Storm Warning (1951)

Directed by Stuart Heisler; produced by Jerry Wald

On her way to an assignment, fashion model Marsha Mitchell (Ginger Rogers) stops in the small town of Rock Point to visit her sister, Lucy (Doris Day), whom she hasn’t seen since before the latter’s wedding. Marsha’s troubles start with the unfriendliness of the residents and escalates as she witnesses a murder committed by the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. When she realises that Lucy’s husband, Hank (Steve Cochran) is involved, she is conflicted about whether to testify about the killing, caught between the pressure of the district attorney (Ronald Reagan) and threats from the Klan.

This is an entertaining crime drama, the principal flaw of which comes from what it is not, rather than what it is. The story is satisfactory if not new, with Marsha being forced into a situation in which she must make very difficult choices. The crusading prosecutor, the harried witness, the victims, the villains are all fairly standard elements in such a movie.

It’s the acting and some of the writing that raise Storm Warning above the usual fare. The script does a good job of creating an air of fear, though it can’t quite decide whether it should let the ‘silent majority’ of townsfolk off the hook, or implicate them as ‘silent accomplices’ in the evil of the criminal organisation in their midst. This is shown in a scene featuring a reporter trying to broadcast a radio story. It is in creating individual characters, however, that the script rises above the standard.

Hank is one of the best depictions I’ve seen of the usual member of hate-groups. Not too bright, willing to go along with the crowd - indeed, wanting to be part of the crowd - self-important, Hank avoids responsibility when he thinks it will lead to trouble, then defiantly boasts of it when he will be lauded for it. Bullying toward the weak, and cowardly when trapped by the strong, the character even includes the childish delight in repeating jokes long after they become tiresome, as long as he once got a laugh from them.

As regards, Reagan was criticized and ridiculed after he entered politics - especially after becoming U.S. president - but he was a good actor, if not a very good actor. He plays the same sort of character in most movies; his range is limited, but within that range, he is capable.

Ginger Rogers shows once again that the creation of strong women was superior in films of the 1940s and ‘50s to that of our own time. Lauren Bacall, Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell almost always portrayed strong characters - with weaknesses, certainly, but they didn’t need a gun or a sword to demonstrate their strength; (I think Davis may have shot a couple of people…)

Cochran is a large part of why his character came across so clearly. In one very tense scene with Rogers, he is menacing, the scene very tense and actually frightening.

Now, for Storm Warning’s flaw, which may be big or small, depending on how one wants to view the movie. The story is about the Ku Klux Klan. It is usually referred to in the dialogue as “the Klan”, but its full name is used at least once. One of the group’s purposes was to intimidate blacks and to ‘keep them in their place’, as the Klan saw it. While opposed to others (eg. liberals, Jews), blacks were the principal target. Yet in Storm Warning, there is no mention of this. Indeed, the only black people seen are a few extras, and they have no lines.

The reason for this omission could not have been to soft-pedal the Klan. It is called racist and bigoted, childish and stupid. It is depicted as tolerant of murder, robbery and torture to reach its goals. Yet it is shown as a kind of Mafia, a general criminal organisation.

The only reason I can suggest for this tactic was that, while the Klan was generally seen as evil, movie producers (and the company leaders above them) deemed racism too off-putting to the general public (and therefore too harmful at the box-office.) This is a shame, because Storm Warning could have had the impact of a more powerful movie such as No Way Out (reviewed in this blog in June, 2021), released the previous year. It may have been that those concerned in Storm Warning simply didn’t want the possible controversy, even if some of the film’s scenes demonstrated a willingness to push convention.

I would, then, recommend Storm Warning as an effective crime drama, with good performances – excellent, from some of the cast – while sighing for what it could have been.