Loretta Young was not really known for her appearances in noir films, but she did show up in two that I think are among the best in the genre; The Stranger and this movie. Cause For Alarm is a relatively early noir, made in 1951 when the genre was only a few years old. This film belongs to a subgenre of noir movies I like to call "reverse noir", meaning that the main character is a girl who is put in danger by her relationship with a man. Typically, it's the opposite. The movie focuses on Loretta for most of its runtime, which is less than an hour and a half. Ellen (Loretta Young) is married to George (Barry Sullivan), a former world war 2 pilot, and both are currently living in california. Shortly after, George starts to develop heart problems and is too ill to even leave his bed. Ellen is tasked with looking after him, and soon, he starts to think his wife is plotting with his doctor to kill him by making him take overdoses of his heart medicine. This assumption prompts George to write a letter to the local district attorney which states his belief that his wife and doctor want him dead. Soon, George waits for his wife to feed him breakfast in bed, and while she's in the bathroom, he gets out of bed and locks the door. George holds his wife at gunpoint and says the letter incriminating her is being sent on its way as they speak. Right after this, George dies, seemingly from a heart attack. Of course, the problem now is convincing people that George is not dead, otherwise it will look like Ellen is guilty of something. Ellen knows she is in serious trouble if that letter gets to its destination, so she frantically tries to locate the postman who is delivering it. Upon finding him, she asks for it, and a very awkward conversation follows in which she claims to have wrote the letter, but then says her husband did. The postman tells her he can only give letters back to the people who wrote them, and her request is denied. Meanwhile, George's aunt stops by Ellen's house to say hi to her nephew, and Ellen rushes back to her house just in time to shoo her away. Her ruse is not detected. Meanwhile, Ellen manages to keep more people away from George's corpse by telling people he is too sick to see anyone, and the conversations become even more awkward as the suspicion builds. Later, Ellen has one last chance to stop the letter from being read, and she drives to the post office to see the superintendent. Another confrontational dialogue ensues, and he refuses to let her open the letter without George's say-so. Ellen knows she is finished, and her only option now is to go home. Back at her house, George's doctor is waiting there for her, and she pleads with him not to go upstairs and see how he's doing. He does so anyway, sees George dead, and says his mind was fading anyway. In a brilliant plot twist, the postman shows up at Ellen's house and tells her George's letter was unable to complete its journey because of insufficient postage. Ellen is saved, and burns the letter in an ashtray. Having just watched this, it is already one of my favorite noir films. It is not particularly long, and is easy to understand. The entire thing basically revolves around Ellen trying to stop the letter and save her reputation. I was really surprised by the ending that has the argumentative mailman inadvertently saving the day by returning George's letter to Ellen. If there's one thing this film showcases especially well, it's the fact that even as recently as the 1950s, women had essentially no rights. We see this in the movie because Ellen constantly needs her husband's approval to have the letter handed over to her. Loretta herself didn't seem to care about how subservient to men she was shown to be in this movie. By this time, she was a staunch republican and a big supporter of President Eisenhower, and as such she believed women should focus on creating nice, habitable environments at home rather than working outside. Political views aside, Cause For Alarm is definitely a short noir, but it is a memorable one.
Review of Cause for Alarm!
