Shadow of a Woman is a 1946 American drama film noir directed by Joseph Santley and starring Helmut Dantine, Andrea King and William Prince. The film is based on the novel He Fell Down Dead written by Virginia Perdue.[2]

Shadow of a Woman
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoseph Santley
Screenplay byWhitman Chambers
C. Graham Baker
Based onHe Fell Down Dead
1943 novel
by Virginia Perdue
Produced byWilliam Jacobs
StarringHelmut Dantine
Andrea King
William Prince
Narrated byAndrea King
CinematographyBert Glennon
Edited byChristian Nyby
Music byAdolph Deutsch
Production
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Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • September 14, 1946 (1946-09-14) (United States)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$427,000[1]
Box office$732,000[1]

Plot

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A woman (Andrea King) on the verge of a breakdown marries a fraudulent medical doctor (Helmut Dantine) she hardly knows, putting her in the path of fear and danger. She suspects her husband is starving his young son from a previous marriage.

Cast

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Reception

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Film critic Dennis Schwartz panned the film, writing, "A failure in every possible way. Joseph Santley flatly directs this film noir adapted from Virginia Perdue's novel He Fell Down Dead. The script by writers C. Graham Baker and Whitman Chambers was lacking credibility. The acting was hammy and unconvincing. The film offered hardly any entertainment value and the irrelevant story was more of a turn off than anything else. On top of all that, there were serious gaffes in the plotline that filled the story with holes the size of craters. This postwar B-film melodrama reunites Hotel Berlin co-stars Helmut Dantine and Andrea King. Shadow of a Woman might be remembered by film buffs only because it played in an early restaurant scene "How Little We Know", the Hoagy Carmichael song that Lauren Bacall sang in To Have and Have Not."[3]

TV Guide wrote about the screenplay, writing, "A slightly unrealistic story line hinders this drama that deals with a bride's terror."[4]

Box office

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According to Warner Bros figures the film earned $490,000 domestically and $242,000 foreign.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 27 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  2. ^ Shadow of a Woman at IMDb.
  3. ^ Schwartz, Dennis. Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews, film review, August 25, 2002. Last accessed: September 27, 2023.
  4. ^ TV Guide, film review. Last accessed: September 27, 2023.
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