Woman on the Run

WOMAN ON THE RUN is an infinitely better and more rewarding movie experience now than when it was released in 1950. Saw it back then when I was a child and the only thing I remembered was the terrifically-exciting roller coaster sequence. Seeing it again on DVD makes me appreciate everything about it, a film noir classic. To make such a no-nonsense, concise and plausible crime thriller with a sensational finale today certainly seems to be asking for the impossible. Ann Sheridan, of a certain age, never sexier and looking like a million dollars, dominates the screen, as usual. She can do anything, but overact. She's the real thing. Scenes in this movie bear comparison to Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL and Alfred Hitchcock'S STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. This is a gem - hard-boiled, splendidly-acted, written and photographed.

Woman on the Run has some wonderful scenes. Ann Sheridan plays a disenchanted wife whose husband was a witness to a gangland killing (while walking his little dog). Realising that he is in great danger the man goes into hiding (without the dog). Right from the beginning the noirish drama is mixed with hilarious humor. The police officers who come to the Sheridan character's house after the incident are cheeky and mean to the extreme. The woman who for some reason is treated like a suspect even has to open all her kitchen cupboards (I won't tell you what's in it, it's very telling and absolutely funny). Many aspects of the script do not stand up to logic. But, well, it is "only a movie" and therefore it does not matter at all – quite on the contrary in fact.

Alfred Hitchcock must have run this one in his screening room more than once. The finale in a funfair has a strong resemblance with the one in his Strangers on a Train, released one year later. It has an astonishingly well done nightly rollercoaster scene. Furthermore there is some very good location shooting on the streets of San Francisco. I can highly recommend this well fotographed and directed movie with good performances, especially by Ann Sheridan.

I knew it. I knew if I keep watching films from my Film Noir gift box I would come up with some good titles. This is one of them. Solid performances by Ann Sheridan and the dependable Dennis O'Keefe, and written and directed by Norman Foster. The pacing is good and I even went along with the plot contrivance which serves as the climax of the picture. Annie was coming to the end of her glamour period in Hollywood films and she turns in a hard-boiled performance as a wife in search of her missing husband. Always thought Dennis O'Keefe was meant for better things than B programmers but he gets a good role here in an 'almost A' picture. Our current rating of 7.6 may be a little gaudy, but it's a good addition to my Film Noir collection.

Nice, isn't it, to come across a good movie when you weren't expecting one?

While out late one night walking his dog, Frank Johnson finds himself in the unwanted situation of being a witness to a murder, the killer sees Frank and fires two shots but misses. The police arrive and inform Frank that as he can identify the killer he has to be taken in protective custody, as the man killed was also a witness in a case against a big mob boss and he will surely be the next target. However, fearful for his life Frank goes on the run. His wife Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) soon finds out that he husband is not the person she had been bored with, but an intelligent, talented and witty man that many people like for many reasons, believing her marriage was in permanent decline, she suddenly remembers why she loved him in the first place and sets out to find him with the help of a a very eager local reporter Danny Leggett (Dennis O'Keeffe) intent on a big story that might just save his own career. The search is made all the more frantic when Eleanor discovers Frank had been hiding a heart defect from her and that the police have ordered all pharmacies not to give out his required drug without their say so.

Woman on the Run completes my viewing of Antonius Block's Top 100 Noir list and its a good one to finish with, it starts quite slowly but ups the tension with each passing minute,as the police and the killer also join the chase. O'Keeffe and Sheridan are both excellent in their respective roles and for such a low budget film, there is some very fine camera-work, in particular the scenes in the amusement park at the finish. The only thing that irked me just a little was the identity of the killer was given away too soon, albeit a nice twist, but then at a brisk 77 mins, I can't really have too much to complain about. I watched the Alpha Video disc and being a fan of Foster's work I would certainly be interested in seeing a better print of this film.

Shown for theatrically for the first time in 40 years at the 2003 San Francisco Noir Festival, this rediscovered gem has some of

the classic elements that make the genre so appealing; here an innocent bystander to a murder is on the run with a wife who is

desperately trying to find him before the cops or the killer can get to him.

A wisecracking Ann Sheridan careens around San Francisco with reporter Dennis OÕKeefe who may or may not be an ally.

One of the delights of this film is that the city is portrayed realistically with picturesque 1950 settings in North Beach,

Chinatown, Telegraph Hill and the long gone Playland at the Beach.

One interesting bit of trivia: Norman Foster later ditched the noir formula and became a successful director of Disney hits such as Zorro and Davy Crockett and eventually went on to direct episodes of the Batman and Green Hornet television series..