Susan is in the hospital with a bullet near her heart. Marian has told the police that she shot Susan in a rage as Susan was giving up singing. Marian and Luke found Susan when she was a ...
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Title: A Woman's Secret (1949)
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Cast
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Maureen O'Hara | ... | Marian Washburn | |
| Melvyn Douglas | ... | Luke Jordan | |
| Gloria Grahame | ... | Susan Caldwell | |
| Bill Williams | ... | Lee | |
| Victor Jory | ... | Brook Matthews | |
| Mary Philips | ... | Mrs. Fowler | |
| Jay C. Flippen | ... | Fowler | |
| Robert Warwick | ... | Roberts | |
 |
Curt Conway | ... | Doctor |
| Ann Shoemaker | ... | Mrs. Matthews | |
| Virginia Farmer | ... | Mollie | |
| Ellen Corby | ... | Nurse | |
| Emory Parnell | ... | Desk Sergeant | |
Edit
Plot Summary
|
Add Synopsis
Storyline
Susan is in the hospital with a bullet near her heart. Marian has told the police that she shot Susan in a rage as Susan was giving up singing. Marian and Luke found Susan when she was a failure. A singer with a limited range, she was a diamond in the rough which Marian and Luke taught how to walk, dress and talk. With the singing lessons, Marian had hoped that she would have the career that Marian would have had if she had not lost her voice. Even though Susan is a scatterbrain girl, Luke does not believe that Marian would have been capable of shooting her. Luke hopes that Detective Fowler will be able to find out the truth and free Marian. Written by Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Parents Guide:
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See full technical specs »
Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
7 February 1949 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Mortgage on Life See more »Company Credits
Show more on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)Color:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1
Edit
Marian Washburn: Picketing?
Luke Jordan: No, I just won't have enough dough to buy a ticket
Marian Washburn: Oh, That be easy to fix, I just have you wait sit in my dressing room. Then maybe I'll have you get rid of the people that'll be waiting for my autograph
Luke Jordan: Make way of Ms. Washburn
Marian Washburn: Then I let you pinch so I can wake up.
See more »
(uncredited)
Written by Manuel M. Ponce
Sung by Gloria Grahame (dubbed by Kaye Lorraine)
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
This film was a flop at the box office, resulting in a loss of $760,000 ($7.7M in 2016) for RKO according to studio records. See more »Goofs
During the "incident" at the beginning of the film the shadow of the boom mike is visible in the reflection of the mirror. See more »Quotes
Luke Jordan: You know one of these days you're going to be singing that song on Broadway and I'm just going to be walking up and down the theater.Marian Washburn: Picketing?
Luke Jordan: No, I just won't have enough dough to buy a ticket
Marian Washburn: Oh, That be easy to fix, I just have you wait sit in my dressing room. Then maybe I'll have you get rid of the people that'll be waiting for my autograph
Luke Jordan: Make way of Ms. Washburn
Marian Washburn: Then I let you pinch so I can wake up.
See more »
Crazy Credits
Opening and closing credits are displayed on a page of sheet music. See more »Soundtracks
Estrellita(uncredited)
Written by Manuel M. Ponce
Sung by Gloria Grahame (dubbed by Kaye Lorraine)
See more »
With elements of All About Eve, Mildred Pierce and Trapeze in it, A Woman's Secret hardly rates as being as good as one of the three films mentioned. Maybe the title is wrong, there really is no secret about anything here.
If A Woman's Secret has earned any place at all in cinema history it's because director Nicholas Ray met and fell for Gloria Grahame on the set of this film. He became her second husband.
As for the film, retired singer now manager Maureen O'Hara has a quarrel with her protégé Gloria Grahame. Later on when Grahame is shot and critically wounded, O'Hara is brought in for questioning.
Composer and critic Melvyn Douglas in a character based on parts of Alexander Woollcott, Clifton Fadiman, and Oscar Levant just simply doesn't believe the whole thing. He lobbies vigorously on O'Hara's behalf with investigating detective Jay C. Flippen. But it's Flippen's wife, Mary Phillips, who actually finds the key. The answer is really rather obvious, but it's how the story is unraveled that's the key to the film.
Nicholas Ray went on to direct a whole lot better films and the suspense factor just isn't there for me in this one. The very professional cast go through their required paces. Others in the ensemble include Victor Jory as a criminal attorney that Douglas brings in for O'Hara who knows both of them and Bill Williams, a former GI who was to marry Grahame.
With their only being a small amount of alternate probabilities other than O'Hara trying to commit murder, there's not much of a secret to A Woman's Secret.