Robert Siodmak directed The File on Thelma Jordon, a femme-centered film noir (his ninth), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey (for a change playing the lead).
The screenplay by Ketti Frings, based on an unpublished short story by Marty Holland, concerns a woman who pretends to fall in love with assistant district attorney and uses him to escape conviction for murdering her wealthy aunt.
Thelma Jordon shows up late one night in the office of the district attorney to report attempted burglaries at her Aunt Vera’s home. The district attorney, Miles Scott, is out, but she meets the assistant district attorney, Cleve Marshall, an unhappily married man with a drinking problem.
Cleve asks her to join him for a drink and she agrees. Soon, he is caught up in a love affair with the mysterious, seductive Thelma.
Thelma, who claims to be estranged from husband Tony, lives with the wealthy, reclusive Vera. One night Vera hears noises in the house, picks up a gun, and is shot dead.
Thelma tells Cleve that an intruder killed Vera, and he covers up evidence that might incriminate her. When the district attorney arrests Thelma as the prime suspect, Cleve tries to undermine the case from the inside.
He takes over the prosecution and handles it so badly that the defense is able to convince the jury of reasonable doubt. Footprints belonging to an elusive “Mr X”—Cleve himself, as he engaged in the cover-up—further weaken the case. Thelma is acquitted and inherits Vera’s money.
But then her past is revealed: she did kill Vera, and Tony, who is not her husband but her lover, had schemed the plan so that both could get rich.
Cleve, already aware that Thelma has been lying, forces her to acknowledge the relationship with Tony.
Unable to deal with her guilty conscience, Thelma causes a car accident that results in her accomplice’s death and her own fatal injury. As she lies dying, she confesses the truth to the district attorney.
While she does not incriminate Cleve as Mr. X., the district attorney figures it and tells Cleve he will be disbarred. However, Cleve had already been confessing to his complicity.
A flawed film noir: The production is polished (especially lighting and music), and the acting of the two leads is compelling, but the tale is predictable (including the climax and ending), particularly for viewers familiar with the genre and with Stanwyck’s role in Billy Wilder’s terrific noir, Double Indemnity.
Cast
Barbara Stanwyck as Thelma Jordon
Wendell Corey as Cleve Marshall
Paul Kelly as Miles Scott
Joan Tetzel as Pamela Marshall
Stanley Ridges as Kingsley Willis
Richard Rober as Tony Laredo
Gertrude W. Hoffmann as Aunt Vera Edwards
Basil Ruysdael as judge Jonathan David Hancock
