Based on a William Irish (Cornell Woolrich) 1948 novel 'I Married a Dead Man', whose writings have germinated The Window and Rear Window, Phantom Lady, La Mariée Etait en Noir and Mississippi Mermaid, The Leopard Man, Black Angel and The Chase - and they're just the ones I've seen. By all accounts an unhappy gay alcoholic recluse who started as a Jazz Age novelist, tried unsuccessfully to become a Hollywood scriptwriter, spent his latter days in seedy hotels around New York.
Pregnant, and rejected by the brutish father, Barbara Stanwyck takes a train to San Francisco, meets a nice couple and takes on the wife's identity after a fatal train crash (but not before Snowflake* has told them all what they're having for dinner - a nice touch). She's adopted by the dead man's family, engaging the interest of brother-in-law John Lund, but then the past comes back to haunt her. The past's played well by Lyle Bettger (his debut).
With Jane Cowl, Phyllis Thaxter, Henry O'Neill, Carole Mathews, Esther Dale (the maid).
Shot by Daniel Fapp, music by Hugo Friedhofer. Produced by Richard Maibaum, better known as the original James Bond screenwriter. This by the way was scripted by Sally Benson and Catherine Turney.
*At least I thought it was... turns out it was Dooley Wilson!
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| "It's usually pretty deserted down there this time of night" |
Still don't understand though where that shot sounded from if her own gun wasn't fired and the guy was dead already.
No Man of Her Own is also the title of an earlier Paramount 1932 film with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, after which she presented the actor with the gift of a ham!
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