PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER

US, 1952, 92 minutes, Black and White.
Shelley Winters, Gary Merrill, Michael Rennie, Keenan Wynn, Bette Davis, Evelyn Varden, Craig Stevens, Helen Westcott.
Directed by Jean Negulesco.

Phone Call from a Stranger might have been no more than a typical Hollywood concoction of a plane crash, mixed up lives and the solutions to the mix ups given by one of the strangers. In its story line that's what it is. However, it is saved and made above average by a humorous and often wise screenplay and some good performances.

Gary Merrill is the stranger of the title, a man with his own problems, who listens to those of others. The problems are fairly commonplace but still interesting. Shelley Winters gives an early version of a role she plays so well, the kindly tough blonde. Some of her lines are very good. Keenan Wynn plays an irritating travelling salesman who has the best line in the film, spoken to his paralysed wife who has left him, "Hi-ya, beautiful". Bette Davis is excellent as usual in a small role, but one which leads to solutions for the film.

Somehow or other, this film should have turned out a sentimental, forgettable story, but it does not. It remains close enough to reality to make it an enjoyable, and sometimes a moving film.

1. How long did it take for you to get interested in the characters? Did their situations help? Did the dialogue?

2. Was David Trask right in leaving his wife and children? Did his wife deserve this? Did he love her?

3. Did Trask's problem make him more sensitive to the others' problems?

4. Was the flashback technique well used or was it awkward, interrupting the film?

5. Could the theme of the film be adequately summed up as not judging people by appearances ? they are generally better than they seem?

6. Did you like Binky? Why? Was her character well drawn or was she just another goodtime girl failure? How did her capacity for reading people and worrying over their personalities show her character? Had she learnt the truth about herself, her husband and her mother-in-law in New York?

7. How did Sally Carr's behaviour contribute to our favourable opinion of Binky? Did you enjoy Sally's version of what happened at the club? Why? Why did David Trask invent the story of Rodgers and Hammerstein?

8. Was Dr. Fortness' story melodramatic? Why was he lonely? Do you agree with Trask's verdict that he was an innocent man in spite of his lie, because an innocent man would have enjoyed getting off and not felt lonely?

9. How did the car incident affect Mrs. Fortness and Jerry? Was Trask right in telling Jerry everything straight?

10. Did you find Eddie Hoke tiresome, overbearing? Why did he keep cracking jokes? Was he really happy?

11. Were you surprised when you saw Mrs. Hoke? What did you think? Why was the scene where Eddie's face appeared in the mirror and he said, "Hi, ya, beautiful", enough to make its point?

12. Was Mrs. Hoke right in saying that Eddie had taught her what love really meant? Why did her story affect Trask? She showed him how he was entirely self-centred and self-righteous. Was she right?

13. Did the musical score obtrude on the feel of the film with its melodramatic tones?

14. The happy ending?