Casei-me com um Morto

...and I say that with the highest form of flattery. This nail-biter is tightly directed, moves along at a nice swift pace and never drags for even a moment. Barbara Stanwyck gives one of the finest performances I have seen by her and the rest of the cast is all around excellent as well. After Helen Ferguson is left pregnant and penniless by her jerkoff of a boyfriend (the dreamy and steamy Lyle Bettger), a series of events leaves her mistaken for the widow of a rich man. The family takes her in and the brother of her alleged widow (played by handsome John Lund) falls in love with her and everything is hunky-dory - that is, until the jerkoff ex-boyfriend comes back and starts all kinds of trouble. The cherry on top of the whipped cream here is a lovely and sympathetic performance by Jane Cowl as the mother-in-law. A classic soapy film noir!

Leave it to Barbara Stanwyck and John Lund to make this film noir soap opera work on every level. Stanwyck, pregnant and unwed, meets another woman and her husband on a train, a wealthy woman going home to see her family. When the train is wrecked and the woman and husband killed, Stanwyck assumes her identity since the man's parents have never met her nor even seen a photograph of her. The plot gets thicker once Stanwyck assumes the dead woman's identity.

The picture combines the suspense of a film noir with some soap opera touches but Barbara's strong performance makes it all work. John Lund, Jane Cowl, Phyllis Thaxter, Richard Denning and Lyle Bettger are all fine in support. It's all based on a Cornell Woolrich novel called "I Married A Dead Man" with the usual touches of irony found in his work.

It's one of director Mitchell Leisen's better films (he did "To Each His Own", "Hold Back the Dawn", and many other interesting films.) Absorbing and well worth watching. Not a well-known film but it's one of Stanwyck's best.

I really like this movie. OK, so the plot is unbelievable. When you've got good acting and excellent directing you can overlook it all. I especially like Lyle Bettger's portrayal of the heel boyfriend and blackmailer and Jane Cowl as the kindly mother in law. And what can you say about Barbara Stanwyck that hasn't been said - steady, compelling, convincing. She's the best.

There's one line in the movie that always makes me laugh. After Barbara has her baby, the doctor and nurse are talking about her progress and agree "if she continues to do well, she can see the baby in a couple of weeks". In our 21st century experience of instant parent/baby bonding, this seems so bizarre!

No Man of Her Own is directed by Mitchell Leisen and adapted to screenplay by Sally Benson and Catherine Turney from the novel "I Married a Dead Man" written by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, Jane Cowl, Henry O'Neill, Phyllis Thaxter, Richard Denning and Lyle Bettger.

Callously jilted by the man who has made her pregnant, Helen Ferguson (Stanwyck) survives a train crash and is mistaken for another woman, Patrice Harkness (Thaxter), who was killed in the crash. The woman, who she had befriended on the train, was also pregnant and recently married to a man who also died in the crash (Denning as Hugh Harkness). The rich Harkness in-laws, having never met Patrice, take who they think is Patrice into their home and even though Helen is tormented by her deceit, she spies an opportunity to give her child a grand life. But will she be found out? Will her past come to light with dire consequences?.

Film noir styles meets melodramatic verve in what is still a riveting picture, even if the implausibility of it all is hard to swallow. Stanwyck gives it the whole shebang, carrying the film on her shoulders as she hits all the right emotive beats of a double characterisation that brings guilt, shame and conflict of interests. Lund is sadly bland as the Harkness sibling love interest, but the rest of the cast do sterling work, notably Cowl as the Harkness matriarch. Cowl would pass away the year of the film's release.

From a film noir perspective it's disappointing that the filmic finale is different to that of Woolrich's novel. However, the story of a destitute unmarried woman thrown a bone by the vagaries of fate is in true noir fashions - as is the turn of events when things go dark in the last third as the past comes knocking at the door of settled bliss in the form of Bettger's oily Stephen Morley. A love story, a survivalist story, one of blackmail, deceit and murder, lots going on in a hugely enjoyable entertainment. 8/10

Barbara shines as the deceiving wife and does so much with her eyes. Jane and John are also very good. Strong script and not too overly sentimentalized for its era. A very enjoyable soaper with a great supporting cast. Gee, I miss all those great bit players of the thirties and forties. They added so much sparkle and credibility and a type of reassurance not seen in today's movies. Bravo to the entire cast in this little gem.