No Man of Her Own (1950)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
In a mansion in Caulfield, Illinois, Patrice (Phyllis Thaxter) and Bill (John Lund) Harkness are waiting for the police. Meanwhile, she recalls her life in San Francisco. Eight-months-pregnant Helen Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) is dumped by her boyfriend, the crook Stephen 'Steve' Morley (Lyle Bettger), who gives her a train ticket to New York to stay with his new girlfriend. On the train, Helen befriends the also-pregnant Patrice Harkness and her husband Hugh Harkness (Richard Denning), who are returning from Europe. When they go to the toilet, Patrice asks Helen to hold her wedding ring to avoid losing it, but there is an accident and only Helen survives. She is mistaken by the Harkness family as being Patrice and welcomed by Mrs. Harkness (Jane Cowl), Mr. Harkness (Henry O'Neill) and Bill at home. Helen decides to pose as Patrice, and the family treats her like a daughter. Out of the blue, Steve meets Helen in a club and blackmails her, promising to destroy the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Harkness. Now Helen realizes that she must kill Steve to protect her son and the old couple. What will she do? - Actors:
- Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, Jane Cowl, Phyllis Thaxter, Lyle Bettger, Henry O'Neill, Richard Denning, Carole Mathews, Harry Antrim, Catherine Craig, Esther Dale, Milburn Stone, Griff Barnett, Jean Andren, Georgia Backus, Virginia Brissac, Ivan Browning, Ashley Cowan, Charles Dayton, Jimmie Dundee
- Directors:
- Mitchell Leisen
- Producers:
- Mitchell Leisen, Richard Maibaum
- Writers:
- Sally Benson, Catherine Turney, Cornell Woolrich, Mitchell Leisen
- Aka:
- I Married a Dead Man / The Lie / They Call Me Patrice / With This Ring
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
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Reviews (1) of No Man of Her Own
Fifties Melodrama - No Man of Her Own review by Steve
High concept noir which must have felt close to home for those who lost their men in WWII. A broke, pregnant woman is cruelly given a ticket out of town by the feckless dad. After the train crashes she is assumed to be the expectant wife travelling with her husband to meet her rich in-laws for the first time… Because they are both dead and unrecognisable.
So it’s a classic mistaken identity scenario adapted from a Cornell Woolrich story. Mother (Barbara Stanwyck) and baby are taken into a secure, loving home while the brother (John Lund) of the dead man falls in love with her. And the anxiety of being exposed gradually unravels the imposter’s nerves. Especially when the real father turns up for a spot of blackmail!
Stanwyck is at least 20 years too old but still effective and arouses maximum sympathy for an archetype familiar from depression melodramas. Lund is a little humdrum as her suitor, but his steadfast dependability is clearly the answer to her prayers. It's a dreamy domestic noir with a gloomy expressionist look.
And director Mitchell Leisen is good at the suspense. It's necessary to buy into the crazy concept… but this is a classy production with a fine cast, which conveys an emotional truth. And maybe even offered empathy for the widows of war, left behind without economic support at a time when it was improbable for a woman to survive alone.