A Forgotten and presumably lost Film Noir that finally
has been restored with the help of among others The
Film Noir Foundation. And a really cool film noir it is, with a great
Ann Sheridan on the run in San Francisco
searching for her lost husband, before the police or a gangster killer
reach him.
Also, there is great atmosphere, San Francisco almost always makes great
backgrounds to movies, the bird-
like old actor (Robert Keith) playing the inspector is really fine in
the role and the ending at the amusement park
pier with the roller-coaster was really cool and suspenseful.
How could a great film as this, and in the greatest film genre ever
created in the history of man, be so obscure ?
Eddie Muller, the King of the Commentaries, puts the blame on the the
obscurity of the director, the absence of
TV showings and lack of watchable prints. Almost no-one had seen or
knew about this film before Eddie Muller
and the Film Noir Foundation started the hunt for it. Great work !
I watched the Blu-ray disc of this combo edition
The Great Ann Sheridan (on the back of the booklet)
The Story:
Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) is taking his dog for a
San Francisco evening stroll when he accidently witnesses a
scuffle in a car leading to a man being murdered with a gun.The murdered
man was a "supposedly" protected
police witness in a upcoming trial against a gangster boss, and the
police's main and only witness.
The Crime squad arrives on the scene and as Frank has seen the killer
clearly he will be the "new" main witness.
But Frank isn't that happy about the situation and feels like a sitting
duck waiting for some assassins bullet, and
somewhat sneakily slips away in the dark.
Frank has been living in a marriage gone sour with his wife Elaine (Ann
Sheridan) and when the bitter Elaine is
told about her husbands escape/flight from the not so trustable police's
clutches, she decides to find him before
the police does ... or the Killer. And then we also have a woman on
the run.
Turnable sleeve
A Gangster murder with a witness hiding hunted by the
police and a killer sounds like an interesting story and
a yellow press media (sensations and trash focused) journalist, Dan
Legget (Dennis O'Keefe) manage to hook up
with her on her quest for her missing husband. He offers the couple
1000 USD for their exclusive story, when
they find him. But Where's Frank ? The Hunt takes place
in atmospherical San Francisco.
Format: 1.33:1 original fullscreen, mono english audio
with english subtitles (for the hearing impaired ... or the ones,
like me, that are no english speaking experts and sometimes like to
read the subs, also a great way in improving
your vocabulary) and with Extras:
A Commentary track by Eddie Muller, Woman on the Run revisited featurette
(17 min), Locations: Then and
Now, Noir City (about the Film Noir Foundation festival), stills gallery
and a Booklet with text and pictures.
The Bluray in region A and B, and the DVD in region 1 and 2