La femme à l'écharpe pailletée

.... What is a pretty lady doing here in the middle of nowhere all alone, interested in a married man with middling prospects?

Assistant DA Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) feels misunderstood and unappreciated. His wealthy father-in-law keeps interfering and showing up on important and rather private occasions such as wedding anniversaries and doing things that indicate that Cleve is held in only medium esteem by said father-in-law. So one night he is getting drunk at his office over this situation when previously mentioned pretty lady (Barbara Stanwyck as Thelma Jordan) comes into the office and asks for the other assistant DA, Miles Scott (Paul Kelly), but he isn't there, so Thelma tells her problems to Marshall.

Marshall acts disinterested in the reason she came in - break-ins at her wealthy aunt's secluded home. He flirts with her. He gets even more drunk and obnoxious, then kisses her. And yet the next day she returns and gets even friendlier with him. But Cleve never asks that question - Why unavailable me who did not exactly put my best foot forward last night? They start seeing each other when they can and then something happens that makes it awfully convenient for Thelma to know somebody in the DA's office - Her aunt is murdered and her safe robbed one night, and she looks like a suspect.

Stanwyck and Corey made one other film together - "The Furies", and I thought they had good screen chemistry, which I would have never believed until I watched this. Paul Kelly gives a good supporting performance as the other assistant DA. He goes hard on a murder suspect when doing the questioning, shooting out sarcastic remarks. That's rather ironic when you realize Kelly served two years in prison for manslaughter during the late 1920s, something that apparently had no impact on his acting career. Also note that the two kids playing Wendell Corey's children actually are Wendell Corey's children.

Last but not least, kudos to Victor Young for his wonderful score. He really made looking for a pencil in the dark seem suspenseful.

The Assistant District Attorney Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) has an unhappy marriage with his wife Pamela Blackwell Marshall (Joan Tetzel) due to the interference of her father, Judge Calvin H. Blackwell (Minor Watson). He decides to drink in his office after hours instead of going to the birthday party of Pamela. Out of the blue, a woman named Thelma Jordon (Barbara Stanwyck) arrives at the office looking for Cleve's boss to report an attempt of robbery of her wealthy Aunt Vera Edwards (Gertrude W. Hoffman) and she ends the night drinking and dancing with Cleve in a restaurant. Soon they have a love affair and Cleve falls in love with Thelma. But he does not know anything about the past of the mysterious Thelma. When Aunt Vera is murdered at home, Thelma calls Cleve to help her since she would be the prime suspect of shooting her aunt. He covers up the evidences that might link Thelma to the death becoming her accomplice and is assigned to be the prosecutor of her judgment. What will happen to Thelma and Cleve?

"The File on Thelma Jordon" is a fine film-noir directed by the master Robert Siodmak. Barbara Stanwyck performs the typical femme fatale, seducing the assistant DA Cleve Marshall and destroying his life. The moralist conclusion could have been better but the film is worthwhile watching. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Confissão de Thelma" ("The Confession of Thelma Jordon")

Wendell Corey had a long career in film and television. In this film he plays Cleve Marshall, an assistant DA who is staying late at the office to avoid going home on his anniversary because his father-in-law (Minor Watson) is there.

While he knocking back shots as fast as he can pour them, in walks Thelma Jordan (Barbara Stanwyck) looking for help. Now, one would certainly be suspicious if a beauty like that immediately began a relationship, but our intrepid hero is too drunk to notice, and, after all, he wants to go out and find a dame.

He is no better the next day when his wife (Joan Tetzel) takes the kids to the beach house, and leaves him alone during the week.

As one would expect in film noir, everything is not as it seems. Cleve gets himself into hot water and uses all his wits to get out.

I have to admit the ending was a big surprise.

One of the noir cycle's best titles ushers in one of its better offerings. Barbara Stanwyck's assumption of the title role, of course, gives the picture a running start. She had worked with Billy Wilder – and helped to shape the cycle – in Double Indemnity, and was to work with Fritz Lang in Clash by Night and even Anthony Mann in The Furies (a western, yes, but a dark one), all key noir craftsmen. Here her director is the no less central Robert Siodmak, and her performances in this and the other titles cited (plus The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and at least five other suspense films of the 1940s and 1950s) cement her sobriquet as the First Lady of Film Noir.

Like her Martha Ivers, Stanwyck's Thelma Jordon has a wealthy old aunt (Gertrude Hoffman, who the next year in Caged would steal that movie from some very tough competition). One evening the niece strolls into the District Attorney's office with a story about prowlers and burglars (explaining that she bypassed the police because `My aunt is eccentric, and uniforms upset her'). She tells her tale to an inebriated assistant D.A., Wendell Corey, who's drinking to escape his embittered marriage. Stanwyck lends a sympathetic ear, and they start seeing one another on the sly.

When the aunt, inevitably, is found shot, Stanwyck calls not the police but Corey, and in a tense and extended scene of panic, he helps her cover up evidence that may incriminate her. When she emerges as the prime suspect, he also arranges for his boss to be disqualified, so he can sabotage the prosecution. Stanwyck (after a beautifully orchestrated processional from jail to courthouse) is acquitted. But her past has begun to catch up with her, complete with a shady lover who keeps turning up – and who shoves the compromised Corey out of the picture. But never trust a duplicitous woman, particularly if she's within easy reach of a dashboard cigarette lighter....

Siodmak (with Ketti Frings, who wrote the screenplay) starts the movie so slowly that it looks like it's going to shape up into a routine, adulterous triangle. But he's just laying his groundwork. He keeps Stanwyck behind ambiguous veils, too, stripping them off one by one. Corey proves just right as the dupe, the fall guy (as Fred MacMurray proved right in Double Indemnity); a skillful character actor who always submerged his own personality in the roles he played, he tended to look a little pallid in leading-man roles he took next to the female stars against whom he was pitted.

Siodmak may be the most ruminative of the great noir auteurs – he eschews flash for solid, patient construction. But when it's time for the big set-pieces (the nocturnal panic in the dark old mansion, the perp walk, the shocking flourish of violence at the end courtesy of Stanwyck and that cigarette lighter), he does them full justice. The File on Thelma Jordon falls just short of the summa-cum-laude distinction of his The Killers, and maybe of Criss Cross and even Christmas Holiday, too. But with Stanwyck's drawing upon the full fetch of her talents, it's an indispensable moment in the noir cycle.

From her first entrance, Stanwyck kept me captivated by her performance in this film. There is something about her that draws you in and holds you. You know there is more to her than meets the eye - but you're not sure what exactly.

I have always admired Stanwyck. She was born Ruby Stevens, a Brooklyn girl that worked for a phone company and then became a chorus girl, before finally going to Hollywood to chase her dreams. She was nominated 4 times for an Oscar for Best Actress ("Stella Davis", "Ball of Fire", "Double Indemnity", "Sorry ,Wrong Number") but never won - except for an Honorary Oscar near the end of her life. She was considered a gem to work with for her serious but easy going attitude on the set (unlike many of her contemporary peers). This makes me like her even more!

I thought the cinematography in this film was outstanding. I loved the elaborate sets and and set decorating.

The plot kept me intrigued as well. Corey plays the perfect fall guy for Stanwyck. His average looks and dull exterior tend to make you feel sympathetic for this guy. Some have commented that they didn't have much chemistry together. I agree that they are an unlikely couple, but it helps you see how he could get so caught up in her and be willing to sacrifice so much. She was obviously outside his league.

There are some nice twists and turns in the plot that will keep you interested - especially at the end. It's worth a watch.