''City Without Men'' is a 1943 American film noir crime film directed by

Sidney Salkow Sidney Salkow (June 16, 1911 – October 18, 2000) was an American film director (more than 50 motion pictures), screenwriter, and television director. Salkow was educated at the City College of New York, Columbia University and Harvard Law Schoo ...

and starring

Linda Darnell Linda Darnell (born Monetta Eloyse Darnell; October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965) was an American actress. Darnell progressed from modeling as a child to acting in theater and film. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in ...

Edgar Buchanan William Edgar Buchanan II (March 20, 1903 – April 4, 1979) was an American actor with a long career in both film and television. He is most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the ''Petticoat Junction'', ''Green Acres'', and ''The ...

and Michael Duane. It was released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

on January 14, 1943. A group of women lives in a boarding house near a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

where the residents are the wives of the prison inmates.

Plot

The film opens with the prologue: July 1941—five months before

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

, but already the coming events were casting their shadows before. At sea, Tom Adams order two Japanese men into his speedboat after seeing them climbing into a rowboat from an English ship. When Tom is approached by the Coast Guard they refuse to believe his story and charge him with aiding and abetting the Japanese. Tom is found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. Nancy Johnson (

) Tom's girlfriend is determined to exonerate him. Outside the prison, Nancy meets Michael Malloy (

) and learns that his brother is the head of the parole board. She asks Michael to present Tom's case to his brother. Nancy gets a job at the local laundry, and rents a room in Maria Barton's (

Sara Allgood Sarah Ellen Allgood (30 October 1880 – 13 September 1950), known as Sara Allgood, was an Irish-American actress. She first studied drama with the Irish nationalist Daughters of Ireland and was at the opening of the Irish National Theatre Soc ...

) boarding house, whose tenants are the wives of the prison inmates. She meets other tenants, Gwen (

Leslie Brooks Leslie Brooks (born Virginia Leslie Gettman; July 13, 1922 – July 1, 2011) was an American film actress, model and dancer. Early life Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, her parents brought her to Southern California at an early age, where aroun ...

) Winnie and Billie LaRue (

Glenda Farrell Glenda Farrell (June 30, 1904 – May 1, 1971) was an American actress. Farrell personified the smart and sassy, wisecracking blonde of the Classical Hollywood films. Farrell's career spanned more than 50 years, appearing in numerous Broadwa ...

). On visiting day, Tom who has become embittered and disillusioned by his imprisonment refuses to see Nancy. When Tom learns about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he asks for a chance to defend his country and petitions to be paroled into military service. Other prisoners also join Tom on the petition. However, the petition is denied by the parole board. Meanwhile, Winnie has secured a blueprint of the prison and plans to hide the convicts in bales, which would then be loaded onto a boat for delivery. The wives decide to conceal their plans from Nancy and scheduled the prison break for Friday night. On Friday morning, Maria is told that her husband, who is also in prison is at the hospital. She rushes to the hospital and learns that he was stabbed for threatening to inform the prison warden about a prison break. Her husband asks Maria to warn the warden. Meanwhile, Nancy sees a newspaper headline which substantiates Tom's story. She goes to Michael and shows him the headline and asks him to fight for Tom's freedom. Michael barges into his brother's office and makes an impassioned speech about the injustice that was done to Tom. Michael's brother agreed to phone the warden on Tom's behalf. When the wives who are waiting at the shore for their husband hears the prison sirens, they realize that the prison escape has failed. Later, after Tom is freed from prison he reconciles with Nancy.

Cast

Production

Samuel Goldwyn Productions Samuel Goldwyn Productions was an American film production company founded by Samuel Goldwyn in 1923, and active through 1959. Personally controlled by Goldwyn and focused on production rather than distribution, the company developed into the m ...

acquired the rights to the story by Albert Bein and Aben Kandel in 1939. Actor Jon Hall was originally set to star as the male lead and

Jean Arthur Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s. Arthur had feature roles in three F ...

was considered as his female co-star in the film. In 1942, Samuel Goldwyn Productions sold the rights to Columbia Pictures for $43,000. Columbia Pictures negotiated with actors Alan Marshal and

Phillip Terry Phillip Terry (born Frederick Henry Kormann, March 7, 1909 – February 23, 1993) was an American actor. Early years Terry was born in San Francisco, California, the only child of German Americans, Frederick Andrew Kormann and Ida Ruth Voll. Hi ...

to play the male lead in the movie. Glenda Farrell replaced

Claire Trevor Claire Trevor ( Wemlinger; March 8, 1910April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Key Largo'' (1948), and received nomina ...

who was initially cast to play Billie LaRue. Actresses Sara Allgood and Linda Darnell were borrowed from

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

for the film. The waterfront scenes in the movie were filmed in San Pedro,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Home media

Columbia Pictures released the film on DVD on August 31, 2004.

References

External links

''City Without Men''
at Internet Movie Database {{Sidney Salkow 1943 films Films directed by Sidney Salkow Columbia Pictures films 1943 crime drama films American crime drama films American black-and-white films 1940s prison films 1940s American films