really the whole thing is about Jeff.
As it opens, Jeff is trying to kill himself via the exhaust/hosepipe method. In flashback, we get the series of events leading up to this moment – the worried doctor, the new relationship with Ellen, which is creepy and too solicitous. His relationships at work, with sleek and plausible colleague/rival Keith. And with his boss, Ben, who is also Jeff’s dead wife-to-be’s father. Who will get the business once old Ben retires? If he’d actually made it to the altar with Ben’s daughter Vivian, it would have been Jeff. But now?
As one misfortune after another befalls Jeff, we are asked to work out whether Jeff is a mad/bad guy or just an unlucky one. Young’s performance steers neatly between the rocks, but he initially gets little help from Betsy Drake, who is rather stiff as Ellen but warms up later on. More consistent acting comes from John Sutton as Keith and Henry O’Neill as Ben, both characters also not to be taken at face value. And Jean Rogers is also highly effective as Dodo, Keith’s estranged wife.
This is a film that doesn’t entirely add up, not least the failure by Ellen – a woman who calculates risk for a living – to run the numbers on her relationship with the downright odd Jeff. But, character blind spots and plot illogicalities to one side, the story is a good one, and the performances all improve as they go along, Drake in particular. Hal Mohr is the director of photography and gives it a satanically dark look, which entirely matches the vibe, which is one of paranoia and psychosis.
I liked it, not at first, when it seemed disjointed and poorly directed. But by the end it had sucked (if not suckered) me in. One for a wet Wednesday afternoon.
The Second Woman – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
