The File on Thelma Jordon

Infobox Film
name = The File on Thelma Jordon


image_size =
caption = Theatrical poster
director = Robert Siodmak
producer = Hal B. Wallis
writer = Screenplay: Ketti Frings
Story: Marty Holland
starring = Barbara Stanwyck
Wendell Corey
Paul Kelly
music = Victor Young
cinematography = George Barnes
editing = Warren Low
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = January 18, 1950 (U.S.A.)
runtime = 100 minutes
language = English
amg_id = 1:91417
imdb_id = 0041368|

"The File on Thelma Jordon" (1950) is a film noir directed by Robert Siodmak from a screenplay by Ketti Frings. It stars Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey. [imdb title|id=0041368|title=The File on Thelma Jordon.]

Plot

Stanwyck plays Thelma Jordon, a woman who late one night shows up in the office of married Assistant district attorney Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) with a story about prowlers and burglars. Before Cleve can stop himself, he and Thelma are involved in a love affair. But Thelma is a mysterious woman, and Cleve can't help wondering if she is hiding something.

When her rich aunt is found shot, Jordon calls not the police but Marshall, who helps her cover up evidence that may incriminate her. When she emerges as the prime suspect, he sabotages the prosecution. Thelma Jordon is acquitted. Her past, however, has begun to catch up with her.

Cast

* Barbara Stanwyck as Thelma Jordon
* Wendell Corey as Cleve Marshall
* Paul Kelly as Miles Scott
* Joan Tetzel as Pamela Marshall
* Stanley Ridges as Kingsley Willis
* Richard Rober as Tony Laredo

Reception

When the film was released, the staff at "Variety" magazine praised the film, and wrote, "Thelma Jordon unfolds as an interesting, femme-slanted melodrama, told with a lot of restrained excitement. Scripting [from a story by Marty Holland] is very forthright, up to the contrived conclusion, and even that is carried off successfully because of the sympathy developed for the misguided and misused character played by Wendell Corey...Robert Siodmak's direction pinpoints many scenes of extreme tension." [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117790899.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=The+File+on+Thelma+Jordon" Variety"] . Film review, 1950. Last accessed: April 16 2008.]

"Time Out" film guide notes, "A fine film noir which works an ingenious, intricate variation on the situation in Double Indemnity, but which takes its tone, unlike Wilder's film, not from Stanwyck's glittering siren who courts her own comeuppance ("Judgement day, Jordon!"), but from the nondescript assistant DA she drives to the brink of destruction." [ [http://www.timeout.com/film/66631.html "Time Out" Film Guide] . Film review, 2008.]

"The New York Times", in a 1950 review, praised the film's cast and noted "Thelma Jordon" is, for all of its production polish, adult dialogue and intelligent acting, a strangely halting and sometimes confusing work." ["The New York Times," film review, 1950.]

References

External links

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* [http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/03/file-on-thelma-jordon-1950.html "The File on Thelma Jordon"] at Film Noir of the Week.