Nonureva Really Surprised!

ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Spikeopath A Woman's Secret is directed by Nicholas Ray and adapted to screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz from the novel "Mortgage on Life" written by Vicki Baum. It stars Maureen O'Hara, Melvyn Douglas, Gloria Grahame, Victor Jory and Jay C. Flippen. Music is by Friedrich Hollaender and cinematography by George E. Diskant.When young singer Susan Caldwell (Grahame) is shot, Marian Washburn (O'Hara) takes the blame and is promptly charged. But something isn't right and those closest to Marian decide to dig a little deeper...If the Lord wanted you to have a bullet in you - you would have been born with one!A big mix of noir/mystery/melodrama conventions here as this RKO production ultimately holds its head just above water. The major problem that brings frustration is that the resolution just renders the whole story as sort of pointless, it does at times feel like they made it up as they went along, a jumbled collections of ideas.On the plus side there are some choice characterisations, a flashback structure and decent tech credits on show. Story is packed with angry lawyers, sarcastic coppers and sultry dames. Some of the dialogue spouted is noir gold, particularly when coming from the mouth of Flippen's (stealing the film but sadly under used) grizzled copper, while Ray and Diskant know their noir visuals as they tone down the contrasts and utilise closed in space for the more serious scenes in the story. Grahame is full of sexual and world wise innocence, teasing away like a good un', Jory gives a show of fidgety anger, while Douglas gets the tongue in cheek role and works well as a romantic prop feeding off of O'Hara's (actually under written considering it's the lead) more sternly sexy performance. This is not essential noir for the the noir lovers, and certainly not prime stuff from noir legend Nicholas Ray. Yet it's better than its maligned reputation suggests. But only just mind you... 6/10

vincentlynch-moonoi Maureen O'Hara herself pretty well summed up a proper review for this film: "I made no attempt to keep it a secret that I thought the story stank." Well, saying it "stank" might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.Usually we think about the affect that an actor has on a film. But here, it almost seems the opposite. This script was terrible for Maureen O'Hara. O'Hara was somewhat of a unique actress. She reminded me of fellow I knew who seemed to be able to comfortably wear almost any set of clothing. O'Hara could wear a comedy coat, a drama coat, even a fantasy coat. But this coat didn't fit O'Hara well at all.Melvyn Douglas comes off okay here because his flip attitude works here...and this was during the point in his career where Douglas was often flip.Gloria Grahame is a surprise here. I always thought it was a shame how see often played a sultry woman...the type of role that doesn't still come across very well. Well, here she doesn't play that role at all. What is weird is that a singer sings her songs while she lip syncs, and the singer they chose wasn't very good at all.Bill Williams is silly acting here. Dismissed! Victor Jory's role doesn't really work at all; it is too far out of his comfort zone.Mary Phillips and Jay C. Flippen are quite entertaining as a detective and his wife...an amateur sleuth herself...though I'm not sure that makes much sense.No, this film just doesn't work.

Aaron Igay I had high hopes for this film. The screenplay is by Herman J Mankiewicz of 'Citizen Kane' fame and it's directed by Nicholas Ray and features actress Gloria Grahame. Ray also directed one of my favorite films 'In A Lonely Place' in which Grahame also starred. The great side-story on the film here is how the two of them met on the set and zipped off to Vegas so that Grahame could get a quickie divorce from her then husband and marry Ray. Maybe they should have focused on making this a watchable film instead of cooing over each other. Like most noirs this had tons of flashbacks, but generally in other movies they are used to reveal surprising clues, here they are a gimmick to tell every irrelevant detail of somebody's life which we could care less about. Avoid this film and watch 'In a Lonely Place' instead.

MartinHafer The film begins with a shooting. While Maureen O'Hara tells the police she shot her protégé, Gloria Graham, her boyfriend (Melvin Douglas) is sure she couldn't have done such a thing. Both tell their side of the story from their perspective and the police wait until Graham recovers from surgery to get at the truth.This is an okay idea for a film--not great, but it sure could have been a lot better. The main problem is that although this was meant to be a serious suspense/mystery film, there were some characters who were poorly written--mostly the women in the cast. The worst, of course, was the detective's nosy wife. I assume someone thought it would be cute to include her in the story, but frankly she seemed all wrong for the overall mood of the film. On one hand, it was supposed to be a mystery and was rather interesting but on the other, they stuck this obnoxious ditz into the film for comic relief! Comic relief in a film like this just made very little sense. Having this obnoxious lady blundering about was akin to putting Pee Wee Herman in an opera. The other problem is that it simply made little sense to have O'Hara taking responsibility for the shooting--especially once you learn the truth. It just made no sense at all. The final problem, though not as serious, was that the character Graham played was frankly too dumb and flighty. Had they made her more ruthless or just less stupid, the film would have clicked much better. It all seemed as if the writers just couldn't write women's parts well.Had they worked out these problems, the film might have been very watchable. However, because of these factors, it's only a minor time-passer and not a film to rush to see.