Phone Call from a Stranger

This is an interesting story with a great cast. The survivor of a plane crash meets the other people in the lives of those he met on the plane before the crash. This framework provides a fascinating study in conscience and human nature.

Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)

Well, the studio system is crumbling, and the great Golden Age stars like Bette Davis are finding new kinds of roles, but veteran directors like Jean Negulesco are still able to use all the great talents of Hollywood to put together what is a classic kind of movie. It's not a great movie at all, but it's tightly constructed, filled with twists, is dramatic and poignant in turns (and funny, too), and all in all makes for an entertaining and interesting movie.

Not mind-blowing adjectives, I know, but appropriate.

The key player here is a strong and silent type, Gary Merrill, a really steady and impressive actor every time I've seen him, though he usually plays secondary roles. But he calmly holds together a series of stories (there are four main threads here, with a unifying link that is quite a surprise). All the other actors have brief roles, as the movie is really broken into sections a little like A Letter to Three Wives from three years earlier (a better movie, but sharing a nice sense of interweaving stories). But this means Bette Davis, whose name appears in big letters as a star, appears fairly briefly. But she's fabulous, even in this limited role.

There a some odd flaws, like an odd shift to soft focus on an actress for some close-ups of but not others. And the story for all its strengths feels a little forced, too, which you just go along with. But if you are glass half full person you'll see the strengths of acting and filming here (cinematographer Milton Krasner is among the best) as well as the music (Franz Waxman), and you'll really enjoy it start to finish.

Phone Call From A Stranger casts Gary Merrill, Shelley Winters, Michael Rennie and Keenan Wynn as four complete strangers who bond during a cross country flight that ends in tragedy. Of the four Merrill survives the plane crash and feels it his duty to call on the survivors that the three others left. In the process he works out a few issues for himself.

Michael Rennie was a prominent doctor who became a whole lot less prominent after he got out of a vehicular homicide charge by throwing the blame on the other man in the car. Merrill calls on wife Beatrice Straight and son Ted Donaldson who've been living with an alcoholic for many years.

Shelley Winters had left her husband Craig Stevens and his domineering mother Evelyn Varden to seek some fame and fortune on the stage. She was returning home in defeat. Varden is one truly hateful woman, a kind of Sophie Tucker like entertainer on steroids. Merrill conceives it his duty to give Varden a temporary comeuppance of sorts.

The most poignant tale is that of Keenan Wynn. Wynn is a traveling salesman, one of those characters who is constantly 'on'. Keenan borrowed a bit from his borscht belt comedian character from The Hucksters for this role. He carries a picture of his wife Bette Davis from her pinup girl days in a Betty Grable poise in a bathing suit. The Davis that Merrill meets is quite a bit different than what Wynn showed the others. In fact Davis when she recites her own story paints a picture of Wynn as a person of real character that you would never suspect in meeting him casually. This role may have been Keenan Wynn's best screen performance, at least I think so.

The Davis/Wynn story is the best, but the others aren't bad either. The writing by Nunnally Johnson from an I.A.R. Wylie story is just superb and Jean Negulesco gets great performances from his cast. Phone Call From A Stranger is a soap opera, but an intelligent and moving one that may wring a tear from a few hardened hearts.

Gary Merrill is the stranger making the phone calls in "Phone Call from a Stranger," a 1952 film directed by Jean Negulesco and also starring Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, Michael Rennie, Beatrice Straight, Craig Stevens and Bette Davis. Unable to forgive his wife for an affair, David Trask gets on a plane, where, due to the plane being late and an unexpected stopover because of bad weather, he becomes friendly with three passengers: a performer (Winters), a salesman (Wynn) and an alcoholic attorney (Rennie) and hears their stories. The salesman seems a happy man with a knockout for a wife; the performer has a horrid mother-in-law, a former vaudeville star with whom she competes, but she loves her husband; and the attorney has resolved to go to the DA and admit responsibility for an accident that happened a few years earlier which has destroyed his marriage. When the plane crashes, Trask is the only survivor of the four. He visits each of the victims' families to pay his condolences and possibly put some matters right. Then he learns from one of the family members the importance of putting his own life back together.

This isn't a particularly big-budget film - it's in black and white; some of these actors were under contract to Fox; others are not huge names with the exception of Davis. Her role is short but worth the entire film, though all the performances are very good and the stories heartfelt. The attorney's family story is heavy drama, with the son believing his mother drove his father away. The performer's family story is the comic relief as the mother-in-law right out of hell gets her comeuppance. And the tear-jerker is the scene with the salesman's wife. Davis is often criticized for being overblown and mannered, and yet she was always capable of giving a restrained performance as she does here and also did in "All This and Heaven Too" and "Watch on the Rhine." There are other treats as well. Shelley Winters is pretty and vivacious in a wonderful role for her, Keenan Wynn is excellent as the loud salesman, and as the attorney, Rennie is an appropriately sad and reflective figure. Gary Merrill is very likable as Trask. Though he never really made it to big star status, he was a dependable actor, very handsome and masculine. Of course he and Davis had sparks in "All About Eve" - so much so that they got married in real life - and there's a nice chemistry between them here as well. It's nice to see them when they were happy together. They also did a very good British film together, "Another Man's Poison." My only complaint is the at times overpowering musical score.

Very entertaining and highly recommended, especially for Davis fans.

"Phone Call from a Stranger" tells the tale of four passengers (Merrill, Rennie, Wynn, and Winters) on a cross-country airplane trip. The four become friends and share personal thoughts before the plane crashes, killing all except Merrill, who sets out to contact the relatives of his dead friends. He finds that each family has a very different story to tell, and each has its own issues arising from the deaths of their relatives.

Extremely well-acted, directed and scripted film also has harrowing airplane footage and a very good ending. Merrill is top form, as is Winters and especially Rennie, who is haunted by an accident in which a colleague was killed years earlier. Unlike many modern movies, this one really leaves you with a profound message--the void that is left behind when someone suddenly dies.

Try to see it if you can, my AMC tape is several years old and I've enjoyed this film many times. Just be warned--people scared of flying may cringe at the nighttime approach to the Vega airport.