Woman On The Run

Woman on the Run (1950)

Runtime: 77 minutes

Directed by: Norman Foster

Starring: Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Klein, Ross Elliott, Frank Jenks

From: Universal

Here's a review I should have posted yesterday but I was tied up with other things. This is a film I watched Friday night. The Letterboxd review is below:

This month and July TCM will be showing film noir or film noir-like movies all day every Friday, which is perfect for me as I need to see more from the genre in general. This was one of the motion pictures they showed, one I wasn't familiar with.

It's a tale where an average Joe named Frank (who among other things is an artist) witnesses a gangster murder someone who was going to testify against him and narrowly avoids getting shot himself; Frank is told he now has to testify and he manages to sneak away. His wife Eleanor-Ann Sheridan-is asked to help try and find him in San Francisco (where this was actually shot; you saw plenty of how that town looked back then) but she doesn't trust the cops and thinks Frank is on the run to leave their unhappy marriage. She looks for him with the help of a newspaper reporter. So the title means that she is not running FROM anyone... rather she is running in an attempt to find her errant husband.

I'll mention the first thing I thought after I got done viewing this: what a contrived story. That is why I can't rate it as high as others do. It's not awful... it's just a story full of contrivances and I know noir is no stranger to a far-fetched thing or two but this was more so than usual. Also, at first Eleanor isn't the most likable woman. As you get to know her, though, she's not so bad. She changes as she gets to find out more about the life of a husband where because of their troubled union she doesn't know much about his life. Believe me, a noir centered around a woman... I am not a Men's Rights Activist clown so I definitely have no issue with a girl being the center of a film.


What helps redeem it are the strong performances, the typical things you expect from the genre (tough dames, hard-boiled cops, snappy dialogue, a lot of flavor and figurative color, creative lighting), and the on location shooting in San Francisco. There's also an ending in a unique setting and that was nicely done. That is how I can at least give this a 3 star rating. As it's public domain it means it is quite easy to track down and view if you want to determine whether my rating is too low or not.