No Man of Her Own (1950)
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Lyle Bettger, and John Lund
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***
Ms. Stanwyck plays Helen Ferguson, a down-and-out woman with hardly a penny to her name who, while eight months pregnant, travels from San Francisco to New York City to see Steve (Lyle Bettger), her former boyfriend and father of her unborn child. He refuses to even open his door to her, but buys her a one way train ticket back to California. A devastated Helen boards the train where she meets the newly married Patrice and Hugh Harkness. The Harkness's are traveling to meet Hugh's parents whom Patrice, who happens to be seven months pregnant, has never met before. While the three strike up a nice friendship, things quickly go south when a horrible train accident leaves the Patrice and Hugh dead and, thanks to an odd stroke of luck, Helen being mistaken for Patrice. Although initially wary of being doted upon by the rich Harkness family, including Hugh's brother Bill (John Lund), Helen eventually gives in, realizing that pretending to be Patrice will help her provide great opportunities for her newborn son that she could have never given him.
I must say that I was absolutely intrigued by the story here. While it eventually falters a little bit as it dips into the noir aspects in its final act, the "case of mistaken identity" on display here seemed fresh despite being something we've all seen before in films. It's certainly helped by a very nice performance from Barbara Stanwyck who is able to escape (although perhaps just barely) the typical melodramatic performance "required" by this type of role in the '50s. Thanks to some nicely directed moments and a surprisingly nifty special effect in the first half hour that I actually rewatched to see its simple effectiveness, No Man of Her Own is a flick I heartily recommend to lovers of classic movies.
The RyMickey Rating: B
I stumbled across this movie tonight, also on Netflix. I wanted to see Meet John Doe and this was there. I'd never heard of it, either. But I really enjoyed it. Yes, it had a few problems and could have been a better movie, but Barbara Stanwyck is awesome in it and I loved how almost everything made sense. I can't think of a better mistaken identity film.
ReplyDeleteI will be honest...even though I only watched this five months ago, when I saw this comment pop up in my inbox, I didn't remember a thing about this movie. It's not that it was bad, but it's one of those that old flicks that was good, but not quite good enough to really remember.
ReplyDeleteThat said, as I look back on it, I remember thinking that the story was quite solid (although slightly corny with her ex coming back to try and sabotage her) and that Stanwyck was definitely solid in what seemed to be a slightly different, more subdued role for her.