IMDb > Crime of Passion (1957)

Crime of Passion (1957) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
6.5/10   379 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 17% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Gerd Oswald
Writers:
Jo Eisinger (screenplay)
Jo Eisinger (story)
Contact:
View company contact information for Crime of Passion on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
9 January 1957 (USA) more
Genre:
Crime | Film-Noir | Drama more
Plot:
Kathy is a smart and tough 1950's advice columnist at a San Francisco newspaper, with her name plastered on billboards all over the city... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
None Too Steamy more (21 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Barbara Stanwyck ... Kathy Ferguson Doyle
Sterling Hayden ... Police Lt. Bill Doyle
Raymond Burr ... Police Inspector Anthony (Tony) Pope
Fay Wray ... Alice Pope
Virginia Grey ... Sara Alidos
Royal Dano ... Police Capt. Charlie Alidos
Robert Griffin ... Police Sgt. James
Dennis Cross ... Police Sgt. Jules
Jay Adler ... Mr. Nalence
Stuart Whitman ... Laboratory Technician

Malcolm Atterbury ... Police Officer Spitz
Robert Quarry ... Sam, Reporter
Gail Bonney ... Mrs. London
Joe Conley ... Delivery Boy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Patricia Merlin ... Taxi Driver
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
84 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG
Company:
Robert Goldstein Productions more

Fun Stuff

Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: When Kathy runs her car into a pole she steps in front of the car to inspect the damage. The right front fender that bore the brunt of the impact shows it is still firmly attached. However any trace of the headlight including the hole where it would mount is missing. more
Quotes:
Kathy Ferguson Doyle: I hope all your socks have holes in them and I can sit for hours and hours darning them. more

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User Comments

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11 out of 15 people found the following comment useful.
None Too Steamy, 7 May 2002
6/10
Author: telegonus from brighton, ma

For a movie with the word passion in the title this modest 1957 noir wannabe never builds up a head of steam. It tells the tale of a successful San Francisco Dear Abby-type columnist who inexplicably falls in love with a taciturn, unambitious police officer from Los Angeles. After a whirlwind romance, these two lovebirds settle down to a life of dull domesticity in L.A. Though the woman has given up her writing career, she soon finds that she's too intelligent and ambitious to be a housewife. She encourages her husband to seek advancement in the police department, but politics isn't his thing. He likes being where he is. Rather than do the smart thing, and return to writing, the woman becomes a meddler, and in time gets into deep personal doo-doo.

There's nothing in this movie that hasn't been done before and better. It doesn't feel like an independent production from the late fifties but rather like an RKO thriller from six or seven years earlier. And not one of the better ones. Director Gerd Oswald has proved himself elsewhere to be at times a superb craftsman, but Jo Eisingers by the numbers script conspire with mediocre production values to defeat him. And down he goes. What makes the movie somewhat watchable is the acting. Barbara Stanwyck gives her all to the role of a career woman who, though smart enough, maybe lacks the experience to see that the average joe she falls for, though amiable in his gruff way, is simply not the man for her. I find her performance believable. As her hubby, the towering Sterling Hayden, he of the sullen expression and morose, inexplicably angry line readings, is likewise okay, though I sense that he's not always focused on his acting. I've seen him do tighter work. In a smaller but pivotal role Raymond Burr is his usual polite, somewhat impassive, inscrutable self, bringing authority and, well, weight, to his role as Hayden's superior. Interestingly, all three performers were nearing the end of a particular phase of his career. Stanwyck was soon to quit movies for television, and when she returned it was as a character actress. Hayden was just about to quit movies, too, though like Stanwyck he would go on to interesting things later. And Burr was soon to triumph on television as Perry Mason, leaving behind a decade's worth of good character work in film, of which this is one of the last examples.

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Left big city newspaper columnist job for this? kevin-bergin
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Where was the house? miriamwebster
All three wives a lot older than their respective husbands kevin-bergin
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