Phantom Lady (1944)

This is the blu-ray cover art from Arrow Video,
whose great transfew I watched. Arrow is a
great company that is really the "Criterion
Collection" for under-the-radar and cult films.

Director: Robert Siodmak

An odd but decent little B-grade noir flick.

The story goes something like this: a fairly well-to-do fellow, Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis), wanders into a bar late one night, after yet another row with his wife. He strikes up a conversation with a lady who also seems to be drowning her sorrows, and the two decide to make a night of it, though the woman purposefully never tells him her name. They do little more than go to a few bars and see a musical show, before Scott returns home and discovers the police there and his wife dead. When Scott tries to establish his alibi by leading the police to all the places he attended with the mysterious woman, nobody recalls his being with any woman at all. Henderson is locked up for murder, leaving his devoted secretary Carol (Ella Raines) to try and unravel the strange circumstances and try to save her boss.

Phantom Lady isn't great at too many things. The acting is mediocre at best, the dialog is rather forgettable when it's not laughably over-the-top, and the sets speak to a somewhat limited budget. But it does have one thing that can pull a viewer through an otherwise-run-of-the-mill affair: a solid plot hook and good pacing. In a rather tidy, brisk 87 minutes, the tale wastes no time in getting us right to the thick of things, with the murder and the bizarre mystery surrounding it laid out in little more than the film's first ten minutes. And the labyrinth of the dark underworld through which Carol seeks out those responsible for her boss's frame-up.

Despite a script that trying a bit too hard, resulting in some unintentional humor, director Siodmak knew how to shoot noir movie. It has so many of the shadows and askew camera angles that one might know from more famous films of the genre such as Out of the Past or Double Indemnity. This one certainly isn't up to the overall quality of those classics, but it definitely should satisfy fans of the genre.

This was one of those movies that I put on late one night, only planning to give about 15 minutes before giving up on it. Before I knew it, though, I was invested and quite willing to see it through. For anyone looking for a lesser-known crime noir flick, this one is worth a shot.