Phantom Lady (1944 film)

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Phantom Lady

Directed by	Robert Siodmak
Produced by	Joan Harrison
Written by	Cornell Woolrich (novel as William Irish) Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Starring	Franchot Tone Ella Raines Alan Curtis
Music by	stock music
Cinematography	Woody Bredell (director of photography)
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	February 17, 1944 (U.S. release)
Running time	87 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Universal Pictures' Phantom Lady (1944) is a black and white film noir directed by Robert Siodmak. The film was based on a Cornell Woolrich novel (the first novel writing under pen name William Irish). In what may be the film's most famous sequence, rhythmic intercutting between Elisha Cook Jr.'s frantic drumming at a seedy night club and the leering responses of sexy secretary Ella Raines symbolizes a heated sexual encounter without actually showing a sex act on the screen.

[edit] Plot

After a fight with his wife, Scott Henderson, a handsome and successful 32-year-old civil engineer, picks up a mysterious woman in a bar and they go out. The woman refuses to exchange names, becoming the phantom lady of the film. When Henderson returns home, he finds cops waiting to question him because his wife has been murdered with his necktie. Henderson and the cops try to find the phantom lady who can provide him with an alibi but fail. It's up to Carol, Henderson's loyal secretary with a secret to trace the phantom and set Henderson free.