User Reviews

Most of THE WOMAN IN RED is an excellent film with a particularly good performance by Barbara Stanwyck. It's just too bad that near the end, the movie takes a very strange and rather ridiculous twist that left me feeling cold. Up until then, I anticipated giving the movie a score of 7 or 8, as it was an involving and interesting film.

Barbara plays a professional show horse rider. She's the best there is, though the old established money looks down on her since she has to work for a living (heaven forbid). When she falls for and marries into an old and well-respected family (with almost no money to their good name), she turns a few heads by actually suggesting she and her husband open an honest business--making her hubby the first man to work in her family in several generations. While all these lazy gadabouts will no doubt make the viewers a bit angry, in this odd world of show jumping, it is the working man and woman who are the outcasts! What a bizarre world! Later, when a Barbara and a male friend are on a yacht, there is an accident and suddenly the society people and newspapers all begin yapping like a bunch of chihuahuas. While this made very little sense, it did lead to a courtroom scene that was even worse--with some amazing histrionics that really killed the flow of the film and made it a rather sappy melodrama.

The verdict--80% excellent but ending on a bit of a silly note. Not a bad film, but it sure could have been a lot better.

By 1935 Barbara Stanwyck was Warner Brother's female equivalent of James Cagney, a star they could count on to pump out 3 or 4 quality pictures a year. In "The Woman in Red", Stanwyck notably keeps a short leash on her emotions, internalizing to a large degree her frustration at "not being good enough" for her husband's old money family, and not being able to respond to the deliciously evil sarcasm and machinations of Genevieve Tobin's "Nicko"; happily, though, before the quick 68 minutes are up she has exploded a number of times to satisfyingly tell everybody off who deserves it.

Now this is a tough drama to really get into, initially; the tension completely depends on us understanding that in the early 20th century, someone who was a "professional rider", ie. someone who got paid to ride a rich horse-owner's horse in a show, was socially quite inferior to the horse-owners themselves. Thus Stanwyck, a "professional rider", would always be the target of insult and derision by the wealthy snobs around her - including her husband's entire family. This doesn't really resonate today. But we can pretend.

Gene Raymond, who plays the wealthy Johnny Wyatt, scion of the Long Island Wyatts, actually ends up being quite sympathetic; with his ridiculous boyish charm and blond hair, he convinces Stanwyck to marry him after knowing her for only a few days, and we really expect this to end up badly - but it doesn't. Corny? Maybe. So sue me, I am a sucker for happy endings!

Finally, the courtroom scene at the end is quite well played. The actor playing the prosecutor plays his man brutally - that is, he is relentless and a little cruel. Well done.

Don't expect too too much, and enjoy this brisk number from First National Pictures.

Poss Spoilers ** "Woman in Red" is based on Wallace Irwin's novel "NorthShore". Barbara Stanwyck and Gene Raymond star as Shelby Barrett and John Wyatt, who meet at the polo grounds. This film from 1935 was at the beginning of the "golden age" for both of them -- Raymond was about to make Smartest Girl in Town, Love on a Bet, There Goes my Girl. Stanwyck would go on to make Annie Oakley, Stella Dallas, and Double Indemnity. During this time, the Hays Production code was now being enforced, so suddenly there were scads of more innocent love stories taking place in upper crust venues than the previous ten years. They get married under adverse conditions, and try to muddle through on love. Then they try to figure out how to earn some money, in spite of the disapproval from their families and Wyatt's ex-girlfriend. For those who have seen "The Bride Walks Out" (which also starred Stanwyck and Raymond), this one has a very similar plot...newlyweds who really do love each other fighting over money. Their friend Gene Fairchild is Mr. bigshot businessman, and gives them money and a horse to get them started in their horse-boarding and training business. This will be important later... This was also the third time Robert Florey had directed Gene Raymond. Remade (sort of ) in 1984 with Gene Wilder and Kelly LeBrock, with some differences. One has to wonder if changes were made to the original novel to clean it up for the production code... ie... was the wife really being naughty on Fairchild's yacht when the interlopers came aboard ? The book is long out of print now, so unless someone has the book in their attic, we'll never know... Good story. I hope Turner Classic shows it more often.

. . . mentioning A-n-a S-a-g-e, the infamous "woman in red" (officially deemed a wench "of low moral character" by the U. S. government) who was deported to her native Romania for her role in the death of American shooting sports and Second Amendment icon John Dillinger on July 22, 1934. The USA's FBI immediately moved Sage to Detroit after this tragic debacle of betrayal (since director J. E. Hoover considered exile to the "Motor City" to be "a fate worse than death"). THE WOMAN IN RED (1935) was the first attempt by Tinsel Town to capitalize on Sage's sordid saga, but even BABY FACE could not salvage a script which glosses over the Real Life facts beyond recognition.

It is obvious from the start that the nasty Genevieve Tobin has it in for Barbara Stanwyck. She's a regular around the polo fields who has gotten notice from the wealthy man (Gene Raymond) whom Tobin feels is her property. Every time Stanwyck and Tobin are around each other, you can hear cat noises, and I'm not talking about purring. Raymond is a member of a wealthy but publicity shy family, so when Stanwyck and Raymond are suddenly married, it is obvious that Stanwyck feels like a fish out of water. When an old admirer of Stanwyck's (John Eldredge) shows up and begins spending "friendly" time with her, it is only a matter of time until scandal breaks out, and that comes in the form of an obviously accidental death on Eldredges' yacht which puts him on trial for murder and other key witnesses only recalling drunkenly seeing a mysterious "woman in red" who could tell the truth. Fearful over the scandal destroying her marriage, Stanwyck remains quiet, but with the electric chair looming over Eldredge, it is only a matter of time before she can come out and reveal the truth.

Slow-moving at the start with moments of amusement every time Stanwyck and Tobin are on screen, this springs into full gear when Stanwyck makes her way onto Eldredge's yacht. This is still one of her weaker Warner Brothers vehicles, which obviously she made to get out of her contract and move onto better roles over at Paramount where she got the genuine star treatment. Raymond isn't really an exciting leading man; Stanwyck worked better with the more macho than the society dandy types. Eldredge obviously wants Stanwyck back, but his intentions are never dishonorable, so his character wins much sympathy when he's put in the predicament of being accused of murder. Claude Gillingwater is very funny as Raymond's uppity grandfather, and Dorothy Tree has a good part as a drunken floozy on Eldredge's yacht. So all in all, it isn't bad, but rather ordinary until the exciting conclusion.