zardoz-13 A guy is out walking his dog one evening when he witnesses a homicide in "Journey into Fear" director Norman Foster's atmospheric, above-average, crime thriller "Woman on the Run," starring Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe, and Robert Keith. Ostensibly, Foster and "A Star Is Born" scenarist Alan Campbell have adapted Shirley Tate's 1948 short story published in a contemporary magazine. Instead of sticking with Tate's title "Man on the Run," the filmmakers changed it to "Woman on the Run." Predictably, Sheridan spends most of the film's 77 minutes on the run herself as Eleanor Johnson who is pursuing her husband around San Francisco with an inquisitive newspaper reporter (Dennis O'Keefe of "Raw Deal") in tow. Journalist Dan Legget assures Eleanor that he is only looking for a scoop. Meantime, we don't see much of Eleanor's husband Frank (Ross Elliot of "Kelly's Heroes") who does a good job of making himself elusive. Meantime, Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith of "The Line-Up") and his colleagues maintain surveillance on Eleanor who is reluctant to share information with them about her husband. Suffice to say that everything turns out for the good by fade-out, but "Woman on the Run" boasts a supreme sized surprise that discriminating spectators will figure out before the characters in the story notice it. Indeed, I am reluctant to expose this surprise because it makes the movie worth-watching. Nevertheless, Foster and "Captain Blood" lenser Hal Mohr take us on a tour of the City by the Bay that only San Francisco residents may truly appreciate. "One Touch of Venus" editor Otto Ludwig deserves kudos--as does Mohr--for careening depiction of a roller-coaster ride that Eleanor embarks on at an amusement park in the climactic scene that brings all the principals together and ties things up rather neatly. Sheridan is perfectly cast as the faithful wife. Dennis O'Keefe shows a different side of himself as he accompanies Sheridan on their quest to find her spouse. "Woman on the Run" qualifies as a concise, well-made, crime thriller.

LeonLouisRicci Film-Noir Foundation Founder Eddie Muller Introduced this on TCM as "One of the best Noirs You've never seen." It was Lost for Years and Muller and others were Hot on the Trail of a Good and Surviving Print for a Long While. When one was Discovered it too was Destroyed in a Fire in 2009. One more Great 35mm Print Showed up and now We have this Beautiful Edition to Enjoy. Restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archives.Dennis O'Keefe, Ann Sheridan and San Francisco Locations, Shot by Hal Mohr, Highlight this Taut Tale of a Witness to a Murder by the Mob and is on the Lam Seeking Refuge from His Noirish Plight of an Innocent Man Caught in the Muck of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement.The Police are as Unsympathetic as the Criminals as They must Bring in the Witness to Break Up the Syndicate. Many a Cynical Lines make this an Above Average Low-Budget Movie with Ann Sheridan Attempting a Comeback and O'Keefe at His Chain Smoking Best. The Police Captain Played by Robert Keith is Not Likable but Relentless and sometimes Insensitive to the Wife Trying to Find Her Husband before the Crooks Do the Evil Deed.A Sub-Plot Involving a Failed Marriage Cements the Story and an Amusement Park Roller Coaster Ride Ending make for some Riveting Suspense. A Good Looking Film and the Opening Scene is almost as Good as the Final one and has the Look and Up Close and Personal Violence of Pure Film-Noir, as does the Spiraling Out of Control Situations that Follow.

bob the moo As another user here said, seeing that this film was in the public domain for anyone to sell or distribute made me assume that perhaps it would be a film that wasn't even seen as worthy of the cost of the stamp to renew the copyright. I was pleasantly surprised to see that actually, while not brilliant, it was actually quite enjoyable in how it moved. The plot sees a normal guy (Frank) out for a walk when he witnesses a murder and, although shot at himself, he is not hit. The police interview him as a witness but it quickly becomes clear to Frank that he was very lucky not to be killed himself and will clearly be a target again. As a result he goes missing and soon his wife (Eleanor) is looking for him, believing that he is actually running away from their difficult relationship. With journalist Danny Leggett alongside her looking for a scoop, she sets off to find him herself.The story unfolds as a reasonably engaging thriller with solid development. I enjoyed the relationship between Leggett and Eleanor as it skirts on the sort of playfulness that you tend to get with male/female partnerships in these sort of films but yet at the same time as more going on as Eleanor is open about her relationship. As others have said here, there is a twist at the end and it probably works much better if you don't know it is coming, because if you do then you are pretty much looking for it (which is why I think telling people there is a twist is a sort of spoiler in and of itself). Anyway, it is not too hard to guess but it is still quite nice when it comes.Although the film opens with Elliott, he is absent from most of the film and never really made an impact on me. Sheridan is great though with her turn and she works very well with O'Keefe. The direction from Foster is good at making an atmosphere without overdoing it in the process. Generally the film delivers well and has a nice tough edge mixed with playfulness which teases the viewer in quite a satisfying way.

chaos-rampant I'm drawn to and admire film noir more than any other genre. Other types will show the lesson or the rush, noir uncovers the cosmic significance. It does so in the flow of life, it encounters rather than constructs its metaphor. It posits a metaphysical darkness that doesn't need ghosts, it finds that intuitive ghostlike agency in the traffic of the world.Here's a great example. Superficially it is about a woman who wanders San Francisco looking for her husband who's gone into hiding because he saw the wrong thing and a man will be looking for him late in the night. There's a lot of snooping and following around in shadowy streetsMore deeply it's about the rift between lovers, wondering about the husband's urge to disappear; we find this early as the woman shows his paintings to a policeman, memories of a life together now gathering dust in some attic. It's about having lost him and looking for him, about having doubts that maybe he wants to stay lost, being unsure herself.It's all in the film itself. What sent him into 'hiding' and creates the distance and searching was something that came from the night itself, rendered here as witnessing the wrong thing and assuming its narrative. The newspaperman who helps her find him 'for the story'. Her long walks through San Francisco as memories come to her, possibly places they've walked together—a certain sequence is like out of Resnais, place as memory.You might know the guy who made this, Norman Foster, from co-directing Journey into Fear with Welles back when Welles was working by day on Ambersons on another RKO set and preparing for his Brazilian adventure. No doubt he studied the master at work and picked up on a few things.You'll see this in the marvelous finish in a funhouse that recalls Welles' Shanghai; the camera doesn't dance the way only he could do but the cinematic air does, carrying depending on where we stand sweet jazz, marquee lights or the manic laughter from rollercoasters rending the air.It is this rift in her that's setting forth narrative ghosts in the machine that wander to repair it, that know more than she does at any point, creating cop story and characters and jazz air of intuitive discovery; all so she can find this ahead of her.The final shot is of a grotesque mechanical puppet which was the real source of the cackling heard over the carnival grounds, the ghost in the machine.Noir Meter: 3/4