The Two Mrs. Carrolls is a fine example of a film that could have been better. There are a number of very good elements in this film, but they serve only to highlight the enormous potential that it had and unfortunately didn't quite live up to.<br /><br />It begins as an odd little thriller, with Bogart's subdued, quiet nature made sinister by some frankly stifling atmospheric music. At first it almost seems as though the film follows a non-linear narrative; we find out later that this is not the case. What it is, however, is a complex and twisting little tale that gradually unravels itself until the climax.<br /><br />One problem is that there is an enormous amount of subtlety employed in its unravelling. In fact I would say there is a little too much subtlety, to the point where the details that are supposed to be underplayed to maximise the mystery and suspense do not seem to be underplayed at all, but rather they appear to have simply been ommitted. It's the same as watching a very badly edited film, where all of a sudden we jump to the next sequence in the story, without any explanation of why, or what has gone on in between. The difference is that in this case, the intermittent gaps are in the story rather than the action.<br /><br />The second little problem is with Bogart's character. He's the centre of this story, a mentally disturbed and jealous painter who, it would appear, murdered his first wife (the first Mrs. Carroll) in order to marry the second, played very well by the beautiful Barbara Stanwyck.<br /><br />But we're not really given any insight into his character until very late in the film. At first he appears to be just like your stereotypical artist; insular, unpleasant, cynical. But we know, or at least assume, that he has actual psychotic tendencies underneath that eccentric, but nonetheless ordinary exterior. We don't really see them though until the final twenty minutes of the film, and Bogart doesn't really get a chance to act until that point either. What this makes for is a thrilling and genuinely frightening conclusion to the film, but a rather dull experience for the rest of the time.<br /><br />That said, this film is worth seeing if only for that last twenty minutes. It's very interesting to see Bogart do insane, as it is to see Stanwyck do helpless damsel, after her stirling work as femme fatale in Wilder's Double Indemnity. And, as with so many good conclusions, it wouldn't actually work without the preceding 80 minutes.<br /><br />So all in all it is a film worth seeing. While there are occasional flaws which stop it from being better, they are definitely, although not overwhelmingly, outstripped by the positive elements of this exciting film-noir. **** / *****