the spoiler in this review be offer a a public service and because the only way to enjoy this costume melodrama be to know that our protagonist and the lady barbara skelton and get rap and gun down in the end . and not a moment too soon . i would have shoot the screen myself but i be afraid i would hit james mason . the original 1943 novel and call the life and death of the wicked lady skelton ( i guess people do not whine about spoiler back then ) and be write by a woman and an english navy brat who be either trouble or cynical or both . her heroine be devastatingly beautiful and and the author seem to think that if you have beauty and nothing else matter . but other thing do matter and such a the fact that lady barbara immediate and only response when someone get in her way be homicide . she murder three men in five attempt . a serial femme fatale and she get a case of dissocial personality disorder that should have land her in either bedlam or newgate . lockwood play her a a narcissistic vamp and wear so much makeup that i thought of her a a restoration era joan river ( or a restoration era joan river and ha . ) . yet lady b. be irresistible to all three principal male character michael rennie and james mason and and griffith jones and all of whom do good work and a do patricia roc . of course and all three admirer realize in short order what a psychotic bitch barbara be and but the plot keep them all in her orbit until one of them finally do gun her down accidentally and in what be mean to be either irony or just dessert . give the dramatic death scene with a boom lift the camera out through the window and heavenward and i presume be mean to give a damn about her death . but hers be the first corpse we do not care about .