Kim Hunter in Movie Harlem

 I saw the 1944 movie on cable with the title WHEN STRANGERS MARRY. Apparently, when it was re-released, it was given the title BETRAYED. Future Broadway star and Oscar winner Kim Hunter stars in this suspense tale along with Robert Mitchum and Dean Jagger. 

I'd never heard of the movie until this week. When I came across it on cable, I really kept WHEN STRANGERS MARRY on for background sound while I worked on some writing. But the story and acting caught my interest. Plus, I was awed by the movie's positive images of Black folks. The Kim Hunter and Dean Jagger characters wind up in Harlem and casually go into a Harlem tavern called Big Jim's. 

 WHEN STRANGERS MARRY was a Monogram Pictures production. Monogram was sort of the poor cousin of Hollywood studios. This will give you an idea about it: In the 1940s, when the Academy Awards were a deluxe Hollywood affair with a banquet, Bob Hope did some master of ceremonies duty after the dinner. He quipped something like "It's great to see all the studios represented here tonight. Paramount has a table, MGM has a table, Warner Brothers has a table, Fox has a table ... Monogram has a stool..."

WHEN STRANGERS MARRY does not look like a bargain basement prodution. The acting is so good, the black and white cinemtography is so good, the editing and pace are so energetic that you'd think it came out of MGM or Warner Bros. It's an entertaining film that runs about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

With Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter gained fame in the original Broadway production and the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. She played Stella and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She made her film debut in a 1943 occult thriller called THE SEVENTH VICTIM (which airs September 10th at 8p ET on Turner Classic Movies). In that, she leaves school to head to Greenwich Village in New York City and find her missing older sister. Her sister got involved with a Satanic cult. WHEN STRANGERS MARRY was Hunter's third film and, again, she played a character who goes to Greenwich Village.

Hunter plays a sweet bride from Ohio who quickly fell in love with and married a salesman in Ohio. A month later, he has to leave on business and sends her a message from Philadelphia to meet him at a hotel in New York City. We see the happy bride on a train to NYC. When she arrives at the hotel, her husband isn't there. But she runs into a friend who's staying at the hotel. He's also a salesman, they knew each other in Ohio and he wanted to marry her. She turned him down. When the loving husband does show up, he's a bit dodgy when asked about his whereabouts. He seems to be ducking the other salesman from Ohio. And what's this newspaper business about a silk stockings murder in Philadelphia? The bride confides in the Ohio friend and asks for his help in solving a couple of riddles abut her husband. A handsome Dean Jagger -- with a full head o' dark hair -- plays the husband. Screen newcomer Robert Mitchum plays the friend. This 1944 film was early in his career. He'd score a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for 1945's THE STORY OF G.I. JOE and really hit big in the1947 RKO film noir classic, OUT OF THE PAST. WHEN STRANGERS MARRY shows his magnetism, talent and promise -- promise he later fulfilled in such films as OUT OF THE PAST (1947), THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955), HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON (1957), THE SUNDOWNERS (1960) and CAPE FEAR (1962).

Before the Harlem scenes, something caught me in the first five minutes of WHEN STRANGERS MARRY. Sam McDaniel, the actor brother of GONE WITH THE WIND Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel, appeared in many movies. Like his sister, he was constantly cast in domestic roles, many of which went uncredited. He played train porters numerous times and was always burdened with having to speak in that stereotypical way Hollywood made many Black actors speak in the 1930s and 40s. An example -- "You sho izz right about dat, boss! You sho izz right."

Not so in WHEN STRANGERS MARRY. Sam McDaniel's porter character opens and closes the film. He speaks in his natural voice. When the white husband and wife go into the Harlem tavern and take a table, the sight of the Harlem customers is refreshing. They're well-dressed, dapper, sophisticated -- like the nightclub crowd enjoying Duke Ellington in Vincente Minnelli's all-Black MGM musical, CABIN IN THE SKY (1943). When the piano player in the tavern gives out with some music, the husband and wife watch as a couple takes to the dance floor. The male dancer may look familiar. He was in that CABIN IN THE SKY nightclub dance number featuring Duke Ellington..

 

The husband and wife leave the tavern. Outside, they see two Black cops on motorcyles chatting about a sports event that night. The white married couple strolls down about ten Harlem blocks from 137th & Lenox Avenue. Yes, I said "stroll." Not "walks quickly smelling of fear." The big money studios rarely gave moviegoers that quality of racial inclusion with its stars back then.

WHEN STRANGERS MARRY was directed by William Castle. In the 50s and 60s, he was known for such delightfully cheesey movies as THE TINGLER, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, 13 FRIGHTENED GIRLS and STRAIT-JACKET starring Joan Crawford.

1944's WHEN STRANGERS MARRY isn't cheesy. I'm glad I saw it. I was pleasantly surprised.