Sudden Fear (1952)

noiroftheweek.com The Homme Fatale in Sudden Fear “See, I’m not the kind of man who can live on his wife’s money.” We’re twenty-four minutes into the film Sudden Fear when we realize that the main male character, actor Lester Blaine played by Jack Palance is rotten, and it’s this knowledge that acts as a suspense builder in this taut noir film—a tale of greed, adultery and murder. Up to this point, we’ve just suspected Lester’s intentions, but now our doubts are proved correct. Sudden Fear, a woman-in-jeopardy noir with Joan Crawford playing heiress, Myra Hudson—is the tale of a wo…

John Chard

7.0

Mar 3, 2020

You know what happened to Nietzsche? Sudden Fear is directed by David Miller and adapted to screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee and Robert Smith from the novel written by Edna Sherry. It stars Joan Crawford, Jack Palance and Gloria Grahame. Music is by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography by Charles Lang Jr. "Miss Hudson, in your own native city of San Francisco, there's an art gallery in the Legion of Honor in which there's an oil painting of Casanova. It's quite obvious that you have never seen this painting. For your information, Miss Hudson, this is what Casanova looked like. He had big e…

CinemaSerf

7.0

Sep 9, 2022

Joan Crawford and Jack Palance both turn in strong performances in this dark tale of ambition and betrayal. Crawford is great portraying a middle-aged playwright who bumps Palance off a play she has written. On a train journey, however, they meet again and we start a sequence by which he ingratiates himself and marries her. Soon we discover that Palance has been in cahoots with girlfriend Gloria Grahame and they have desires on his new wife's considerable fortune. When Crawford announces plans to leave much of her cash to charity; they hasten their plans but she finds out and devises a clever…