Phantom Lady

Ella Raines gives a star-making performance as Carol Richman, a Girl Friday to civil engineer Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis), who is convicted of murdering his wife—a crime that he insists he didn’t commit—in this fine low-budget mystery from Robert Siodmak, one of the masters of film noir. Henderson’s only alibi is a mysterious woman who attended a musical revue with him, a woman whose name he never learned, so Richman turns amateur detective to find out why the witnesses are lying to police about this phantom lady’s existence. Franchot Tone takes top billing as a famous sculptor and best friend of the convicted man, one who has ulterior motives when he joins the investigation. Based on a 1942 novel by Cornell Woolrich (writing under the pseudonym William Irish), this is a minor masterpiece of film noir, featuring a strong, professional working woman at the center of the tale. The narrative is built on the kinds of plot contrivances common to murder mysteries of the time but the script is clever and Siodmak delivers superb set pieces and striking images on a comparatively tiny budget. Cult actor Elisha Cook Jr. (The Maltese Falcon) plays a drummer who takes Richman to an underground jazz jam session in one of the film’s standout sequences, and future Oscar nominee Thomas Gomez is the no-nonsense police detective who helps her out with the investigation. Extras include the 1994 British TV documentary Dark and Deadly: 50 Years of Film Noir, the 1944 radio adaptation of the film featuring Raines and Curtis, and a gallery of stills and promotional material. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)