Female on the Beach
| Female on the Beach | |
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| Directed by | Joseph Pevney |
| Produced by | Albert Zugsmith |
| Screenplay by | Robert Hill Richard Alan Simmons |
| Based on | the play The Besieged Heart by Robert Hill |
| Starring | Joan Crawford Jeff Chandler |
| Music by | Joseph Gershenson |
| Cinematography | Charles Lang |
| Edited by | Russell Schoengarth |
| Distributed by | Universal-International |
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Release dates
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Running time
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97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Female on the Beach is a 1955 American film noir thriller starring Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler in a story about a widow and her beach bum lover. The screenplay by Robert Hill and Richard Alan Simmons was based on the play The Besieged Heart by Robert Hill. The film was directed by Joseph Pevney and produced by Albert Zugsmith.[1]
Contents
Plot
Lynn Markham (Crawford) visits a beach house that once belonged to her dead husband. There, she meets real estate agent Amy Rawlinson (Jan Sterling) and Drummond "Drummy" Hall (Chandler), an attractive beach bum who wanders in and out of the house as though he owned it.
Lynn learns the house was once rented to Eloise Crandall (Judith Evelyn), an older woman whose cause of death (suicide, accident, or murder) remains undetermined. Lynn later discovers "Drummy" is the accomplice of card sharps Osgood and Queenie Sorenson (Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer), and that he heartlessly pursued Crandall in order to set her up for card games with the Sorensons. Lynn's physical attraction to Drummy is overpowering and she marries him. Events on their honeymoon lead Lynn to believe he murdered Eloise. It transpires, however, that Amy Rawlinson killed Crandall because she wanted Drummy for herself.
Cast
- Joan Crawford as Lynn Markham
- Jeff Chandler as Drummond Hall
- Jan Sterling as Amy Rawlinson
- Cecil Kellaway as Osgood Sorenson
- Judith Evelyn as Eloise Crandall
- Charles Drake as Police Lieutenant Galley
- Natalie Schafer as Queenie Sorenson
- Stuart Randall as Frankovitch
- Marjorie Bennett as Mrs. Murchison
Production
The script was based on an unproduced play.[2]
Reception
Critical response
Film critic Bosley Crowther gave the film a mixed review, writing, "Their progress is rendered no more fetching by the inanities of a hackneyed script and the artificiality and pretentiousness of Miss Crawford's acting style. At the end, the guilty party is revealed in a ridiculous way. Jan Sterling, Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer are the supporting players you may remotely suspect."[3]
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). Female on the Beach at IMDb.
- ↑ BREEN IS RETIRED AS MOVIE CENSOR: At Own Request, Director of Code Leaves Office -- Chief Aide Successor By THOMAS M. PRYORSpecial to The New York Times.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 15 Oct 1954: 18.
- ↑ Crowther, Bosley, film review The New York Times, August 20, 1955. Accessed: July 4, 2013.
