The Woman on Pier 13, from 1950, is a film noir starring Laraine Day and my new #3 guy, Robert Ryan. It's an interesting film, and it gives Ryan the opportunity to play a likeable guy...something he didn't often get to do.
Brad Collins (Ryan), a shipping company executive, and his new wife Nan (Day) have just returned home from their honeymoon when a reporter comes to Brad with a story of how Brad's name is really Frank Johnson and that he was a Communist Party member before moving to California. Though Brad at first denies the allegations, there is no escaping the truth. Years before, he had been a Communist, but after seeing the error of his ways, he left the party, changed his name, and moved across the country. Brad is told, though, that it is impossible for him to ever leave the party---they won't let him go---and after he witnesses the torture and murder of a man, Brad realizes he is stuck.
Although Brad is willing to come clean with his employer about his unwise youthful actions, the Party makes clear that they have evidence tying Brad to a murder that was committed several years earlier. There is no way out for Brad; he will have to do what the Party tells him to do, which is to create problems between the shipping company and the labor unions...all the while trying to keep his past actions hidden from his wife.
Is Brad able to get free from the pressure of the Communists? Is he able to finally leave Frank Johnson behind and really be the Brad Collins he longs to be? Is he able to keep the truth hidden from his wife? And if his wife finds out, will she still love him? These are the questions that will play out in the remainder of this film.
I definitely enjoyed this movie; it was interesting and entertaining AND it starred the very under-rated Robert Ryan, who I am becoming more and more crazy about. I've only seen Laraine Day in about three or four movies, but I like her---I think she's quite lovely and sweet. This film is out on DVD, so I think it should be fairly easy to track it down.
Happy viewing!!
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Sunday, October 23, 2011
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That was an excellent review Patti !
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, this film reminds me of another called, "Storm Warning" I think starring Doris Day. It made a deep impression when I first saw it, very serious subject matter just like this film probably will.
The late 40's and into the '50's was everyone seeing Communists everywhere and sometimes they were proven right. In the film industry, many were blacklisted but continued to work using different names, especially screen writers and not getting screen credit under their true names until decades later.
That's funny, I didn't think he was very likeable at all. Whenever his wife questioned him he would yell "Go to bed!" lol. Great review though, as always!
ReplyDeleteVictoria, maybe "victim" would have been a better word (though I did like him). He wasn't the typical nasty, "heavy" guy he was in most films; instead, he was the one who had "the bad guy" coming down on him. I really felt for his character...trying to run from a past mistake and doing so alone because of fear of anyone finding out what he had done.
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