Many readers of William Irish's "I Married a Dead Man" (what a more confronting title than the wishy washy "No Man of Her Own") must have experienced a case of deja vu because the plot was almost identical to a Cornel Woolrich novelette from two years before, "Call Me Patrice". William Irish was a pseudonym Woolrich used - initially when his stories were flooding the market in the early 1940s but by the early 1950s he had got into the habit of re-working old stories and passing them off as new. Publishers were not impressed but under the Irish name many were hoodwinked. "I Married a Dead Man" was a more tension filled story than "Patrice" which had first appeared in "Todays Woman".
The movie did start off in a very "film noirish" kind of way - "the summer nights are pleasant in Caulfield...the house we live in is so pleasant in Caulfield... but not for us" - then the police arrive but for whom - Helen Ferguson (Stanwyck) or Bill Harkness (John Lund)??? but then it descends into a heavy mother love story with some noirish elements thrown in for good measure.
Helen Ferguson is an unmarried soon to be mother who is given a train ticket to San Francisco by louse Stephen Morley (Lyle Bettger) when she visits him at his apartment. On the train she is befriended by a young married couple (Richard Denning and Phyllis Thaxter) who take pity on her. The wife, Patrice, is in the same condition that she is in and when, in a freak train accident, the young couple are killed, Helen awakes to find herself in hospital, receiving the best care that money can buy. Just before the accident Patrice had asked Helen to hold her ring and now everyone thinks that Helen is Patrice - and for the sake of the baby she is not going to put them wise!!
Fortunately for Helen, the family didn't know very much about Patrice so she is able to pull it off but older brother, Bill, has his doubts. By the time rat-fink Stephen re-enters the movie (with the intention to blackmail) the scene is set for a thrilling finale topped off with a tense police interview. I thought the film ended in a more believable way than the novel, with a minor character being exposed as the killer.
Barbara Stanwyck had just made "The File on Thelma Jordan" - a noirish crime movie top heavy with dark romance and this one proved similar. Phyllis Thaxter was good as the kind hearted Patrice and Jane Cowl was probably the best player as Mrs. Harkness who takes Helen at face value but is secretly battling a heart condition. Cowl had been a beautiful stage actress who, in 1917, was one of the first stars signed to Goldwyn Pictures.
The movie did start off in a very "film noirish" kind of way - "the summer nights are pleasant in Caulfield...the house we live in is so pleasant in Caulfield... but not for us" - then the police arrive but for whom - Helen Ferguson (Stanwyck) or Bill Harkness (John Lund)??? but then it descends into a heavy mother love story with some noirish elements thrown in for good measure.
Helen Ferguson is an unmarried soon to be mother who is given a train ticket to San Francisco by louse Stephen Morley (Lyle Bettger) when she visits him at his apartment. On the train she is befriended by a young married couple (Richard Denning and Phyllis Thaxter) who take pity on her. The wife, Patrice, is in the same condition that she is in and when, in a freak train accident, the young couple are killed, Helen awakes to find herself in hospital, receiving the best care that money can buy. Just before the accident Patrice had asked Helen to hold her ring and now everyone thinks that Helen is Patrice - and for the sake of the baby she is not going to put them wise!!
Fortunately for Helen, the family didn't know very much about Patrice so she is able to pull it off but older brother, Bill, has his doubts. By the time rat-fink Stephen re-enters the movie (with the intention to blackmail) the scene is set for a thrilling finale topped off with a tense police interview. I thought the film ended in a more believable way than the novel, with a minor character being exposed as the killer.
Barbara Stanwyck had just made "The File on Thelma Jordan" - a noirish crime movie top heavy with dark romance and this one proved similar. Phyllis Thaxter was good as the kind hearted Patrice and Jane Cowl was probably the best player as Mrs. Harkness who takes Helen at face value but is secretly battling a heart condition. Cowl had been a beautiful stage actress who, in 1917, was one of the first stars signed to Goldwyn Pictures.