''Crime of Passion'' is a 1957 American film noir

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

directed by

Gerd Oswald Gerd Oswald (June 9, 1919 – May 22, 1989) was a German director of American films and television. Biography Born in Berlin, Oswald was the son of German film director Richard Oswald and actress Käthe Oswald. He worked as a child actor be ...

and written by Jo Eisinger. The drama features Barbara Stanwyck,

Sterling Hayden Sterling Walter Hayden (born Sterling Relyea Walter; March 26, 1916 – May 23, 1986) was an American actor, author, sailor and decorated Marine Corps officer and an Office of Strategic Services' agent during World War II. A leading man for mos ...

and

Raymond Burr Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''. Burr's early acting career included roles ...

Plot

Kathy Ferguson is a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

newspaper advice columnist. One day, Lieutenant Bill Doyle, a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

police detective, and his partner, Captain Charlie Alidos, track a fugitive wanted for murder to San Francisco. He meets Kathy and they fall in love. She manages to gain the female fugitive's trust and locate her. Kathy's resulting front page story leads to an offer of a big job in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, but she abandons her career, marries Bill and moves to Los Angeles. Her new role as a 1950s suburban wife and homemaker quickly makes her unhappy. She wants her husband to move up in the world, to become "somebody". Bill has different values. He works in order to afford a comfortable lifestyle, no more. Kathy schemes to push her husband up the career ladder without his knowledge. She arranges to get into a car accident with Alice Pope, in order to become acquainted with her husband, Police Inspector Tony Pope, head of Bill's division. Tony realizes what she has done, and why, but plays along. Her continuing ploys inevitably bring her into conflict with Sara, the captain's equally ambitious wife, and Charlie begins to find fault with Bill at every opportunity. Vicious rumors circulate about Kathy's relationship with Tony. When Bill sees a

poison pen letter A poison pen letter is a letter or note containing unpleasant, abusive, or malicious statements or accusations about the recipient or a third party. It is usually sent anonymously. In the term "poison pen" (or poisoned pen), the word poison is u ...

that Kathy has received, he rushes to work and punches his boss, Charlie, in front of two police witnesses. During the investigation, Tony shifts enough of the blame to Charlie, suggesting he reached for his gun when the visibly angry Bill burst into the room, that he can hush up the whole incident. Charlie is then transferred to another division, and Bill is given his former position as an acting homicide captain. When Alice breaks down under the years of mental strain of being a policeman's wife and is hospitalized, Tony decides to retire. When Tony comes to tell Kathy about Alice's breakdown and his plans to retire, Kathy tries to persuade him to recommend Bill for the vacancy his departure will create. During their talk, he seems to consider the idea favorably, then grabs and kisses her. She recoils at first, then embraces him. Afterward, however, he avoids her. When Kathy finally forces Tony to meet her, he says that he regrets their one-night stand and dismisses any suggestion he would recommend Bill for promotion as " pillow talk". He makes it clear that he believes that Bill is not qualified, and that he is going to recommend Charlie as his successor. This elevation of a man she hates over Bill's ambition infuriates Kathy. When Kathy accompanies Bill to the police station, she steals a gun used in a robbery and murder that her husband is investigating. Kathy then confronts Pope in his home and appeals to him once again, noting that this time she's asking not just for Bill but for herself. With Pope planning to recommend Charlie Alidos, it means that she cheated on Bill only to gain nothing and she's consumed by guilt over that. She pleads that he at least not recommend Alidos. If Pope recommends no one, Kathy argues, her husband still has a chance to get the job and she will be left with some justification for her infidelity. Pope coldly refuses, so she shoots him dead. The entire police department works on Pope's murder investigation. When the murder weapon is discovered to have been a gun that the police had had in their custody and somehow lost, Bill figures out the killer has to have been his own wife since she was present at the time the gun went missing. When Bill confronts Kathy and she confesses, she tells him, "Now I'll know just how much of a cop you really are." Bill responds, "The same cop, Kathy. The same cop you met in Frisco. Same cop I was 10 years ago, pounding a beat. The same cop." He then drives her to police headquarters, where they walk in together and Bill reports in to secure a room to conduct questioning in the murder of Tony Pope.

Cast

* Barbara Stanwyck as Kathy Ferguson Doyle *

as Police Lieutenant Bill Doyle *

as Police Inspector Anthony Pope *

Fay Wray Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian/American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international r ...

as Alice Pope *

Virginia Grey Virginia Grey (March 22, 1917 – July 31, 2004) was an American actress who appeared in over 100 films and a number of radio and television shows from the 1930s to the early 1980s. Biography Grey was born on March 22, 1917, in Edendale, Calif ...

as Sara Alidos *

Royal Dano Royal Edward Dano Sr. (November 16, 1922 - May 15, 1994) was an American actor. In a career spanning 46 years, he was perhaps best known for playing cowboys, villains, and Abraham Lincoln. Dano also provided the voice of the Audio-Animatronic L ...

as Police Captain Charlie Alidos * Robert Griffin as Police Sergeant Jame *

Dennis Cross Dennis Cross (December 17, 1924 – April 6, 1991) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing the role of Commander Arthur "Tex" Richards in the American syndicated television series '' The Blue Angels''. Life and car ...

as Police Sergeant Jules *

Jay Adler Jay Adler (August 4, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American actor in theater, television, and film. Early life Born in New York City, he was the eldest son of actors Jacob and Sara Adler, and the brother of five actor siblings, including st ...

as Mr. Nalence *

Stuart Whitman Stuart Maxwell Whitman (February 1, 1928 – March 16, 2020) was an American actor, known for his lengthy career in film and television. Whitman was born in San Francisco and raised in New York until the age of 12, when his family relocated to ...

as Laboratory Technician *

Malcolm Atterbury Malcolm MacLeod Atterbury (February 20, 1907 – August 16, 1992) was an American stage, film, and television actor, and vaudevillian. Early years A native of Philadelphia, Atterbury was the son of Malcolm MacLeod, Sr. and Arminia Clara (Rosenga ...

as Police Officer Spitz *

Robert Quarry Robert Walter Quarry (November 3, 1925 – February 20, 2009) was an American actor, known for several prominent horror film roles. Life and career Quarry was born in Santa Rosa, California, the son of Mable (née Shoemaker) and Paul Quarry ...

as Sam * Gail Bonney as Mrs. London *

Joe Conley Joe Conley (March 3, 1928 – July 7, 2013) was an American actor who played many small roles on television and is most remembered for his role as the storekeeper Ike Godsey in ''The Waltons''. Personal life and career Joe Conley was born in Bu ...

as Delivery Boy

Reception

Critical response

In a contemporary review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', Howard Thompson called the film a "most curiously misguided dramatic missile" and criticized Stanwyck's performance: " ver has she switched gears so abruptly during one performance as in this odd number ... As for Miss Stanwyck's transition from the nice, sassy gal in the press room to a maniacal stalker, we don't believe it. Come off it, Miss Stanwyck." Recently, critic Dan Callahan gave the film a positive review, writing, "Hayden installs Stanwyck into a hellish suburbia where the women only talk about their TV sets; after a particularly trying montage of idle housewife chatter, Stanwyck rages against the mediocrity all around her. When she rails against her kitchen duties, she's a '30s star railing potently against '50s conformity. Though her character turns violent, the reasons behind her anger are powerfully expressed and the film puts you on her side. This overlooked, subversive movie has a strong feminist message and an even stronger Stanwyck performance." Critic Glenn Erickson liked the film's ''noir'' screenplay and wrote, "''Crime of Passion'' is a fascinating film that goes head-on with the classic conception of the ''femme fatale'' character. Screenwriter Jo Eisinger wrote the delirious 1946 ''

Gilda ''Gilda'' is a 1946 American film noir directed by Charles Vidor and starring Rita Hayworth in her signature role and Glenn Ford. The film is known for cinematographer Rudolph Maté's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis's wardrobe fo ...

,'' ''noir's'' most romantically perverse epic, but here she dissects the murderous female from a 50s perspective. It's hard-edged, direct in its theme and both dated and progressive at the same time. Barbara Stanwyck and Sterling Hayden make an exceptional screen couple."Erickson, Glenn
DVD Savant, DVD/film review, December 2, 2003. Last accessed: January 8, 2008.

References

External links