ferbs54
I have just watched my second Robert Ryan movie of the week, and it was another goodie. The movie in question was 1950's "I Married a Communist," which was later given the more meaningless title "The Woman on Pier 13." In the film, Ryan stars as a successful San Francisco shipping executive who has just been married to Laraine Day. As a youth, he had briefly belonged to the Communist Party, and now, the thugs and goons from the party have returned to blackmail him and coerce him to do their bidding. They send a very attractive blonde member to corrupt his brother-in-law (John Agar, in one of his earliest roles), and things get very nasty before the film's taut 73 minutes are done. Thomas Gomez and William Talman add effortless slimy support as the Commie cell leader and hit-man, respectively, and director Robert Stevenson keeps things moving crisply. (Hard to believe that Stevenson later went on to direct such kiddie fare as "The Absent-Minded Professor," "Son of Flubber," "Mary Poppins," "That Darn Cat" and "The Love Bug," given the nature of this film!) The picture is beautifully, noirishly shot and features some surprisingly effective bursts of violence. My stomach was in knots with this one, I must tell you; it is a very effective exercise in suspense. Yes, the Commies ARE represented as ridiculously slimy hoods, but one must remember the time period in which this thing was created, by ardent Commie hater Howard Hughes. In all, a pretty underrated entertainment, and much recommended!
mark.waltz
Typical anti-red propaganda, made at the height of Hollywood's scary blacklisting chapter in its history. It's all because a promising businessman (Robert Ryan), once a registered communist under a different name, has been located by an old girlfriend (Janis Carter) and exposed to the big man (Thomas Gomez), even though he wants no part of them. Carter is now involved with the brother (John Agar) of Ryan's fiancée (Laraine Day) and is trying to convert him, even though he's a staunch democrat even if he is a bit liberal.This is actually pretty enjoyable even if the motivations in making it are extremely obvious. The commies are actually identifiable as human beings, not cartoonish like other anti-Communist films (in particular "The Red Menace" and "Big Jim McLain") where the message comes at you like a 3-D movie monster. There's some really horrific violence, pretty taut for a film made during the studio era, a sign that the production code was slowly loosing steam.
Howard_B_Eale
I MARRIED A COMMUNIST (aka THE WOMAN ON PIER 13) is a thoroughly reprehensible noir, wherein the "Communist menace" is depicted as a well-organized cabal of murderous agitators on the San Francisco waterfront, headed up by Thomas Gomez. The always-solid Robert Ryan stoops just as low as Gomez does by playing a "reformed" Commie who gets sucked back into the Party in order to do dirty deeds at the docks.One has to wonder just how much power Howard Hughes, who reputedly would "test" RKO contract players' loyalty by trying to get them to make this film, really held over his charges. After all, Ryan surely cringed his way through the production considering he was running roughshod over his own strong political views, and Gomez had only a year earlier brilliantly portrayed a small-time mobster with a conscience in Polonsky's FORCE OF EVIL.But the film holds sway over the viewer in large part due to the brilliant Nicholas Musaraca cinematography, filled with inky black shadows and harsh angles, and a crackling pace which almost makes you forget what tripe you are listening to. And as noted above, at least the Commies are depicted as intellectuals who throw interesting parties (and have Cubist art on the walls), even while they're faking suicides and throwing tied up people into the San Francisco Bay.
lynn-101
The Woman on Pier 13 is what this movie was really called, the I Married a Communist (1949) title did not set well with all of the black list investigations in the early 1950's. This film was not released until 1950. It kept one interested and I feel it was mainly because of character actor Thomas Gomez (1905-1971). He always was an interesting character in his other films like the Sherlock Homes series with Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce. You noticed I don't mention the other actors in this film, it's because Thomas Gomez as Vinning was the STAR.
AD
