The Woman on Pier 13 ** (1949, Laraine Day, Robert Ryan, John Agar, Thomas Gomez, Janis Carter) – Classic Movie Review 10,330

Film noir meets red scare…

Director Robert Stevenson’s 1949 The Woman on Pier 13, a film noir crime drama that is otherwise known as I Married a Communist, is a forced, jingoistically patriotic propaganda piece about a successful San Francisco shipping boss, newly married Brad Collins (Robert Ryan), a one-time member of the Communist Party who is blackmailed by Communists led by ruthless killer Vanning (Thomas Gomez) into spying, after Collins (Ryan) has committed a murder they threaten to reveal.

The Woman on Pier 13 is hard to swallow, with its red hysteria anti-communist slant, but it is short, pacy and of considerable historical and of some dramatic interest.

Stevenson directs a good cast, with Laraine Day as Brad (Ryan)’s new young wife Nan Collins and John Agar as her brother Don Lowry, both on solid form, and Gomez and William Talman (as hit- man for hire Bailey) both first-rate bad guys. And Nicholas Musuraca once again shows his skill with noir images,

Also in the cast are Janis Carter, Richard Rober, William Talman, Paul E Burns, Paul Guilfoyle, G Pat Collins, Fred Graham, Harry Cheshire, Jack Stoney, Lester Matthews, Marlo Dyer, Erskine Sandford, Bess Flowers, Charles Cane, Dick Ryan, William Haade, Iris Adrian, Don Brodie and Al Murphy.

The Woman on Pier 13 [I Married a Communist] is directed by Robert Stevenson, runs 73 minutes, is made by RKO Radio Pictures, is released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by written by Charles Grayson (screenplay), Robert Hardy Andrews (screenplay), George W George (story) and George F Slavin (story), is shot in black and white by Nicholas Musuraca, is produced by Sid Rogell (executive producer) and Jack J Gross, is scored by Leigh Harline and is designed by Albert S D’Agostino and Walter E Keller.

It is William Talman’s first movie role.

Daniel Mainwaring, writer of Out of the Past (1947), said RKO boss Howard Hughes used this film to get rid of writers, directors and actors, with those refusing to work on it fired from the studio.

How’s this for advertising?: ‘Nameless, Shameless Woman! Trained in an Art as Old as Time! She served a mob of terror and violence whose one mission is to destroy! Trading her love… yielding kisses that invite disaster, destroy… then – KILL!’

Despite this, Robert Ryan was one of the good guys. He was a pacifist who campaigned for improved civil rights and restricting the growth of nuclear weapons, and opposed McCarthyism and its abuse of people. He was a founder of the anti-nuclear action group SANE and a vocal supporter of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,330

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