Deception
Tags: murder, melodrama

Plot synopsis:
Timid accountant Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) is an auditor working in New York. One night while working late in a boardroom he meets a charismatic lawyer, Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman), who befriends him over a joint. After a long conversation, Jonathan takes the subway home where he has a brief encounter with a blonde woman (Michelle Williams) while waiting for the train. Upon returning home he notices a pipe in his bedroom is leaking and leaving a stain.
Jonathan contacts Wyatt the next day and they play tennis after work. They meet again for lunch the next day and upon leaving, Wyatt takes Jonathan's mobile phone instead of his own, forcing a trade. He mentions he will be in London on business for the next few weeks. When Jonathan realizes the phones have been switched he attempts to contact Wyatt but does not reach him. He is soon contacted by a woman (Natasha Henstridge) who asks if he is free that night. He informs her that he is and agrees to meet her. When she arrives, they proceed directly to a hotel room upstairs and have sex. In the morning, Jonathan realizes that Wyatt must be on some type of exclusive sex club list.
When Wyatt calls the next day, he encourages Jonathan to stay on the list. Jonathan has an encounter with an older woman (Charlotte Rampling) who explains the list's rules: the initiator pays for the room, no names are exchanged, there is no rough play. Participants are always anonymous, although Jonathan later spots the older woman on the cover of Forbes. Over the next few weeks, he has anonymous encounters with several women.
One night after initiating another encounter, Jonathan is surprised to find that his partner is the blond woman he met while waiting for the train. He tells her that they have met once before, and instead of having sex, they order room service and talk for hours. The woman does not say her name, but Jonathan assumes that it begins with an "S" because of an S-shaped pendant on her handbag. The next day Jonathan rejects other callers from the list but when "S" calls again they agree to meet for dinner in Chinatown. They then proceed to a hotel where she requests some ice. When Jonathan returns to the room she is gone and there is blood on the bedsheets. Someone knocks him out from behind, and when he wakes up again the bed has been made. He contacts the police and explains to the Detective (Lisa Gay Hamilton) that "S" is missing but that he has little to no information about her. She doubts his story, thinking that he is delusional. Jonathan tries to trace Wyatt, but Wyatt's boss and landlady claim not to know him.
Upon returning home Jonathan is surprised to find Wyatt waiting for him and demanding that he steal $20 million from an investment firm he will begin to audit in a few days. Jonathan agrees to do so, fearing for the safety of "S". The following night at work, Jonathan receives a call asking if he is free. The woman calling is named Tina (Maggie Q), an investment banker who once introduced Wyatt to the exclusive sex club list. She reveals that Wyatt's real name is Jamie Getz, and that they met when he was attending a private corporate event as a guest of Rudolph Holloway, an investment banker with whom Getz played tennis. Jonathan finds out through research that Getz murdered Holloway, strangling him with tennis strings, and also served three years in prison for insurance fraud and arson. Jonathan is later notified by the detective that a blond woman matching his earlier description was discovered dead. When he comes in to identify her, he sees that it is actually the first woman who called him, and that she was also strangled by tennis strings.
Jonathan goes on to complete a wire transfer to a bank in Spain in his name, but secretly adds Wyatt's name as co-signer. When he returns home he notices that a picture Wyatt had sent of "S" being held captive was taken in his apartment before the pipe started leaking. He realizes that she must have been a conspirator and wisely avoids his apartment which explodes when the superintendent enters to fix the pipe.
Now in Madrid, Wyatt impersonates Jonathan and attempts to withdraw the funds from the bank, but he is denied access because of the co-signer. Jonathan approaches Wyatt outside the bank and agrees to help him withdraw the funds if Wyatt splits it with him. Swapping identities, Jonathan and Wyatt cash in the $20 million in two $10 million suitcases. (A deleted scene reveals that Jonathan encountered a black market operator in Chinatown, who offered a variety of items, including fake passports; Jonathan presumably obtained a passport with his image in the name of Wyatt Bose and used this in his scheme to obtain half of the money.) After the transaction is complete, Jonathan offers Wyatt half of his money if Wyatt tells him where "S" is. Wyatt pretends to agree and lures Jonathan to an uncrowded area where he draws a gun on Jonathan. Before he is able to shoot Jonathan, Wyatt is shot by "S" who leaves quickly. Jonathan pursues her, leaving a dying Wyatt and the money behind. He begs her to talk to him but she'd rather call it off, apologizing to him as she did not know Wyatt's intent to kill Jonathan. "S" gets into a cab and leaves as Jonathan watches her go.
In Madrid, Jonathan again crosses paths with "S" and they exchange smiles. The film ends as Jonathan walks to her and she stands waiting for him.
=== Alternate Ending ===
In the alternate ending of the film, Wyatt disappears right after they finish their business in the bank. Jonathan also disappears with his part of the money and finally, "S" is seen running away (that is the same scene shown in the theatrical version). At the end, Jonathan is seen walking around Madrid as he continues his desperate search for "S."

Review: One of the few actors of Bette Davis' time who could match her screen intensity was Claude Rains.
When she spots him at a concert in NYC years later, the handwriting is on the wall for Rains.The mise en scene is the world of classical music, about which I know little but which sounds, uh, classical in several pieces played during the film.
Bette Davis and Hollsnius (the always brilliant Rains)have been "involved," a bit scandalously for the time of the movie's release.
Enter Bette's true love, thought bu her to by dead, Henreid: a cello virtuoso.The rest is kind of paint by numbers but it's very chic and well played (especially by the imperious Maestro, Rains.)However, the score is sublime and right up there at the top of uses of music by American movies.
He absolutely has a blast playing the grand, tyrannical, jealous composer who hates giving Bette up to Paul Henreid, her former lover who has just returned from Europe at the end of the war.
This is some of the sharpest, wittiest dialogue I've seen in a movie, rivaling Ernst Lubitsch and every bit as good as in All About Eve. Oh, and I forgot to mention the amazingly good symphony performance scenes, with an original cello concerto by Korngold, ("played" by Henreid with the arms of two real cellists reaching in from either side to play the instrument).
I'll dispense with the details of the plot and move directly to Mr. Rains' performance as Hollenius the composer in this musico-melodrama.This is his show although Davis and Henreid attempt to hold their own in this film.His flair for manipulation and deception, hence the title, dominates the film.
He does a great job of it, driving everyone crazy with his shenanigans and jealousy.The cinematography is well done and the story's setting in the world of post-WW II classical/modern music is interesting.I noted that early on, for instance, as Henreid finished a performance, audience members asked him who his favorite living composer was..."Sibelius...or Shostakovich...?" No mention of Aaron Copland or the many other composers alive at the time.Hollenius' work as a composer was a curious mix of tonal, traditional and slightly atonal influences, attempting to display "modern" music but watered down to keep the audience and us interested.The mimicking of the piano and cello performances by all three actors was fairly well done.I found it quite interesting too that both Davis and Rains were not "starving artists" like Henreid.
Opulent apartments and lifestyles for piano teachers and composers were not common, but these two were well-off in an even garish sense.This was not the reality of the time in the music world.I'd recommend this film if you're a Rains or Davis fan.
This satisfying melodrama has one thing going for it: the great music one hears throughout the movie, it's highlight being the Korngold Cello concerto, a rarity seldom heard, let alone in films.
Claude Rains, who worked so well with Ms. Davis, gives an incredible performance as the egotistical composer who is afraid to lose his own creation.
If his power in real life was 10% of what he exhibits on screen, then swooning is the definite order of the day.In Deception, Rains plays Bette Davis' former lover and he won't let her forget it.
There is an option of having additional commentary, and the fellow claims "Bette Davis allowed Mr. Rains to steal this scene." Pardon me, but as riveting as Bette was, there's no way she's going to eclipse Rains in any movie, as she herself freely admitted.The film itself is fairly good but very dull when Henreid shows up, but you treasure this one for Claude Rains' performance.
The dresses and fur coats are all there, the desperation in her voice and passion for the man she loves.Yet best still..she is a murderer once again...but in those days she wasn't allowed to get away with it and turns herself in...for the love of her life, the cellist, Paul Henreid, who never quite lives up to her.This is not to be missed...it's in black and white glory...FAB!.
(Check out the rococo New York brownstone mansion in which he's ensconced, more magnificent than anything a lesser studio could provide for a monarch in a story involving royalty!)Poor Paul Henreid has a particularly thankless role to play, swinging like an erratic pendulum between jealous tantrums and thoroughly deceived naïveté, but his simulations of the movements of a top-flight cello musician are convincing enough to allow all to be forgiven.Erich Wolfgang Korngold's music is probably the film's chief asset and it probably sounded superb over the monophonic sound systems when this film was released, since Warners' sound technicians were the best in Hollywood back then.
After the mutual collaboration with the director Irving Rapper on NOW VOYAGER, the great trio of superb performers, Bette Davis, Claude Rains and Paul Henreid appeared again in DECEPTION – a rather simple, even soap opera-like story ornamented with high-toned classical music setting (the film begins and ends with a concert).
While Paul Henreid as Karel has his moments of jealousy and suspicion being depicted (which is also expected from him in the storyline) and is pretty sympathetic even if his moments of rage are sometimes disruptive, Claude Rains gives a fabulous performance as Alex Hollenius.
A timeless performance!Except for the finale which appears to be hardly believable as a purely 'artificial' outcome of the Production Code, DECEPTION is an enjoyable, fascinating film that accurately manifests a sentence derived from what Bette Davis's character says: 'Everything passes but acting' In spite of its 'old age' and 'dated technology' the perfectionist acting emerges and rivets viewers who have hardly been so close to the performers elsewhere..
In particular,the performances of Claude Rains as Hollenius and Betty Davis as Christine are outstanding,from the very first appearance of Hollenius at the wedding to the final climactic scene of the murder.
The commentary on the disc is quite good and adds interest to the viewing of this film, though the commentator misses some long-known facts about this picture and repeats some untrue legends about it, for example, that the gorgeous apartment Davis' character lives in was modeled on Leonard Bernstein's NYC home.
Davis plays a pianist who during the war has been the protégée and mistress of a famous and imperious composer, Alexander Hollenius (Claude Rains).
Then she runs into a struggling cellist, Karel Novak (Paul Henreid), her lover in pre-war Europe, whom she thought dead, and they quickly marry, to the jealous fury of Hollenius.
Settle back for a 2-hour wallow with incredible plot twists, Bette Davis warming up for 'All About Eve,' an absurdly overblown counterfeit Richard Strauss concerto and -- above all -- a rollicking bravura performance by Claude Rains.
Bette Davis practices lots of "Deception" in this 1946 film also starring Claude Rains and Paul Henreid.
She becomes desperate.Wonderful film with a brilliant performance by Claude Rains in the showiest role - that of the egomaniacal, bombastic, and mean-spirited Hollenius.
With an absolutely magnificent score by legendary composer of "real" classical music "Erich Wolfgang Korngold", we are also treated to a haunting, brilliant and difficult-to-play cello concerto composed especially for this film and "played" in the film by Paul Henreid's character.
The concerto itself is so well-written, it has become a favorite of cellists in concert halls to this day.Be aware that although Davis normally "steals" the show in her films, this one clearly allows the heights of Claude Rains' talent to rein supreme.
Musician Bette Davis (Christine) tracks down her pre-war love Paul Henreid (Karel) who is performing as a cellist and they marry.
However, in the years that they have been apart, ie, the 2nd World War years, Davis has had an affair with superstar composer Claude Rains (Hellonius) which she wants to keep a secret from Henreid.
This film belongs to Claude Rains and Bette Davis.
The dialogue in this film is very good, especially the scenes between Rains and Davis.
Davis's performance comes second to Rains and her "Bette Davis eyes" reactions don't disappoint.The film also succeeds in it's use of music in both the score for the film and the characters playing the instruments - Rains on the piano, Davis on the piano and Henreid on the cello.
Deception, made in 1946, reunited Bette Davis with Paul Heinreid and Claude Rains (Now Voyager) and was directed by Irving Rapper.
Irving Rapper, who directed Davis, Rains, and the film's other lead, Paul Henreid, in "Now, Voyager" does the directing honors here, and it's striking to me how much chemistry these three actors again generate on screen.
Claude Rains and Bette, along with Paul Henreid were fabulous in "Now, Voyager" but here their talents are wasted.
Bette Davis and Paul Henreid play ex-lovers who were separated by the war.
When they become reunited, they marry.However, since Davis assumed Henreid was killed in the war, she apparently became the mistress of a very odd and controlling composer/conductor (Claude Rains).
Louis Verneuil's play "Monsieur Lambertheir", first filmed in 1929 as "Jealousy", became the last screen-teaming of Warners stars Bette Davis and Claude Rains; results are typically florid and predictably melodramatic.
Paul Henreid is a European cellist who relocates to New York City after the war and is reunited with former flame Davis, a talented pianist; she quickly moves him into her luxurious apartment and marries him, forgetting to disclose that she has become the protégé (or rather, mistress) of a tyrannical, world-famous composer and conductor.
Deception (1946) *** (out of 4)Moody and rather wicked drama from Warner has Bette Davis playing a woman who fears her great love (Paul Henreid) was killed in the war.
About the music you may think what you want, but I imagine most people, and even musicians, would find Claude Rains' (Alexander Hollenius', Erich Korngold's) concerto a bit thick or difficult or heavy or pretentious or whatever, while all the other music (Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn) is more like music, that is like music should be, but never mind, music is the theme, and it doesn't matter much what concerto is performed, as long as it is massive enough as a concerto underscoring the climax of the melodrama.
Paul Henreid is convincing enough as an honest musician, while Claude Rains already from the beginning gives some signals of alarm - something is wrong about this musician, he is breaking up, something has gone awry with him, which proves to be the case; but he is the star of the film outshining even Bette Davis, who as his protegée also gives some hints of having been damaged before the curtain opens, and she has, by him, and he does his best to continue doing so by preparing her for her ruin by constant volleys of mental cruelty, against which even Bette Davis is defenseless.This is a story about music, what it is all about, how it demands honesty more than just professional skill, and how dangerous it is to let personal relationships affect and interfere with the musical honesty.
Claude Rains as the composer/conductor is the victim of this dilemma, Bette Davis accentuates it, while Paul Henreid, as the very honest musician he portrays, is the only one who gets through it with his wings still on.
The quartet that brought the movie going public Now Voyager, Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, and director Irving Rapper teamed again to bring us this tale of jealousy and romance with a classical music background.
In fact the best thing about Deception is the music in it, the classical classics and the new cello concerto composed for this film by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.Irving Rapper in addition to Now Voyager also gave Bette Davis another of her really outstanding roles in The Corn Is Green.
In a Bette Davis picture that's a given.Paul Henreid's been there and done that in Deception.
Classical music fans should and have loved this film for generations.Davis's time at Warner Brothers was drawing to a close and Deception is a typical vehicle for her that she uplifts with her presence..
until she was saved by Joseph Mankiewicz casting her at the last minute for her definitive role of Margo Channing in "All About Eve", Bette Davis played one of her most morally puerile characters as Christine Radcliffe, a classical pianist who is unexpectedly reunited with the love of her life, cellist Karel Novak, whom she took for dead, while carrying on as the "protégé" of renowned composer Alexander Hollenius.
Reunited with a mostly subdued Davis and Rapper from their classic tearjerker, 1942's "Now, Voyager", Paul Henreid and Claude Rains play Karel and Alex, respectively.
Bette Davis stars again with Claude Rains and Paul Henried.
It is a pity the film also lost money upon its release, for it gives Claude Rains one of the finest performances of his career.
Claude Rains comes off like some old queen who should be more interested in Paul Henreid rather than La Davis.
When "Deception" was first released, one gushy fan mag declared that it was "just like opera, only the people are thinner!" That remark isn't too far off the mark; the swoony music, florid dialogue and ridiculous situations Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains find themselves saddled with make for terrifically overblown entertainment.
Its story about a love triangle that involves classical musicians is characterised by mendacity, suspicion and passions that run so high that they eventually lead to murder and there's also an ever-present tension that exists because the stakes are so high for everyone involved.As it's based on the play "Monsieur Lamberthier" by Louis Verneuil, it's no surprise that some passages of the movie are stagy but on the more positive side, it also features a superior script with lots of witty dialogue to enjoy.Struggling pianist Christine Radcliffe (Bette Davis) and talented cello player Karel Novak (Paul Henreid) are thrilled to meet up again in New York City after a long separation.
Knowing what Hollenious is capable of, she fears that he might be using the situation as a means to damage her new husband's career but the way in which subsequent events unfold, prove to be full of surprises for Christine, Karel and Hollenious.Acting styles obviously change over the years but Claude Rains' performance in this movie is so outrageously entertaining that it transcends any such concerns.
Bette Davis looks shifty as she has to keep telling lie after lie to conceal her secret and Paul Henreid looks troubled throughout as a man who becomes suspicious of both Christine and Hollenious and struggles to cope with his fragile mental and emotional state (which is a consequence of his experiences during the War)."Deception" features some good camera-work with numerous well-framed shots and effective camera angles playing their part in enhancing the action.
Four years later,the three actors of Irving Rapper's "now,voyager" -an ugly duckling melodrama-,Bette Davis,Paul Henreid and Claude Rains sign up for the cast of "deception" .One could hardly call "deception" a melodrama;it's rather a psychological drama for it lacks the "enough is enough", the extravagance of the plot which made Stahl and Sirk so priceless.It's actually a subtle movie,with a Bette Davis at her most generous and a Claude Rains at his vilest.A true gourmet,at the French restaurant ,you should see him talk woodcocks and partridges with the chef (with French lines galore)!A composer,he treats his fellow creatures as puppets ,buy them fancy clothes,luxury apartments,statuettes worthy of a museum.but as the heroine will learn,the rent is always due.In its form,the film is curious:you could almost call it a "musical".Nobody sings,but everybody plays music,and the score fits the plot like a glove.A jazzy wedding march,a stupid jingle,and long concerts (the movie begins and ends with concerts).The best example is the terrible lines which Rains and Davis exchange,over an ominous Beethoven's "seventh symphony".SPOILER Like "now voyager" which ended with the famous line about the moon and the stars ,"deception" has a stunning last line:a lady in the audience tells Davis:"you must be the happiest woman in the world".If she knew....
Speaking this line is the only time that Claude Rains shows his true feeling for Bette Davis in this overwrought but oh so enjoyable film.
The plot of this film has been repeated already in these boards; suffice it to say, Bette is petrified that Rains will spill the beans on their long affair to her new husband Paul Henried.
As I sat down to watch "Deception" for the first time some years ago, my mother, who was a huge Betty Davis fan, nonetheless said Claude Rains' performance in this film blew Davis' out of the water.
Speaking of music, DECEPTION score composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold demonstrates how to condense Claude Rains' cello concerto, boiling it down to four minutes.
Not that the speeches given to Bette Davis and Paul Henreid are all that worth hearing, but those written for (and enunciated with such relish and bite by) Claude Rains are.
But that magic between Davis and Henreid that was there in "Now, Voyager" is nowhere to be seen in this dog of a film.The only bright spot here is the over-the-top performance of Claude Rains.
Such is the conclusion of this Warner Brothers drama that stars Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains, in that order.
***SPOILERS*** After carrying a torch for Polish cellist Karel Novak, Paul Henreid, for years Schatzi, Bette Davis, went astray and fell in love with her mentor-in teaching Schatzi to play the piano-in the US world famous composer Alexander Hollenius, Claud Rains.
What's so unique about "Deception" is that none of it's leading cast- Bette Davis Claud Rains & Paul Henried-are likable at all!
Bette Davis is good like she always is but Claude Rains over the topness is just that...over-the-top.
Bette Davis, Paul Henried and Claude Rains must have thought they were continuing in the brilliant "Now, Voyager," of 1942.
Bette Davis, Claude Rains, and Paul Henreid caught in a story of convoluted passions?