Outrage (1950 film)
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''Outrage'' is a 1950
black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
starring
Mala Powers Mary Ellen "Mala" Powers (December 20, 1931 – June 11, 2007) was an American actress. Early life Powers was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Los Angeles. Her father was a United Press International, United Press executive, whil ...
. It was directed by
Ida Lupino Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. T ...
. Lupino also co-wrote the script, along with the producers
Malvin Wald Malvin Daniel Wald (August 8, 1917 – March 6, 2008) was an American screenwriter most famous for writing the 1948 police drama ''The Naked City'', for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story. He wrote over 150 scripts for mot ...
and Lupino's then-husband Collier Young. ''Outrage'', the first starring film role for Powers, was both controversial and remarkable for being only the second post-
Code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...
Hollywood film to deal with the issue of rape, after '' Johnny Belinda'' (1948). In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
as being "culturally historically or aesthetically significant".


Plot

Ann Walton (
Mala Powers Mary Ellen "Mala" Powers (December 20, 1931 – June 11, 2007) was an American actress. Early life Powers was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Los Angeles. Her father was a United Press International, United Press executive, whil ...
) is a young bookkeeper who has a steady boyfriend, Jim Owens. When Jim announces that he has received a raise, the young couple decide to finally marry and inform Ann's parents about the engagement. Meanwhile, a man who works at the concession stand where Ann works takes an interest in her and tries to flirt with her, though she is uninterested. Staying late at work one night, Ann notices she is being stalked and tries to run away from the man who is following her. She is unable to hide and is eventually caught and raped by the man who works the concession stand. The memory of a scar on the man's neck is the only thing able to come through to Ann in her trauma. Returning home, Ann's parents learn of what happened and contact the police. Though the police and her family, friends, and fiancé, Jim, are supportive, Ann believes that the neighbors are gossiping about her and that Jim can no longer see her as she once was. After being forced to look at a lineup of men with scars, none of whom she can identify as her attacker, Ann runs away, taking the bus to Los Angeles on a whim. While the bus driver is on a break, Ann overhears on the radio that her parents are looking for her and have identified her as the victim of a rape. Ann runs away from the bus and sprains her ankle where she is found by a man named Rev. Bruce Ferguson. He brings Ann to the orange farm belonging to his friends, the Harrisons. He does his best to help Ann out, eventually securing her a job as a bookkeeper for the Harrisons. Ann and Ferguson grow increasingly close. When Ferguson asks her to attend a local festival she agrees, but when another attendee pressures her for a kiss she is reminded of her rape, and attacks him with a wrench. Ann is forced to stand trial, but Ferguson investigates why she would do such a thing and learns of her rape. He is able to persuade the judge to commute her sentence, and instead she sees a psychiatrist for a year. After the psychiatric treatment has concluded, Ann wants to stay with Ferguson and pursue a relationship with him, but he tells her not to run from life's challenges and encourages her to return to her old life and to Jim.


Cast

*
Mala Powers Mary Ellen "Mala" Powers (December 20, 1931 – June 11, 2007) was an American actress. Early life Powers was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Los Angeles. Her father was a United Press International, United Press executive, whil ...
as Ann Walton *
Tod Andrews Tod Andrews (born Theodore Edwin Anderson; November 9, 1914 – November 7, 1972) was an American stage, screen, and television actor. Early years Tod Andrews was born as Theodore Edwin Anderson in El Paso, Texas, to Henry Anderson and Lydia ...
as Rev. Bruce Ferguson *
Robert Clarke Robert Irby Clarke (June 1, 1920 – June 11, 2005) was an American actor best known for his cult classic science fiction films of the 1950s. Early life Clarke was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He decided at an early age that h ...
as Jim Owens * Raymond Bond as Eric Walton * Lilian Hamilton as Mrs. Walton * Rita Lupino as Stella Carter *
Hal March Hal March (born Harold Mendelson; April 22, 1920 – January 19, 1970) was an American comedian, actor, and television quiz show Master of ceremonies, emcee. Early career March entered show business as a straight man in the vaudeville act the ...
as Det. Sgt. Hendrix * Kenneth Patterson as Tom Harrison *
Jerry Paris William Gerald Paris (July 25, 1925 – March 31, 1986) was an American actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie, on ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'', and for directing the majo ...
as Frank Marini * Angela Clarke as Madge Harrison *
Roy Engel Roy Engel (September 13, 1913 – December 29, 1980) was an American actor on radio, film, and television. He performed in more than 150 films and almost 800 episodes of television programs. Career Engel's ancestry was Irish and Dutch. His ...
as Sheriff Charlie Hanlon * Lovyss Bradley as Mrs. Miller * Robin Camp as Shoeshine Boy *
William Challee William John Challee (April 6, 1904 – March 11, 1989) was an American actor. Biography Challee was born in Chicago and was a student at Lake View High School. Challee appeared on Broadway by 1926 and by 1931 in early Group Theatre produc ...
as Lee Wilkins * Tristram Coffin as Judge McKenzie


Critical reception

Modern critics have given it mixed reviews. It holds a 61% approval rating on
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, based on 23 reviews. Fred Camper from ''
Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...
'' in a positive review wrote "may not be stylistically original or completely successful, but it does treat the subject of rape with real sensitivity, especially for its era."
Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He first ...
of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' in his review he glowingly lauded the film and Lupino's direction saying,
Lupino turns prudish Hollywood conventions into a crucial part of the story: just as the word “rape” is never spoken in the movie, Ann is prevented from talking about her experience, and, spurred by the torment of her enforced silence and the trauma that shatters her sense of identity, she runs away from home. Lupino’s drama blends Ann’s story with an incisive view of the many societal failures that contribute to the crime—including the unwillingness of the legal system to face the prevalence of rape. Above all, Lupino depicts a culture of leers and wolf whistles and domineering boyfriends, and reveals the widespread and unquestioned aggression that women face in ostensibly consensual courtship and that’s ultimately inseparable from the violence that Ann endures.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 1950 films 1950 drama films American black-and-white films American drama films Film noir Films directed by Ida Lupino Films set in California Films about rape Films scored by Paul Sawtell United States National Film Registry films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films