Cause for Alarm!
| Cause for Alarm! | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Tay Garnett |
| Produced by | Tom Lewis |
| Screenplay by |
Mel Dinelli Tom Lewis |
| Based on |
Cause for Alarm radio play by Larry Marcus |
| Starring |
Loretta Young Barry Sullivan Bruce Cowling |
| Music by | André Previn |
| Cinematography | Joseph Ruttenberg |
| Edited by | James E. Newcom |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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74 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $635,000 |
| Box office | $768,000 |
Cause for Alarm! is a 1951 film noir suspense film directed by Tay Garnett, written by Mel Dinelli and Tom Lewis, based on a story by Larry Marcus. Ellen (Loretta Young) narrates the tale of "the most terrifying day of my life", how she was taking care of her bedridden husband George Z. Jones (Barry Sullivan) when he suddenly dropped dead. The film is in the public domain.
A flashback shows how Ellen (Loretta Young) met George (Barry Sullivan) in a Naval hospital during World War II while she was dating his friend, Lieutenant Ranney Grahame (Bruce Cowling), a young military doctor whose busy schedule left little time for her. George was a pilot, and Ellen swiftly fell in love with him, although the flashback strongly hints he had some capacity for arrogance and selfishness. Nevertheless, they soon married and, after the war, wound up in a leafy suburban Los Angeles neighborhood.
Unhappily, George is now confined to his bed with heart problems. There is a heat wave, and Ellen is spending most her time caring for him. George's doctor is their old friend Ranney, with whom George thinks his wife is having an affair. In response, Ranney suggests George may need psychological help. After Ellen tells her bedridden husband she dreams of having children, he becomes angry. Meanwhile, George has written a letter to the District Attorney in which he claims his wife and best friend are killing him with overdoses of medicine for his heart.
A little neighbor boy dressed as a movie cowboy and wearing cap pistols (Bradley Mora) befriends the childless Ellen, who gives him cookies. He hands her a toy (fake) television set and asks Ellen to give it to George, which she does whilst serving her husband lunch in bed. He tells her an unsettling story about how, as a child, he had beaten a neighbor boy with a rake until he drew blood. Thinking the thick letter has something to do with insurance, Ellen gives it to the postman (Irving Bacon), who sees George in the upstairs bedroom window. When Ellen rushes up to find out why he has gotten out of bed, George lets her know what the letter says and who it is addressed to. George pulls a gun and is about to kill her when he drops dead on the bed. In her narration she describes George's death as "one of those awful dreams."
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