Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by jamesgarvin (A) on May 06, 2005 at 07:47:38

1957 film starring Barbara Stanwyck as a San Francisco newspaper reporter who has the address of a murder suspect. She is visited by two Los Angeles police officers, one of whom is played by Sterling Hayden. Apparently, sparks fly, but both play their emotions close to the vest, so it is hard to tell. Shortly thereafter, she quits her job, and takes a job in New York. She makes a detour to L.A. to see Hayden, and never leaves. They get married.

She is fiercely independent and driven, and soon domestic life is wearing thin for her. Instead of her own career ambitions, she transfers those to Hayden, and begins trying to create a close relationship between Hayden and the police chief played by Raymond Burr, hoping Burr will promote Hayden. The arc of the story is her planning, and what she is willing to do.

Stanwyck is credible as a career woman, but there is little logic in her being a driven career woman on the one hand, and a housewife who wants the same for her husband. I suppose that with her husband's career advancement, she moves up the housewife hierarchy, but I had trouble meshing the two lives. I learn from ibmd.com that Stanwyck's film career ended seven years later, at which time she began her television career.

Hayden does a good job as a police officer content with putting in his time, earning his pension, and having a family. He does show initiative at the end of the film, but that initiative costs him those other things. Ironic.

I think that this film was intended to be a film noir akin to those classic Bogart films. It comes up short. There is little suspense, as events occur without any buildup, and therefore there is nothing to anticipate. What happens, happens. The film's run time is less than 1 1/2 hours, so there really is not time to create a drama with any payoff. The D.V.D. has not special features. Production notes or cast bio's would be easy enough.

I would recommend the film, but it is not something that should be wasted as a requested birthday or Christmas gift request.