WOMAN IN HIDING (1950)

Deborah Clark (Ida Lupino, at right), looking scared, is driving recklessly at night when her car goes off the road and lands in the river. Emergency workers search for her body to no avail. That's because she's alive up in a wooded area, watching all the fuss. We learn that Deborah was on her honeymoon with Selden Clark (Stephen McNally), but feared that he was plotting to kill her. In an extended flashback, we learn that Deborah's father John Chandler (John Litel) owns a mill which is managed by Selden, a handsome but brutish young man who has his eyes on Deborah, mostly because she's the boss’s daughter. They date but not seriously until one day when Deborah's father falls to his death at the mill in what seems to be a tragic accident. On the day of the funeral, Selden proposes and Deborah accepts. When they arrive at a honeymoon cabin in the woods, who should greet them but Selden's out of town ex-mistress Patricia, who lives in Raleigh and implies that, in the past, she has spent canoodling time with Selden in the cabin. She also plants a seed suggesting that Selden had a hand in the death of Chandler. Deborah decides to leave him and have their marriage annulled, but Selden warns her that he married her to get ahold of the mill and will do anything to do so. That night, in a tense well-done scene, Deborah sneaks out of the cabin and into the car, then discovers on the road that the brakes have been cut. Which brings us back to the start of the film, with Deborah assumed dead but on the run, and Selden suspicious that she is still alive.

The second half of the film centers on Deborah trying to get to Raleigh to find Patricia whom she hopes will tell her story to the authorities. While on the road, Deborah meets up with ex-soldier Keith Ramsey (Howard Duff) who wants to help this clearly distraught woman. Meanwhile, Selden, after Deborah's body was never found, puts ads in newspapers asking for help to find her. The well-meaning Keith contacts Selden who comes to Raleigh determined to have her sent off to an asylum. Deborah does find Patricia, and the climax is a chase scene at the mill involving all four principals, with Selden wanting to kill Deborah like he killed her father. Advertised as noir, this is more a crime melodrama with little visual style (from journeyman Michael Gordon) but good plot twists and performances. The tension is effectively sustained throughout. Lupino is fine as the damsel in constant distress, and Duff is quite effective as her would-be rescuer; they have good chemistry and the two were married in real life a couple years later. Peggy Dow is fine in the small but important role of Patricia. Unexceptional but solid entertainment. [Criterion Channel]