Everybody Does It

A typical Hollywoodised version of James M Cain's fine novella (Career in C Major, previously filmed in 1939 as Wife, Husband, and Friend) about a rough-diamond building contractor whose life is made a misery by the socialite wife he adores. Intent, like Charles Foster Kane's beloved, on parlaying a tiny talent into a career as a concert singer, she loses no opportunity to walk over her husband's supposed cultural inferiority. Her comeuppance is neatly contrived when a celebrated diva, sought for an opinion on her voice, discovers not only that the despised husband has the sensational voice in the family, but that his body is desirably hunky. Shorn of most of Cain's acid social and sexual overtones, the script turns into a routine romantic comedy. Given elegantly sharpish direction, plus fine performances by the leads (Douglas as the husband, Holm as the wife, Darnell as the diva), it makes for pleasantly civilised viewing all the same.