Crime Of Passion (1957)

A newspaper woman (Barbara Stanwyck) from San Francisco falls in love with a policeman (Sterling Hayden) in Los Angeles. A hasty marriage occurs but it isn't long before she's bored with being a housewife and becomes dissatisfied with her husband's lack of ambition. So, she takes matters into her own hands with tragic results. Directed by Gerd Oswald (A KISS BEFORE DYING), this is a nifty little noir-ish melodrama with Stanwyck playing a contemporary Lady MacBeth. But she's not entirely unsympathetic. Stuck in 1950s suburbia amid chattering housewives raving about the cream cheese and olive dip and dissecting daytime soap operas while the husbands drink and play poker, who wouldn't go homicidal? Raymond Burr is quite good as the police inspector who sees through Stanwyck's machinations. Solid stuff with a sympathetic feminist bent. The B&W cinematography is handled by Joseph LaShelle (LAURA) and there's a suitably intense score by Paul Dunlap. With Fay Wray, Stuart Whitman, Virginia Grey, Royal Dano and Jay Adler.