Walk Softly, Stranger | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Stevenson |
Screenplay by | Frank Fenton |
Story by | Manny Seff Paul Yawitz |
Produced by | Robert Sparks |
Starring | Joseph Cotten Alida Valli Spring Byington Paul Stewart Jack Paar |
Cinematography | Harry J. Wild |
Edited by | Frederic Knudtson |
Music by | Frederick Hollander |
Production company | |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release dates | |
Running time | 81 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Walk Softly, Stranger is a 1950 American romantic drama film starring Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli and directed by Robert Stevenson. Also regarded by some as either or both a film noir and crime film, it tells the story of a small-time crook on the run who becomes reformed by the love of a disabled woman. [1]
This would be the last RKO credit for famed producer Dore Schary, who would leave the studio soon following the film's completion after clashing with RKO's new owner, Howard Hughes.
Filming ended in June 1948, but Hughes shelved the picture indefinitely, pending changes, especially to its ending. When the pairing of Cotton and Valli earned big headlines for their starring performances in the box office smash Carol Reed film The Third Man in 1949, Hughes resurrected Walk Softly, Stranger and released it in 1950 in an effort to capitalize.
The films's supporting cast features Spring Byington, Paul Stewart, future Tonight Show television talk show host Jack Paar, and John McIntire.
When a man calling himself Chris Hale arrives at the doorstep of her Ashton, Ohio, house, asking to see his childhood home, widow Mrs. Brentman gladly invites him in. The unemployed Chris then accepts Mrs. Brentman's offer of a room and takes a job in the shipping department of the Corelli shoe factory. One night, Chris wanders into the Ashton country club and meets Elaine Corelli, his boss's beautiful but paralyzed daughter. Speaking of the days when he used to deliver newspapers to her door and adored her from afar, Chris amuses and fascinates the once-vibrant Elaine. The next day, Chris is called in to see Elaine's father A. J., who tells him that Elaine was so taken with him that she asked that he be given a better job in sales. Chris declines the offer, but assures Corelli, who is devoted to his daughter, that he will explain his decision to Elaine. As promised, Chris, a confessed gambler and drifter, shows up at the Corelli home to talk with Elaine. Although Chris's explanations are vague, his self-deprecating humor relaxes Elaine, who is finally able to joke about the skiing accident that left her paralyzed.
The next morning, Chris flies to another city for a rendezvous with petty criminal Whitey Lake, who calls him "Steve." Chris and Whitey then rob gambling house owner Bowen of $200,000 in cash, knowing that the crime will never be reported. After splitting the money and advising Whitey to "disappear," Chris returns to Ashton and accepts an invitation for a double date from co-worker Ray Healy. When he then runs into Elaine, however, Chris breaks the date and takes the reluctant heiress to a working class nightclub. Chris' jilted date, Gwen, is also at the club and denounces him in front of Elaine. Although Chris wins a joking bet with Elaine that he can get Gwen to dance with him, Elaine grows despondent watching her would-be rival dance. Sure that Chris will come to resent her paralysis, Elaine leaves suddenly for Florida. When she returns at Christmas, however, Chris resumes his pursuit, and by New Year's Eve, the two are deeply in love. Chris' newfound happiness is short-lived, however, as Whitey shows up, broke and scared. Chris insists that Whitey, who is being chased by Bowen, stay locked up in Mrs. Brentman's house until he can figure out an escape plan. Whitey's nerves are soon frayed, and he begins tearing apart Chris' room in search of Chris' share of Bowen's money.
Then, after he learns that Chris is sending Mrs. Brentman to see her son's grave in Arlington Cemetery, Whitey, who takes afternoon walks in defiance of Chris' orders to stay indoors, becomes convinced that his friend intends to kill him during her absence. Chris finally calms and reassures the now-hysterical Whitey, and sees Mrs. Brentman off at the airport. As he is driving home, he realizes that he is being followed by two men, but manages to reach Elaine's without detection. Chris confesses all to an understanding Elaine, who advises him to return the money. Elaine also reveals that, as she moved to Ashton as a teenager, she knew all along that he was lying about his past. By the time Chris returns to Mrs. Brentman's, Whitey has been killed and the money reclaimed. The killers then take Chris to see the vengeful Bowen, who, while riding in a car with his prisoner, suggests they both rob Elaine of her fortune. Disgusted, Chris tries to take Bowen's driver by surprise, but is shot by Bowen in the ensuing struggle. The car crashes, and Chris winds up in a police hospital. As the recuperated Chris is about to be transferred to prison, Elaine visits and vows to wait until his release, when he will finally need her the way she has always needed him.
The working title for the film was Weep No More, intended for Cary Grant to star under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock. The film lost an estimated $775,000, making it one of RKO's biggest flops of the year. [3]
New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther was tough on the film when it was first released. He wrote, "The R. K. O. film, Walk Softly, Stranger, which came to the Globe on Saturday and which has Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli, the popular stars of The Third Man , in its top roles, actually was made before the latter picture and apparently withheld from release in the expectation of enhancement of its 'star value' from the Carol Reed film. If such was the case, the people at R. K. O. were well advised, for 'star value' is just about the only thing of any distinction that Walk Softly, Stranger has ... [in short] Walk Softly, Stranger doesn't carry a big stick." [4]
Modern film critic Dennis Schwartz was generally disappointed with the film. In 2019, he wrote, "Love saves the day melodrama. The dismal film is worth seeing only for the fine performance of Alida Valli as the rich crippled girl ... [and] the uninteresting clichéd resolution, leaves this film flattening out in its noirish aspects to become an unconvincing soap opera love story." [5]
When it was shown on the Turner Classic Movies' 'Noir Alley' with Eddie Muller on December 10, 2022, Muller indicated that the original screenplay did not have Cotten's character survive or show the car crash. Instead, his last scene showed him getting into the car with the killers.
Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story (1939) and Sabrina Fair (1953). He then gained worldwide fame for his collaborations with Orson Welles on three films, Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), which Cotten starred in and for which he was also credited with the screenplay.
The Third Man is a 1949 film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard. Set in post-World War II Allied-occupied Vienna, the film centres on American writer Holly Martins (Cotten), who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime (Welles), only to learn that he has died. Martins stays in Vienna to investigate Lime's death, becoming infatuated with Lime's girlfriend Anna Schmidt (Valli).
Bachelor Mother (1939) is an American romantic comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Ginger Rogers, David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna from an Academy Award-nominated story by Felix Jackson written for the 1935 Austrian-Hungarian film Little Mother. With a plot full of mistaken identities, Bachelor Mother is a light-hearted treatment of the otherwise serious issues of child abandonment.
The Paradine Case is a 1947 courtroom drama with elements of film noir set in England, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick. Selznick and an uncredited Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay from an adaptation by Alma Reville and James Bridie of the 1933 novel by Robert Smythe Hichens. The film stars Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife.
The Enchanted Cottage is a 1945 American supernatural romance film starring Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, and Herbert Marshall, with Mildred Natwick.
John Herrick McIntire was an American character actor who appeared in 65 theatrical films and many television series. McIntire is well known for having replaced Ward Bond, upon Bond's sudden death in November 1960, as the star of NBC's Wagon Train. He played Christopher Hale, the leader of the wagon train from early 1961 to the series' end in 1965. He also replaced Charles Bickford, upon Bickford's death in 1967, as ranch owner Clay Grainger on NBC's The Virginian for four seasons.
Spring Dell Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1960s. Byington received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Penelope Sycamore in You Can't Take It with You (1938).
Alida Maria Laura, Freiin Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg, better known by her stage name Alida Valli, was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films in a 70-year career, spanning from the 1930s to the early 2000s. She was one of the biggest stars of Italian film during the Fascist era, once being called "the most beautiful woman in the world" by Benito Mussolini, and was internationally successful post-World War II. According to Frédéric Mitterrand, Valli was the only actress in Europe to equal Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo.
The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 American period drama written, produced, and directed by Orson Welles. Welles adapted Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1918 novel about the declining fortunes of a wealthy Midwestern family and the social changes brought by the automobile age. The film stars Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins, with Welles providing the narration.
Rachel and the Stranger is a 1948 American historical film starring Loretta Young, William Holden, and Robert Mitchum. The Norman Foster-directed film was one of the few to address the role of women in the early American frontier, as well as portray early America's indentured servant trade. It was based on the Howard Fast short story "Rachel".
Christine Cecilia McIntyre was an American actress and singer who appeared in various films in the 1930s and 1940s. She is mainly remembered as the beautiful blonde actress who appeared in many of The Three Stooges shorts produced by Columbia Pictures.
I'll Be Seeing You is a 1944 American drama film made by Selznick International Pictures, Dore Schary Productions, and Vanguard Pictures, and distributed by United Artists. It stars Joseph Cotten, Ginger Rogers, and Shirley Temple, with Spring Byington, Tom Tully, and John Derek. It was produced by Dore Schary, with David O. Selznick as executive producer. The screenplay was by Marion Parsonnet, based on a radio play by Charles Martin (1910-1983).
Stingaree is an American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by William A. Wellman released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1934. The film was based on a 1905 novel by Ernest William Hornung. Set in Australia, it stars Irene Dunne as Hilda Bouverie and Richard Dix as Stingaree. Hollywood had previously filmed the Hornung story as serials in 1915 and 1917, starring True Boardman.
Easy Living is a 1949 American drama film directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Victor Mature, Lucille Ball and Lizabeth Scott. The film features the real-life Los Angeles Rams football team.
Journey into Fear is a 1943 American spy film noir directed by Norman Foster, based on the 1940 novel by Eric Ambler. The film broadly follows the plot of the book, but the protagonist was changed to an American engineer, and the destination of his journey changed from France to the Soviet Union—reflecting the changes in the war situation since the original Ambler book was written. The RKO Pictures release stars Joseph Cotten, who also wrote the screenplay with Orson Welles. The Mercury Production was also produced by Welles, again uncredited.
The Miracle of the Bells is a 1948 American drama film directed by Irving Pichel, written by Quentin Reynolds and Ben Hecht, and produced by RKO. It stars Fred MacMurray, Alida Valli, Frank Sinatra and Lee J. Cobb.
RKO Radio Pictures's Laddie is a 1940 American drama film starring Tim Holt, Virginia Gilmore and Joan Carroll and directed by Jack Hively. It is the third film adaptation based on Gene Stratton-Porter's novel, Laddie, A True Blue Story (1913), and previously had been filmed in 1926 and by RKO in 1935.
The Stranger's Hand is a 1954 British-Italian thriller drama film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Trevor Howard, Alida Valli and Richard Basehart. An international co-production, it is based on the draft novel with the same name written by Graham Greene. The plot follows the son of a British MI5 agent kidnapped in Venice by agents of Yugoslavia as he searches for his father.
Smartest Girl in Town is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Joseph Santley, written by Viola Brothers Shore, and starring Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes and Harry Jans. It was released on November 27, 1936, by RKO Pictures.
Reward Unlimited is a short film produced in 1944 by David O. Selznick's Vanguard Films, for the United States Public Health Service, dramatizing the need for volunteer military nurses for the U. S. Cadet Nurse Corps during World War II. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, the 10-minute film stars Dorothy McGuire in one of her first films. The story by Mary C. McCall, Jr., dramatizes the choice that young Peggy Adams makes to become a nurse, her training, and her volunteering for military nursing service. The cast includes Aline MacMahon, James Brown, Spring Byington and Tom Tully.