No Man's Woman (1955)

Carolyn Ellenson double-crosses five people who cross her path and is murdered by one of them. After marrying Harlow Grant for his money, she leaves him but carries on her infidelities so ... See full summary »

Director:

Franklin Adreon

Writers:

Don Martin (story), John K. Butler (screenplay)

Stars:

Marie Windsor, John Archer, Patric Knowles

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Marie Windsor	...	Carolyn Ellenson Grant
John Archer	...	Harlow Grant
Patric Knowles	...	Wayne Vincent
Nancy Gates	...	Louise Nelson
Jil Jarmyn	...	Betty Allen
Richard Crane	...	Dick Sawyer
Fern Hall	...	Virginia Gillis
Louis Jean Heydt	...	Det. Lt. Colton
John Gallaudet	...	Det. Sgt. Wells
Douglas Wood	...	Philip Grant
Percy Helton	...	Otto Peterson
Morris Ankrum	...	Capt. Hostedder
Paul Bryar	...	Sandy (the bartender)

Storyline

Carolyn Ellenson double-crosses five people who cross her path and is murdered by one of them. After marrying Harlow Grant for his money, she leaves him but carries on her infidelities so cleverly he can not divorce her. When Grant falls in love with Louise Nelson, art-studio employee, Carolyn demands a prohibitive cash settlement and large alimony payments. Then tiring of her art-critic lover, Wayne Vincent, who has jeopardized his own career touting her art-studio business, Carolyn leaves him to pursue Dick Sawyer and break-up his engagement to Betty Allen. All of these five people have motives for murdering Carolyn and the police choose Grant as the logical suspect. But another person comes forward to confess to the killing for personal reasons, but he didn't do it. The real killer feels secure but must remove the murder-weapon from the studio before the police discover it.

---

Plot Keywords:

lover | suspect | murder weapon | killer | engagement | 

---

Taglines:

RUTHLESS, SHAMELESS! - There Was Only One Way To Stop This Woman - MURDER! (original poster)

---

Genres:

Crime | Mystery

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 October 1955 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mulher Sem Alma

Filming Locations:

Republic Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Republic Pictures (I)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

User Reviews

Marie Windsor's "a witch...whichever way it's spelled"

As mysteries go, No Man's Woman runs in the league of those populous puzzles that fueled so many old Perry Mason episodes: a lot of suspects, one of whom will be fingered. But the movie preserves a starring performance by Marie Windsor, one of the all-time great broads of post-war poverty-row movies. She leads in more of them than one might think, most of them obscure (if not vanished) westerns, sci-fi cheapies, and crime programmers. But, top billing or not, we get to see less of Windsor in No Man's Woman that we might like – too many people want her dead.

Among them: her industrialist husband (John Archer) whom she won't divorce unless he forks over a ruinous settlement; his girlfriend (Jil Jarmyn), whose pleas Windsor coldly rebuffs; Windsor's art critic paramour/business partner (Patric Knowles), who writes puff-pieces for her gallery and gets fired for conflict of interest (today they'd call it `synergy'); her loyal young assistant (Nancy Gates), whose fiancé she blithely tries to steal; and the fiancé (Richard Crane), onto whose boat she invites herself in order to seduce then blackmail him.

Windsor, as one exchange between characters goes, is `a witch...whichever way it's spelled.' When her wicked-woman machinations have reached the boil, and just about everyone has indiscreetly remarked how they'd like to see her dead, a 3-a.m. intruder into her studio grants their wishes. And so the search for the murderer is on....

Much like the roles Joan Crawford at this juncture in her career was playing in A-productions, Windsor's character is that of an honey-voiced schemer hiding her self-interest beneath a facade of piss-elegance – with every petty victory, the huge orbs of her eyes flash with satisfaction. She was more memorable in The Narrow Margin and The Killing (better movies), but what she delivers makes one wonder why she never broke out of the B-movie ghetto.