Dilema de uma Consciência

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 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...

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.

Ginger Rogers plays a model who comes to a sleepy southern town to visit her sister. The few citizens she meet in her nocturnal arrival seem either frightened or hostile. On the way to her sister's house, she passes the jail, and witnesses a gang of klansmen killing a helpless man. There's nowhere to go. Her sister (Doris Day) is of no help, her sister's husband (Steve Cochran, excelling again at playing a sleaze-bag) is even worse. Rogers' only ally is the young DA out to snuff the klan. (The DA played with perfection by under-rated actor Ronald Reagan. You'll forget you're watching a President) A creepy, solomn noir classic!

"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.