Critics should always tread carefully when covering movies in the film noir genre. Generally speaking, these are complex plots with a number of twists and all too often reviewers tend to disclose too many spoilers. Having said that, I'll try to cover Crime of Passion in a manner that doesn't commit that cardinal sin. The film has a couple of elements that are common to the genre, most notably a femme fatale who plays upon the trust of her husband in order to engage in illicit activities. In this case, our leading lady is Barbara Stanwyck as Kathy Doyle, a liberated independent career woman who exists in an era that doesn't look favorably on independent career women. However, Kathy enjoys her position as a prominent and popular advice columnist for a major San Francisco newspaper. She answers her readers' queries in a witty and often sarcastic manner that has become her trademark. (Adding to the unique aspects of the character, Stanwyck was 50 years-old at the time.) Her life takes a change when she is visited by two L.A. police detectives, Lt. Bill Doyle (Sterling Hayden) and Captain Charlie Alidos (Royal Dano). They want to enlist her help in flushing out a female murder suspect who is hiding in San Francisco. In short order, Kathy uses her sources and column to locate the suspect, gain her trust and convince her to surrender. In the course of the investigation, she and Bill form a mutual attraction. When Kathy's grumpy boss continues to disparage her contributions to the newspaper, she accepts a position with a New York paper and summarily quits her current job. However, she phones Bill and offers to make a one night stopover to see him in L.A. It is a decision that will have dramatic consequences for both of them.
Upon arriving in L.A., Kathy and Bill's reunion proves to be a torrid one....so passionate, in fact, that they spontaneously decide to quickly get married, despite Kathy's previous aversion to trying to find wedded bliss. This being 1957, as a condition of marriage, Kathy has to agree to quit her career and settle down in Bill's modest suburban house in Burbank. She readily does and is soon welcomed into Bill's social circle that consists almost entirely of fellow cops and their wives. The urbane Kathy soon tires of the monotony of her new social life which finds the cops sitting in one room drinking, smoking and playing poker while their wives sit in another room discussing boring domestic issues. The only factor that changes is the locations, as the friends alternate in hosting the get-togethers. Kathy is also becoming frustrated by Bill's lack of interest in achieving advancement in his police career. He's a laid-back, unambitious guy who is content at just being a good, honest cop. Kathy sees things differently and begins to hatch an elaborate secret scheme to ensure the couple's social status rises. She focuses on Bill's boss, Inspector Anthony Pope (Raymond Burr) and his wife Alice (Fay Wray). We won't divulge all the details but suffice it to say that her attempt to seduce Pope leads to terrible and unforeseen consequences that include betrayal, infidelity and finally murder.
The movie has some interesting historical and sociological overtones. In the post-WWII era, America had emerged as the world's only superpower. After enduring the Great Depression and the horrors of two world wars and the Korean War, the nation had settled into a period of relative affluence and comfort with the emergence of an empowered middle class. The government was trusted and benefits came to the working class, as suburbia boomed and people left the big urban centers in droves. Much of this was depicted in T.V. shows of the era which presented suburban life as middle-class bliss, ignoring the fact that not only were the picket fences pure white, but with few exceptions, so was the population that was shown. Movies, however, often had a darker view of suburbia. If television often over-sanitized it, films sometimes went overboard in presenting the new American lifestyle as defined by people who had too much money and leisure time, thus turning the American Dream into scenarios defined by greed and lust befitting the court of Caligula. Perhaps the most powerful example of this is director Martin Ritt's "No Down Payment" released the same year as "Crime of Passion". By the end of the 1960s, bored suburbanites were fodder for comedies that included the wife-swapping classic "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" from director Paul Mazursky.
"Crime of Passion" is by no means classic film noir but thanks to a terrific cast, it is an intriguing contribution to the genre....if one can get over a key plot weakness, namely, Kathy's overwhelming passion for Bill and her decision to quickly ditch her career in order to be with him. As played by Sterling Hayden, Bill is a normal working stiff and isn't a Rock Hudson lookalike. His manner is subdued and in terms of wit, he doesn't appear to be the Noel Coward of Burbank. There is never any logical reason for the cosmopolitan (and presumably sexually liberated) Kathy to fawn over him like a high school girl with her first crush. Nevertheless, Barbara Stanwyck plays the role to the hilt and is never less than mesmerizing on screen. The film, under the steady hand of Gerd Oswald, features a marvelous supporting cast, with Raymond Burr particularly good as yet another man in a stable relationship whose life is adversely affected by meeting Kathy. There's a good deal of talent behind the scenes, too, including screenwriter Jo Eisinger, who wrote "Gilda" and "Night and the City" and sound effects editor Verna Fields, who would go on to be an Oscar-winning film editor.
"Crime of Passion" is a flawed but entertaining film noir flick. It is currently streaming on Screenpix, though the print being used is underwhelming in terms of quality. Unfortunately, the American DVD from MGM is out of print and it hasn't been released on Blu-ray. Screenpix is an add-on streaming service available through Amazon Prime, YouTube, Roku and other major services.
(Trivia note: Turner Classic Movies' film noir host Eddie Muller has pointed out that the film marked the end of Barbara Stanwyck and Raymond Burr's association with the film noir genre. Burr would go on to star in the iconic "Perry Mason" TV series and Stanwyck would also star in a hit series, "The Big Valley" and would continue to appear occasionally on the big screen in supporting roles. Director Gerd Oswald would work with Burr again on numerous episodes of "Perry Mason".)
