Female on the Beach

Female on the Beach is a 1955 American crime-drama film directed by Joseph Pevney starring Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler in a story about a widow and her beach bum lover. The screenplay by Robert Hill and Richard Alan Simmons was based on the play The Besieged Heart by Robert Hill. The film was produced by Albert Zugsmith.[1]

Female on the Beach
Film poster by Reynold Brown
Directed byJoseph Pevney
Produced byAlbert Zugsmith
Screenplay byRobert Hill
Richard Alan Simmons
Based onthe play The Besieged Heart
by Robert Hill
StarringJoan Crawford
Jeff Chandler
Music byHeinz Roemheld
Herman Stein
(both not credited)
CinematographyCharles Lang
Edited byRussell Schoengarth
Production
company
Universal Pictures
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • August 19, 1955 (1955-08-19) (New York City)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Lynn Markham (Crawford) visits a beach house that once belonged to her dead husband. There, she meets real estate agent Amy Rawlinson (Jan Sterling) and Drummond "Drummy" Hall (Chandler), an attractive beach bum who wanders in and out of the house as though he owned it.

Lynn learns the house was once rented to Eloise Crandall (Judith Evelyn), an older woman whose cause of death (suicide, accident, or murder) remains undetermined. Lynn later discovers "Drummy" is the accomplice of card sharks Osbert and Queenie Sorenson (Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer), and that he heartlessly pursued Crandall in order to set her up for card games with the Sorensons. Lynn's physical attraction to Drummy is overpowering and she marries him. Events on their honeymoon lead Lynn to believe he murdered Eloise. It transpires, however, that Amy Rawlinson killed Crandall because she wanted Drummy for herself.

Cast

Production

The script was based on an unproduced play by Bob Hill, The Besieged Heart.[2] Albert Zugsmith bought the rights and worked on the script with Bob Hill. He then sold the project to Universal who were looking for a vehicle for Joan Crawford. The studio also hired Zugsmith to produce, starting a relationship between him and Universal which lasted several years.[3]

Reception

Critical response

A review in Harrison's Reports said that the movie offered "a fairly interesting though somewhat seamy mixture of sex, murder and suspense."[4]

Film critic Bosley Crowther gave the film a mixed review, writing "Their progress is rendered no more fetching by the inanities of a hackneyed script and the artificiality and pretentiousness of Miss Crawford's acting style. At the end, the guilty party is revealed in a ridiculous way. Jan Sterling, Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer are the supporting players you may remotely suspect."[5]

See also

References
  1. Female on the Beach at IMDb.
  2. BREEN IS RETIRED AS MOVIE CENSOR: At Own Request, Director of Code Leaves Office -- Chief Aide Successor By THOMAS M. PRYOR New York Times 15 Oct 1954: 18.
  3. Flynn, Charles; McCarthy, Todd (1975). "Albert Zugmsith". In Flynn, Charles; McCarthy, Todd (eds.). Kings of the Bs : working within the Hollywood system : an anthology of film history and criticism. E. P. Dutton. p. 416.
  4. Harrison's Reports, film review, July 16, 1955. Accessed: August 9, 2016.
  5. Crowther, Bosley, film review The New York Times, August 20, 1955. Accessed: July 4, 2013.
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