James Agee, writing in 1947, described They Won't Believe Me as "a skillful telling of a pretty nasty story about a man (Robert Young) who loves money and women almost equally well, and finds that they get in each other's way. Mr. Young first falls for Jane Greer, but abjectly drops her when his rich wife (Rita Johnson) yanks at the leash.... Unfortunately, Susan Hayward glides out of a filing cabinet, and in no time at all he is a dishonest man again.... (B)oth Miss Johnson and Miss Hayward die, and he is suspected of murder. In a courtroom, he tells his whole shameful story in flashbacks, understandably sure that nobody will believe him.... (Hitchcock's) producer Joan Harrison and associates have brought the story to the screen with considerable skill. Mr. Young and Miss Johnson are excellent as the ill-mated man and wife.... And many of the minor roles are more sharply drawn and cast than the leads. The jury, for instance, may be caricatured, but it is frightening to consider that such a group holds in its hands a life even so patently worthless as Mr. Young's."