Good movie but grossly overrated

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This low-budget gem is well-written, well-directed and full of surprises. Its story about a murder witness who goes on the run and then gets pursued by the police, his estranged wife and the killer is exciting, tense and sometimes humorous. The action's delivered at an exhilarating pace that's perfectly complemented by some sparkling dialogue that ranges from fast-talking wittiness to scathing sarcasm and there's also a few neat plot twists to enjoy.Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) is walking his dog one night at the entrance to a San Francisco park when he witnesses a gangland killing and gets shot at by the murderer. He escapes injury and when the police arrive on the scene, is informed by Inspector Martin Ferris (Robert Keith) that the victim was due to be a witness at an upcoming mob-related trial. After Frank admits that he could identify the killer if necessary, Inspector Ferris decides to take him into custody for his own protection. Horrified at this suggestion and nervous about the obvious danger he's in, Frank immediately disappears and goes on the run.Inspector Ferris turns to Frank's wife Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) for assistance but she's totally unconcerned about her husband and isn't inclined to provide any help, so the Inspector simply decides to put a tail on her. Later, when Eleanor learns that her husband has a heart condition and needs his medication to avoid a potentially fatal attack, she decides to track him down and is helped in doing this by newspaper reporter Danny Leggett (Dennis O'Keefe) who offers to pay the couple handsomely for an exclusive interview with Frank. Danny's friendly, charming and just as accomplished as Eleanor when it comes to exchanging witty repartee.Eleanor and Danny mostly manage to keep a few steps ahead of the police during their search and Eleanor gains an insight into some aspects of Frank's life that she wasn't aware of before. After receiving a letter from her husband in which he provides her with a mystifying clue to his whereabouts, Eleanor, together with Danny eventually goes to a beach-side amusement park where their search reaches its very eventful and violent conclusion.One of the pleasures of watching this movie is enjoying the ways in which the plot neatly avoids taking the course that seems most obvious from the set-up. For example, manhunt movies are normally seen from the point-of-view of either the police or the person being pursued. This movie avoids both options. Similarly, the romantic dimension of the story doesn't develop in the expected way and there's a superb twist, part of the way through which increases the tension brilliantly.There are also a number of minor incidents which provide amusing surprises such as the sequence during which Eleanor decides to escape from her apartment by the skylight and is helped out by Danny who then goes on to help her cross from the top of her own building to the adjoining one using a plank. After completing this tricky manoeuvre, her action in simply removing the plank before Danny can also cross is both bizarre and funny.Ann Sheridan's great ability to deliver cutting remarks is fully exploited in this movie but she also shows considerable subtlety in the way that she portrays the transition that her character makes from being an unpleasant woman who's become embittered by the apparent failure of her marriage. Dennis O'Keefe and Robert Keith are also good in their supporting roles.Scenes shot on location in San Francisco are used extensively and together with the film's exceptional cinematography do so much to give "Woman On The Run" its tremendous vibrancy, atmosphere and sense of place.

Ann Sheridan plays a bitter housewife who has a way with a curt one liner in this nifty little noir from 1950.Her husband is on the run after inadvertently witnessing a murder. The detectives are hounding his wife for clues about where he might be (she honestly doesn't know). Also hounding her is a reporter (Dennis O'Keefe) who wants to be first to the scoop. Or is he really a reporter? The film makes the bold move of letting you know early on that the reporter is actually the murderer, and he's slyly manipulating Sheridan into leading him to her husband so that he can bump off the only witness. O'Keefe plays against type, proving that his sardonic charm works just as well when cast as a bad guy as it does when cast as the leading man.O'Keefe is good, but Sheridan provides the biggest incentive for watching this one. Her, and a cleverly filmed nail biter of a finale that takes place on and underneath a carnival roller coaster.I don't know why the film is called "Woman on the Run," since the husband is the one who runs away and the woman doesn't even know she's in danger until the very end. Maybe I'm just missing the point or maybe the title really doesn't make sense because film noir titles almost never do.

Norman Foster did a fine job of directing Ann Sheridan and Dennis O'Keefe in "Woman on the Run," a 1950 film, somewhat low budget. Sheridan by this time was around 34 years old, and the cutoff for women in those days was 30. Soon she would be turning to television.In the story, Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) is out walking his dog Rembrandt when he witnesses a gangland hit. He goes on the run as the police desperately look for him, since he's their sole witness.They question his wife Eleanor (Sheridan) who has no idea where he is, and, since the marriage is on the rocks, she thinks he wants to get away from her as well. The police, headed by an Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith), starts following her, and she is bothered by a newspaperman, Danny (O'Keefe). She throws her hat in with him and the two work together to find Frank.Frank has left Eleanor some clues, and it's in those clues that Eleanor realizes one thing - Frank loves her, and if she can find him, she will try to make the marriage work.Very good noir, with the earthy Sheridan in fine form, with her dry delivery. O'Keefe was always a solid leading man, and he does a good job here. Always nice to see Victor Sen Yung, and you will recognize many television people who are in the film.Eleanor and Danny go all over San Francisco, which is fun to see in its post-war state. And the roller-coaster scenes are fabulous and tense. Good movie; see it if you can.

This is a noirish suspense film directed by Norman Foster, previously noted for JURNEY INTO FEAR (1943, with script by Orson Welles), and who had done numerous Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan films. The direction is very good, and it is a pity that Foster never made it to the big leagues but spent most of the latter part of his career directing for television, including 14 episodes of Zorro. This film features B stars Ann Sheridan and Dennis O'Keefe. Ann Sheridan was only 35 at the time this film was made, but she looked older and seemed very tired and lacking in spirit. Perhaps she was already ill, because she was later to die aged only 51, having made 96 films, which is enough to make anybody weary, I suppose. Earlier in her career she had been a sultry hot number who was known as the 'Oooomph girl' because she had the 'oooomph'. (That is obsolete forties slang for sex appeal.) In this film Dennis O'Keefe does not play a square-jawed upright detective as he often did, but a man posing as a journalist who is really a vicious killer. One weakness in the story line is that the police do not seem to realize that he is not a real a journalist, which is ridiculous, considering how active he is in chasing the case they are investigating and that they must have been familiar with all real journalists covering crime stories. The film was shot on location in San Francisco, so that there are many interesting shots of San Francisco as it was in 1950. The film has a dramatic opening. Sheridan's husband (played by Ross Elliott, who appeared in an amazing 243 film roles in his lifetime, dying at 82 in 1999) is walking his dog at night, having climbed up some high steps in the semi-darkness, and above him he sees a car drive up and park. The driver of the car shoots his passenger dead and dumps his body. The husband sees the killer's face and, being an artist by profession, is able to draw it and identify the man. The killer sees him and shoots at him, trying to kill the only witness of the murder. But he aims at the shadow rather than the man himself, so misses. The husband then disappears, leaving his wife (Sheridan) exposed to danger, hence O'Keefe befriends her and helps her to try to find her husband, who is in hiding. She naturally does not know that this apparently helpful and rather glamorous man, whom she prefers to the abrasive and irritating police officers, is really trying to find her husband so that he can kill him. She is thus unwittingly leading a killer to her own husband, and in the process is heedlessly disregarding all the wise cautions of the police. It makes for an exciting story, and there are several dramatic scenes, such as shots from a roller coaster at an amusement park. At one point, Sheridan is trapped on a car riding the roller coaster while below her she can see O'Keefe approaching her husband, and she has just realized that he intends to kill him. She screams warnings which no one can hear. This is all very dramatic stuff and well done. Although this is a B film, it is a superior one, and let's face it, some of us like B films, don't we?