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Released by: 20th Century Fox
Released on: June 26, 2012
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Cast: Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney, Laird Cregar, Spring Byington
Year: 1942
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The Movie:
Henry Fonda - by the time Rings On Her Fingers was released - was already fairly well ensconced as a major leading man in Hollywood. So, accordingly, his name on some afternoon-filler material would instantly upgrade that film and earn it better returns. And, for his part, he really does upgrade this film which is basically a very breezy, light-hearted romantic comedy about finding love in the pitfalls of wealth.
The film opens on Susan Miller (Tierney), working the girdle counter at a department store and bemoaning the apparent dead-end job she's stuck with, always trying to satisfy the wealthy and coming away with disappointment. However, her lot changes when two customers appear in the form of Mr. & Mrs. Warren Worthington (Cregar and Byington, respectively). The couple seem very well off and are very interested in Susan's appearance. Later, after luring her to their posh quarters, they divulge their true intent: They are high-society cons, running short grifts on the well-to-do, getting enough money to keep up appearances and move them onto the next job. Susan is hesitant at first but Mr. Worthington's sweet charms soon have her posing as Linda Worthington.
A quick montage (or were they still called a Vorkapich at this time?) shows the trio's progression around the world and the U.S. Susan/Linda is the eye candy used to distract men of any age from figuring out her accomplices' intentions before it's too late. So when cruising the beaches of Florida they spy out young John Wheeler (Fonda) who's in the market for a yacht. They soon defraud him of his $15,000 and move on their way. But, before leaving, there are some sparks between Wheeler and Linda that leaves her feeling regretful over the job.
Fast forward a few months and John is visiting a rich friend in Connecticut and who does he spy on their estate but Linda and Mrs. Worthington. In an attempt to stall him and to give Warren time to hide since John thinks him to be the sole culprit of his scam. What Wheeler doesn't know is that their current scam is to get Linda married off to this new, rich young man and set themselves up for life. However, before any of that can happen, Linda and John have a moonlight walk and discover they love each other. Linda thus decides to live this life of petty crime and become John's wife over her colleagues' objections.
Linda and John move back to New York, trying to settle into their new domestic life. But the representative from the detective agency John hired to find who defrauded him just won't leave things alone. John, also, refuses to take any of Linda's “society money†which is her term for his $15,000 that she's trying to get back to him. A complicated scheme involving getting him into gambling ensues but, as an account and math whiz, he thinks he's devised a system. Some weird tensions arise out of that and come to a head when the detective figures out who Linda really is and tries to apprehend her.
The climax takes place in the backroom of a casino, with Warren using the crooked place to defraud John yet again, only to have Linda offer to go along with their other marriage plan if Warren will only leave John alone. He accepts, she's heartbroken, and John's left at the airport, confused and sad. His detective finds him, though, and fills him in on all the details, leaving John to confront them all and retrieve Linda/Susan and escape to their new life, leaving the others to the mercies of the detective.
Audio/Video/Extras:
Like others released in this series this DVD comes just with the film itself - no extras are presented. The film itself is capably transferred in 4:3 full-frame ratio. Black levels get a bit overwhelmed in some of the night scenes but the print is incredibly clean, lacking gate jumps or hiccups around reel changes. Audio is again served up in Dolby Digital 2.0 which is far more than the film ever needs.
The Final Word:
Rings On Her Fingers could also be titled Ain't Love Grand? Also, Gene Tierney is super-hot in this movie, especially during her bathing-suit scene when she's seducing Fonda. And, for his part, he turns in a far-too-good-for-this-movie performance here so it's worth viewing just for that alone.
