Woman on the Run (Norman Foster, 1950)
Lots to like here, especially the surprising way this man-on-the-lam noir becomes a portrait of a marriage. But even with Ann Sheridan as the lead, I sensed a misogynistic bent to the film's treatment of that marriage, and that didn't sit well with me. There's a great moment where Sheridan complains about all the mansplaining going on, and I excitedly thought the film was going to turn the male perspective on its head, but then by the end Sheridan's character she seems to concede that the men were right all along. Maybe I'm being oversensitive (a flurry of femme fatales will do that to you), but I found it troubling nonetheless.
A couple other lines made me laugh out loud, especially when a drunk woman at the a bar tells Sheridan she should wear more hats, and Sheridan is like, "I don't look good in hats," and the drunk lady is like, "Yeah, you're right." It's all the funnier for being so perfectly random.
Sheridan is mostly good, save for a couple bad moments where it's easy to imagine the editor picked the worst possible take for whatever reason. I didn't like Robert Keith quite as much as in
Edge of Doom even though he's playing almost the exact same character. Dennis O'Keefe isn't someone I really know, but he looks like a cross between Keifer Sutherland and Sam Neill, and he's serviceable enough here. Ross Elliott does well in his brief scenes, jumping off the screen like a guy who should have had a better career.
There's a nice twist to the story that's handled very well initially but eventually moves past the point of credibility, leading to someone silly plotting. There's also a great embrace of location shooting, with the film at times seeming like the most entertaining San Francisco travelogue ever made. Good photography by Hal Mohr, especially in the final sequence. (How many noirs culminate at carnivals and fairgrounds?)
Did I miss something, or does the key final moment make zero sense?
Sheridan gets off the rollercoaster, races in the direction of her husband, runs into Robert Keith, hears gun shots, runs on, and when she reaches the body in bay, Robert Keith is already there as if he fired the shots himself. wtf?! Is something missing there? It's such a weird bit of elliptical storytelling in what's otherwise a long, detailed sequence.
Grade: B-
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