ann sheridan

woman on the run poster

While out for a walk, Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) witnesses a murder. He calls the police who want to detain him as he is the only eyewitness. But when he realizes the killers took a shot at him, only barely missing, he takes off.

The police then talk to Frank’s wife Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) to determine his whereabouts. She will become our main character. She also doesn’t know much about Frank anymore, certainly not where he might be. Their marriage has been strained to the breaking point for some time.

She’ll team up with ace reporter Danny (Dennis O’Keefe) to try and find her husband before the bad guys do. They’ll wander around the city looking for clues and edging ever closer to finding Frank. It concludes with a marvelously hectic ride on a roller coaster for Eleanor and a terrifying fight for his life for Frank.

This is one of those films that I should have written about when I first watched it, nearly two weeks ago, but I didn’t. Now the memory of it fades. What I do remember is that I loved it. The cast is terrific, the story twists and turns in the best possible ways. It is a perfectly pitched noir.

Highly recommended.

bluray

Humphrey Bogart is my all-time favorite actor. He was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood’s golden age. But he didn’t start out that way. He actually languished for over a decade before becoming a star. He spent most of that time being billed third or fourth in gangster pictures. They Drive By Night helped push him into the spotlight. It was not a gangster picture, and while he was still third-billed the movie was a big hit and it showed off his range. A year later he’d star in The Maltese Falcon and the rest is history.

George Raft is the star of the picture. And Ida Lupino. The film is a mix between a social message movie and film noir. It’s pretty good.

You can read my full review here.