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Monday, December 2, 2019

WOMAN ON THE RUN (1950)

Terrific. Smash film noir, virtually unknown, with a female POV unusual for the genre, skips Los Angeles for tasty on-location San Francisco sites to fine effect. It opens with a rubout, a witness in a mob case who’ll miss his court date permanently. Seen by a skittish artist out walking his dog, he senses danger reporting it to the cops and takes off at the first opportunity. That’s when detective Robert Keith (stealing every scene he’s in) uses the missing man’s dog to track down Ann Sheridan, the missing man’s wife. She wants nothing to do with the case. Hell, she wants nothing to do with her husband. But coerced by Detective Keith, she seems to do her bit, hiding a lot of purposeful misdirection while pursuing her own hunt with help from news reporter Dennis O’Keefe who’s dangled a thousand bucks for exclusive story rights when they find the husband. With snappy dialogue from Alan Campbell and suspense structure from co-scripter/director Norman Foster* (the man behind Peter Lorre’s MR. MOTO pics), this one really takes off. Even adds up in the logic department; pretty rare for a noir! And note Foster's mid-point placement on the big ‘reveal.’ Plus a great look from cinematographer Hal Mohr, Sheridan showing a new careworn beauty and all the glistening nightlife trimmings you could ask for, especially in the nerve-racking climax at a seaside amusement park. Rights to this indie Universal pickup must have slipped, keeping it off the revival radar, so bad copies abound. But good ones are now available on-line if you look around . . . and you should.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Orson Welles’ THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI/’47 shows some similarities. No surprise as Foster & Welles were pals, with Foster directing Welles in a lesser Mercury Production, JOURNEY INTO FEAR/’43, as well as collaborating on Welles’ problematic South American project, IT’S ALL TRUE and acting in Welles’ posthumous THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.

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