What is the plot - in one sentence? We follow a policeman and a married woman who start an adulterous affair.
I don't have time, just spoil it for me? Oh boy, here goes… The policeman kills the husband during his police work, escaping censure by saying that he hadn't met the woman, his lover, before. The two get married, though it’s unclear how much time has passed since her husband’s death, but not longer than 3 months. She’s pregnant, but her first husband being infertile would show that they lied about knowing each other before her first husbands death. Fearing prosecution, they hide out in a ghost town and wait for the baby to be born, but there are some complications, so they call for a doctor, who the policeman wants to kill. The doctor flees, and fearing arrest, the policeman also flees, but is killed by his ever-suspicious partner from the first night. Yeah that’ll do it.
What is the meaning of the title? The initial call is because of a prowler in the neighbourhood – he’s not mentioned again, but it leads to the policeman prowling around after her.
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| This is them, after getting married. Still in separate beds. I looked up the woman to see if she was Maya Rudolph's grandmother, and found that Maya Rudolph's mum is actuall the woman who sang 'loving you,' apparently the song is to the baby Maya. Nice. |
Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? There’s a lot of social stuff here which hasn’t aged well, but it’s surprising that she doesn’t get slapped. There’s a bit at the end where she gives the keys to him, and his body language is ready for delivering a slap, but he just runs out of the room. I wonder, would slapping a woman bedridden after a problem birth be too much, even for 1951?
There are some other things that age the movie, other than the fashion and the sexual politics. When they first meet, she recognises him as a basketball phenom from college. He’s a stocky looking, bug-eyed white guy who’s probably 5’10, yet famous enough to be recognised by his basketball skills. That wouldn’t happen now.
Any thoughts? They really make some bad decisions all the way through it. Were they going to just abandon the kid after it was born? Were they going to stay in the ghost town, raising a child? Kill the doctor? Yeah that’s not a good idea either. He, in particular, made some really dumb plans throughout.
They also easily could have got out of the police trial without lying. Instead of lying, when asked ‘Did you know each other before the death’ you could easily say, yeah, he came over for a prowler before (which would make the death even more justifiable, a repeat offence, so you'd need to be extra cautious) and while there we had a chat about our home towns in Indiana. Easy. I should really be committing these kind of crimes.
Would you recommend this? It certainly takes some turns, and it’s quite unpleasant for a movie of this era. It's also written by Dalton Trumbo, using a ghost alias because he'd been run out of the US for being a Commie. Usually it’s the woman who’s the seducer in a noir film, here it's a male homewrecker. so it’s at least interesting. I’ll give it points for originality, I suppose.
Final thoughts? The two lovers have a very weird courtship. He persters her for a while, then she just accepts. They never seem to be having a good time with each other, either.
Of some note, the ending, in the ghost town, where he’s chased and then falls down a hill made of stones, was very similar to that of the end of Man of the west, it may even have been the same hill in the same gravel pit.
There, 86 done now - this really is taking some time, if you'd like to see others, check out the list right here.
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