Der Gefangene des Ku-Klux-Klan

"Storm Warning " is a very interesting movie.Few movies dealt with the KKK at the time and ,of course,we are far from "Birth Of A Nation"( where they were the good guys(!!!) who saved the Cameron family attacked by the villains (the black men!)).

"Storm Warning" gives a strong depiction of that sinister secret society."Without your hood,you are cowards!" one character says .Quite rightly so.Without their hoods,when they beat the retreat ,they are the guys -next -door ;they even bring their children to the meeting.

The action is tight ,everything happens in 24 hours .There are many suspenseful scenes ,particularly the first one in Lucy's house when Marsha discovers that her brother-in-law is part of them.Of course Tennessee Williams' shadow hangs over the threesome Marsha/Lucy/Hank who reminds everyone of Blanche/Stella/Stanley ;besides Doris Day resembles Kim Hunter.But it does not get in the way.On the contrary ,it gives Hank's character substance ,and Steve Cochran rises to the occasion.Ronald Reagan's part is less interesting,but fortunately,the script writers spared us a love affair between him and Ginger Rogers.

This punchy, noirish thriller, superbly shot by Carl Gutherie, has all but disappeared despite its Grade-A cast that includes Ginger Rogers and Doris Day, both cast very much against type, as sisters in a small town where the Klu Klux Klan have the upper hand. Rogers is the sister who witnesses a Klan killing only to discover sister Doris is married to the killer, Steve Cochran. Ronald Regan is the investigating District Attorney. It's a simplistic little story, closer in tone to the social-conscience movies Warners turned out in the thirties than to the studio pictures of the period with a fine Richard Brooks/Daniel Fuchs screenplay and both Day and Rogers are surprisingly good with nary a song between them. It might have a B-Movie sensibility and it may bang its drum a little too loudly but at least it's honest and well-intentioned, if unusually violent for the time, and is well worth seeing.

A very nice film overall, with Ronald Reagan probably turning in the best performance of this cast. Also notable for its direct attack on the Klu Klux Klan at a time when they were still a force. But this is also where the film gets a little strange. Virtually no mention is made of the Klan's ideology -- other than a few passing references to "hate" and "bigotry". There is a mob lynching/murder at the start of the film -- but it is not a racial attack. It is the killing of a white reporter who had been investigating and threatening to "expose" the Klan. Expose them for what? Tax evasion! They had been selling Klan trinkets to members and not reporting the income. The Klan is shown as essentially a criminal organization whose purpose is to fleece its own members for profit. In fact not one black actor has a line in this film. I am sure the producer's intentions were noble and maybe they felt they could not address the issue of racism head on, and therefore chose a somewhat oblique approach to discredit the Klan. But I can't help but feel that there is a certain disingenuousness to this film. Maybe this was brave for 1951, I really don't know.

A Warner Brothers movie exposing the Ku Klux Klan in 1951 sounds very compelling, but despite its laudable intent, "Storm Warning" pulls all its punches, fudges issues it should have confronted, and ultimately lacks the courage of its own convictions.

In "Storm Warning" the Klan is variously referred to as a "mob," "hoodlums in sheets," and a "gang," According to D.A. Ronald Reagan, it is a "private money-making racket" controlled by a few for personal profit. These are terms normally associated with a criminal conspiracy such as the Mafia. No mention is made of the Klan's racism, anti-Semitism, or anti-Catholic biases.

The only prejudices specifically expressed by Klan members are directed against such vague generic groups as "busybodies," "troublemakers," and "outsiders." With the exception of a scattered sparse handful of anonymous black extras, (who may not even be Rock Point residents), among the many hundreds outside the courthouse, this would seem to be a town without minorities.

The town's location is also fudged. Although non-Klan members are resentful of Washington, New York, and those from "Up North," no one in town speaks with any type of regional Southern accent or utilizes any Southern colloquialisms. There are no cultural references to Southern life or history. People in Rock Point eat hamburgers, not grits. It looks like California orange country, and it indeed was filmed in Corona, California.

Even though the film's trailer mentions the KKK, the actual words "Ku Klux Klan" are not used in the film. What emerges is a softened, quasi-generic illegal organization known simply as "The Klan." Warner Brothers was on the cutting edge of socially conscious films in the 1930's, but by the late 40's and early 50's, were behind the curve on tackling anti-Semitism and race hatred. Clearly the studio had second thoughts about offending their Southern consumer base and blunted the edge of what could have been a courageous statement on race relations in America.

Another downside is the writers' obvious cribbing from "Streetcar Named Desire." Not only are character dynamics of this film's domestic triangle lifted from the Williams classic, but even minor details are shamelessly copied. Steve Cochrane's Stanley-like character, referred to as "stupid" and an "ape," introduces himself to his sister-in-law in a stained T-shirt, wonders who has been stealing his liquor, cries like an immature child, excels at bowling, enjoys a strong sexual chemistry with his pregnant wife, causes his sister-in-law to primp up in anticipation of meeting him, and later attempts to rape her in the climactic scene.

One wonders why Warners was not sued for plagiarism, but as the studio had released "The Glass Menagerie" in 1950 and "Streetcar" in 1951, it's probable that Williams gave at least tacit permission for the use of his intellectual property.

Despite these complaints, there are some very good things in "Storm Warning." Journeyman director Stuart Heisler easily does the best work in his career. He invests "Storm Warning" with a strong Noir sensibility and utilizes his chiaroscuro lighting to great advantage on the rain-soaked streets of Rock Point to create some strikingly unusual imagery. The scene of Ginger Rogers vomiting behind a telephone poll after witnessing the murder is startling effective for a film of this period.

Heisler also utilizes the big crowds very skillfully in spite having to use many non-professionals as extras. This is especially true in the critical street scene outside the courthouse and his well-framed compositions during the climactic Klan rally.

His direction of Steve Cochrane as the none-too-bright Hank Rice character is commendable. Cochrane's "business" of tugging his floppy white socks up his exposed legs while sitting on a grain bag in ill-fitting pants, dutifully awaiting audience with his Klan superiors is perfect iconography for his infantile, shallow persona. In fact, the entire cast is well-handled by the director, and ubiquitous character actor Hugh Sanders has the best role of his prolific career as the Klan leader.

"Storm Warning" turned out to be the last real quality role of Reagan's career before his slow decline as star with films like "Bedtime for Bonzo" and TV work like "Death Valley Days." The Gipper acquits himself very well in the only political-themed film of his career as the principled, crusading District Attorney and foreshadows his future role in national politics.

Although "Warning" can still hold its own as period melodrama, it missed the streetcar in making a serious, socially conscious comment on racism in American society.

Warner Brothers got back to its muckraking roots in this somber drama about an "outsider" who witnesses a Klan murder in a small town and is persuaded to keep quiet about it because her sister's scummy husband is involved in it. One of the aspects of this film that I appreciated was that the Klansmen aren't pawned off as buffoonish, mouth-breathing cretins as they often are in films like this (although Steve Cochran as Doris Day's white-trash husband comes close), which tends to trivialize them and make them seem a bit less dangerous than they really are. The film shows the people who run the Klan to be fairly prominent local citizens--which is, unfortunately, often the case in real life with organizations like the Klan--which actually makes them far more dangerous than if they were just a semi-literate bunch of backwoods hillbillies. Doris Day gives a bravura performance in her first dramatic role; she tends to just skirt the edge of "going over the top" on a few occasions, but director Stuart Heisler skillfully brings her, and the rest of the picture, under control, and it does have the gritty, noir-ish look reminiscent of the great Warners films of the '30s and '40s. Ginger Rogers is very good as Day's visiting sister who realizes the type of dilemma her sibling is caught in, and Ronald Reagan turns in one of his best performances as the local District Attorney who knows that Rogers saw the murder and needs her to testify in order to bring down the local Klan organization, which he is determined to do.

At a time when the government was far more interested in ferreting out "Communists"--who it was convinced were the driving forces behind the burgeoning civil rights movement--than it was in eliminating far more dangerous menaces like the Klan, it took guts for Warners to come out with a film like this. The movie actually was condemned as "Communist propaganda" by various right-wing groups, a charge Warners was used to by this time, and the studio courageously stood behind the film.

Day, Rogers, Reagan, even Steve Cochran are at the top of their form here. A previous poster has called this a "forgotten gem", and he hit the nail right on the head. This is a first-rate film that isn't as well known as it should be, and is most definitely worth a look.