Woman on the Run
Film poster by Reynold Brown
Directed byNorman Foster
Screenplay byAlan Campbell
Norman Foster
Ross Hunter (dialogue)
Based on"Man on the Run"
1948 story in American Magazine
by Sylvia Tate
Produced byHoward Welsch
StarringAnn Sheridan
Dennis O'Keefe
CinematographyHal Mohr
Edited byOtto Ludwig
Music byArthur Lange
Emil Newman
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Fidelity Pictures Corporation
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • November 29, 1950 (1950-11-29) (New York City)
Running time
77 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Woman on the Run is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Norman Foster and starring Ann Sheridan and Dennis O'Keefe.[1] The film was based on the April 1948 short story "Man on the Run" by Sylvia Tate and filmed on location in San Francisco.

The film, which lies in the public domain, was restored and preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Plot

A murder witness runs from the murderer out to kill him; and, through the ordeal, a couple mend their marriage.The film title is actually misleading, as it is a man, not a woman, who is the one on the run.

The story takes place in San Francisco. Frank Johnson is an artist who is out walking his dog one night and happens to witness, from a slight distance, a gangland slaying when a car stops nearby. The passenger, Joe, threatens to extort the driver, Danny, seeking additional money for his favorable grand jury testimony.

As Frank watches, Danny fires a gun into Joe and keeps shooting even after Joe falls dead out the car door.

Noticing Frank, Danny takes shots at him. A neighbor calls police who arrive. Inspector Ferris learns that Frank, the sole witness, could definitely identify the killer in a lineup and detains Frank to be put into protective custody. But, although cooperative, looking at the bullet holes in the chest area of his shadow on a nearby wall—whether because of, or in spite of, having a heart condition, Frank soon panics and escapes on the run.

Ferris learns from Eleanor Johnson, Franks wife, that the marriage of several years has for a long time been on the rocks. It's "just like him, always running," she tells Ferris. "Running from what?" Ferris asks. "From everything," she coldly replies.

As the story moves on, Eleanor's feelings for Frank undergo a dramatic improvement.

Danny, masquerading as a reporter but actually the killer himself, worms his way into unsuspecting Eleanor's life.

In a club that Frank frequents, Sam, a waiter, gives a note from Frank to Eleanor saying that he will send her a letter c/o his workplace explaining his whereabouts.

Danny learns that Frank also gave a dancer, Suzie, a sketch of him, so he steals the drawing and pushes Suzie out a window to her death.

At Frank's workplace, the letter says that he is in "the place where he first lost her."

At first confused as to where Frank meant, finally Eleanor realizes that the location is on the beach near an amusement park. Frank, having waited all day, has just left, but at the last moment returns to encounter his wife.

However, unfortunately he is in mortal danger, as Eleanor has inadvertently led Danny the killer right to Frank. Will he survive the attack which ensues?

Cast

Production

Production on the film was announced in trade publications in January 1950, initially with the working title Man on the Run.[2] As part of the casting process, actor J. Farrell MacDonald was then "borrowed" from 20th Century Fox for the supporting role of the sea captain before filming began on 20 March.[3][4] The film was shot on location in San Francisco as well as at Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica for the amusement park and roller coaster scenes.[5]

Ross Hunter worked as dialogue director on the film. He later produced some movies starring Sheridan at Universal helping launch Hunter's producing career.[6]

Reception

In 1950, the critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times gave the film a generally positive review:

Since it never pretends to be more than it is, "Woman on the Run", which began a stand at the Criterion yesterday, is melodrama of solid if not spectacular proportions. Working on what obviously was a modest budget, its independent producers may not have achieved a superior chase in this yarn about the search by the police and the fugitive's wife for a missing witness to a gangland killing. But as a combination of sincere characterizations, plausible dialogue, suspense and the added documentary attribute of a scenic tour through San Francisco, "Woman on the Run" may be set several notches above the usual cops-and-corpses contributions from the Coast ... "Woman on the Run" will not win prizes but it does make crime enjoyable.[7]

In a more current assessment of the drama, reviewer Farran Smith Nehme in 2016 praised Sheridan's performance in Film Comment.[8] Also, according to film historian Philippa Gates, Woman on the Run is one of very few noir films foregrounding a heroine's quest, and especially one where "the heroine's quest is not necessarily complicated by [heterosexual romance ..., in fact] the love interests are absent for the majority of the story".[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Woman on the Run at the American Film Institute Catalog.
  2. ↑ Hopper, Hedda (Jan 13, 1950). "Ann Sheridan's Next Movie to Be a Comedy with Cops and Gangsters: Looking at Hollywood...". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. A6.
  3. ↑ "FILMLAND BRIEFS". Los Angeles Times. May 23, 1950. p. A6.
  4. ↑ THOMAS F. BRADY (Mar 6, 1950). "TWO MOVIE FIRMS MERGE INTERESTS: Fidelity and Erskine Also List Ambitious Schedule for the New Production Company Western Slated for Flynn". p. 28.
  5. ↑ Barron, Mark (Oct 15, 1950). "ALONG BROADWAY: Roller Coaster 'Throws' Texas' Ann Sheridan". Los Angeles Times. p. D10.
  6. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (Aug 7, 1950). "'Red Badge' Off-Beat Casting Revel; Bruce Cabot Does Top Bad Man". Los Angeles Times. p. B9.
  7. ↑ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, November 30, 1950. Accessed: August 18, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Too Late for Tears (1949) + Woman on the Run (1950) – Film Comment". Film Comment. 2016-05-06. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  9. ↑ Philippa Gates, "Independence Unpunished: The Female Detective in Classic Film Noir", in Robert Miklitsch ed., Kiss the Blood off My Hands: On Classic Film Noir (Urbana: Univ. of IL Press, 2014), 21. See also Gates' full-length book on the subject of female detectives in film, Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film (SUNY Press, 2011). ISBN 1-4384-3405-7
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