L'araignée

As in almost all of these suspenseful melodramas from the '50s, there are certain lapses in logic throughout WOMAN IN HIDING that had me shaking my head in disbelief. Some of the choices that Lupino makes as the vulnerable heroine are too foolhardy to be believable, but once the plot starts rolling there's no turning away.

A particularly bad choice is the scene where she casually gets into a car with Peggy Dow, a scorned woman who is leading her into a trap which brings her right back to the man (Stephen McNally) she is hiding from at a dark and sinister mill.

But despite such motivational flaws, the film manages to be a better than average melodrama with all three leads--Ida Lupino, Howard Duff and Stephen McNally--giving expert performances.

Most effective aspect is the tight pace of the story and the film noir look of the B&W photography. Ida Lupino gives another one of her tense performances as she gets caught up in the excessive manipulations of McNally who is intent on killing her to inherit her father's mill. Howard Duff tries to help once he understands her fears and from that point on the story leaps forward to a satisfying ending involving a trick later used to good effect in Joan Crawford's "Sudden Fear." Not a great film, but a satisfying "lady in distress" melodrama.

Where has this movie been all of my life? It's a great noir. Deborah Chandler (Ida Lupino) is planning a long term trip to New York. Her dad (John Litel) owns the mill in Clarksville - A huge source of employment for the town. Seldon Clark IV (Steve McNally) is the general manager of the mill and has matrimonial aspirations towards Deborah, but Deborah's dad holds him in low esteem. He sees him as the same as the previous Seldon Clarks - headstrong dreamers with a flair for the melodramatic.

Just before Deborah can leave for New York, her father dies in an accident at the mill. This causes her to get closer to Seldon and they marry a few months later. On their honeymoon an angry past paramour of Seldon's shows up at their honeymoon cabin - she's obviously been there before with Seldon - and pretty much sows tons of doubt into Deborah's mind about Seldon's motives. A car accident with Deborah as the driver and lone passenger follows, and she believes it was a murder attempt by Seldon, so she decides to stay "dead".

Seldon has choreographed this entire thing out carefully, but the authorities not being able to find the body makes him wonder if Deborah isn't still alive. He puts out an ad in papers across the nation offering a five-thousand-dollar reward if she is found. His clever plan has been to claim Deborah was not in her right mind when she dashed off on their wedding night in their car, that her death was a suicide, and that if she is alive, she is still mentally unstable - Just so nobody would believe her and so that he can commit her and get control of her estate and thus the mill.

Enter stage left Howard Duff as a semi employed drifter who sees Deborah, sees the reward offer, and from her strange behavior genuinely believes she is a danger to herself and that Seldon has only her interest at heart - at first.

This was a great noir with a good use of score and cinematography to build tension. It casts against type in that Peggy Dow is not playing a good girl here and Howard Duff plays a well meaning character for once. I have to credit the film for taking place in the south without having the entire cast sound and act like they are something out of a Tennessee Williams play. Highly recommended and hard to find.

Deborah Chandler (Ida Lupino) assures her mill owner father that she is not marrying dubious plant manager Selden Clark IV (Stephen McNally). Then her father dies in a plant accident. On the day of the funeral, Selden asks her to marry him. She eventually accepts, but suspicion soon arises when distraught Patricia Monahan (Peggy Dow) shows up on their honeymoon.

There are so many red flags. It is probably for the best that the audience doesn't always see him sweet-talk her to ignore those flags. I don't think that I would believe those scenes. I can always ignore what I don't see. This is a nice little melodramatic potboiler. It helps to have Ida Lupino selling the material.

To begin with I never liked noir genre and thankfully this movie has only got a small portion of it - all the rest consists of a gorgeous drama, chilling thriller and a romance that happened unintentionally and all the three genres perfectly blend together making it one of the best movies in its genre which is unfairly forgotten now. Ida Lupino is an absolute master and her stunning performance has been playing the first fiddle throughout the whole movie, not allowing us to leave it in peace. "Woman in hiding" keeps you guessing until the very end, it hints, gives clues to what might happen but you can never really be sure what exactly and this is the best thing about movies in general as an art. For me, unfortunately, this is a one-time movie as I don't really like paperthin storylines and no subtext but it was a brilliant ride anyway.

'Woman in Hiding', when hearing of it through a fellow user recommendation, has the sort of concept that immediately had me sold. Being a fan of the genre (a mix of film noir and crime) and that type of film. While not considering Michael Gordon (my first exposure to him being 'Pillow Talk' and 'Move Over Darling') one of my favourite directors, he didn't fare too badly if not exceptionally in the genre. Both Ida Lupino and Steven McNally have been great in other films.

There may be many other films of the genre or with not too dissimiliar stories, both before and since, that are a lot better than 'Woman in Hiding'. It is still a good example of how good Gordon was at directing film noirs when the material was good, which it generally is here despite being imperfect, and how far he had come on from his "B-movie" period in the early 40s. Both Lupino and McNally come over well, though to me both have been better.

Am going to start with what 'Woman in Hiding' didn't do so well. Some of the story is on the ridiculous side and strains credibility, especially towards the end such as Deborah being that trusting of Patricia. Likewise with the rather vague and foolish motivations and decision making that make the characters at times seem idiotic.

Did feel that the hotel convention scene was not as suspenseful as it should have been and came as too busy and silly.

Having said all of this, 'Woman in Hiding' is a tightly plotted film and does have a dark and tense atmosphere a lot of the time. Did get creeps and chills a fair few times. Despite it going downhill a bit from the hotel convention scene, it does pick up in the climax. Which was not a predictable one and was genuinely anxiety-inducing. Gordon directs in an assured fashion and the script intrigues and entertains enough. All the cast perform expertly, Howard Duff's role does not sound interesting but actually he is a strong sympathetic presence in it. Peggy Dow does very well as Patricia.

Lupino has the most difficult part and plays it with searing intensity and pathos. McNally is genuinely menacing, the character is obvious but his performance does give the creeps. 'Woman in Hiding' is very atmospherically and stylishly photographed and lit, really enhancing especially the mill setting later on. The music is suitably ominous and the sound did give me the jitters without over-emphasising.

All in all, not great but pretty good despite a few frustrations. 7/10