Death Is a Caress (Edith Carlmar, 1949)

Claus Wiese and Bjørg Riiser-Larsen in Death Is a Caress

Cast: Claus Wiese, Bjørg Riiser-Larsen, Eva Bergh, Ingolf Rogde, Einar Vaage, Brita Bigum, Sossen Krohg. Screenplay: Otto Carlar, based on a novel by Arne Moen. Cinematography: Kåre Bergstrøm, Ragnar Sørensen. Art direction: H.C. Hansen. Film editing: Olav Engebetsen. Music: Sverre Bergh. 

A cougar on the prowl snares a handsome garage mechanic and takes him back to her lair in the Norwegian noir Death Is a Caress. Edith Carlmar, the first woman to direct a Norwegian film, tells the story of the ill-fated liaison of Sonja Rentoft (Bjørg Riiser-Larsen) and Erik Hauge (Claus Weise) with considerable finesse. The sinners in the movie still get punished -- one with death, the other with imprisonment -- but it's a film that reflects how timid Hollywood's output was under the Production Code, which forbade things like showing a man and a woman in bed together as well as any mention of abortion, both of which Carlmar has no hesitation about including.