Storm Warning (1951)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Stuart Heisler

Writers:

Daniel Fuchs (written by) and
Richard Brooks (written by)

Release Date:

10 February 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

Unmasked by Warner Brothers!

Plot:

Marsha Mitchell, a traveling dress model, stops in a southern town to see her sister who has married a Ku Klux Klansman...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | District Attorney | Beautiful Woman | Christmas | Sexual Assault

Cast

Ginger Rogers	...	Marsha Mitchell
Ronald Reagan	...	Burt Rainey
Doris Day	...	Lucy Rice
Steve Cochran	...	Hank Rice
Hugh Sanders	...	Charlie Barr
Lloyd Gough	...	Cliff Rummel
Raymond Greenleaf	...	Faulkner
Ned Glass	...	George Athens
Paul E. Burns	...	Frank Hauser, Baggage Man
Walter Baldwin	...	Coroner Bledsoe
Lynn Whitney	...	Cora Athens
Stuart Randall	...	Walt Walters
Sean McClory	...	Shore

Also Known As:

Storm Center (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #14344) | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Corona, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The studio wanted Lauren Bacall and Doris Day to star in the film, but Bacall went to Africa with her husband Humphrey Bogart to film The African Queen (1951)

Goofs:

Plot holes: A character is murdered by the KKK after 10pm one evening. An autopsy is performed, witnesses interviewed and a coroner's inquest is held - all by the following afternoon, hardly twelve hours after crime was committed.

Quotes:

Charlie Barr: Don't force me to show you how we handle people! We're the law here! We're the judges and the jury!
Marsha Mitchell: I'm no hero. I'm scard! That's what you wanted, and that's the way it is. Yeah, I'm afraid of what you might do to me. But if I ever get out of here, I'm gonna tell, and there's nothing you can do that'll stop me!

The surprises come fast and furious in this forgotten jewel

Ginger Rogers plays a model who comes to a sleepy southern town to visit her sister. The few citizens she meet in her nocturnal arrival seem either frightened or hostile. On the way to her sister's house, she passes the jail, and witnesses a gang of klansmen killing a helpless man. There's nowhere to go. Her sister (Doris Day) is of no help, her sister's husband (Steve Cochran, excelling again at playing a sleaze-bag) is even worse. Rogers' only ally is the young DA out to snuff the klan. (The DA played with perfection by under-rated actor Ronald Reagan. You'll forget you're watching a President) A creepy, solomn noir classic!