The Girl in Black Stockings (1957)

Director:

Howard W. Koch

Writers:

Richard H. Landau (screenplay)
Peter Godfrey (story)

Release Date:

24 September 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery

Tagline:

She's every inch a teasing, taunting "Come-on" Blonde.

Plot:

A party girl is murdered, and everyone at a Utah motel is a suspect.

Plot Keywords:

Utah | Motel | Lodge | Sheriff | Swimming Pool

Cast

Lex Barker	...	David Hewson
Anne Bancroft	...	Beth Dixon
Mamie Van Doren	...	Harriet Ames
Ron Randell	...	Edmund Parry
Marie Windsor	...	Julia Parry
John Dehner	...	Sheriff Jess Holmes
John Holland	...	Norman Grant
Diana Van der Vlis	...	Louise Miles (as Diana Vandervlis)
Richard H. Cutting	...	Dr. John Aitkin (as Richard Cutting)
Larry Chance	...	Indian Joe
Gene O'Donnell	...	Joseph Felton
Gerald Frank	...	Frankie Pierce
Karl MacDonald	...	Deputy Fred
Norman Leavitt	...	Amos
Stuart Whitman	...	Prentiss
David Dwight	...	Judge Ben Walters
Dan Blocker	...	Mike, the Bartender
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mark Bennett	...	Brackett (uncredited)
Mickey Whiting	...	Deputy Hib (uncredited)

Directed by
Howard W. Koch

Writing credits
Richard H. Landau		(screenplay) (as Richard Landau)
Peter Godfrey		(story "Wanton Murder")

Produced by
Aubrey Schenck	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Les Baxter

Cinematography by
William Margulies		(photography)

Film Editing by
John F. Schreyer

Production Design by
Jack T. Collis

Set Decoration by
Clarence Steensen		(as Clarence Steenson)

Makeup Department
Ted Coodley	....	makeup artist
Mary Westmoreland	....	hair stylist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Don Torpin	....	assistant director

Art Department
Arden Cripe	....	property master

Sound Department
Charles Cooper	....	sound re-recordist
Earl Cooper	....	sound editor
Joe Edmondson	....	sound mixer

Special Effects by
Louis DeWitt	....	special photographic effects
Jack Rabin	....	special photographic effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Herschel Brown	....	key grip
Ben Colman	....	camera operator
Joseph Edesa	....	lighting technician (as Joe Edesa)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Angela Alexander	....	wardrobe
Wesley Jeffries	....	wardrobe (as Wesley Jefferies)

Music Department
Sam E. Waxman	....	music editor (as Sam Waxman)

Other crew
Kathleen Fagan	....	script supervisor
Paul Wurtzel	....	production coordinator

Production Companies

• Bel-Air Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1957) (USA) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• The Pink Poodle, Kanab, Utah  costume
• The Pink Poodle, Kanab, Utah  women's clothes

Also Known As:

"Black Stockings" - USA (alternative title)
"Wanton Murder" - USA (alternative title)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #18281)

Filming Locations:

Kanab, Utah, USA

Company:

Bel-Air Productions

Trivia:

This movie was filmed in and around Parry Lodge in Kanab, Utah. This lodge was opened in the early 1930s by the Parry brothers, as a place in which to lodge Hollywood film crews who came out to that area of Utah to film some of the early westerns. Over the years many famous movie stars have stayed at this lodge.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Bikers, Blondes and Blood (1993) (V)

Soundtrack:

Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550

One Of a Kind

This late fifties whodunit has some interesting credits. It was directed by the able and eclectic Howard Koch, and features three quite different actresses in major roles,--Mamie Van Doren, Anne Bancroft and Marie Windsor. Suave character man John Dehner is cast as the local lawman; ex-Tarzan Lex Barker is the male lead; Stuart Whitman and Dan Blocker have small roles; and Barker wrote the music score. This is the only movie I have ever seen that features a murder suspect who is a bitter, woman-hating man, psychosomatically paralyzed from the neck down, who can't even pour his own drinks or light his own cigarettes. Ron Randell plays him marvelously, and had the film been directed by Ingmar Bergman would surely have won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. I wouldn't quite call this movie trashy, but it has a trashy feel to it, as it comes across in some ways as a sort of Southwest version of Peyton Place crossed maybe with Anatomy Of a Murder, the small-town black and white mood of which it strangely anticipates. Everyone in this movie has a secret. The question is, whose secret is murder? The pacing isn't strong here, and the dialog is variable. William Margulies' photography is excellent, however; and the settings,--the motel resort and small desert town--are perfectly realized. There is a nice feeling for people whose lives have fallen just short of the big time, and who are angry about it. As a result, more than in most movies, everyone seems more than capable of being a killer. I especially like the sense of isolation in the film, and with it the edge of danger. As with so many crime pictures of its era, it seems to be trying to say something about American life, and how materialism and ambition are destroying it. With its acerbic invalid in one corner, and its muslceman in the other, and all the beautiful women gallivanting about and making life miserable for everyone, this one, with sharper writing and a sense of the absurd, might really have risen and become an Antonioni-like commentary on the American Dream. As it stands, it doesn't come close, though some of its characters and images linger in the mind long after its over.