Film Forum

U.S., 1952
Directed by Fritz Lang
Starring Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan
Approx. 105 min. 35mm.

Naive Monterey fisherman Paul Douglas’ marriage to Barbara Stanwyck and her emotional baggage goes sour when she falls for embittered protagonist Robert Ryan, leading to a battle in a theater’s projection booth. From the Clifford Odets play, featuring Marilyn Monroe in her first billing above the title.

Presented with support from The Robert Jolin Osborne Endowed Fund for American Classic Cinema of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s and The Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

Reviews

“The script, adapted from a Clifford Odets play, seems to have roused the realist in director Fritz Lang: the backwater atmosphere is as authentic as it is oppressive.”
– Chicago Reader