Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

JLRMovieReviews Ross Elliott witnesses a murder but cuts out on the police. In order to find their only witness and lead, they enlist the help of his wife, played by Ann Sheridan. But it seems that husband and wife were not very happy and were not really speaking to each other, so she isn't really that much help or in a mood to help. But the law, played by Robert Keith, is still sticking to her anyway, no matter what. Dennis O'Keefe is a newspaperman who wants a story, a story, so he is by her side all the way. By way of a letter left for her by her husband, she is on a quest to find him and in the process learns things she didn't know about him, herself and their marriage. Is is worth sticking it out? Does he love her? Does she love him? All this factors in this quick and absorbing film noir. Quick, or astute, viewers will get the "gotcha moment" long before unobservant viewers. The highlight is the roller coaster ride Ann takes as she realizes who the killer is. A well made little film, "Woman on the Run" entertains and really delivers the goods. You can find it from time to time on TCM, but this deserves to be seen more often and to have the same reputation of other more famous film noirs.

evanston_dad Ann Sheridan plays a bitter housewife who has a way with a curt one liner in this nifty little noir from 1950.Her husband is on the run after inadvertently witnessing a murder. The detectives are hounding his wife for clues about where he might be (she honestly doesn't know). Also hounding her is a reporter (Dennis O'Keefe) who wants to be first to the scoop. Or is he really a reporter? The film makes the bold move of letting you know early on that the reporter is actually the murderer, and he's slyly manipulating Sheridan into leading him to her husband so that he can bump off the only witness. O'Keefe plays against type, proving that his sardonic charm works just as well when cast as a bad guy as it does when cast as the leading man.O'Keefe is good, but Sheridan provides the biggest incentive for watching this one. Her, and a cleverly filmed nail biter of a finale that takes place on and underneath a carnival roller coaster.I don't know why the film is called "Woman on the Run," since the husband is the one who runs away and the woman doesn't even know she's in danger until the very end. Maybe I'm just missing the point or maybe the title really doesn't make sense because film noir titles almost never do.

dougdoepke Lots of imaginative touches in this suspenseful noir. Catch the midget in the phone booth, the mannequins from heck, or the camera that pulls away from the climax. Director Foster sure didn't treat this as just another programmer. For that matter, neither did the producers who popped for atmospheric San Francisco locations plus an A-list cast. All in all, there would appear to be a backstory to this unusual production.So who's going to help poor Sheridan now that a killer is searching for her estranged husband. Not the cops, since Keith is too ornery to sense her need. But then she comes across as a pretty tough cookie (as only Sheridan can) herself. And what about reporter O"Keefe. Is he really a help or just in it for himself. At first I thought the plot was a whodunit, but then it turns into a moody nail-biter, along the lines of urban classic DOA (1950). And what about those great SF locations that lend genuine atmosphere. Cameraman Hal Mohr does an expert job complementing the story with many of SF's exotic settings. In fact, the acting and production values manage to keep attention away from plot developments that at times are a stretch. I guess my only real reservation is with the camera pull-away at the climax. It's imaginative and heightens suspense, but also dilutes the outcome that we never get to see. Still, however you take that, the movie itself remains an exotic slice of b&w, and a tribute especially to its director and cameraman.(In passing-- why the title 'Woman' On The Run when it seems it's really a man.)

mark.waltz Remember in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" where Doris Day listens to a symphony in agony, knowing that an attempted murder is about to take place? The gripping fear shown by Ann Sheridan while on a roller-coaster ride knowing that her on-the-run husband (Ross Elliott) might suddenly be killed for witnessing a murder is just as tense, and the carnival music and sinister laugh of a fun-house harpie makes that even more nail biting. This isn't your Warner Brothers "Oomph Girl" Ann Sheridan or even the perplexed military officer who finds out she's married to Cary Grant in drag, but a hard-as-nails, world-weary wife who all of a sudden finds her life torn upside down and revelations about what everybody thought was a perfect marriage to be not so perfect.While the killer only saw her husband's shadow, it was enough of a clue to reveal the husband's identity to him, and Sheridan, police chief Robert Keith and reporter Dennis O'Keefe are desperate to find him before its too later. O'Keefe befriends Sheridan with the intent of not only getting the scoop but perhaps getting the girl as well, and this takes them all over San Francisco, one of the great film noir settings (think "Dark Passage" and "Sudden Fear") although unlike Joan Crawford, Sheridan doesn't run up and down the hilly streets in her high heels.A bit convoluted at times, this is still pretty interesting for the twists and turns it makes (although the film never goes near the crooked Lombard Street), and Sheridan is an engaging heroine, both dark and sympathetic, and someone you don't quite know what to make of at first. Actor turned director Norman Foster, best known for helming many of the Charlie Chan features, keeps the suspense high, and as usual, this is a film noir with a surprise ending that won't leave you feeling cheated.