ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

JohnHowardReid Robert Ryan (entrapped hero), Laraine Day (unsuspecting wife), Janis Carter (title femme fatale), John Agar (youth), Thomas Gomez (ruthless Communist), Richard Rober (Jim), William Talman (Red sadist), Paul J. Burns (another super-evil Red henchman), Paul Guilfoyle (victim), Fred Graham (Grip), Harry Cheshire (avuncular boss), Iris Adrian (waitress).Director; ROBERT STEVENSON. Screenplay: Charles Grayson, Robert Hardy Andrews. Story: George W. George, George F. Slavin. Film editor: Roland Gross. Photography: Nicholas Musuraca. Art directors: Albert S. D'Agostino and Walter E. Keller. Producer: Jack J. Gross.Copyright 28 September 1949 by RKO. U.S. release: 8 Oct. 73 minutes.COMMENT: Is this movie a fantasy disguised as film noir or a film noir disguised as a fantasy? Take your pick. Me? I don't see any reason why a fantasy cannot also claim the mantle of film noir if it has a suitable atmosphere and appropriate themes. Look at "La Belle et La Bete" ("The Woman and the Beast") for instance. So to my mind, this one qualifies as both outrageous fantasy and gripping film noir. Mind you, Howard Hughes saw the film as a "melodrama" exposing members of the Communist Party as mobsters using blackmail and murder to start a West Coast shipping strike. I once had a still in which Robert Ryan (a reluctant Beast) and Laraine Day (ever a graceful Beauty) do not seem too worried about the various plot developments.

Robert J. Maxwell If you want a good movie about Commie rats in a plot to muck up the workers at the waterfront, be sure to see "Big Jim McLain" and skip this one because it's thoroughly pedestrian. The actors do a professional job but they're hobbled by their roles. Robert Ryan has turned in some exceptional performances in, say, "Dangerous Ground" or "Crossfire, but he can't do a THING here, as a former member of the Communist Party blackmailed into sabotaging talks between the union and the ship owners in San Francisco. He reluctantly keeps the arrangement sub rosa and it's driving his wife, Laraine Day, crazy because, well, "What's come OVER you?" Poor John Agar, never given to bravura acts, is seduced into holding Commie attitudes at the dock and for his sins the Commie chief, Thomas Gomez, has him run over flat on the pavement. These are the kinds of people who kill you if it advances their cause, so if you actually threaten they're cause, you're dead meat.The plot is okay but it's as if they'd dusted off some anti-Nazi screenplay from the back shelf and changed the Nazis into Commies. Robert Stevenson is the director and he must have been reading a manual on making a movie. When two characters are about to have a dramatic exchange, one of them walks towards the camera, stops, assumes a look of concern, and the other character walks up behind him and speaks to the other's back. The tactic involves all the skill of winding an old-fashioned alarm clock.Everything else about the production -- lighting, set dressing, photography, wardrobe -- lacks the slightest touch of poetry. There are some second-unit shots of San Francisco, including one of the long-gone International Settlement, which was fun in its day. But really, you're better off watching John Wayne give speeches and beat the crappola out of the subversive Commie rats in "Big Jim McClain." It's laughable, whereas this simply generates a sense of boredom and impatience.

seymourblack-1 In the years that followed the end of World War 11, the emergence of the Soviet Union as an atomic power and the spread of global Communism were together seen as a threat to the United States and created a climate of fear that led to the House Committee on Un-American Activities carrying out their 1947 investigation into Communist infiltration of the motion-picture industry. This period, which was characterised by witch-hunts and the blacklisting of people working in the industry, damaged and in some cases, ended many careers. So, the levels of panic and anxiety that prevailed in Hollywood at that time were perfectly understandable.One of the results of this was the appearance of a number of anti-Communist films and "The Woman On Pier 13" (originally titled "I Married A Communist"), was one of the most prominent and well-known. These movies weren't strong on subtlety and as obvious propaganda pieces, weren't generally that well appreciated by the public.Newly-married Brad Collins (Robert Ryan), is a Vice President at the Cornwall Shipping Company in San Francisco and as an ex-dock worker, is regarded as the ideal person to act as a mediator in the Company's dispute with the dock workers' union. Brad, who's well-respected by both management and the union, is also however, a man with some secrets because, in the past, he'd been a member of the Communist Party, had been known as Frank Johnson and had also had an affair with fellow Communist, Christine Norman (Janis Carter).Brad's past suddenly catches up with him when local Party boss, Vanning (Thomas Gomez), uses some incriminating evidence to blackmail him into paying 40% of his salary into Party funds and sabotaging the negotiations he's involved in, so that all shipping activity will be paralyzed for a period of 60 days. Christine, who wants revenge on Brad for dumping her for his new wife, Nan (Laraine Day), seduces Nan's impressionable brother Don (John Ager) and does a good job of converting him to her political views so that, in the union meetings that follow, Don (who's employed as a stevedore on the docks) is very vocal in promoting the arguments he's been programmed to make.Union leader Jim Travers (Richard Rober), who's also Nan's ex-boyfriend, is shocked by the subsequent change in Brad's conduct in their negotiations and Nan becomes increasingly concerned about Don's relationship with Christine. When Christine falls in love with Don and Vanning disapproves, a whole series of violent events follow.What makes this movie more entertaining than it would otherwise be, is the depiction of Vanning as a one-dimensional bad guy who operates exactly like a crime boss and is responsible for three murders, as well as, blackmail and extortion. Nicholas Musuraca's cinematography is also exceptionally good.The movie's film noir credentials are also strong as its central character, having made a wrong turn in his past, was also the victim of a femme fatale, had more than one identity and can't escape his fate. The quality of the acting is also generally good with Robert Ryan, Thomas Gomez and William Talman (in his screen debut) all making a strong impression.

Bucs1960 RKO studio was making some terrific noir films during the late 40's and used that same formula in this 1950 thriller. The problem with the film arises because of the Red scare propagated by Senator Joseph McCarthy who saw "commies" behind every tree. The Red scare theme dates the story to the point that it is almost embarrassing........but it is still worth seeing.Robert Ryan, who was such a powerful actor, stars as a successful man who once was a Communist, lured by his then-mistress, played by Janis Carter. He has now moved on with his life, married to Laraine Day and has learned to love the "American way". Trouble rears its ugly head as labor union troubles bring his old cronies out of the woodwork and the fun begins.This film played on the fears of 1950's audiences and it is hard to relate to those feelings now; however, the craftsmanship of the film is quite good and the players are up to their usual standards. Of course, the exception is John Agar,who as always is bad, bad, bad. So for a look at another time when people built bomb shelters and suspected their neighbors of being "fellow travelers", take a gander at this film. It's a time capsule unto itself.