This is How Movies Should Be Made

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

If you love Marie Windsor, "The Narrow Margin" (1952) & "The Killing" (1956), you are certain to enjoy "'No Man's Woman." Here we see the statuesque beauty at her nasty best. Marie plays Carolyn Grant, a conniving, duplicitous,cheat who will do anything, short of murder, to get her way. She's highly successful too. Unfortunately, after double-crossing five people, one of them shoots her dead.The story is told in a linear format with no (or minimal) flashbacks. This alone makes it refreshing. Though Carolyn is "snuffed" about midway through the film, considerable screen time is devoted to the character and Marie takes the spot-light up to the point of her character's death.Carolyn has an arrangement with her husband. They live apart and he pays her an allowance plus the mortgage on her home. She also owns a gallery. You get the distinct impression that Carolyn was cheating on him, but it isn't clearly stated. Her husband, Harlow Grant (played by John Archer) has a new love interest, but Carolyn isn't about to give him up to divorce without a very lucrative settlement. This annoys both her ex and his new lady friend, Louise Nelson (played by Nancy Gates). Both now have a motive to get Carolyn out of the way.Add to this the fact that her business partner,Wayne Vincent (played by Patric Knowles) has just been fired and blacklisted as an art reporter for giving Carolyn far too much free advertising. Wayne asks Carolyn for help, but she turns him down because he's unemployed. Considering that his career was ended for helping her, Wayne is none too happy about Carolyn's attitude. Another "burn victim" with a motive.Finally, Carolyn goes after her assistant's boyfriend by inviting herself on a fishing trip with Dick Sawyer (played by Richard Crane). When her advances are rejected by Dick, Carolyn threatens to tell her assistant, Betty Allen (played by Jil Jarmyn) that Dick has been unfaithful. Dick rejects the threat and basically tells Carolyn that she's the nastiest woman he has ever met, and he has met quite a few as a soldier.We now have five people with sufficient motive to kill Carolyn.The police quickly determine that all five are prime suspects. It doesn't help that some lie about their whereabouts from the outset, that the husband was blind drunk and doesn't remember anything, and that three others have access to both the weapon and access to Carolyn's home.The second half of the movie is a straight up "who done it" with the expected plot twists and revolving prime suspects.It's certainly entertaining and the fact that the "flashback" device wasn't used makes it refreshing.This is a "B" picture though so don't expect any stand-out performances.

Marie Windsor stars as Carolyn Ellenson Grant, a nasty selfish lady. Her husband is desperate to divorce her, but she refuses and lives a completely separate life on his money. She also has a lover who she uses ruthlessly to get what she wants and along the way she decides to destroy a few lives for kicks. Eventually, she is killed and the police think the husband did it...not realizing practically EVERYONE had motives to do it! Can the poor hubby manage to prove his innocence?The first portion of the film is more enjoyable than the last...though it is overall a very good movie. Watching Windsor playing such a conniving and god-awful person is incredibly enjoyable and it's a part that Joan Crawford could have done well in at this time...though Windsor was quite convincing. Worth seeing...and a bit like film noir in many ways.

The wide eyed Marie Windsor has a blast in this deliciously fun B film noir as the long estranged wife of John Archer who refuses his settlement for a divorce when he falls in love with the sweet Nancy Gates. She then sets her eyes on Richard Crane, the hunky boyfriend of her naive assistant Jil Jamyn, utilize zing a fishing trip with him as an excuse for Jamyn to return her engagement ring. Slaps from Archer and a slap for Crane bring out more of the viper in Windsor, setting up plenty of motive for murder! Toss in Patric Knowles as Windsor's slimy art reporter lover, and the number of suspects expands greatly. This mixture of soap opera and film noir (with comic dialog filled with innuendo and bitchy asides) is plenty of fun, fully in tuned with Republic Pictures' ideal of even making the most of their glorious "B" films, the highest grade of programmers in the film industry. Windsor has a field day as this aging seductress, willing to seduce the husband she hates if it served a purpose. I'm grateful that they didn't cast Vera Ralston in the Windsor role as the high rating I give this would have been cut in half. I only wish that there was another 20 minutes of what lead to the separation of Windsor and Archer, but what's there in the 70 minutes is delicious fun.

***SPOILERS***Marie Windsor as gold digger Carolyn Grant is at her very best or better yet worst as she ends up destroying the lives of everyone that she comes in contact with before the laws of Karma-What comes around goes around- ends up catching with her and thus destroying her own. No one spills any tears over Carolyn's demise but it's up to the police lead the Capt. Hostedder played my the Morris Ankrum, the legendary "Eternal Colonel" himself, to find her killer who, in how meany people's lives that she wrecked, can be anyone within the city limits of L.A. We get to see Carolyn in action destroying the lives of those closes to her including Carolyn's long suffering husband Harlow, John Archer, whom she refuses to grant a divorce more to torture the poor guy then getting her greedy hands on his money whom he'd gladly give her just to get out of his life.As a side light Carolyn later destroys the warn and loving relationship of young Betty Allen,Jil Jamlym, and her fisherman boyfriend Dick Sawyer, Richard Crane, by tricking Dick, who tried his best to resist her advances, to take her on his boat as he left Betty out in the cold. It' later the Carolyn was gunned down that things in the movie really started popping. There was so many suspects in her murder that it made Capt.Hostedder's attempt of finding her killer an almost impossible task. That until the killer, someone else who got royally screwed by her, himself got a bit careless in retrieving a number of artifacts he left in her art studio that would have exposed him to the police.***SPOILERS***It at first was Mr. Grant that was the prime suspect in Carolyn's murder in that he told everyone he came in contact with including bartender Sandy,Paul Bryar,how he would love to knock her off even if it would end up with him being strapped in the San Quentin gas chamber. The guy didn't even have an alibi in where he was at the time of Carolyn's murder! He claimed that he was asleep dead drunk in his car parked outside his favorite bar. As things turned out the person who in fact murdered Carolyn should have been easy to spot by the police in that off all the people that she screwed out of everything important to them he ended up getting the very worst of it.