Watch Woman on the Run For Free

Good movie but grossly overrated

From my favorite movies..

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The best thing Ann Sheridan ever did; and she made a lot of films. Nice dialogue by Ross Hunter and wonderful finale. Reminded me of Ride the Pink Horse and The Third Man. Rest of the cast, particularly the police chief, are very good. Very tight screenplay, and a great twist. It is safe to say they seldom make them as good as this anymore. Don't miss it..

An interesting story with a convulsive finale: Frank Johnson, who walking his dog unvoluntarily becomes the witness of a murder, doesn't want anything to do with the police, so he is the real one on the run. As he absconds, the police set on his wife instead, who cannot help them, as she actually knows nothing about her husband: a curious marriage, one might say. He is even reluctant to admitting she is his wife, and when asked if he is married, he answers only vaguely, like "sort of". Thus Ann Sheridan becomes the lead and completely domintes the film, as she also is hounded by the police for being married to an escaped eyewitness, but she shakes them all off, except one reporter, who never lets her alone. His shadowing her ends up in a situation that must be described as the worst possiblke you could ever find yourself in alive and with no way out. The film is worth seeing only for this very dramatic finale, which you will never forget. It's actually a B-film, but the finale lifts it up many categories.

In San Francisco, Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) witnesses a murder while walking with his dog. Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith) is in charge of the investigation and offers protection to Johnson to identify the killer and testify in court. Johnson flees from the police and Ferris brings his wife Eleanor Johnson (Ann Sheridan) to help him to find Johnson and convince him to testify in court. However, he finds that they have an unhappy marriage and Eleanor does not want to help him. Meanwhile the journalist Dan "Danny Boy" Legget (Dennis O'Keefe) offers a large amount for an exclusive interview with Johnson for his tabloid. While seeking Johnson out with Legget, Eleanor rekindles her love for her husband. What she does not know is that Danny Boy is the killer Johnson is trying to escape."Woman on the Run" is a great film-noir where the wife is not evil or the femme fatale. The title is strange since it should be "Man on the Run". Although having a predictable plot point with the identity of the killer being disclosed, the film is highly attractive. It is great to see Eleanor Johnson falling in love again for her husband with magnificent performance of Ann Sheridan. The roller-coaster scene is tense when Eleanor realizes who Legget is. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Na Noite do Crime" ("In the Night of the Crime")

Just about everybody who writes about this film mentions the pleasant surprise it turns to to be, a film largely forgotten and still in need of a decent commercial transfer. There are many reasons to be thrilled: the dialogue, by Alan Campbell and director Norman Foster is quirky, salty, and unexpected coming from star Ann Sheridan, playing the woman whose husband is on the run, hiding in fear for his life after he witnesses a murder. Sheridan's Eleanor is bitter, cynical and wants to be let alone, but is trailed about by Inspector Ferris and a newspaperman in search of a good story....and that's about all you should know about the plot if you want to experience the various surprises in this quirky tale.It is filmed on-site in 1950's San Francisco, with views of Washington Square, Grant Avenue, Merchant Street (where the city morgue used to be) and the interior of one of the Chinese night clubs that used to pepper lower Grant Avenue; The roller-coaster finale, logically, should have been filmed at Playland At The Beach, still extant then, but was not (I was fortunate to be around then, and this wasn't Playland). Instead, the filmmakers chose Santa Monica Pier was probably for the effect a larger roller-coaster could create for a hysterical finale.Note for San Franciscans: there is a Laughing Sal featured during the climax, cackling insanely, a large life-sized mechanical doll featured at Playland, but perhaps she was shot there and just was into the rest of the film, closing out the titles. Another reason to enjoy the film is the grand assortment of familiar actors, including lead Dennis O'Keefe and familiar characters John Qualen ("Muley" in The Grapes of Wrath), J. Farrell McDonald, Frank Jenks and Ross Elliot. This tidy little noir would be perfect as a Weekend Triple Feature Noir Festival, along with The Lineup (1958, which also features Robert Keith, but this time as a twitchy criminal) and The Sniper (1952) both of which feature unusual and authentic San Francisco location shooting. Both of these films are available in crystal clear wonderfully articulated prints--let's hope the same soon for Woman On The Run.