Woman in the Dark | |
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Directed by | Phil Rosen |
Produced by | Burt Kelly (associate producer) |
Written by |
Dashiell Hammett (story) Sada Cowan (writer) Charles Williams Marcy Klauber (additional dialogue) |
Cinematography |
Joseph Ruttenberg Sam Leavitt |
Edited by | William P. Thompson |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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68 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Woman in the Dark is an American film based on a 1933 short story by Dashiell Hammett. It was directed by Phil Rosen, filmed at Biograph Studios by Select Pictures, and released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Released from prison on parole, John Bradley plans to live alone quietly in a cabin in the country. He is visited there by the Sheriff's daughter Helen Grant, on whose account he had got into a fight and killed a man in the past. While he is trying to persuade her to leave, a beautiful disheveled woman in evening dress bursts in. This is Louise Loring, who has run away on foot from her rich protector, Tony Robson.
With a sidekick, Robson pursues her and the sidekick shoots Bradley’s dog. Bradley knocks out the sidekick and Robson reports this to the local sheriff, who wants Bradley back in jail. Tipped off by Helen, Bradley and Louise flee to the New York flat of an old cellmate, Tommy Logan, and there fall in love.
Traced by the police, Bradley escapes with a bullet in his shoulder. Meanwhile Robson has charged Louise with theft in order to trace her and then tries to persuade her to go back to him. Since he is of a vindictive nature and she suspects him of trying to harm Bradley further, she agrees. Bradley arrives with Tommy Logan for a showdown just as Robson decides to murder his sidekick so as to worsen the case against Bradley. The two burst in and expose his plot at the last moment.