The Woman on Pier 13 (1949)

Successful, newly married Brad Collins once belonged to the Communist Party of the USA, and now the Party will stop at nothing to use him.

Director:

Robert Stevenson

Writers:

Charles Grayson (screen play), Robert Hardy Andrews (screen play)

Stars:

Robert Ryan, Laraine Day, John Agar

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Laraine Day	...	Nan Collins
Robert Ryan	...	Brad Collins
John Agar	...	Don Lowry
Thomas Gomez	...	Vanning
Janis Carter	...	Christine Norman
Richard Rober	...	Jim Travis
William Talman	...	Bailey
Paul E. Burns	...	J.T. Arnold
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Ralston
G. Pat Collins	...	Charles Dover
Fred Graham	...	Grip Wilson
Harry Cheshire	...	J. Francis Cornwall
Jack Stoney	...	Garth

Storyline

Brad Collins, former stevedore, is rising fast in a shipping company when local communist agitators use his former Party affiliation to extort his help in stirring up trouble. When Brad resists, communist femme fatale Christine works through his brother-in-law Don. But Brad's new wife Nan sees that her husband and brother are under pressure; when she investigates on her own, party boss Vanning takes ruthless action.

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Plot Keywords:

damsel in distress | held at gunpoint | title changed during original release | communist agitator | extortion | 

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Taglines:

HIGH VOLTAGE MELODRAMA! (original poster-all-caps)

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 October 1950 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

I Married a Communist

Filming Locations:

Pacific Avenue, between Montgomery and Stockton Streets, San Francisco, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

73 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Opening credits: The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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Connections

Referenced in The Untold History of the United States: Chapter 4: The Cold War 1945-1950 (2012)

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Soundtracks

I Haven't a Thing to Wear
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Revel
[Played by the band at the Gay Paree nightclub]

User Reviews

You can't quit. They wont let you!

The Woman on Pier 13 (AKA: I Married a Communist) is directed by Robert Stevenson and collectively written by Charles Grayson, Robert Hardy Andrews, George W. George and George F. Slavin. It stars Robert Ryan, Laraine Day, John Agar, Thomas Gomez, Janis Carter, Richard Rober and William Talman. Music is by Leigh Harline and cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca.

Brad Collins (Ryan) was a one time member of the communist party. Now married and thriving in business, his world is turned upside down when the CPUSA come to seek him out for influential favours.

It wasn't easy for director Stevenson, what with RKO mogul Howard Hughes interfering as he forced home his anti-communist slant, so much so the whole pic comes off as an almost there type of piece. Casting aside that it's all a bit daft these days, with its red hysteria leanings (though it serves as a most interesting social document of the era), there's a number of tight scenes and enough moody atmospherics to keep this out of basement hell.

Characterisations are rich in noir traditions, a protag whose past is back to bite him, a slinky femme fatale, a dutiful wife in the dark, and villains of substance. Be it Gomez's weasel Commie boss stomping around like a malevolent tyrant or Talman's fairground working hit- man for hire, the latter with a dress code as mirthful as it is strangely unnerving, the baddies offer up some sort of balance in a screenplay that's not sure where it ideally stands. The violence hits hard, with shocking deaths, and in good dark noir style the finale holds court for the right reasons.

Add in a cast who don't let anyone down and the great Musuraca showing his photographic skills (though not as much as we would like), then it's a more than decent viewing experience. But the proviso is that you do have to let the propaganda go above your head to get to those decent rewards. 6/10