Conflict (1945) (#ad) is about an engineer, named Richard Mason (played by Humphrey Bogart), who kills his own wife, Kathryn Mason (played by Rose Hobart). But who would have thought that that would be the plot of this movie or that it would actually be a murder mystery? Could you have guessed the genre of this film based on its title or its first few scenes?
The genre of Conflict
It wasn’t because I didn’t get to watch this film from the beginning since I don’t think I missed much at all; probably just the first few or the opening scenes since I got to see the part where the Masons were talking and getting ready to go to their 5th wedding anniversary dinner party.
What does the movie title tell you?
However, even knowing the title really doesn’t tell you much at all. Would you think that the word or title 'Conflict' could pertain or refer to a murder mystery or imply that a murder was going to happen? Maybe, perhaps, but, then again, it could pertain to many other things as well since stories should have conflict.Conflict’s storyline possibilities are endless
Knowing nothing about the Conflict movie, I had no idea what was going to happen as I continued to watch it. It seemed as if the film had endless possibilities and that many different scenarios could take place.When Kathryn was accusing her husband of falling in love with her own sister, Evelyn Turner (played by Alexis Smith), and Richard wasn’t denying it, I thought that maybe Richard was going to start an affair with Evelyn or that Kathryn would do more to keep the 2 apart like how she suggested that her little sister should go back home to their mother.
I even had to wonder if perhaps Evelyn would also fall for Richard or if she would actually end up rejecting him.
Even when Richard got his leg broken due to a car accident, I had no idea that murder was about to occur.
The film didn’t really give an indication of that happening though maybe Doctor Mark Hamilton’s (played by Sydney Greenstreet), a good friend of the Masons’, psychological words might count as a hint since he said something about how thoughts can get stuck in your head.
When Richard pretended that he still couldn’t walk and when he made sure that he remained home while his wife went alone to the springs resort, I thought that he did that so that he could go visit Kathryn’s sister and maybe court her or have an affair with her or something.
So, it came as a shock and surprise when we soon see Richard murdering Kathryn. Now, I wondered if that meant that Richard was now free to get together with Evelyn and if that was what was going to happen.
After all, it seemed like he had committed the perfect crime. There’s no evidence against him and he has the perfect alibi or so it seems.
But Conflict continues to surprise its audience, seemingly at every turn, because, just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, scenes happen that prove otherwise and show that you got it all wrong.
*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki based on the image by Rusembell (CC:BY) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize how Richard murdered his own wife, Kathryn
- First pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above
- YouTube video features the trailer for the Conflict 1945 movie