I didn’t really immerse myself in the work of Edgar G. Ulmer till late in 2012 after reading Todd McCarthy’s indispensable The Kings Of The Bs. This was the fourth film by Ulmer I saw, and I immediately fell in love with it. Admittedly Bluebeard is more visually arresting, but Heddy Lamarr’s performance in The Strange Woman (1946) is simply staggering. She is the epitome of sex-soaked camp enticing men to their doom. George Sanders, cast against type, brings a sophistication unique unto himself to a role better suited to Edward Arnold.
Typically of Ulmer, he’s utilized his budget constraints on The Strange Woman to formulate a pseudo-expressionistic American frontier, parts Fritz Lang and parts Merian C. Cooper. Yet, from a director’s perspective, the most inventive quality to The Strange Woman’s direction is how intimate the film feels without ever becoming claustrophobic. More than any other Ulmer film The Strange Woman is overflowing with close-ups. One scene in particular, when Sanders finally calls out Lamarr for what she is, features a close-up on Lamarr that is sustained just a beat too long which is devastatingly effective.
