Sudden Fear

While the premise of Sudden Fear is standard noir fare (man marries rich, lonely woman for her money and seeks to get rid of her), director David Miller’s execution is undeniably original and absolutely enthralling. Centered on a mesmerizing (and Oscar nominated) performance by Joan Crawford as wealthy heiress and playwright Myra Hudson, the film combines high melodrama and high tension better than most and utilizes long, protracted sequences to convey Crawford’s emotional torment and resolution brilliantly (for example, her plotting and visualizing of her escape plan proceeds like a dynamic dream sequence with triple compositing, one layer the swaying shadow of a clock pendulum) to emphasize the chaos in Myra’s mind. The story’s cruelty suddenly explodes in the form of an inadvertent audio recording of husband Lester (Jack Palance, also Oscar nominated) plotting with his mistress Irene (Gloria Grahame), revealing to the happily married Myra, in quick succession, that her husband is cheating on her (“I’m so crazy about you, I could break your bones”), that he married Myra for her money (“I can’t keep this up much longer”), and that he and Irene will soon eliminate her (“It’s got to look like an accident”). This revelation commences a long sequence illustrating Myra’s emotional journey from shock to sadness to terror (including a nightmare sequence) to anger to resolution, and it’s a masterful piece of cinema, as is the suspense sequence when Myra hides in Irene’s closet while Lester broods ten feet away and plays with a wind-up dog toy that a moment later appears to detect Myra’s presence. Highlighting Bay Area sites like the Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, and the redwoods, Sudden Fear is intelligently paced so that the near two-hour runtime seems to fly by, culminating in an expressionist extravaganza (dramatic noir lighting noticeably enters the film just as Myra’s world begins to fall apart) as Myra runs for her life through the sloping city streets at night, Bernstein’s score also chasing her with low piano notes and threatening brass.