Themes: Femmes Fatales, Fall From Power, Infidelity
Main Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Paul Kelly, Joan Tetzel, Stanley Ridges
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
No one is as good as Barbara Stanwyck when she's bad. Here Stanwyck plays Thelma Jordon, a woman who late one night shows up in the office of happily married Assistant DA Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) to seek help in solving the string of robberies at her wealthy aunt's estate. Before Cleve can stop himself, he and Thelma are involved in an illicit affair. But Thelma is a mysterious woman, and Cleve can't help wondering if she is hiding something. His suspicions are confirmed when Thelma confesses to him that she is married to Tony Laredo, though she swears that she never wants to see him again. When Thelma's aunt is found murdered, Cleve's suspicions are aroused once again, but he is too love-struck to keep himself from being drawn into the complicated series of events that ultimately lead to his ruination. Siodmak directs with his usual skill and polish, but the film really belongs to Barbara Stanwyck who is magnificent as Thelma. Unlike the usual cold, passionless femme fatale of film noir, Thelma has a heart and a conscience. She comes to love Cleve, and has concern for his life and his future. However, despite her wish that her life could be different, she realizes that she belongs in Tony's world, and despite her attempts to sacrifice herself to save Cleve, he is doomed, by his love for her and by his own weaknesses. The File on Thelma Jordan is a romantic, unusual mystery, with a great performance and superior direction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A fascinating entry in the film noir sweepstakes, The File on Thelma Jordan has all the characteristics associated with the genre: a treacherous femme fatale whose wiles draw a strong dupe into her web; a plot filled with enough twists and turns to make one's head spin; tragic flaws for the lead characters; a heavy, erotic undercurrent; moody black-and-white photography with impeccable set-ups; and an almost palpable tension running throughout. Where Jordan differs is in its seductive female lead. Thelma may be no good, but it's almost as if she's been forced into the life she leads, and unlike the usual cold-blooded noir "heroine," there's a part of her that wants to do good. She's almost a split personality, torn between a "light" side (represented by her relationship with Cleve) and a "dark" side (represented by her involvement with Laredo). Barbara Stanwyck fully understands the complexity of the character and gives one of her finest performances (no one was better at playing good girls gone wrong and making them into real people rather than types) and director Robert Siodmak turns in equally impressive work, starting the film slowly and proceeding at times in a meditative fashion that gives the scenes both hesitancy and a strange depth. He also pulls out all the stops for the set-piece sequences, making them all the more startling by contrast with the more ruminative stretches. If Jordan ultimately falls just a little shy of classic noirs like Double Indemnity, it's still an exceptional film. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Richard Rober - Tony Laredo; Minor Watson - Judge Calvin Blackwell; Barry Kelley - District Attorney Pierce; Laura Elliot - Dolly; Basil Ruysdael - Judge Hancock; Jane Novak - Mrs. Blackwell; Gertrude W. Hoffman - Aunt Vera Edwards; Harry Antrim - Sidney; Kate Lawson - Clara; Theresa Harris - Esther; Byron Barr - McCary; Geraldine Wall - Matron; Jonathan Corey - Timmy Marshall; Robin Corey - Joan Marshall; Eric Alden - Reporter; Gertrude Astor - Juror; Rodney Bell - Withers; Clancy Cooper - Chase; Nick Cravat - Reporter; Dot Farley - Woman Prisoner; Mary Gordon - Charwoman; Lew Harvey - Court Reporter; Virginia Hunter - Secretary to the District Attorney; Stan Johnson - Young Melvin Pierce; Nolan Leary - Court Clerk; Sam McDaniel - Porter; Tony Merrill - Reporter; Ottola Nesmith - Mrs. Asher; Garry Owen - Bailiff; Eddie Parks - Proprietor; Lee Phelps - Chauffeur; Steve Roberts - Jury Foreman; Kenneth Tobey - Police Photographer; Lynn Whitney - Woman Prisoner; Gig Young - McCarty; Jack Roberts - Reporter; William Hamel - Newsman; Jerry James - Reporter; Bill Meader - Reporter; Ezelle Poule - Woman; John Cortay - Deputy Sheriff; Jim Davies - Bailiff; Geraldine Jordan - Woman Prisoner; Lorna Jordan - Woman; Harry Templeton - Newsman
Credit
Hans Dreier - Art Director, Earl Hedrick - Art Director, Edith Head - Costume Designer, Francisco Day - First Assistant Director, Robert Siodmak - Director, Warren Low - Editor, Victor Young - Composer (Music Score), Wally Westmore - Makeup, Joe Stinton - Makeup, Bob Ewing - Makeup, George Barnes - Cinematographer, Hal B. Wallis - Producer, Sam Comer - Set Designer, Bertram Granger - Set Designer, Gordon Jennings - Special Effects, Harry Lindgren - Sound/Sound Designer, Walter Oberst - Sound/Sound Designer, Ketti Frings - Screenwriter, Marty Holland - Short Story Author
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.
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."[2]
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."[3]
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."[4]
