''This Woman Is Dangerous'' is a 1952 American
film noir crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and comb ...
by
Warner Bros. starring
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
,
David Brian, and
Dennis Morgan
Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner, December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame.
According to one obi ...
in a story about a gun moll's romances with two different men. The screenplay by
Geoffrey Homes and
George Worthing Yates was based on a story by
Bernard Girard. The film was directed by
Felix E. Feist
Felix Ellison Feist (; February 28, 1910 – September 2, 1965) was an American film and television director and writer born in New York City. He is probably best remembered for ''Deluge (film), Deluge'' (1933), for writing and directing the fi ...
and produced by
Robert Sisk.
Cast
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Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
as Elizabeth 'Beth' Austin
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Dennis Morgan
Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner, December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame.
According to one obi ...
as Dr. Ben Halleck
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David Brian as Matt Jackson
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Mari Aldon as Ann Jackson
*
Richard Webb as Franklin
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Philip Carey as Will Jackson
*
Ian MacDonald as Joe Grossland
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Katherine Warren as Admitting Nurse
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George Chandler as Dr. Ryan
*
Sherry Jackson as Susan Halleck
Production
Since the script of a gangster who saw the light had become trite by the 1950s, some sources suggest that studio head
Jack L. Warner
Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some ...
offered Crawford the role hoping the expensive star would turn it down so he could put her on suspension. That could also be the reason he offered the eye surgeon's role to Dennis Morgan, whose box-office appeal had diminished since
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. To Warner's surprise, both stars accepted the film. Crawford later instructed her agents to negotiate an end to her contract at
Warner Bros., and she went on to make the independently produced hit ''
Sudden Fear
''Sudden Fear'' is a 1952 American film noir thriller film directed by David Miller, and starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance in a tale about a successful woman who marries a murderous man. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee and Robert Smit ...
'', which earned the actress her third Academy Award nomination.
["This Woman is Dangerous"](_blank)
''Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...
''. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
Reception
Bosley Crowther in ''The New York Times'' called the film "junk", and
Otis Guernsey Jr. of the ''New York Herald Tribune'' described it as "a long, windy, tiresome story."
DVD release
''This Woman Is Dangerous'' was released on Region 1 DVD on March 23, 2009 (Crawford's birthday) from the online Warner Bros. Archive Collection.
Radio adaptation
''This Woman Is Dangerous'' was presented on ''
Lux Radio Theatre'' on March 16, 1953. The one-hour adaptation starred
Virginia Mayo, with Morgan reprising his role from the film.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:This Woman Is Dangerous
1952 films
1952 crime drama films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Felix E. Feist
Films scored by David Buttolph
American crime drama films
Warner Bros. films
1950s English-language films
1950s American films
Films about disability