Storm Warning (1951)

En route to a job, New York based model Marsha Mitchell decides to stop for less than 24 hours in the southern American town of Rock Point to visit her sister, Lucy Rice, who she has not ... See full summary »

Director:

Stuart Heisler

Writers:

Daniel Fuchs, Richard Brooks

Stars:

Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Doris Day

Cast

Complete credited 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

Storyline

En route to a job, New York based model Marsha Mitchell decides to stop for less than 24 hours in the southern American town of Rock Point to visit her sister, Lucy Rice, who she has not seen in two years, and meet Lucy's husband, Hank Rice, for the first time. Upon arriving in Rock Point, Marsha witnesses a Ku Klux Klan slaying of who she would later learn is Walter Adams, an out of town reporter who was going to write an exposé on the Klan. Marsha even saw two of the men's faces after they removed their hoods, but they didn't see Marsha. Upon later arriving at Lucy's house, Marsha is shocked to see that Hank was one of the Klansmen committing the murder, he being a Klansman of which Lucy is unaware. Marsha decides to confront Hank and Lucy about what she saw. Meanwhile, county prosecutor Burt Rainey knows that the Klan committed the murder, everyone in town is aware that the Klan committed the murder, but Rainey knows that no one will come forward to implicate the Klan for what they...

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Plot Keywords:

murder | ku klux klan | district attorney | reporter | prosecutor | 

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Taglines:

Dramatic thunder coming your way!

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Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 February 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

Storm Center

Filming Locations:

Corona, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Working title was "Storm Center." Coincidentally that title was used for a Bette Davis movie six years later at Columbia.

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Goofs

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.

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Quotes

Burt Rainey: Hear that yellin' out there? That's the Klan! They just found out that law and order can't touch them. You did that when you let them off! They're runnin' wild! They're gonna rip up the old laws and make new ones! They're gonna do every rotten thing they can think of doing!

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Soundtracks

"Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals"
(uncredited)
Music by Raymond Scott
Juke box number referred to as "Jungle Rhythm"

User Reviews

Despite not going far enough on the subject matter, Storm Warning is a pretty entertaining melodrama

Watching Storm Warning just now-a movie which takes on the Ku Klux Klan-I had expected a compelling drama about what kind of organization it was and how it was going to be exposed. But instead of widely revealing how it treats anyone who's not white or of a certain religion with complete contempt, this film just glosses over that while concentrating on the attempts to cover a murder of a nosy reporter which gets witnessed by an outsider (Ginger Rogers) as she looks for her sister (Doris Day) and her husband (Steve Cochran). In addition, a crusading attorney (Ronald Reagan) is trying to get Ms. Rogers to spill the beans in court...Because of what I mentioned above, not to mention the obvious stealing of material from Tennesse Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire", this film isn't very good as a history lesson and the score, along with some of the dialogue and scenes, make the whole thing a little melodramatically dated. Still, as such and with good performances by those four leads I mentioned, not to mention many of the supporting ones, Storm Warning is still pretty entertaining and worth a look for anyone curious about how such subject matter was treated in an era of censorship and post-war political atmosphere.