Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This film is wound a bit too tight for its own good. Mostly because of the incredibly intense performance from Ida Lupino who manages to almost melt the screen. It is a relentless one-note onslaught of jangled nerves and jitters.What's needed here is a contrasting scene or two to let things settle a little. There are some good moments but the anxious anxiety quickly destroys the drama and we are off to the races once again. The hotel convention scene is almost unbearable in its loud and ridiculous rendering of a confrontational setup that is suppose to be suspenseful and claustrophobic.The ending looks ominous enough and the factory setting has a film-noir feel that is missing in most of the film and the subtlety of shadows would have been a welcome relief from the persistent, pulsating, and predictable performances.

This movie was going really good, and I do love Ida Lupino, but after Deborah flees her her husband on their honeymoon; it is a down hill mess. Everybody besides the husband thinks that she's dead, he goes to search for her to make sure that she actually is dead shortly after the "accident", he wants to make sure that she never tells about him having possibly murdered her father in order to marry her and get control of the mill. This is something that she learns from his supposedly ex-girlfriend on their honeymoon. What bugs me is that while he is searching the woods for her with his flashlight, she keeps getting up from her hiding spot and moving around and making noise. Can't she just wait until she's sure he's gone? Every time she steps on a branch he comes back to look again, but she keeps making noise! Obviously if Deborah had an ounce of sense she would go straight to the police when she's able, but it's just as obvious that she can't do that because then there would be no movie. Deborah is an idiot. She meets a man who works at a newspaper stand who is even stupider than she is. This guy eventually thinks he recognizes her from the newspaper articles that the husband had written up offering a big cash reward for her return; since they didn't find a body he can't rest until he's sure she won't be trouble. The newspaper guy follows Deborah around getting to know her, or at least the fake her otherwise known as Ann Carter. She's going to hide out until she can find the ex-girlfriend to corroborate her story about the husband being a murderer instead of going to the police! The nice newspaper guy thinks that he's helping by calling the reward number and telling the husband that Deborah is indeed alive and is mixed up and confused and needs help. What business is this of his? Why would you do that? It wasn't about the reward. So the husband finds Deborah and tries to kill her but fails. Finally Deborah tells newspaper guy that she's on the run from crazy husband and needs his help. What does he do? He calls the husband again and sets Deborah up! She thinks they are getting on a train to escape but the husband is waiting for her on the train, she has been hand delivered by the helpful newspaper guy; otherwise known as meddling idiot. Of course not shortly after newspaper guy realizes his mistake and tries to fix things. More nonsense ensues. The ex-girlfriend is now back with the husband and sets Deborah up to be killed at the mill. The ex-girlfriend is accidentally killed by boyfriend who thinks he's killing his wife. Then he kills his on self by accident. Every main character in this stupid movie deserved to die! How Deborah could take up with the newspaper guy in the end is beyond me, but Deborah is slow and stupid so I should not be surprised.

As in almost all of these suspenseful melodramas from the '50s, there are certain lapses in logic throughout WOMAN IN HIDING that had me shaking my head in disbelief. Some of the choices that Lupino makes as the vulnerable heroine are too foolhardy to be believable, but once the plot starts rolling there's no turning away.A particularly bad choice is the scene where she casually gets into a car with Peggy Dow, a scorned woman who is leading her into a trap which brings her right back to the man (Stephen McNally) she is hiding from at a dark and sinister mill.But despite such motivational flaws, the film manages to be a better than average melodrama with all three leads--Ida Lupino, Howard Duff and Stephen McNally--giving expert performances.Most effective aspect is the tight pace of the story and the film noir look of the B&W photography. Ida Lupino gives another one of her tense performances as she gets caught up in the excessive manipulations of McNally who is intent on killing her to inherit her father's mill. Howard Duff tries to help once he understands her fears and from that point on the story leaps forward to a satisfying ending involving a trick later used to good effect in Joan Crawford's "Sudden Fear." Not a great film, but a satisfying "lady in distress" melodrama.

Selden Clark, the ambitious manager of a mill in North Carolina, has an interest in getting the business, something that the owner, John Chandler, would never agree to do. Instead, Selden, who has an affair going on with the pretty Patricia Monahan, decides to get rid of his boss by killing him in what appears to be an industrial accident at the plant. Selden then makes a play for Deborah Chandler, the daughter who never liked him, capitalizing on her vulnerability at a crucial time in her life.As the two get married, Selden proposes a honeymoon up in the mountains. His sole purpose is to kill her as well, thus getting the business all to himself and restart his affair with Patricia again. To Selden's surprise he, and his new bride, find Patricia waiting for them in the cabin. Patricia tries to kill him without success. Things do not go well with his plan to kill Deborah, as she manages to survive the accident her new husband provoked when he rigged the car brakes. Selden, who senses Deborah survives the accident, and is still alive, when her body never surfaces, decides to offer a reward to anyone that will know her whereabouts.Deborah ends up in Raleigh trying to find Patricia Monahan, to prove that Selden tried to kill her. In the process, she attracts the attention of Keith Ramsey, a former soldier that is working his way to California. When he sees her photograph in a pictorial magazine, Keith gets interested because he has seen Deborah at the newsstand where he is employed. Thinking he is doing her a favor, he calls Selden, who gets confirmation that she is still alive.Michael Gordon directed "Woman in Hiding", which is based on a novel by James Webb. The material was adapted by Oscar Saul and Roy Higgins. The result is a satisfying film that is seldom seen these days. We were lucky in watching a pristine print recently shown on a cable channel, a DVD transfer, probably. This satisfying drama relies on the strength of the cast that makes it worth a look by serious fans of the genre. Ida Lupino, always delivered, as it is the case here. Her Deborah proves to be a likable heroine because the viewer identifies with her plight. Stephen McNally does a fine job with his Selden, a bad guy that does not get any sympathy. Howard Duff appears as Keith and Peggy Dow as Patricia Monahan.Veteran cinematographer William Daniels captures in vivid images the work of Michael Gordon. "Woman in Hiding" will not disappoint.