the audience applauded

Some things I liked some I did not.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

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

It isn't often that I run into a Bette Davis film that I haven't seen, but when I do, it's a real treat. This time, however, Davis is only part of an ensemble, and the actors and actresses put together a wonderful story.The premise is rather simple -- a husband (Gary Merrill) who has walked out on his adulterous wife is on an air flight which has to make an emergency landing overnight (wow, was air travel primitive in 1952!) and gets to know three other passengers fairly well -- a stripper (Shelley Winters), a disgraced doctor (Michael Rennie), and a somewhat overbearing jokester salesman (Keenan Wynn). The next morning, after taking off again, the plane crashes, and of the four, only Merrill survives. Merrill then decides to contact each of the other's closest relative to tell them about their loved one's last hours. Rennie's son has run away thinking that his mother didn't love his father and drove him out...he solves that issue. Winters' second rate son-singer (Craig Stevens) and mother-in-law (Evelyn Varden)...well, let's just say that this segment is done in a very entertaining way. And finally, Keenan Wynn's wife is now a bedridden cripple...and she helps Merrill save his own marriage. I remember Gary Merrill mostly as a good television actor. The last time I saw him in a film ("Another Man's Poison), I thought he was so bad that I gave the movie a "1" rating. But here, in this film, I thought he was great, and of course, at the time he was married to Bette Davis. I've never been a fan of Shelley Winters, but she does "okay" here). I always felt Michael Rennie was underrated as an actor; he's good here. I never cared for Keenan Wynn, but he does his job here. Evelyn Varden is a hoot here! Beatrice Straight is a character actress I usually enjoy, but here I felt there was something forced in her performance as Rennie's wife. This film demonstrates why Craig Stevens was never much more than a B actor, despite his good looks. Bette Davis -- who doesn't get top billing here -- is good, although I did not find this to be one of her memorable roles. Interestingly, Hugh Beaumont (the father in "Leave It To Beaver" has a small, uncredited -- though important -- role here; I never understood why he wasn't a more successful character actor.I liked this film quite a bit. In a sense it was one of the very early disaster films!

This is one of the most constructive and elegantly contrived films ever made. It was directed by Jean Negulescu, but it is really Nunnally Johnson's film, who wrote it and produced it.Four people are united as a flight to L.A. gets into trouble by bad weather and is grounded twice, which wayward journey opens the curtain to four different fateful karmas. One is the doctor who once dodged his responsibility in a car accident with three deaths, turning his life into a lie and himself into an alcoholic. Then there is the failed singer (Shelley Winters) who after her final defeat wants to make up to the family she let down. Another one persecutes and pesters his fellow passengers with ridiculous practical jokes and thinks he is funny, while he is the real joker of the game. And you have the leading character, Gary Merrill, running away from his family after his wife deceived him.They are interwoven into a fantastic sieve of destiny which constantly moves you to higher human insights. Bette Davis also has a small part to play, you wait patiently for her until almost the end of the film, and yet she succeeds in crowning it.It's definitely one of the finest film scripts ever made, and all the director had to do was to follow it. The story needs very little adding to its qualities, and yet the actors actually gild it by small or no means, just acting naturally, as they really would have in such situations. One of the triumphs is Evelyn Varden as Sally Carr, an old dinosaur of a night club artist and manager bullying her son and dependents but running the show. Well, this is a film to always return to now and then for its vital lesson in human forbearance.

With a title such as "Phone Call From a Stranger" you may be expecting a Thriller or Noir. Even with the DVD box that was included in the "Bette Davis Centennial Collection", a major spoiler I give you is that the box and even the picture of the film poster here is very misleading. She is in the film, but not the main star and her screen time is very short.The film centers around Gary Merrill and the passengers of a plane. There is some very interesting character study here in the film, as the outcome of the plane ride leaves a man consuming his time to try and do good. The characters all have their personalities that make them charming, worth while, and even down right vulgar and annoying. This is actually a good idea for a plot centered around a drama, but in a way it feels rushed as a B movie and I hate feeling like they could have put more in it.Overall this isn't a bad movie, but it's certainly not a classic either. 6 out of 10.

Gary Merrill is heading out to a plane, having left his wife and two daughters. It will be a while before we find out why. While flying he encounters Shelley Winters as a washed-up actress, Keenan Wynn as a lovably obnoxious novelty salesman, and Michael Rennie as a doctor with something to hide. I'll stop there and just say that the drama gets quite compelling when flashbacks of the people I just mentioned comes into focus as we hear-whether true or not as one doesn't always get the facts straight-what these characters and others around them tells Merrill-whose character is a lawyer-in confidence. There's also some nice supporting turns among others especially Bette Davis when we find out about what her character is about. Oh, and having just seen Wally and the Beave's mom, Barbara Billingsley, in Three Guys Named Mike yesterday, what a wonderful coincidence to watch today her TV husband, Hugh Beaumont, as a fellow passenger riding in Rennie's car. So on that note, I highly recommend Phone Call from a Stranger. P.S. Having devoted these summer months to watching movies/TV appearances of the original "Dallas" cast in chronological order during the run of TNT's new "Dallas" presently airing, I'm quite amazed at how good the second Digger Barnes, Keenan Wynn, is in some of his performances I've seen so far with this one his best yet as he provides much comic relief with his turn as the novelty salesman always on but which later provides revealing hiding something that makes him even more lovable than what we see him as here.