Flicker Alley describes WOMAN ON THE RUN as ” a lost gem” and. as usual, they are telling the truth. I had never heard of this film although I was familiar with Ann Sheridan but I learned about her in reverse. I first saw her on TV in an old CBS comedy called PISTOLS & PETTICOATS. This was back in 1966. My mother knew her from her Warner Brothers days during WW II and told me all about her. Later I watched some of her 1940s movies like KING’S ROW, THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, and THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. By the end of the 1940s her career was in decline but she could still rise to the occasion when given a good part like the one in I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE (1949) with Cary Grant or this film which she secretly co-produced.
There was a lot of top drawer talent involved with this film. in addition to Sheridan, the writer was Alan Campbell (Dorothy Parker’s husband), the director was Norman Foster who had worked with Orson Welles, and the cinematographer was Hal Mohr who had won a write-in Oscar (the only time that has ever happened) for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in 1935. The camerawork is perhaps the biggest star as much of the film is shot on location in San Francisco. But this is the San Francisco of 1950 before it really became a tourist destination and Mohr makes it look as dark and as dangerous as New York or L.A..
The story is routine as Sheridan’s husband witnesses a murder and then goes underground while the police try to locate him. To their surprise Sheridan could care less about his whereabouts as the couple have become estranged. Enter Dennis O’Keefe as a tabloid reporter who senses a story if he can find her husband before the police do. Enlisting Sheridan’s aid by offering money, they set out and along the way she finds out things about her husband and herself. To say anymore would be giving too much away but there is an exciting (if somewhat abrupt) conclusion involving a roller coaster. What makes WOMAN ON THE RUN “a lost gem” is not the story but the performances and the crackling dialogue along with the aforementioned photography.
Flicker Alley has worked in conjunction with the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Film Noir Foundation to restore this and another forgotten film, TOO LATE FOR TEARS with Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea, Both are now available in DVD/Blu-Ray combo packs which come with lots of special features on the backgrounds and making of the films and a comprehensive booklet. One of my favorite features is “locations then and now”. WOMAN ON THE RUN is not a great film and has no pretensions about being one but it is solidly made and is very entertaining and sometimes that’s all a movie needs to be
The Capsule Critic 