AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

HotToastyRag In Storm Warning, a woman witnesses a murder by the KKK and is forced to confront deep-seeded racism in her own family. You wouldn't such heavy material would star Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, and Doris Day, would you? If you like the types of movies that deal with racism before the Civil Rights Movement, and while still in the confines of the Hays Code, Storm Warning is definitely one to put on your list. It's extremely tense and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Even though it was made in 1951 with a cast you wouldn't normally think to take seriously, it's still very heavy and thought-provoking. At the time, the subject matter wasn't exactly taboo, but it certainly wasn't dinner conversation. For strong characters who have to stand up to their community no matter the cost, look no further than Stuart Heisler's chilling drama. The acting is surprisingly good, and Daniel Fuchs and Richard Brooks's script is frightening without seeming melodramatic.

jdsuggs This has to be the only anti-Klan/social message film you'll ever see that doesn't mention race even once. African-Americans appear only as extras in this story; I'm pretty sure no one even gets a line of dialogue. As if that wasn't distracting enough, there's a tacked-on theme that the Klan is simply a money scam, with the various local wizards getting rich off of dues, emblem and white sheet and pillow case sales and what-not, and that the whole terrifying organization is one forensic audit away from some really bad press. On top of all that weirdness, it's made very clear- and don't think this wasn't thought through, hashed out, and thoroughly negotiated- that the Klan murder that opens the film was the unintended act of a loose cannon, rather than a real lynching. Past all that hedging, though, they really give that bad ol' Klan what-for! The result is an almost unimaginably odd duck- an openly crusading film that must have made the Klan and the NAACP pretty equally unhappy back in 1951.What we're left with is a pretty good Noir that is brisk, tense, gripping, and very exciting when it needs to be, driven by the kind of villains you love to root against- bullies and cowards. Ginger Rogers and Doris Day are cast well out of their comfort zones in humorless, non-glamorous (though Rogers plays a model), and mostly unlovable roles. Both pull it off admirably. Reagan is right in his wheelhouse as the straight-arrow prosecutor fighting an uphill battle. Odd to find these three future Republican stalwarts in this de-fanged cop-out, but they manage to make something out of the leftover pieces that's well worth your very short viewing time. "Storm Warning" is also nicely staged and spooky; it delivers a small town from the 1950s that you won't want to visit- but boy, is it vivid and real.It would be interesting to know what went on behind the scenes- who chickened this thing out, and what the early drafts looked like. They clearly had no heart to make an "Ox-Bow Incident" or "Gentleman's Agreement", but they gave what they could.

secondtake Storm Warning (1951)An anti-KKK film that doesn't mention blacks or Jews or other persecuted groups. Instead, the victim is a journalist who we assume was uncovering those crimes. The drama is high, the filming dramatic with lots of night stuff (some of it daringly dark), and the leading actors very good.The star here is Ginger Rogers, and she pulls off a subtle job of being both a very strong woman and an average American unwilling to stick her neck out. In a way, that's the one main point of the movie--that the KKK continues in little towns in mid-century America because regular people who are normally models of fortitude decide to just look the other way.Doris Day and Ronald Reagan, both archetypes of some kind of social conservatism later in their careers, play ordinary folk here. Day is the wimpy sister who happens to be married to a lousy klan bruiser. She plays the weak American, you might say, who protects her man even when he's obviously murderous. Reagan is the easy going prosecutor--and he's easy going in the way he'd later be the easy going president. He gets things done by slowly and cheerfully persisting.Director Stuart Heisler made a number of hard edged movies in his career, including one of my favorites, "The Glass Key." But, as in many of these others, he goes for style over substance here. You might say the American public wasn't ready to face their ambivalence over the KKK head on, and that the studios skirted the issue and were brave for bringing it up at all. Well, reviews from the period say otherwise. They call the movie wimpy and elusive, and it is.What you do get is a series of really good but really familiar situations where the KKK members coerce and force the regular townspeople into going along with their evil ways. There is no mention at all of the what the KKK was against, or the racism that was at the heart of the issue nationally. There are, to be sure, several black actors as extras in a couple of scenes, but this is hardly relevant except to say that the opportunity was there to push the issue much harder, much harder. Even Warner Bros. own "Black Legion" from 1937 (and starring Humphrey Bogart) was better at making the issues pertinent. "The Intruder" from 1962 (and starring William Shatner) is better at getting to the point despite its low budget, and maybe shows how the country was dealing with the issue more openly by then."Storm Warning" is so well made and filled with great scenes--both the small town settings and the wild KKK meeting in the woods--it's worth seeing. And the opening ten minutes is so creepy it will really make you perk up. They say Rogers is miscast here, but I think she was supposed to be the sophisticated outsider who might, in fact, stand up for justice. And then she doesn't. See it.

billdower Storm Warning is a real curiosity in terms of its casting – dancer Ginger Rogers, one time favourite partner of Fred Astair, and Doris Day, who went on to become America's favourite virgin/mum-next-door in light-weight comedy movies (while simultaneously achieving world-wide success as a singer), are cast a sisters in a film noir with no singing and dancing but scenes of murder, attempted rape, ritual scourging and domestic violence! Billed as an expose of the Ku Klux Klan the movie has been slated in some quarters for shying away from the real issues: no mention of the racism and sectarianism for which the loathsome organisation is infamous, no black faces in the crown scenes, no real idea of the location of Rock Point, the fictional town where the action is set – all that is explicitly stated is that it isn't New York! The film opens with Ms Rogers, on the way to a marketing assignment somewhere outside of the metropolis, stopping off en-route to visit her sister in small-town USA where, as misfortune would have it, she witness the murder by Klansmen of a 'meddling reporter'. Later, on meeting her sister's husband (Steve Cochran) Ms Rogers recognises him as one of the murderers. For the sake of her sister, who has just discovered she is expecting her first child, Ms Rogers lies at the court hearing claiming she saw nothing, therefore denying county prosecutor Ronald Reagan (yep, the one that became President) the chance of issuing subpoenas to every member of the local Klan chapter in pursuance of a prosecution. Through Ronnie's dialogue and that of the chief clansman and local employer, the film does indeed seem to portray the Klan as a bunch of hoodlums, thugs and petty gangsters whose main crime seems to be evading income tax ¬– as opposed to a quasi-religious organisation hell-bent on spreading hate, distrust and violence. While this does seem to indicate the studio back peddling on its intent to rip aside the veil of mystery surrounding the Klan, there is some truth in the description of its members. If the Klan only attracted law-abiding citizens and fought for its anti-Jew/catholic/black agenda through the ballot box it would be a laughing stock. The fear-inspiring fact of the matter is that this type of hate-fuelled organisation tends to attract hoodlums and thugs who aspire to violence and lust for power. Society can deal with and dismiss the ill-thought-out philosophies of these fringe organisations but it is more difficult to deal with the law-breaking, violent acts which take place in the dead of night perpetrated by cowardly gangsters who hide their faces. Made in 1951, Storm Warning, was the first movie to feature the Klan in such a negative fashion. It is hard-hitting in number of ways – while much of the action seems a little tame to the jaded audiences of 21st century, particularly the domestic violence perpetrated by Hank Rice (Steve Cochran), which is a mere shadow of that of Marlon Brando's Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire, the scene were Ms Rogers actually vomits in the street having just witnessed the murder remains particularly shocking! While this Warner Bros production falls well short of the studio's best fare there are great performances from the leads and it is a pity the movie is so hard to get hold of – I had to get mine from a guy in Madrid!