"So Evil My Love" is a very good film. Despite two relatively small complaints, it's well made and well worth your time. During a sea voyage, Olivia (Ann Todd) takes care of a stranger, Mark (Ray Milland)....and by the end of the trip, they fall in love...or at least she falls for him. As for Mark, he's what folks today would call a sociopath--a criminal who has no compunction about using people to get what he wants. And, since Olivia is now completely taken with her, Mark manipulates her into doing all sorts of nastiness. Where does this all lead, see the film.

The first problem I saw with the film was at the beginning of the film. Olivia is a missionary returning to England following the death of her husband. Seeing her fall in love with Mark so quickly and strongly and throwing away her own moral compass seemed to happen too fast and didn't make a lot of sense for such a woman. The crisis of consciences that occurs near the end, it also didn't exactly ring true. However, despite these minor problems, Todd and Milland do fine jobs and the story still is very entertaining and juicy.

'So Evil My Love' has the sort of story that has always appealed to me and on paper it sounded really interesting, it also looked good and had heard a lot of good things about it which picqued my interest further. Having Ray Milland, Ann Todd and Geraldine Fitzgerald in a film on their own promises a lot. Having them together in the same film had me sold even further. So yeah, there was a lot that 'So Evil My Love' had going for it.

While not quite perfect, 'So Evil My Love' is delightful for anybody that loves the genre and stories with a similar theme. It is an extremely well done film, that works excellently as both a suspense film and psychological study. Those that like either Milland, Todd or Fitzgerald, and even better all three, should not find themselves disappointed with all three being in roles worthy of their talent as well as somewhat stretching them. It would be a very easy yes if asked my opinion on whether the film is worth watching or not.

The not so good things will be mentioned first. They are vastly outweighed by the many great things and they are minor too, well relatively. The central relationship does develop a little too quickly, with Milland's character being too easily fallen for, and part of me felt that his true colours could have been revealed a little latter.

Do think that the film could have gotten going quicker, a little too much set up.

Milland though gives a great performance in a role that suits him very well, he manages to be very charming but also sinister. Todd is perhaps even better, her vulnerability was touching and her steel was worthy of a lot of admiration. Fitzgerald brings out her character's neuroses very effectively without overplaying and is actually quite sympathetic. Raymond Huntley is almost as chilling as Milland.

Furthermore, 'So Evil My Love' is gorgeously filmed, which matched the story's grit very well and never felt artificial, complete with a handsome and evocative period production design. The direction is seldom less than assured and gets better as the film progresses, while the music is haunting and seldom excessively scored. The script is intelligent and tightly structured while the story works very well psychologically, the characters are interesting and the right ones are worth investing in. The character relationships generally have the right amount of tension and insight. As well as the right amount of suspense, culminating in an ending that still gives the chills.

In summary, very well done. 8/10

After Ray Milland won his Oscar for The Lost Weekend Paramount started giving him more challenging parts than the light leading men he had been playing mostly up to that point. Like Tyrone Power at 20th Century Fox he'd been longing for better roles showing his range. Like Tyrone Power he got them, especially this one in So Evil My Love.

There's a lot of similarities between Mark Bellis in this film and Stan Carlisle in Nightmare Alley. Both are degenerate conmen who pray on people without mercy. One thing that Power didn't do in Nightmare Alley is turn any women into evil accomplices. That's what Milland does in So Evil My Love.

The woman he turns is the beautiful Ann Todd a missionary's widow whom he met on ship. She was recently widowed and not in the best financial health. Milland is a charmer. She thinks of him as a painter and he is, but the starving life of an artist isn't for him. He's taken up all kinds of crime so he can live well. Unfortunately he's between ill gotten gains at the time he meets Todd.

Bit by bit Milland draws her in. In the end Todd not only commits murder, but is willing to let an old friend Geraldine Fitzgerald pay for the crime.

Milland would be playing against his former type now on a few occasions. His next film would be Alias Nick Beal where he plays a Satanic minion. And the public accepted him in a way they didn't with Power.

It's really Todd though that dominates this film. Her's is a wonderfully restrained performance of someone falling deeper and deeper into a pit of Milland's amorality that she can't climb out from. There's also a nice performance from Raymond Huntley who is Fitzgerald's husband. Not a terribly nice man, when he dies no one will mourn for him. But justice has to be served.

So Evil My Love definitely opened new vistas for Ray Milland and you'll appreciate that it did.