The Woman on Pier 13 (1950)

If you want a good movie about Commie rats in a plot to muck up the workers at the waterfront, be sure to see "Big Jim McLain" and skip this one because it's thoroughly pedestrian. The actors do a professional job but they're hobbled by their roles. Robert Ryan has turned in some exceptional performances in, say, "Dangerous Ground" or "Crossfire, but he can't do a THING here, as a former member of the Communist Party blackmailed into sabotaging talks between the union and the ship owners in San Francisco. He reluctantly keeps the arrangement sub rosa and it's driving his wife, Laraine Day, crazy because, well, "What's come OVER you?" Poor John Agar, never given to bravura acts, is seduced into holding Commie attitudes at the dock and for his sins the Commie chief, Thomas Gomez, has him run over flat on the pavement. These are the kinds of people who kill you if it advances their cause, so if you actually threaten they're cause, you're dead meat.The plot is okay but it's as if they'd dusted off some anti-Nazi screenplay from the back shelf and changed the Nazis into Commies. Robert Stevenson is the director and he must have been reading a manual on making a movie. When two characters are about to have a dramatic exchange, one of them walks towards the camera, stops, assumes a look of concern, and the other character walks up behind him and speaks to the other's back. The tactic involves all the skill of winding an old-fashioned alarm clock.Everything else about the production -- lighting, set dressing, photography, wardrobe -- lacks the slightest touch of poetry. There are some second-unit shots of San Francisco, including one of the long-gone International Settlement, which was fun in its day. But really, you're better off watching John Wayne give speeches and beat the crappola out of the subversive Commie rats in "Big Jim McClain." It's laughable, whereas this simply generates a sense of boredom and impatience.

Heavy Handed Propaganda that has the Communist Party Monstrously displayed as Pure Evil with a completely Inhuman and Soul Less "Stereotype". No shades of Grey and no concern for Anything or Anyone but the "Party", a term often Repeated in this Screenplay written at the Cusp of the "Mccarthy Era" and the HUAC "Witch Hunt" that would Ironically Indite Hollywood for being "Un-American".This Picture is actually just the Opposite, and uses Film for the most Blatant Anti- Communist Rhetoric found in the "Red Scare" Period coming out of Hollywood.Robert Ryan is Great as a Man trying to Escape His "Depression" and Hide the Fact that He joined the "Party" in His Youth suffering from Broken Dreams and Unemployment. He now has to Cover-Up the Indiscretion, changed His Name, tore up the Communist Card, and has become a Respected Citizen Haunted by the Past and the "Party".Lorraine Day, who figured in the Film's Original Title, "I Married a Communist", Plays the Wife. She is pushed to the Background most of the time as Her Husband fights the Blackmailing Thugs who Threaten Exposure, Intimidation, and Murder.The Third Act is a Dark and Shadowy Nightmarish Visual Vista complete with a Downbeat Ending fitting the most Cynical of Film-Noir. The Ridiculous Display of the "Reds" can be Overlooked because the Movie has so much More to Offer Fans of Noir and Students of Political Manipulation in the Post-War Cycle.

Considering what was happening on the world stage at the time this movie was made (i.e., The Berlin Airlift), it was becoming unfortunately clear that the Soviet Union was not an ally anymore and RKO probably thought this a timely subject. The cast is first rate and I found the narrative interesting. A couple of corrections from other postings: Lorraine Day was not lent out by MGM. Her contract ended in 1945 and she signed with RKO (on a non-exclusive basis)which was fortunate as it allowed her to illustrate her abilities as an actress in a much wider range of movie: "The Locket," "Tycoon," "My Dear Secretary," and this movie. The second correction is that this was not a "B" movie. It seems that a few reviewers confuse what they consider "B" content with how a movie is advertised/presented in its theater engagements; this was not a second feature. I also believe that RKO was every bit as proficient, stylish and accomplished in the movies they chose to make as was MGM. As for Robert Ryan, what can one say about this great actor that has not been said before.

Despite the slightly hysterical anti-Communist tone, this is a well-made and very well-acted thriller with excellent performances from most of the cast, especially Janis Carter and super-villains Thomas Gomez and William Tallman. John Agar and Larraine Day are also excellent in leading roles; the surprise weak link is Robert Ryan, who fails to bring his usual intensity to his part as a blackmailed ex-Red who can't leave the party. The cinematography is dark and moody, with good use of San Francisco backdrops. The script is not bad either, with a certain amount of very bleak humor which does little to soften the harsh view of most of the characters. Put politics aside and enjoy this noir-ish and entertaining movie!