Phantom Lady (1944 Film)

''Phantom Lady'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, and Alan Curtis. Based on the novel of the same name by Cornell Woolrich, it follows a young Manhattan secretary and her endeavors to prove that her boss did not murder his wife.

Plot

After a fight with his wife on their anniversary, Scott Henderson, a 32-year-old engineer, picks up an equally unhappy woman at Anselmo's Bar in Manhattan, and they take a taxi to see a stage show. The woman refuses to tell him anything about herself. The star of the show they are watching, Estela Monteiro, becomes furious when she notices that she and the mystery woman are wearing the same distinctive hat. When Henderson returns home, he finds Police Inspector Burgess and two of his men waiting to question him; his wife has been strangled with one of his neckties. Henderson has a solid alibi, but the bartender, taxi driver, and Monteiro remember him but deny seeing the phantom lady. Henderson cannot even clearly describe the woman. He is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

Carol Richman, known as "Kansas", Henderson's loyal secretary who is secretly in love with him, sets out to prove his innocence. She starts with the bartender. She sits in the bar night after night, staring at and unnerving him. Finally, she follows him home one night. When he confronts her on the street, some bystanders step in to restrain him. He breaks free, runs into the street and is run over. Later, Burgess offers to help her (unofficially). He believes that only a fool or an innocent man would have stuck to such a weak alibi. Burgess provides Kansas with information about the drummer at the show, Cliff, who had tried to make eye contact with the phantom lady.

Kansas dresses provocatively and goes to another of Cliff's shows. Flirting with Cliff during the performance, she manages to capture his attention. They rendezvous afterwards, visit an underground jam-session, and go to his apartment. Somewhat drunk, Cliff brags that he was paid $500 for his false testimony. He accidentally knocks over her purse and, among the spilled contents, finds a piece of paper with details about him. He accuses her of misleading him. Kansas escapes, leaving her purse behind. After she has gone, an unidentified man arrives, accuses Cliff of telling Kansas he'd been bribed to deny seeing the phantom lady, and strangles Cliff to death.

Jack Marlow, Henderson's best friend, returns suddenly from South America, ostensibly to help Kansas save Henderson. He secretly works to frustrate Kansas's efforts, while hiding his own deteriorating mental state. Kansas tracks down Monteiro's hatmaker, Kettisha. One of her employees admits to copying the hat for a regular customer and provides her name and address. With Burgess away on another case, Kansas and Marlow go to see the milliner's client, Ann Terry. They discover her under a doctor's care, having collapsed some months earlier when the man she was to marry had died suddenly, leaving her emotionally devastated. Kansas is unable to get any information from her, but does find the hat. Marlow suggests he and Kansas wait for Burgess at Marlow's apartment. However, while she is freshening up, Kansas finds her missing purse and the paper with Cliff's particulars in a dresser drawer. Marlow admits he became enraged when Henderson's wife refused to run away with him, an artist; she was only toying with him. Burgess arrives just in time. Marlow throws himself out the window to his death. Henderson is freed, and the door is open to a relationship with Kansas.

Cast

* Franchot Tone as Jack Marlow
* Ella Raines as Carol "Kansas" Richman
* Alan Curtis as Scott Henderson
* Aurora Miranda as Estela Monteiro (as Aurora)
* Thomas Gomez as Inspector Burgess
* Fay Helm as Ann Terry
* Elisha Cook, Jr. as Cliff Milburn
* Andrew Tombes as Bartender
* Regis Toomey as Detective
* Joseph Crehan as Detective (Tom)
* Doris Lloyd as Kettisha
* Virginia Brissac as Dr. Chase
* Milburn Stone as District Attorney

Production

''Phantom Lady'' was Siodmak's first Hollywood film noir. It was also the first producing credit by Joan Harrison, Universal Pictures' first female executive and former screenwriter for Alfred Hitchcock.

Cliff's frantic drum solo was dubbed by former Harry James and His Orchestra drummer Dave Coleman.

Critical response

Critic Bosley Crowther was not impressed with the atmospherics of the film and panned the film for its screenplay, writing: "We wish we could recommend it as a perfect combination of the styles of the eminent Mr. Hitchcock and the old German psychological films, for that is plainly and precisely what it tries very hard to be. It is full of the play of light and shadow, of macabre atmosphere, of sharply realistic faces and dramatic injections of sound. People sit around in gloomy places looking blankly and silently into space, music blares forth from empty darkness, and odd characters turn up and disappear. It is all very studiously constructed for weird and disturbing effects. But, unfortunately, Miss Harrison and Mr. Siodmak forgot one basic thing—they forgot to provide their picture with a plausible, realistic plot." In '' The Nation'' in 1944, critic James Agee stated, "Miss Harrison is doing nothing that Hitchcock has not done a great deal better... She is simply an intelligent, entertaining worker in an idiom which badly needs not only restoring but developing... There is plenty in ''Phantom Lady'' to enjoy, and to be glad of." Pauline Kael wrote: "The mood and pacing lift this low-budget thriller out of its class, but the ideas, the dialogue, and the ending that the studio insisted on prevent it from being a first-rate B-picture." Leslie Halliwell gave it two of four stars: "Odd little thriller which doesn't really hold together but is made for the most part with great style." Leonard Maltin was enthusiastic: "First-rate suspense yarn... Sexual innuendo in drumming scene with Cook is simply astonishing... "

Home media

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released a made-on-demand DVD-R of the film through in conjunction with Turner Classic Movies.

Arrow Films released a region A Blu-ray edition of the film through their Arrow Academy label on March 5, 2019.

Radio adaptation

''The Phantom Lady'' was presented on '' Lux Radio Theater'', March 27, 1944.

''The Phantom Lady'' was presented on '' Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre'' September 11, 1944. The 30-minute adaptation starred Ralph Bellamy, Louise Allbritton, David Bruce and Walter Abel.

References

External links

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Streaming audio

''Phantom Lady''
on Lux Radio Theater: 27 March 1944

''Phantom Lady''
on Screen Guild Theater: 11 September 1944

{{Robert Siodmak

1944 films
1940s mystery thriller films
1940s psychological thriller films
American black-and-white films
American mystery thriller films
American psychological thriller films
1940s English-language films
Film noir
Films about miscarriage of justice
Films based on American novels
Films based on works by Cornell Woolrich
Films directed by Robert Siodmak
Films scored by Hans J. Salter
Films set in Manhattan
Universal Pictures films
1940s American films
English-language mystery thriller films