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Bio 1946-47
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The Films of Joan Bennett (1915-1938)
The Films of Joan Bennett (1938 - 1948)
The Films of Joan Bennett (1949 - 1977)
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Next was a forgettable flick entitled Colonel Effingham's Raid, built around Charles Colburn.  Joan appears now and then in the story line to ask, "Isn't there anybody around here that'll stand up for what he thinks?"
 
The screen adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's story, "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" entitled The Macomber Affair (1947) was Joan's next venture.  Robert Preston as American millionaire Francis Macomber is displayed as a lifelong coward and weakling, facets of his personality which become all too apparent on an African big game hunt, in which he is joined by his egocentric wife (Joan) and an aloof guide (Gregory Peck).  When Preston runs away, frightened of a possible attack by a wounded lion, the wife seizes on the incident as a fitting excuse to turn her loyalties and romantic interest openly towards the guide.  Later, at the crucial moment, the heavy-drinking, brutal Preston unleashes a new-found manliness by downing a rampaging lion.  However, at this instant of truth, the wife shoots Macomber in the back of the head, with a misguided bullet ostensibly intended to eliminate the attacking beast.  A tacked-on Hollywood finale to the film has the manslaughter case being aired in an African court, with the obvious implication that Joan will be cleared of the criminal charge.  Will Mrs. Macomber and the guide then eventually sanctify their sexual relationship with marriage?

with Gregory Peck in The Macomber Affair



The Woman on the Beach (1947) gave little indication of the fine craftsmanship usually associated with director Jean Renior, most likely due to a good one-third of the feature having been chopped out after a disastrous preview in Santa Barbara, California.  What remains is a film that continually hints at dark, disturbed passion. 
 
with Robert Ryan in The Woman on the Beach

The Macomber Affair, 1947

with Gregory Peck after the fatal shot

 
 
A good portion of The Macomber Affair was filmed in Africa and Mexico, which provided the feature with an authentic outdoor ambience.  Unlike her earlier oncamera predatory females, Joan's Margaret Macomber is a socially affluent person, robbing her femme fatale characterization of much audience sympathy.  Nevertheless, there were those who highly approved of Joan's performance.  Bosley Crowther observed in the New York Times, "Joan Bennett is completely hydrochloric as the peevish, deceitful dame, showing in every glance and gesture her corrosive concern for herself."
 
 

with Charles Bickford in The Woman on the Beach, 1947

Despite the questionable merits of The Woman on the Beach, Joan emerged from the proceedings almost unscathed by the critics.  Time magazine described her as "sullen-faced Joan Bennett, one of Hollywood's most efficient players of loose women," while A. Weiler of The New York Times said she had added "another competent portrait of a sullen and seductive dame to an ever-growing gallery."

Joan Bennett, Diana Anderson, Diana Markey, Melinda Markey, Melinda Beno, Stephanie Wanger, Stephanie Guest, Shelley Wanger, Shelley Mortimer, John Marion Fox, Gene Markey, Walter Wanger, Richard Bennett, Constance Bennett, Barbara Bennett, Barbara Downey, Adrienne Morrison, Adrienne Bennett, Mabel Bennett, Mabel Morrison, Adrienne Ralston Fox, www.joanbennett.net