Sudden Fear

Sudden Fear is a fine suspense thriller that earned some Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Crawford, as well as Best Supporting Actor for Jack Palance's performance. Crawford is a wealthy San Francisco heiress who is a successful playwright. She meets Palance in New York, where she is casting the romantic lead in her new play. Palance auditions, but Crawford doesn't think he's right for the part. When they meet again, on her train trip back to California, he turns on the charm.

By the time they reach San Francisco, they are in love and are soon husband and wife. When former flame, Gloria Grahame appears on the scene, she and Palance have a little fling for old times sake. He admits to her that he has a good set-up being married to Crawford, and warns she had better not do anything to break it up. Grahame learns that the playwright intends to leave all of her late father's money to a foundation devoted to eliminating heart disease.

Grahame and Palance meet later in Crawford's study and discover a new will which she allots Palance only $10,000 a year, and even that small stipend will cease if he remarries after her death. They are unaware Crawford's dictating machine is on, and their conversation is being recorded, or that the will is unsigned. It seems that Crawford's lawyer has never trusted Palance, and he drafted the will himself, without her ever knowing about it. A new will has since been written, and Palance has been more than generously taken care of.

Grahame notes the date on the will she and Palance have discovered. It won't take effect until the following Monday, so, if Palance is to benefit under California statutes governing the estates of those who die with no will, he should knock Crawford off before the coming weekend is over. Crawford later sees that the dictating machine has been on, and listens to the recording. She goes to bed that night in fear for her life. After a day or so, she breaks into Grahame's flat and finds a gun in good working order. Then she leaves a message, ostensibly from Grahame, for Palance to meet at the woman's apartment.

To make sure Grahame won't be there, she sends her a message to wait for Palance at a garage in the neighborhood. Palance arrives to find Crawford waiting for him with the gun, but she doesn't have the ability to shoot Palance down. She races out and runs down the hilly San Francisco street. Palance gets into his car and chases after her. Meanwhile, Grahame has grown tired of waiting for Palance and is now coming up the hill toward her apartment. The two women are dressed similarly, so Palance mistakenly heads his car straight for Grahame. When he recognizes her, he jerks the steering wheel but is unable to avoid her and dies himself as the car crashes.

Crawford rides a roller coaster of emotions in her portrayal of a woman betrayed in a most horrible way. Leading man Palance, one of the new breed of "method actors" who had studied at the Actors Studio, proved to unnerve the consummate "movie star" Crawford. The film was an enormous success, earning back many times its cost of $720,000. Crawford wisely elected to take 48 percent of the profits instead of her $200,000 salary. More importantly for Crawford was the fact that Sudden Fear provided her yet another comeback after a string of disappointing vehicles. This is one of my favorites simply because there is something irresistible about Joan Crawford running around the streets of San Francisco with a fur coat and a gun.