No Man of Her Own

Helen, posing as Patrice, and Bill

Barbara Stanwyck chews her way through another knotty melodrama in No Man of Her Own, a fraughtly plotted and deliciously implausible story about a desperate woman who gets into trouble after accidentally assuming another woman’s identity. But first, an introduction to the characters. In particular Helen Ferguson (Stanwyck), initially encountered wailing and distressed outside an apartment door. Inside is Steve (Lyle Bettger) and his new woman. Steve has no intention of letting the sobbing Helen in, but he does slip enough money under the door for her to buy a train ticket for a one-way trip out of his life. If we haven’t worked it out already we soon will: Steve is a … Read more

Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Edward G Robinson, John Lund and Gail Russell publicity shot

If it’s a really good Edward G Robinson performance you’re looking for, can I suggest Night Has a Thousand Eyes, a knotty little potboiler elevated by Robinson. Out of gangster mode he was a versatile actor who could bring home the goods in all sorts of roles. Here he’s a stage magician who gets spooked when the phoney predictions he offers audiences start coming true. So spooked that he gives it all up and flees, away from the woman he loves – a premonition has told him she’ll die if he stays – and away from the best friend who will become stinking rich by investing in oil, another fulfilment of John Triton’s … Read more

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