According to Daniel Mainwaring, writer of Goldenes Gift (1947), RKO head Howard Hughes used this film to get rid of numerous writers, directors, and actors: If they refused to work on this project, they were fired from the studio.
Ich heiratete einen Kommunisten (1949) is an American film noir drama starring Laraine Day, Robert Ryan, and John Agar. Directed by Robert Stevenson, the picture previewed in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1949 under the title "I Married a Communist" but, owing to poor polling among preview audiences, this was dropped prior to its 1950 release.
The film was previewed in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1949 under the title "I Married a Communist", but owing to poor polling among preview audiences it was dropped prior to its 1950 release. Studio head Howard Hughes finally yielded to RKO executives, and after considering titles like "San Francisco Melodrama", "Waterfront at Midnight", "Beautiful But Dangerous", and "Where Danger Lives" (which was later used for RKO's film noir Where Danger Lives (1950) starring Faith Domergue, a Hughes discovery), he settled on "The Woman on Pier 13."
This film was a commercial failure at the box-office and recorded a loss of $650,000 (nearly $8.6M in 2024). Audiences at the time didn't want to think about the Communist menace. That's the main reason it was a commercial failure, just as similar efforts such as My Son John (1952) (with Robert Walker as a secret Commie agent) and Marihuana (1952) starring John Wayne, were largely overlooked by the public.
This marked the film debut of character actor William Talman, who makes a memorable impression as Bailey, a sleazy carnival worker and hit man for the Party. He later would play the sociopathic killer in Ida Lupino's thriller, Der Anhalter (1953) but is best known for his TV appearances on Perry Mason (1957) as the title character's courtroom rival, Hamilton Burger.