The Woman on Pier 13

                                 
Director: Robert Stevenson
Year:  1949
Rating: 6.0
Aka - I Married a Communist

This noir/propaganda piece is from a different time and can be best enjoyed as a tough hitting nostalgia souvenir. Back in 1949 - a time when the Red Scare began in America, Communism was on the march to world-wide domination, Commies were used to threaten children to behave at night, Congress was investigating the backgrounds of people and making them rat on other Communists. Careers ruined all in the name of patriotism. People and politicians accused of being soft on Communism. Back in the 1930s during the Depression a lot of Americans joined the Party, but later became disillusioned and left - but their party card was always on file for the FBI to discover. In some cases it followed them all their lives.



That is the real-life atmosphere that this film was made in at RKO. The title I Married a Communist was the original till it polled badly and so was changed to The Woman on Pier 13, which in truth doesn't make a lot of sense. Hollywood was one of the industries most impacted by the Red Scare and Howard Hughes who ran RKO at the time was as anti-Communist as a Howitzer aimed at Stalin. So he used this film as a loyalty test - he offered the script to a number of directors to see if they would accept it and if not he knew where they stood - most turned it down or the story goes. It could easily have been the script which has the nuance and subtlety of a crashed car on fire.



At any rate, British director Robert Stevenson took it on with a few fine films on his resume - King Solomon's Mines (1937), Tom Brown's School Days, Dishonored Lady with Hedy Lamarr and Jane Eyre with Orson Welles. Later after doing TV for a number of years he directed one of my favorite films as a child Darby O'Gill along with many other classic children's films - Old Yeller, Johnny Tremain, Love Bug, The Absent-Minded Professor and let's not forget that one about a nanny with an umbrella, Mary Poppins.


This one was before his deep foray into children's films of which he was very successful. It has a neon anti-communist sign hanging from every pore of it but the Communists in the film don't spout any anti-Capitalistic jargon or pull out a copy of Das Kapital - they are just ruthless and despicable thugs. Willing to use anyone or kill anyone to advance their cause of mayhem. Efficient like a well-oiled machine with willing patsies everywhere. Thomas Gomez who plays the head of the San Francisco cell is terrific as a man on a mission without a bit of sentiment or pity anywhere in his body. You are either useful to the Party or you are not. When you are not, you are disposable.



Brad Collins (a steely Robert Ryan) finds himself in their clutches. He was a member years ago but got out - now they are dragging him back in with what they have on him. He has a good job in senior management in a shipping company and is newly married to Nan (Larraine Day). He may not be a Communist anymore but he sure is a male chauvinist - at least by today's standards. Larraine Day must have been used to that though - brought up as a strict Mormon she shocked everyone by marrying tough guy baseball manager Leo Durocher (officially before his divorce went through), who was not known for his politeness to anyone. When Durocher managed the New York Giants (he was the manager when Bobby Thompson's Shot Heard Around the World occurred), she actually did a pre-game radio show interviewing players. She seemed like the square deal. They stayed married for 13 years (I just read a biography on Durocher so thought I would throw that in!). Another well-known face as a Commie enforcer is William Talman, best known as Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason.



Another one of Gomez's Communist henchman is very far from your typical henchman - the sexy, blonde and seemingly wealthy Christine (Janis Carter) who tries to recruit Nan's gullible brother (John Agar) and uses kisses as her inducement. That works better than a recruitment flyer. All these strings collide one night - the film doesn't spend much time on character development or scenery - it moves along briskly like a chilly morning run. 73 minutes.