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No Man of Her Own

Paramount Pictures

United States of America

English

Barbara Stanwyck

John Lund

Jane Cowl

Phyllis Thaxter

Lyle Bettger

Henry O'Neill

Richard Denning

Carole Mathews

Esther Dale

Milburn Stone

Griff Barnett

Harry Antrim

Catherine Craig

Jean Andren

Georgia Backus

Virginia Brissac

Ivan Browning

Ashley Cowan

Charles Dayton

Jimmie Dundee

Franklyn Farnum

Kathleen Freeman

Bess Flowers

Sumner Getchell

William Haade

Sam Harris

Thomas Browne Henry

Edna Holland

Esther Howard

Selmer Jackson

Stan Johnson

Richard Keene

Frank Marlowe

John Michaels

Helen Mowery

Forbes Murray

Gordon Nelson

Barry Norton

Steve Pendleton

Jack Reynolds

Kasey Rogers

Jean Ruth

Jeffrey Sayre

Emmett Smith

Bert Stevens

Phil Tully

Ray Walker

Willard Waterman

Dave Willock

Dooley Wilson

Alma Macrorie

Hugo Friedhofer

Mitchell Leisen

Richard Maibaum

Cornell Woolrich

Daniel L. Fapp

John R. Coonan

Frances Dawson

Earl Crowell

Claire Behnke

Gene Garvin

Gordon Jennings

Farciot Edouart

Erwin Newmeyer

Don McKay

Edith Head

Hans Dreier

Sam Comer

Wally Westmore

Dean Cole

Sally Benson

Catherine Turney

Henry Bumstead

Ray Moyer

Robert Ewing

Identity it's a crisis can't you see!

No Man of Her Own is directed by Mitchell Leisen and adapted to screenplay by Sally Benson and Catherine Turney from the novel "I Married a Dead Man" written by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, Jane Cowl, Henry O'Neill, Phyllis Thaxter, Richard Denning and Lyle Bettger.

Callously jilted by the man who has made her pregnant, Helen Ferguson (Stanwyck) survives a train crash and is mistaken for another woman, Patrice Harkness (Thaxter), who was killed in the crash. The woman, who she had befriended on the train, was also pregnant and recently married to a man who also died in the crash (Denning as Hugh Harkness). The rich Harkness in-laws, having never met Patrice, take who they think is Patrice into their home and even though Helen is tormented by her deceit, she spies an opportunity to give her child a grand life. But will she be found out? Will her past come to light with dire consequences?.  

Film noir styles meets melodramatic verve in what is still a riveting picture, even if the implausibility of it all is hard to swallow. Stanwyck gives it the whole shebang, carrying the film on her shoulders as she hits all the right emotive beats of a double characterisation that brings guilt, shame and conflict of interests. Lund is sadly bland as the Harkness sibling love interest, but the rest of the cast do sterling work, notably Cowl as the Harkness patriarch. Cowl would pass away the year of the film's release.

From a film noir perspective it's disappointing that the filmic finale is different to that of Woolrich's novel. However, the story of a destitute unmarried woman thrown a bone by the vagaries of fate is in true noir fashions - as is the turn of events when things go dark in the last third as the past comes knocking at the door of settled bliss in the form of Bettger's oily Stephen Morley. A love story, a survivalist story, one of blackmail, deceit and murder, lots going on in a hugely enjoyable entertainment. 8/10

No Man of Her Own - Trailer

No Man of Her Own (1950)

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No Man of Her Own

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Cast

Barbara Stanwyck

John Lund

Jane Cowl

Phyllis Thaxter

Lyle Bettger

Henry O'Neill

Richard Denning

Carole Mathews

Esther Dale

Milburn Stone

Box office

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