East Side, West Side Reviews

High-gloss sudser based on Marcia Davenport's best-selling novel about love and life among the Park Aveneurotics. Gardner, a waitress-model, comes back to New York and hastens the marital decline of socialites Mason and Stanwyck who are on shaky ground already. Mason has been sort of keeping Gardner, so her appearance causes a large rift. Charisse saves Mason from embarrassment by doing him a good turn, and Stanwyck goes to her apartment to thank her. She learns that there's a party that night in honor of Heflin, a onetime policeman who went to war and is returning home as a hero. Stanwyck has known Heflin from afar ever since she was a little girl. She goes to the party without Mason, who was also invited but has declined in favor of some urgent business. That urgent business is seeing Gardner. Mason does not come home until the next morning and Stanwyck is livid, although she had a marvelous time at the party the night before and discovered that she has more than a passing attraction for Heflin. Mason pleads to be forgiven and offers to take his wife on a vacation. Before they leave, Gardner prevails on Mason to divorce Stanwyck, but Mason refuses. The couple is due to leave on a train, and when Mason doesn't show up, Stanwyck calls Gardner's flat. Mason is there and tells her that Gardner has been murdered. Heflin is called upon and solves the foul deed. (Mason is not the killer, but to reveal who it is might spoil your fun.) Mason attempts to worm his way back into his wife's good graces, but she tells him to take a hike. We presume that she will eventually unite with Heflin. Stanwyck and Heflin are excellent, but Mason falls flat when he attempts to do an American accent. Nothing of great importance here other than that it was the first film in which Nancy Davis (Helen Lee) appeared, although it was held up for release for quite a while. This was a B movie with an "A" cast, and a few years later Davis married Ronald Reagan. Look for William Conrad, while he still had a figure you could discern, as Lt. Jacobi. The producer was a former story department head and should have known better.