Murder, intrigue, madness, a life in peril, a fight against the clock. PHANTOM LADY has it all! Based on a Cornell Woolrich novel and directed by Robert Siodmak, this is definitely film noir.
Scott Henderson ( Alan Curtis) ,after an argument with his wife, goes to a bar and starts a conversation with a mysterious lady who wears a fancy hat.
Scott had tickets for a show and persuades the mystery lady to come with him – they decide not to exchange names.
(Whoever was sitting behind the hat lady had every right to ask her to take it off!)
When Scott’s wife is found murdered on the same night, he is an immediate suspect, mainly because he can’t produce the woman he was with at the time of the murder, or anyone to substantiate his claims that he was in the bar then took a taxi to the theatre.
Thomas Gomez, Alan Curtis, Regis Toomey, Joseph Crehan
Scott is quizzed by the police led by Inspector Burgess (Thomas Gomez). They arrest him. ( his wife was strangled with one of his ties.)
Burgess is sympathetic to Scott, saying, Only a fool or an innocent man would have stuck to that alibi.”
Ella Raines.
Enter Ella Raines as ‘Carol”, Scott’s secretary who decides to do everything she can to prove Scott’s innocence after he is convicted of the murder. (of course, she is secretly in love with her boss.)
This really is Ella Raines’ film ( surely her best film), and she does a great job, driving the plot and uncovering the murderer. She’s relentless! Scott calls her ‘Kansas’ ( she’s from Wichita).
Two shots of Carol visiting Scott in prison. Great b&w photography by Elwood Bredell. The scene typifies Film Noir – low key lighting, shadows, angles.
The room almost looks like a boxing ring, with that shaft of light from the barred window.
Thomas Gomez, Ella Raines, Franchot Tone.
Scott’s friend, Jack Marlowe (Franchot Tone) wants to help prove Scott’s innocence. Or does he?
Love the comment Marlowe makes to Carol, telling her she should go back to Kansas – “ look, this is a man’s job.”
Ella Raines.
The bartender who served Scott and the mystery woman denies seeing anyone with Scott. Carol goes to the bar every night, just sitting on her own and staring at the bartender (Andrew Tombes).
Ella Raines.
Carol then takes on the drummer at the theatre whom Scott remembered kept looking at his companion.
Dressing as trashily as possible and chewing gum, Carol sits in the front row of the theatre and Cliff (Elisha Cook) doesn’t miss her!
Elisha Cook, Ella Raines.
Elisha Cook
Cliff takes her to a club where musicians are jamming. Trying to impress her, Cliff’s drumming becomes more and more frenzied.
I like the IMDB quote, “Elisha Cook pounds his drum kit to a climax as Raines smoulders!”
Elisha Cook
Back at Cliff’s apartment, he brags to Carol that he was paid $500 for his false testimony. “I’m an authority on hats. I get paid for knowing about hats. 500 smakeroos for looking at a dame and saying I didn’t.”
Poor Cliff ends up dead too .
Aurora Miranda channels her sister Carmen, as the star of the show Scott goes to see – the coincidence being that Aurora’s character wears the same hat as the mystery woman sitting with Scott in the theatre.( The show is called “Chica-Boom Boom!)
Franchot Tone.
Another great noir shot of the increasingly dangerous Franchot Tone.
Ella Raines, Franchot Tone.
Ella Raines, Alan Curtis.
Alan Curtis is very much side-lined, as his character spends most of the film in prison, but he’s convincing as the man wrongly convicted of murder.
Definitely one of my favourite thrillers. A solid plot with lots of twists.
Ella Raines on set.
THE UNKNOWN LADY
Vienna's Classic Hollywood
Wonderful choice of images from the film, Vienna.
Thanks, Bob. I love finding them.
For a while in the mid forties Ella looked like becoming a major star. She was under a three way contract with Howard Hawks, Charles Boyer and Charles Feldman, with whom she was romantically involved. Unfortunately Hawks lost interest after discovering Lauren Bacall, as did Feldman on a personal level. Her contract was sold to Universal-International who dropped her after two flops, Time Out Of Mind and White Tie And Tails. She lived in England for some years with her Air Force Colonel husband.
She should have been a bigger star.
Great movie with Siodmak at his peak and I love the middle section where Ella Raines sets out on the hunt. The stalking of the barman is terrific and scene with Elisha Cook Jr and the drums shows how clever and creative filmmakers could work around the restrictions of the production code – that sequence was positively loaded.
It has so much going for it . Quite an intricate plot. I didn’t mention the terrific noir shots on the railway platform with Ella and Andrew Tombes.
A remarkable film for many reasons! I also like Ella Raines in “Tall in the Saddle”. She makes the movie!
She’ll a real firebrand in Tall in the Saddle!
The only drawback for me is Franchot Tone’s over the top performance towards the end of the film. At two BFI screenings it provoked audience laughter which ruined the mood of the film. Perhaps that was what Siodmak wanted but it doesn’t work.
I agree. He did overdo it, with the hand-wringing etc