| Crime of Passion | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release lobby card |
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| Directed by | Gerd Oswald |
| Produced by | Herman Cohen |
| Written by | Jo Eisinger |
| Starring | Barbara Stanwyck Sterling Hayden Raymond Burr |
| Music by | Paul Dunlap |
| Cinematography | Joseph LaShelle |
| Editing by | Marjorie Fowler |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | January 9, 1957 |
| Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Crime of Passion is a 1957 American crime film noir directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Jo Eisinger. The drama features Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr and Fay Wray, among others.[1]
Contents |
Kathy Ferguson (Stanwyck) is a San Francisco newspaper advice columnist. One day, Bill Doyle (Hayden), a Los Angeles police detective, and his partner Charlie Alidos (Royal Dano) travel to "Frisco" to arrest a fugitive wanted for murder. He meets Kathy and they fall in love. Kathy had been offered a big job in New York City, but she abandons her career, marries Doyle and moves to Los Angeles.
Her new role as a 1950s suburban wife and homemaker quickly makes her unhappy. She wants her husband to move up in the world. She wants him to have the same kind of ambition she had in her last job, to become "somebody." Doyle has different values. He works in order to afford a comfortable lifestyle, no more.
Kathy schemes to push her husband up the ladder by any means necessary. She manipulates Tony Pope (Burr), who has an ailing wife (Wray), to sleep with her. She wants Pope to promote her husband, but he is not so easily manipulated. He refuses to grant Doyle a plum job, believing he's not qualified.
Dropping by the police station, she steals a gun used in a crime her husband is investigating. Kathy then confronts Pope in his home and pleads that he not grant Charlie Alidos the promotion. Pope refuses so she coldly shoots him.
Doyle is assigned to Pope's murder investigation and all trails lead to his wife. When Bill confronts Kathy, she tells him, "Now I'll know just how much of a cop you really are." Bill responds, "The same cop, Kathy. The same cop you met in Frisco. Same cop I was 10 years ago, pounding a beat. The same cop." Bill Doyle then takes Kathy Doyle to police headquarters to be booked for murder.
Critic Dan Callahan gave the film a positive review, writing, "Hayden installs Stanwyck into a hellish suburbia where the women only talk about their TV sets; after a particularly trying montage of idle housewife chatter, Stanwyck rages against the mediocrity all around her. When she rails against her kitchen duties, she's a '30s star railing potently against '50s conformity. Though her character turns violent, the reasons behind her anger are powerfully expressed and the film puts you on her side. This overlooked, subversive movie has a strong feminist message and an even stronger Stanwyck performance."[2]
Critic Glenn Erickson liked the film's noir screenplay and wrote, "Crime of Passion is a fascinating film that goes head-on with the classic conception of the femme fatale character. Screenwriter Jo Eisinger wrote the delirious 1946 Gilda, noir's most romantically perverse epic, but here she dissects the murderous female from a 50s perspective. It's hard-edged, direct in its theme and both dated and progressive at the same time. Barbara Stanwyck and Sterling Hayden make an exceptional screen couple."[3]