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I'm used to the cast in much lighter fare. Ronald Reagan was impressive enough as the crusading D.A., Ginger Rogers was incredibly convincing in every single scene, and light and lively Doris Day did not sing a note. While her character could seem a bit dimwitted at times, her portrayal was on the mark and very believable, given the attitudes and beliefs of the small town in which she resided. Steve Cochran was also good, as her husband, and the bedroom scene wherein he tries to seduce sister-in-law Rogers is very suggestive for its time, though seemingly heavily edited. Nobody could play a thick headed womanizing weasel like Cochran could.

Ginger Rogers witnesses a lynching by the Klan. When two of the men remove their hoods, she recognizes one of them as her brother-in-law, husband to her pregnant sister, played by Doris Day. Reagan is the honest DA intent on getting to the bottom of the lynching - the guy who was lynched was a reporter doing investigative journalism, jailed on a trumped up DUI. The heads of the local Klan are worried about all of this, not because of their nocturnal activities, but because they have been using the Klansmen and bilking them of their money for dues, insignia, etc. Grifters using the naivete and prejudices of a mob of rubes to enrich themselves? Suddenly this film is getting quite timely.

The film as a whole has a very dark element throughout, fittingly, but surprising for its time. Bringing the Ku Klux Klan to the forefront of American cinema in pre-civil rights days, handled as well as it is here, makes for a very interesting, gripping and entertaining film.

So many actors of Hollywood's Golden Age were typecast in familiar roles, but seeing these stars sink their teeth into a well-written screenplay and a deftly directed movie is a real treat.

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.

There's an almost Tennessee Williams quality to the storyline. A woman (Ginger Rogers) travels south to visit her sister (Doris Day) but enroute witnesses a murder by the KKK. Arriving at the sister's house, she discovers her married to one of the Klansmen (Steve Cochran), her crude brother-in-law. Tension builds when Rogers reports the incident to the young DA (Ronald Reagan)and the film builds to an interesting climax. Somewhat like watching Blanche du Bois visit her sister in a southern town and finding herself threatened by her earthy brother-in-law in 'Streetcar Named Desire'. All of the leads are excellent--Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, Ronald Reagan and Steve Cochran in this unusually strong melodrama, gritty and realistic with surprisingly good work from Doris Day who had only been in films a short time. Definitely a film that deserves more recognition and relatively unknown by today's film fans.

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.

A great film noir. An exploration of evil, the mob mentality, the human animal, conflicts between family loyalty and doing the right thing, and the courageous hero facing down the ugly crowd; in presenting all of that it achieves some depth amidst the great nighttime scenarios. Excellent performances by Rogers, Cochran, and Reagan; an early and dramatic Doris Day role is also of interest. You may recall Street Car Named Desire as you watch the cultured older sister visiting her sister and the brute of a husband. There is above all the fascination of watching a 1951, a time well before the key events of the soon to arrive civil rights movement, depiction of the KKK as mass delusion and criminal fraud - homegrown terrorism... and only 35 years or so after the KKK's glorification in Birth of a Nation. It is notable that in this KKK film you will have a difficult time spotting any blacks; still a powerful indictment nonetheless. Don't miss it.

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.

This film had a near-perfect lead cast...This was a terrific concept and storyline that begged to be executed to its fullest potential. The two weakest factors here are the screenplay (Richard Brooks notwithstanding) and the direction; the Fuchs/Brooks treatment should have been credited as Story, while a definite re-write was in order. Stuart Heisler, as good as he was, fell flat here. This film needed either King Vidor, Howard Hawks, or William Wellman at the directorial helm. Dalton Trumbo should have done the screenplay ... Or if he could have been persuaded, the one and only John Steinbeck (who scripted 'Viva Zapata' 1952)... Ginger Rogers was perfectly cast, as was the girl next door, Doris Day. Reagan was good but Fred MacMurray would have been better and edgier (a la 'Double Indemnity'). This film could have been a cinema masterpiece. There was at least one scene in which Reagan actually says "well..." Of all the superstar actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Ginger Rogers had to be the most luscious and delectable...Simply because she didn't try to be. She just was...

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.

This film holds up so very well even after fifty years. The searing indictment of smalltown xenophobia and the struggle for truth is the hallmark here. Reagan does well in the role, but Steve Cochran and especially Ginger Rogers really shine here. The closing seconds with the fleeing Klansmen and the crumbling fiery cross coupled with strong orchestral strings leaves a hard hitting message that resonates. This film belongs on DVD as a testament to the ongoing struggle against intolerance, ignorance, and the fear of those things that are different. 1951 - 2001, sadly the need for that continues.

Storm Warning (1951)

An anti-KKK film that doesn't mention blacks or Jews or other persecuted groups. Instead, the victim is a journalist who we assume was uncovering those crimes. The drama is high, the filming dramatic with lots of night stuff (some of it daringly dark), and the leading actors very good.

The star here is Ginger Rogers, and she pulls off a subtle job of being both a very strong woman and an average American unwilling to stick her neck out. In a way, that's the one main point of the movie--that the KKK continues in little towns in mid-century America because regular people who are normally models of fortitude decide to just look the other way.

Doris Day and Ronald Reagan, both archetypes of some kind of social conservatism later in their careers, play ordinary folk here. Day is the wimpy sister who happens to be married to a lousy klan bruiser. She plays the weak American, you might say, who protects her man even when he's obviously murderous. Reagan is the easy going prosecutor--and he's easy going in the way he'd later be the easy going president. He gets things done by slowly and cheerfully persisting.

Director Stuart Heisler made a number of hard edged movies in his career, including one of my favorites, "The Glass Key." But, as in many of these others, he goes for style over substance here. You might say the American public wasn't ready to face their ambivalence over the KKK head on, and that the studios skirted the issue and were brave for bringing it up at all. Well, reviews from the period say otherwise. They call the movie wimpy and elusive, and it is.

What you do get is a series of really good but really familiar situations where the KKK members coerce and force the regular townspeople into going along with their evil ways. There is no mention at all of the what the KKK was against, or the racism that was at the heart of the issue nationally. There are, to be sure, several black actors as extras in a couple of scenes, but this is hardly relevant except to say that the opportunity was there to push the issue much harder, much harder. Even Warner Bros. own "Black Legion" from 1937 (and starring Humphrey Bogart) was better at making the issues pertinent. "The Intruder" from 1962 (and starring William Shatner) is better at getting to the point despite its low budget, and maybe shows how the country was dealing with the issue more openly by then.

"Storm Warning" is so well made and filled with great scenes--both the small town settings and the wild KKK meeting in the woods--it's worth seeing. And the opening ten minutes is so creepy it will really make you perk up. They say Rogers is miscast here, but I think she was supposed to be the sophisticated outsider who might, in fact, stand up for justice. And then she doesn't. See it.

Not that the subject matter of Storm Warning lends itself to music, but isn't it fascinating that Warner Brothers cast two of the best female musical performers in the history of film as the two leads. Sisters even.

For Ginger Rogers this was hardly her first dramatic part, having won an Oscar for Kitty Foyle. But this was Doris Day's first non-singing role and she acquits herself very well.

Ginger gets off a Greyhound Bus in some small southern town where her married younger sister Doris lives with her husband Steve Cochran. In those wee small hours during the graveyard shift, Ginger witnesses a murder committed by several men in white sheets. And lo and behold she recognizes one of them as Doris's husband.

Cochran is the best one in the film, a real boorish lout of a redneck. But Doris loves him although bit by bit she gets disillusioned. Rogers spends the whole film trying to make Doris see Cochran for what he is.

The Ku Klux Klan might have been the Elks in white sheets. No pun intended, but they get quite a white washing here. No mention at all of their racism or hatred of Catholics, Jews, and foreign born of all kinds. Still they are a nasty bunch who have a habit of doing in people who disagree with them.

Ronald Reagan here is a District Attorney who is bland in a very poorly written role. The problem with the Klan was that the various county District Attorneys in the south were more than likely Klan members or who at best just looked the other way. After all these cretins with the hoods were the very voters who put in the District Attorneys. When the Klan was prosecuted, if witnesses were found against it back in those days, it was always done at the federal level by appointed United States Attorneys.

Still Cochran and Day got the deserved best notices for this film which unfortunately defuses the issues it brings up.

"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.

Watching Storm Warning just now-a movie which takes on the Ku Klux Klan-I had expected a compelling drama about what kind of organization it was and how it was going to be exposed. But instead of widely revealing how it treats anyone who's not white or of a certain religion with complete contempt, this film just glosses over that while concentrating on the attempts to cover a murder of a nosy reporter which gets witnessed by an outsider (Ginger Rogers) as she looks for her sister (Doris Day) and her husband (Steve Cochran). In addition, a crusading attorney (Ronald Reagan) is trying to get Ms. Rogers to spill the beans in court...Because of what I mentioned above, not to mention the obvious stealing of material from Tennesse Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire", this film isn't very good as a history lesson and the score, along with some of the dialogue and scenes, make the whole thing a little melodramatically dated. Still, as such and with good performances by those four leads I mentioned, not to mention many of the supporting ones, Storm Warning is still pretty entertaining and worth a look for anyone curious about how such subject matter was treated in an era of censorship and post-war political atmosphere.

In this early 50's film with a star-studded cast that includes Doris Day,Ginger Rogers and Ronald Reagan as a District Attorney trying to bring the KKK to justice was way ahead of it's time especially during the segregated 50's is another great film never released on vhs/dvd unless you're fortunate enough to catch it on TV.This movie is an amazingly,ahead of it's time masterpiece against bigotry and hatred!!

This film begins with a fashion model from New York City named "Marsha Mitchell" (Ginger Rogers) getting off of a bus at the small southern town of Rock Point to visit her sister "Lucy Rice" (Doris Day). Unfortunately, while walking out of the bus stop she just happens to witness a mob dressed in KKK robes murder a man in cold blood before quickly dispersing. Terribly frightened by this ordeal she informs her sister of what just happened and Lucy advises her to tell her husband "Hank Rice" (Steve Cochran). However, when Marsha is introduced to him for the first time she recognizes him as one of the men who committed the murder-which leads to an entirely different set of problems for her. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a much better picture than I expected as it pointedly captured a time in American history for which none of us should take pride in but from which we can all learn from. This is especially true considering our current political climate. Be that as it may, I thought that this was a pretty good film and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Well i stumbled on this movie zapping the channels of my satelite dish and got caught up by this movie cause i'm a sucker for old b&w movies. Not knowing what to expect i got caught up in the storyline right away, the movie kicks off dark moody suspensefull with Marsha Mitchell (ginger rodgers) a model from new york walking down the backstreets of a small town and witnessing a murder. After the event she runs away and finds here sister Lucy Rice (doris day) who she was visiting.

Both the girls doris day and ginger rodgers give a great acting performance and they got me glued to the tv set for the rest of the movie. just great stuff!!!!

recommended. 8/10

For those who feel the film wasn't ardent enough in its attack on the Klan, I wanted to point out that in the early 50s the hot button issue of the day was organized crime and the mafia. Many, if not most, Americans at that time shared racist and anti-semitic attitudes, and attacking the Klan on those grounds would not have had the effect it would have now. By positioning the Klan as an organized criminal gang,the filmmakers denied the Klan their ideological purity and their claim to 'cleaning up' communities. For those who protested the lack of Southern dialect in the film, you need to know the Klan was not uniquely Southern: it originated in Indiana and flourished up North as well. To this day white supremacist organizations are based in the North, and the two most segregated cities in the U.S. are Detroit and Chicago. Not limiting actors to a Southern dialect widens the perception of the problem. I'm not a Southerner, but I do think we need to be fair about this.