Spoilers ahead!
Woman on the Run is in the public domain. Click here to watch it for free at the Internet Archive. The DVD and the Blu-ray produced by the Film Noir Foundation, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and Flicker Alley are worth a look, too. Both come with several featurettes and audio commentary by the inimitable film noir expert Eddie Muller, who, as always, provides a ton of information about the film, its stars, and its production.
The film’s opening credits appear over a stylized nighttime shot of San Francisco, with the bridge and the bay in the distance. The narrative starts with a man, Frank Johnson, out at night walking his dog, Rembrandt. (Frank’s wife explains later that Frank chose the name because this was close as they were going to get to owning a Rembrandt.) Frank and Rembrandt climb up stone steps toward the camera, and when they reach the top, Frank stops to light his pipe.
A car stops on the road nearby, and the driver and a passenger argue. The camera placement puts viewers inside the car so they, but not Frank, can hear the conversation and thus know that murder and blackmail are the topics. The driver shoots and kills his passenger, who falls out of the passenger side door. Rembrandt barks, attracting the attention of the shooter. The shooter takes aim at Frank and misses, then drives off. Frank would have been hit by a bullet except that the shooter mistook his shadow for flesh and blood. A neighbor calls out from a second-floor window nearby, wondering if he heard shots. Frank tells him to call the police because there’s been a murder.
When the police arrive, they discover that the dead man is Joe Gordon, who was set to testify against the gangster Smiley Freeman. When Frank hears this news, he is a little upset, but when Inspector Martin Ferris tells him that he would like Frank to identify the shooter, Frank decides he doesn’t want any trouble. A squad car retrieves Frank’s wife Eleanor, but by the time she arrives, her husband has taken a powder, leaving Rembrandt behind.
Eleanor and Frank have had problems in their marriage, something she doesn’t hide from Inspector Ferris when he goes to the Johnsons’ apartment to talk to her and gather clues. He tries to convince her to help him and his officers look for Frank, but Eleanor isn’t interested—until the inspector leaves. She decides then to look for her husband herself.
Newspaper reporters are already on the scene hounding Inspector Ferris for details when he leaves the Johnsons’ apartment. One of the reporters is Danny Legget. He wants the scoop, and he decides that Eleanor is his best lead. He waits for her on the roof of the apartment building because the building is under police surveillance and because he guesses this is how Eleanor will escape. He guesses correctly and is rewarded before too long: Eleanor tries to climb out of a skylight in Frank’s studio and is surprised to find Legget ready to help her. Eleanor isn’t interested in Danny Leggett, his newspaper, or his story, but she cannot seem to get rid of him. That’s because he is the murderer, and he wants to find Frank and get rid of him before Frank can identify him or testify in court.
Eleanor is finally persuaded to accept Danny’s help. Danny says that he wants the story, and he is willing to pay good money to get it. She and Frank can use the money, and so she agrees, not knowing Danny’s real reason for wanting to find Frank. And she and Danny spend a lot of time together trying to find her husband before the police do. The first time that they go to Man Loh’s Oriental Roof Garden, where Eleanor and Frank often shared a meal, Sam, one of the restaurant’s employees, recognizes Eleanor. He slips her a note about a letter being delivered to Hart & Winston’s, a department store where Frank works as a window trimmer.
Eleanor goes to Hart & Winston’s alone and talks to one of Frank’s coworkers, Maibus. Maibus thinks Frank is adventurous, which comes as a surprise to Eleanor. She’s never heard any of the stories that Frank told Maibus. She discovers that Frank has created mannequins that look like her, and they seem to represent her every mood, both good and bad. Frank has sent a letter to Eleanor in care of Maibus, but Maibus has not received it yet. Danny Legget has intercepted it for his own purposes. But Frank is no slouch. He’s written the letter so that only Eleanor can figure out the clues. That means Danny can’t let her go so easily.
Later, when Eleanor and Danny return to Man Loh’s Oriental Roof Garden, Sam suggests that she and Danny talk to Sullivan, who runs a bar (Sullivan’s Grotto) across the street from the back door of the Oriental Roof Garden. At Sullivan’s Grotto, Eleanor learns that Frank still loves her. When she tells this to Danny, he is very disappointed. Eleanor is thrilled to think that her marriage may not be in trouble after all, and she doesn’t notice Danny’s reaction to her news: He isn’t happy that Eleanor is thrilled to hear that she and Frank may not split up after all. But it is the first clue that Danny is becoming attracted to Eleanor.
Eleanor and Danny visit many places in San Francisco, some places more than once. Eleanor tries to find inspiration and insight into the clues Frank has left for her. He wants her, not the police, to find him. He doesn’t want to become involved in their murder investigation because he saw what happened to Joe Gordon. Eleanor has no idea that the killer is helping her find Frank, but viewers do, and that builds even more tension.
According to Eddie Muller’s DVD commentary, Eleanor and Danny’s journey through the city is a chance to see the city as it once was. San Francisco is Muller’s hometown, and he offers lots of insights and his own memories of the city that he and his family knew well. The DVD also contains a featurette by Brian Hollins showing photos and videos of location shots from Woman on the Run and the same locations when the DVD was released. Hollins has a website, “Reel SF,” devoted to classic films shot in San Francisco and their location shots. Click here to visit “Reel SF: San Francisco movie locations from classic films” for comparisons (then and now) of various location shots for Woman on the Run. The list is extensive, both for Woman and the Run and the movies spotlighted at the website. Click on MOVIE LIST at the top right of the site to see the full list of films.
When Eleanor has deciphered Frank’s clues and knows exactly where to find him (on the beach at the amusement park), Danny wants to arrange a meeting with Frank. Eleanor thinks Danny wants to meet away from the prying eyes of the police and other news reporters, but Danny has chosen a spot that is designed to keep any possible witnesses away. Danny shows Eleanor a meeting spot under the roller coaster in the amusement park where Frank is hiding, and their conversation is chilling, thoroughly noir.
• Eleanor Johnson: “I don’t like this place.”
• Danny Legget: “It’s a good spot. I used to come here with a girl when I was a kid.”
• Eleanor: “It’s more frightening than romantic.”
• Danny: “That’s the way love is when you’re young. How life is when you’re older.”
These four lines of dialogue are some of my favorite lines in film noir. They express almost perfectly the lingering mood of the postwar United States and that of film noir generally: a mood of resignation, malaise, foreboding, and cynicism.
Danny stops Eleanor briefly before she leaves him to tell her husband where to find him. He wants to know whether she plans to return to her husband, and she tells him yes, even though she isn’t sure how Frank feels any more. Either way, she will have to accept her husband’s decision.
• Danny Legget: “You think people can turn back, and you’re gonna try. I know better.”
• Eleanor Johnson: “You’re too cynical. It’s your profession.”
• Danny: “It’s too late now to change my profession. Okay. Go ahead and send him here.”
• Eleanor: “I’ll bring him.”
• Danny: [vehemently] “No.”
Eleanor thinks Danny is cynical because of his job as a newspaper reporter, but he is cynical because he is more than that. He is also a murderer and perhaps a hired hit man. Danny is willing to kill Eleanor’s husband Frank because he still doesn’t want a witness to one of his murders to be able to identify him. But he does want to spare Eleanor’s life.
Woman on the Run is a wonderful film and, as I said, it has become one of my noir favorites. Another reason, which has very little to do with noir, is that three of the actors in this film went on to act in guest appearances and supporting roles in one of my very favorite classic comedies: The Dick Van Dyke Show. Ross Elliott plays Frank Johnson in Woman on the Run, and he twice played a psychiatrist on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Steven Geray plays Frank Johnson’s doctor, Dr. Arnold Hohler. Geray played so many roles in film noir, but he could play comedy, too. He’s especially funny as one of Rob and Laura Petrie’s neighbors. Joan Shawlee, who plays a drunk patron in Sullivan’s Grotto, is one of two actresses who played the part of Pickles Sorrell, Buddy’s wife, on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
But obviously you don’t have to be a fan of The Dick Van Dyke Show to enjoy Woman on the Run. And here’s more good news: I didn’t give away everything. You’ll have to see the film to find out if Danny Leggett gets away with murder; if Frank Johnson is still alive at the end of the film; and, if he is, whether he and Eleanor are reunited.
November 29, 1950 (New York City), release date • Directed by Norman Foster • Screenplay by Alan Campbell, Norman Foster, Ross Hunter • Based on the short story “Man on the Run” by Sylvia Tate • Music by Arthur Lange, Emil Newman • Edited by Otto Ludwig • Cinematography by Hal Mohr
Ann Sheridan as Eleanor Johnson • Dennis O’Keefe as Daniel (“Danny”) Legget • Robert Keith as Inspector Martin Ferris • John Qualen as Maibus • Frank Jenks as Detective Shaw • Ross Elliott as Frank Johnson • Jane Liddell as the messenger girl • Joan Shawlee (credited as Joan Fulton) as the tipsy blonde in the bar • J. Farrell MacDonald as the sea captain • Steven Geray as Dr. Arnold Hohler • Victor Sen Yung as Sam • Reiko Sato (credited as Rako Sato) as Suzie • Syd Saylor as Sullivan • Milton Kibbee as man yelling from the apartment house • Tom Dillon (credited as Thomas P. Dillon) as Joe Gordon
Distributed by Universal Pictures • Produced by Fidelity Pictures Corporation
