Actually, the older I get, the better Mary Astor looks to me.
The thing she had, that Lana Turner didn't, is the look of
respectability. She's a believable con woman and sociopath.
She convinces Archer that she's wealthy and awkward and
vulnerable. Turner's too beautiful. Lupino, like Stanwyck, is
a little too wise. I would imagine that Loy might have been
out of the movie's price range. She also was with MGM. Most
of the actresses Warner Bros. had under contract (Ann
Sheridan, Joan Leslie, et al) were either too working class
or small town naive. Alexis Smith might have been a good
choice. And Olivia deHavilland. Best would have been Gene
Tierney, but she went with Twentieth to make her film debut
that year in Henry Hathaway's
"Sundown."
It was probably a few years too early for the greatest femme
fatale of them all - Jane Greer.
Lochte
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