How is the villain created? Are they manipulated by circumstances beyond their control to become evil? Or is evil thrust upon them through a bad brain? That is the question of this delicious period to clear an innocent missionary (Ann Todd) turns into a Sinister woman thanks to her love for a charming but manipulative sociopath (Ray Milland) who seems to believe that all he has to do is bring out a woman's hidden seductiveness to turn her into a puppet for his schemes. All it takes is a painting that takes Todd out of her prim and proper clothing and brings out the animal Instinct Milland claims is lying underneath.

Through Milland's brilliant subterfuge, Todd becomes the companion to an old school chum (Geraldine Fitzgerald), unhappily married to a controlling husband (Raymond Huntley) who keeps threatening to have her committed for insanity. When Todd aids Fitzgerald in becoming independent of her husband, Huntley dismisses her and prepares to send Fitzgerald away. This leads Todd to a desperate act of blackmail which leads to murder!

At first, I had a difficult time accepting Todd going from innocent to evil in such a short. Of time, but as I got more and more into the story, I became intrigued by the psychology behind the theme. It is riveting and eerie, with superb performances by the three leads. Fitzgerald is such a delicate flower, overpowered by husband Huntley and mother-in-law Martita Hunt, and the Intrigue of what happens to her leads to an exciting last third. Leo G Carroll shows up towards the end in a great cameo that is truly theatrical. The direction of the forgotten Lewis Allen (responsible for many great Paramount melodramas of the 1940's) is superb. This is a true sleeper that every fan of great melodrama must seek out.

"So Evil My Love" is a very good film. Despite two relatively small complaints, it's well made and well worth your time. During a sea voyage, Olivia (Ann Todd) takes care of a stranger, Mark (Ray Milland)....and by the end of the trip, they fall in love...or at least she falls for him. As for Mark, he's what folks today would call a sociopath--a criminal who has no compunction about using people to get what he wants. And, since Olivia is now completely taken with her, Mark manipulates her into doing all sorts of nastiness. Where does this all lead, see the film.

The first problem I saw with the film was at the beginning of the film. Olivia is a missionary returning to England following the death of her husband. Seeing her fall in love with Mark so quickly and strongly and throwing away her own moral compass seemed to happen too fast and didn't make a lot of sense for such a woman. The crisis of consciences that occurs near the end, it also didn't exactly ring true. However, despite these minor problems, Todd and Milland do fine jobs and the story still is very entertaining and juicy.

After Ray Milland won his Oscar for The Lost Weekend Paramount started giving him more challenging parts than the light leading men he had been playing mostly up to that point. Like Tyrone Power at 20th Century Fox he'd been longing for better roles showing his range. Like Tyrone Power he got them, especially this one in So Evil My Love.

There's a lot of similarities between Mark Bellis in this film and Stan Carlisle in Nightmare Alley. Both are degenerate conmen who pray on people without mercy. One thing that Power didn't do in Nightmare Alley is turn any women into evil accomplices. That's what Milland does in So Evil My Love.

The woman he turns is the beautiful Ann Todd a missionary's widow whom he met on ship. She was recently widowed and not in the best financial health. Milland is a charmer. She thinks of him as a painter and he is, but the starving life of an artist isn't for him. He's taken up all kinds of crime so he can live well. Unfortunately he's between ill gotten gains at the time he meets Todd.

Bit by bit Milland draws her in. In the end Todd not only commits murder, but is willing to let an old friend Geraldine Fitzgerald pay for the crime.

Milland would be playing against his former type now on a few occasions. His next film would be Alias Nick Beal where he plays a Satanic minion. And the public accepted him in a way they didn't with Power.

It's really Todd though that dominates this film. Her's is a wonderfully restrained performance of someone falling deeper and deeper into a pit of Milland's amorality that she can't climb out from. There's also a nice performance from Raymond Huntley who is Fitzgerald's husband. Not a terribly nice man, when he dies no one will mourn for him. But justice has to be served.

So Evil My Love definitely opened new vistas for Ray Milland and you'll appreciate that it did.