Female On The Beach (1955)

A wealthy widow (Joan Crawford) moves into a beach house where the last occupant (Judith Evelyn, REAR WINDOW) went flying off the balcony. Suicide ... or murder? Meanwhile, aging beach boy toy (Jeff Chandler) puts the moves on Crawford just as he did on the previous occupant. But was he responsible for her death? Like SUDDEN FEAR, this is supposed to be a Crawford in distress thriller but there's no suspense! Crawford's artificial acting style (her eyebrows really work overtime here) makes the potboiler entertaining enough as she paces in her living room with a cigarette in her right hand and a cocktail in her left as she lusts for Chandler's hot bod but how can we feel she's in danger when she practically knocks Chandler unconscious to the floor with a single punch? It's Chandler that should watch his back! It's all so 50s Universal potboiler lurid that the rather hackneyed script can easily be forgiven as we're wallowing in its kitsch. Directed by Joseph Pevney (TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR). With Jan Sterling as a whack job real estate agent, Cecil Kellaway, Natalie Schafer, Charles Drake and Marjorie Bennett.