Noir movies are among my favorite types of films to partake in, and while most actors and actresses well known to fans of the genre are a welcome sight, Barbara Stanwyck just doesn't do it for me most of the time. This movie starts with a newspaper columnist named Kathy Ferguson (Stanwyck) having her place of employment visited by two detectives, Bill Doyle and Captain Alidos (Sterling Hayden and Royal Dano respectively). They're looking for a woman who has murdered someone in San Francisco some time ago. Kathy takes a liking to Bill, but his partner tells her that her only place should be in the kitchen making food for her husband when he arrives home. This leads to her having an intense animosity towards him. Kathy eventually manages to get the fugitive to trust her, and then gets herself mentioned in the papers. Because of this (and the interest she has in Bill) she quits her job and moves to LA. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Kathy's time as a housewife is fraught with mental torment and uncertainty. She wants to see him do something ambitious so he can get ahead at the department, but at the same time, him taking on dangerous work makes her uncomfortable. Later on, Kathy stages a car accident with Alice Pope (Fay Wray), wife of inspector Tony Pope (Raymond Burr), who leads the division Bill is a part of. As Kathy continues to scheme to push her husband further up the chain of command, she starts clashing with Sara, Alidos' wife. Sara spreads nasty rumors about Kathy having an affair with Tony, and when Bill finds an incriminating note in Kathy's room, he drives to work and punches Alidos right in the jaw. Tony looks into the incident and learns that Alidos went for his gun when he saw Bill bust in, so both men acted out of line. Alidos is moved to another division, while Bill is promoted to homicide captain. Kathy later learns from Tony that Alice has been hospitalized due to stress, so Tony decides to leave the job. Kathy seizes the opportunity to persuade him that Bill deserves the job his departure will leave open. After kissing her, it seems like Tony is going to let Bill have the job, but then dismisses it as pillow talk at a later date. Kathy learns that not only is Bill not getting the job, but the person who is is none other than Alidos. She is livid. One day, Kathy goes with Bill to the station and asks for a drink of water when her husband leaves the lobby. When the guard's back is turned, she sneaks a pistol into her coat pocket. Kathy tries to play nice with Tony one last time, and begs him to not recommend Alidos for the job. Tony refuses, so she murders him. Pope's death plunges the police into a frenzy, and Bill throws himself and all his subordinates into an investigation. It takes a while, but he eventually concludes that Kathy is the murderer as the gun she stole was on the table until the guard decided to turn his back to her. Bill confronts his wife, who says she only did all these things to please him. Bill then takes Kathy to headquarters to be interrogated. I wasn't really that thrilled with this movie. Burr and Hayden are both good, as they're staples of the genre, but it seemed as if there was never a time when Stanwyck's performance didn't annoy me. One moment she's scheming, then crying into her husband's arm because she doesn't want to see him die on the job. Maybe it's just me, but I like to see dangerous women in noir movies who are just as capable as the men when it comes to causing havoc. Stanwyck does do that in this movie, but she never really feels in control of herself. She frantically jumps from one setup to another in order to boost Hayden's prestige and she seems to get sick just at the thought of Alidos' name. Why is she so angry at him to begin with anyway? Because he told her she should focus on being a wife and nothing else? The catalyst for her malice isn't convincing. I thought it was odd seeing Fay Wray over 20 years after she starred in King Kong, and I didn't recognize her at first. If anything, I felt that basically all the characters but Kathy were tolerable. At least they aren't annoying or clingy to the extent that she is. To sum things up, Crime of Passion wasn't that great, but I only really watched it to progress with the film noir book I bought from TCM's website. The author spoils a lot of movies I haven't watched, so I felt the need to see this before I continued reading. In hindsight, maybe I should have disregarded the spoiler since Crime of Passion's ending is just plain unsatisfying.
Review of Crime of Passion
