East Side, West Side (1949)

There is strain in the Bourne marriage, James Mason loves his wife but he cheats, you see he “just can’t help it”, especially when the pretty Ava Gardner’s around. Jesse (Barbara Stanwyck) loves her husband, but she’s weak and lets him get away with his sins. Hero cop Van Heflin would love to be Jesse’s man but says “homewreacking isn’t my beat”. Future first lady Nancy Davis is Jesse’s best friend, Cyd Charisse the model with a heart of gold who loves Heflin. It’s a great cast in what would otherwise have been just another period melodrama, had it not taken that fun turn and become kind of a police procedural at the end there, thus elevating it from 3 to 3 ½ stars out of 5. Dredgery