SUDDEN FEAR
US, 1952, 116 minutes. Black and white.
Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett, Mike Connors (Touch Connors).
Directed by David Miller.
During the 30s and 40s, Joan Crawford had her heyday as a star both in musicals as well as dramas and, especially, thriller-melodramas. She was to win an Oscar in 1945 for her portrayal of a mother from the wrong side of the tracks in Mildred Pierce. She was able to sustain this type of role until the early 50s with films like Harriet Craig, This Woman is Dangerous and Sudden Fear. During the rest of the 50s she made some well-known films like Johnny Guitar and Autumn Leaves. However, she then made a number of thrillers and horror films, joining with her arch-rival Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
While Joan Crawford usually gave an impression of absolute confidence, in this film she shines as a good woman, credibly falling in love and being disillusioned on discovering the truth. Her scene where she hears of the plotting against her shows her skills in performance and playing to the camera.
This is a lavish melodrama, a focus on a San Francisco wealthy playwright and her marriage to a struggling actor, played by Jack Palance. Palance, of course, turns out to be a villain (aided by Gloria Grahame) but Joan discovers their plot and uses her writing skills to thwart it.
Jack Palance was to have a long career, winning an Oscar almost forty years later for his performance in City Slickers. Gloria Grahame won an Oscar for best supporting actress the same year as Sudden Fear for The Bad and the Beautiful.
1. A successful suspense drama? Acclaim? Award nominations?
2. The film as a Joan Crawford vehicle, her reputation, her skill in defining characters? Her sympathetic presence in this film, the sudden fear and the change, her reliance on so many close-ups and reaction sequences? An effective performance?
3. Black and white photography, New York City, Broadway, San Francisco and the hills, the locations? Affluent society? Costumes and decor? Musical score and atmosphere?
4. The title, the effect on Myra on discovering the truth? On Lester and his realising that he was discovered? Killing Irene?
5. The portrait of Myra, nearly fifty, unmarried, her wealth, her attitude towards her wealth, wanting to work, to achieve something personally, the success of her plays, watching the rehearsal, her power, her listening to Lester, her wanting to fire him, her wanting a romantic idol? Saying that he could not be such an idol on stage? That women would not respond to him? Yet the irony that he did, with Myra?
6. Lester’s anger, his outburst on stage after his good performance? Resentment? His seeming change, the encounter with Myra at the station, on the train, drinks, talk, his charm, Myra infatuated, the meals together, the intimate talk? Chicago, sightseeing? Sharing with her, the arrival, the marriage? Myra transformed? Lester giving the appearance of being transformed?
7. Life in San Francisco, Lester’s charm, meeting people, family friends, the Kearney brothers? Going out with Myra? His tenderness? The issue of her will, Myra wanting to change the harshness of it, dictating the details of the will? Stopping and not turning off the machine?
8. Irene’s arrival, her type, appearance, her linking up with Junior? The revelation of her relationship with Lester? Unmasking him? The plans against Myra, the detail that the couple went into? The relationship with Lester and her frustration?
9. The foundation, the discussions, Steve and Junior and their helping Myra? Their advice, her will? Lester learning the terms of the foundation? The time limit before Myra signed the will? Lester and the discussions with Irene, in the office, the irony of it being recorded?
10. Myra, her help from Ann as her secretary? Hearing the record, her shock, hiding the record but its breaking? The panic, yet her being a playwright, developing scenarios?
11. Her fear, the collage of the imagining of the ways that Lester could kill her? Her decision about charming Lester? The holiday house? The previous visit to the house with the dangerous steps? Her change of attitude in dealing with Lester?
12. Lester becoming desperate, his plea with Irene, the different ways to kill Myra? The foolproof plan?
13. Myra, her writing out the various steps, her scenario like a play? Her imagining the plan going ahead, the death of Irene, Lester being blamed? The plan in reality, her fall, not going out? The gun and going to Irene’s house?
14. The note for Lester, the note for Irene? Their believing the notes? Myra going to the house, the drunk on the street, her fear in the house, looking at the gun, Lester realising she was there, her escape? Lester driving the car, her running away from him? The irony of Irene, leaving on time, leaving her purse behind, going back, on the street, dressed in a similar way to Myra, the deaths?
15. The theme of plans – and accidental changes to plans and their not working out as intended?
