Imagine that, the man who directed Mary Poppins also directed 1948’s Cold War thriller I Married a Communist aka The Woman on Pier 13. Though, when all is said and done, both are about infiltration and indoctrination when you come to think of it. One, of course, was madly successful and the other was such a clanger that they had to change its title (which is where Pier 13 came in). Whereupon it flopped all over again.
It’s not hard to see why. This is anti-communist propaganda so flagrant it’s hard to swallow, in which the capitalists are the good guys – how they strive to improve the lot of the working man! – and the communists are brutal, ugly and with no real grip on reality.
Somewhere between the two is Robert Ryan as Brad Collins, newly married to sweetie-pie Nan and working in management at the docks. Brad was once a communist but has now grown up and got over it, thanks for asking. But he’s pulled back into the game of plotting the downfall of America by his ex, Christine, still a true believer and hoping that by exposing Brad’s past she can also win him back. In her case the political is personal.
She’s aided in this by Vanning, a “journalist” with a lurid story about Brad’s ancient history which will ruin him if it gets out. If Brad plays along – going back to his old ways of winning the gullible to the cause – Christine and Vanning will keep shtumm. If not… oh dear.
Stevenson bounces us along in good Mary Poppins style, his spit-spot directing aided by bright, sharp dialogue. But, Brad apart, the characters in this film are lines from a political caricature rather than people. Mr Cornwall (Harry Cheshire), the benign, avuncular boss who only has his workers’ interests at heart. The scheming Christine (Janis Carter), a hard-bitten communist to her core, lacking principle and virtue. Journo Vanning (Thomas Gomez), the dangerous fellow traveller. Perhaps most salient, though least striking of all, is John Agar’s Don, brother of devoted wife Nan (Laraine Day), the sort of guy who is vanilla through and through. Of average intelligence, Don hasn’t thought much about anything much at all his whole life, and so is ripe for infection by alien ideas.
The irony of this being about the manipulation of an average Joe, when it is itself manipulation aimed at the average Joe, eventually becomes too much to bear. But… but… but… Ryan makes it somehow all come together, by sheer effort. The other bonus is Thomas Gomez, a force-of-nature actor who never really got the great roles or his due. Here, he comes on screen and within half a line has established exactly who he is and what he’s about. Nice to see he gets something to do towards the end of the film.
As for the I of the original title, that’s Nan, a domestic doormat for most of the film, but an icon of American womanhood in the eyes of the reformed Brad. Her character starts to exert herself as things move towards a climax, when she turns detective to try and work out what’s got into her husband. There’s the shape of a different film contained in these late scenes, one in which Laraine Day, top-billed, actually, deserves it.
If the politics don’t have you salivating, maybe the lighting will. It’s by Nicholas Musuraca – king of noir – who keeps it on the straight and narrow for the most part, with just a flourish here and there, but towards the end really comes into his own. The climactic shootout in a dark building full of shadows is worth watching the whole movie for.
“You can’t quit, they won’t let you,” we’re told at one point, by which point the idea that communism is more a recurring contagion – like herpes – than political point of view has been dinned in so hard you might have a headache.
This was Howard Hughes’s first movie as the new boss of RKO and he clearly wants to send a message. Sadly, it’s to Senator McCarthy alone.
The Woman on Pier 13 – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
