Kennington Noir presents this 35mm screening.
Lessons of Darkness website review:
With his lumbering frame and granite mug, Dennis O’Keefe was one of film noirs most endearing hard cases, and his presence is one of the many delights of Woman on the Run, Norman Foster’s 1950 romantic thriller about a San Francisco woman (Ann Sheridan) who, along with an intrepid journalist (O’Keefe), goes in search of her in-hiding husband after the man witnesses a murder. Frankly depicting marital estrangement while offering up a vivid, progressive portrait of feminine strength that’s scarcely sullied by one strangely misogynistic offhand comment (“Mrs. Johnson, didn’t your husband ever beat you?”), the film is a superb showcase for Sheridan, who balances resentment, fear, and ferocity with graceful fluidity while navigating the winding tale’s shadowy twists and turns. The actress’ forcefully nuanced performance is nicely counterbalanced by O’Keefe’s charmingly blunt one-dimensionality – which, for reasons I can’t quite articulate, remains irresistibly appealing – just as Foster’s story eventually offsets its occasionally languid, overly melodramatic plotting with a blistering nighttime carnival finale involving a speeding rollercoaster.
Nick Schager
With his lumbering frame and granite mug, Dennis O’Keefe was one of film noirs most endearing hard cases, and his presence is one of the many delights of Woman on the Run, Norman Foster’s 1950 romantic thriller about a San Francisco woman (Ann Sheridan) who, along with an intrepid journalist (O’Keefe), goes in search of her in-hiding husband after the man witnesses a murder. Frankly depicting marital estrangement while offering up a vivid, progressive portrait of feminine strength that’s scarcely sullied by one strangely misogynistic offhand comment (“Mrs. Johnson, didn’t your husband ever beat you?”), the film is a superb showcase for Sheridan, who balances resentment, fear, and ferocity with graceful fluidity while navigating the winding tale’s shadowy twists and turns. The actress’ forcefully nuanced performance is nicely counterbalanced by O’Keefe’s charmingly blunt one-dimensionality – which, for reasons I can’t quite articulate, remains irresistibly appealing – just as Foster’s story eventually offsets its occasionally languid, overly melodramatic plotting with a blistering nighttime carnival finale involving a speeding rollercoaster.
Nick Schager
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