Crime of Passion (1957)

Too much of everything

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Actually - I think that a more appropriate title for this dizzy, 1957, crime-clunker would have been "Crime of Stupidity" - 'Cause, believe me, that's exactly what this idiotic film's storyline amounted to being - pure stupidity (as only Hollywood could possibly deliver it).You know - I can't imagine how anyone in the cast of this utterly implausible movie-nonsense could've ever kept a straight face, spewing out the totally awful dialogue that they did, and behaving like absolute brain-dead buffoons throughout.Personally, I think that that big, dull oaf, Sterling Hayden was one of the most insincere and unconvincing character actors of his generation, bar none.And, finally - Speaking about actress, Barbara Stanwyck - (At 50 years old here) - She was, in my opinion, absolute light years away from being believable, at all, as the irresistibly alluring business woman. She really was.

I gave this 9 starts for two reasons: (1)I am a big admirer of Ray Burr and love to watch anything he does, (2) I love when characters become morally depraved by force or by choice. Now, I don't listen to critics...never found them useful. If I see a preview for a movie or it has an actor I like in it, I'll see it. I enjoy watching films and I don't see how picking films apart, comparing them to others is necessary. If you want to see a film, see it. Don't waste your time analyzing it. Anyway, to the review. Barbara Stanwyck plays quite the character in Kathy Ferguson, who works for a newspaper. She's not a reporter but rather the "Dear Abby" type. Still, it is impressive to see a woman having a career(and in the media for that matter). instead of being relegated to the role of housewife...a rarity for the 50's. ***Quick note, a very young Joe Conley plays a food delivery boy at the newspaper. Joe, as you may know, played Ike Godsey on "The Waltons." I digress, anyway you can see that Kathy is conniving and will do anything to get herself to the top of the ladder. It turns out a woman writing for advice is wanted for murder and two cops arrive looking for Kathy's help in tracking down the woman. One of the cops, Bill Doyle(Sterling Haden), takes a shining to Kathy and her likewise. She even gives Doyle's partner a false lead so Bill can solve the case. See, right there you can tell Kathy is the type that will do whatever to get what she wants. It later becomes quite a shock when Kathy turns down a lucrative newspaper job to become Doyle's wife in the burbs. She likes it at first but, who is she kidding? He has card games while the wives sit in another room and talk about mundane "wife" issues. Kathy can't stand it nor can she stand her milquetoast husband. She begins to create a plan that will get her the happiness SHE wants and hopefully make her husband happy too. She causes a car accident with the wife of Doyle's boss...Inspector Tony Pope(Ray Burr). Soon the couples become friends and begin to socialize and Pope takes a liking to Kathy. He even shows her some files of people he thought committed crimes for "interesting" reasons. Of course, Kathy plays into this interest further by saying she'd like to see HIS files "from time to time." Basically she's feeding Pope's ego...sort of like cheating on her husband "emotionally" not physically. I don't think Kathy cares for Pope in "that way" but he is showing interest in her which is something she is thriving for and he certainly lusts after her. Kathy later tells her husband to leave the department and get a safer job in Beverly HIlls. He relents(barely) but after a few minutes agrees to resign. Kathy knows, I mean KNOWS, the resignation will not go through because she's been showing so much interest in Inspector Pope that he'll beg Bill to stay. Turns out, Pope tells Doyle to rethink the resignation as things will be changing in the department. Kathy has a nice grin on her face upon hearing this. However, things don't change as fast as Kathy wants and she later plants notes that her husband easily finds. The notes accuse her of having an affair with someone in the department. This enrages Doyle(finally showing some guts) as Kathy had hoped. She claims the wife of Doyle's superior, Capt. Charlie Alidos(Royal Dano), is spreading the rumors because the couple is jealous of Bill and Kathy's friendship with the Popes(especially Kathy and Tony's recent closeness). Bill heads to the station and beats up Alidos. Inspector Pope finds out, investigates both men and sends Alidos to another department while keeping Bill instead, not before asking if the notes mentioned anyone in particular(i.e. Pope). Doyle quickly becomes Capt. but it's not enough for Kathy. She learns Pope's wife is ill and he plans to retire. She wants Bill to be Inspector and Pope said it could be possible. Then he kisses Kathy passionately. She pulls away but then realizes(you can see it in her eyes) if she sleeps with Pope he'll make Bill an inspector. Well, men lie and so does Tony. He tells Kathy to leave him alone and that the one-night stand was a mistake on both parts. He warns her to leave him alone and, of course, she doesn't. Now she can't live with the fact that she put-out for another man and didn't get anything in return. She decides someone needs to die and soon she finds herself on the opposite side of the law. I love how Ray uses Kathy and how she resorts to becoming a sex pawn. Ray plays the kind of man you love to hate and it was just before he started his role as "Perry Mason."

Crime of Passion is directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Jo Eisinger. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr and Fay Wray. Music is by Paul Dunlap and cinematography by Joseph LaShelle.It's a strange one in many ways, in that it's a film of considerable intelligence and wry social critique. It even folds inwards the role of the film noir femme fatale, marking it out as fascinating. Yet it never fully delivers for dramatic purpose, leaving it as a modest entry in the last throes of the classic era film noir cycle.Plot sees Stanwyck as Kathy Ferguson, a strong and intelligent newspaper columnist who really doesn't suffer fools gladly. However, when she helps the police with a crime she meets and falls in love with Lt. Bill Doyle (Hayden), and after a whirlwind romance she marries him and finds herself in a picket fence suburban hell. Tiring of Bill standing still, happy with his place in society, Kathy takes drastic action to elevate their life to greater heights...Such is the quality of lead cast members doing what they did best, film manages to hold the attention from a narrative perspective, and with LaShelle's photography firmly dealing in the 50s noir realm of darkness in daylight, there's a claustrophobic atmosphere wrung out to accentuate Kathy's suburban Suzy Homemamker suffocation. The wry observations of social standings and the woman's role in the 50s home is given skilled direction by Oswald (A Kiss Before Dying), the feminist viewpoints standing tall at the front of the play.Unfortunately all the brains and technical attributes involved in production can't hide the fact that it's very rarely exciting or suspenseful, practically crawling to a sedate resolution that isn't exactly satisfying. There's a lot of good here, making it worth a watch for fans of the stars or for those that like some brains in their noir diet. But you may end up as frustrated as I was come the end... 6/10

Fun, low-budget late noir, where we see capable, independent career woman Barbara Stanwyck fall in love with straight-arrow L.A. cop Sterling Hayden, try to fit in as a happy Fifties housewife, quickly go insane from the effort, and commit the crime of the title. There's abundant pre-feminist social commentary, as well as palpable heat between the principal players--we see at once what's keeping them together. But there are loose ends, too. If Stanwyck's so unhappy with cakes and pies and cleaning, why doesn't she just go out and get another job, as Hayden would surely allow? Why would she Make a Mistake with his boss, an unappealing Raymond Burr, then regret it instantly? And what palpable gains are to be gotten from her from committing the titular crime? Some nice location filming helps, and we understand how the stultifying life she's chosen is messing with her head. But the plot motivations aren't entirely credible.