Cause for Alarm

Cause for Alarm


Starring:Loretta Young
Studio: Alpha Video
Product Type: DVD
Cause for Alarm
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Terrific suspense film!
  • He planned for her to panic
  • Loretta Young in an exceptional performance
  • Film noir comes to suburbia in this suspenseful gem
  • "This girl is in trouble!"
Cause for Alarm
Starring: Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer , Richard Anderson , Georgia Backus , Irving Bacon , and Art Baker
Director: Tay Garnett
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009OL92A
Release Date: 2005-07-26

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Terrific suspense film!.......2006-05-31

Ellen Brown (Loretta Young) is having a really bad day. Actually that would be an understatement. Let me start from the beginning. A huge monkey wrench has been thrown into her comfortable, idyllic early 1950's suburban lifestyle. Her husband George (Barry Sullivan) has a serious heart condition which is making him deteriorate not only physically but psychologically as well. He was once very much in love with his wife, but now he suffers from delusions and is convinced that Ellen and his doctor and once friend Ranney Grahame (Bruce Cowling) are plotting to kill him. George writes a letter to the district attorney stating this and has Ellen mail it, not knowing of the contents until it's too late. George's condition worsens and he tries to kill Ellen and it is during this scene that she finds out about the letter he had her mail, right before he drops dead. Now Ellen has to hurry and get the letter back before she's wrongly implicated in her husband's demise. Things get interesting as we go along on Ellen's journey to get the letter back. It may sound like a simple mundane task, but numerous interruptions keep occurring that get in the way of Ellen's quest. The suspense grows and grows to a maddening level and as viewers we can feel Ellen's anguish and desperation. The suspense keeps up until we reach the end. You'll have to see for yourself how it turns out. Loretta Young does a perfect job in her role. We can almost feel and relate to every emotion that she experiences as if we were going through the ordeal ourselves. Barry Sullivan and Bruce Cowling also do a great job in their roles. While this may not be blockbuster material, it is worth watching and very well made. It's also notable as one of the last films Loretta Young starred in before she went on to work in television. See it at least once; I think you'll enjoy it!

5 out of 5 stars He planned for her to panic.......2005-11-16

Since there are several reviews already listing the outline of the plot I'll just mention a few key points that I feel were handled very skillfully.

First of all, I find the handling of George's (the husband's) character very elegant. The first time I saw the movie I bought it completely--the whole bit about him being wonderful until illness and despair drove him into psychosis. Upon my second viewing I realized a few things that give his character a whole different slant.

We see from the very beginning, in Ellen's flashback to their meeting and courtship, that although he is quite dashing he is also sly, self-serving, manipulative, and somewhat malicious. This is shown by the way he tricks her and takes advantage in the hospital room and then laughs at her. We also see in the beach and airport scenes that he relishes taking her away from his own best friend. Anyone with a real heart--get the symbolism there--would feel a little regret about that.

Later, after he is established as an invalid, the isolation and anxiety caused by his cardiac condition are becoming evident as he intersperses perfectly rational conversation with sudden flights of mania and flashes of paranoia. His delusions seem ridiculous compared to Ellen's obvious devotion and worry, but we do wonder if perhaps he isn't right, after all, about the involvement of the doctor (his best friend of old). Maybe the poor doctor really is guilty of secretly wishing George would hurry up and die, leaving the way clear for him to pursue Ellen once more; maybe he's too noble to ever think such a thing at all. Regardless, George believes it.

There is a lovely scene before he dies where we see precisely what his relationship is to these people and what he has planned for them. He describes for Ellen his childhood toy, the ship in a bottle, and the neighbor boy who touched it when his back was turned and whom he savagely attacks in return. Before his mother can force him to give up the ship in apology he purposely dashes the bottle to the floor, destroying it completely.

The parallel between the ship and Ellen is obvious--something lovely and fragile and completely captive. He has contained Ellen within their house without allowing her to form friendships or outside interests and he expects her to exist solely for him, just as he wanted no one else to touch or look at his ship. And now he believes his friend is secretly planning against him, or maybe he's making that up as a form of justification for what he is about to do. Since he's already convinced he's dying, he's furious that it now appears he's also giving up his wife to the other fellow in rather the way he was expected to reward the covetous neighbor boy. Just like the scene in his youth, he acts to damage his perceived rival and ruin the prize. The only difference is that now with maturity he is able to plot and scheme rather than strike out impulsively. I am left wondering if he truly is paranoid about their "plot" or if this is his crafty, nasty way of shattering the ship all over again.

The moments with Aunt Clara only reinforce the impression that George never was quite normal. She seems to have no trouble believing the lie about George turning against her, thus she immediately retaliates with a remark that leaves no doubt of a long familial history overlooking his cruel tendencies. I thought it was very nicely done, and all the more effective because Clara isn't a sympathetic character. We certainly see a resemblance to George in her utter self-absorption.

One wonders how a nice, intelligent being like Ellen could be taken in by George, but they say love is blind. This is evinced by the scenes where she always just misses seeing him at the window. Others notice him, or she detects the swaying drapery, but she never quite sees the whole picture of him sitting spiderlike among webs of curtain lace.

The film does a fine job of ratcheting up the suspense by using the most mundane scenarios. The almost ridiculous nature of the obstacles in her path contrast with just how sinister George's plan is. He must know that an investigation into his death would be inconclusive at best (even given the large life insurance policy as a motive). But a close review of Ellen's activities that day would cast new light on the details in his letter. We see Ellen driven by panic and pent-up stress into behaving less and less rationally and appearing more and more guilty. She certainly seems doomed, and this could only be brought about by the revelation from George. I feel this is further evidence that he has contrived the plot out of malice rather than paranoia or a desire for posthumous justice. He knows exactly how her innocent, beleaguered heart will react to the news. In fact, he is counting on it, he has carefully cultivated this moment.

I don't believe for one second that he ever intends to shoot her. Notice he never points the gun directly at her. I think he means to shoot the woodwork and cement the impression that he was trying to defend himself. He wants it to look like she was forcing him to take more drugs. He knows the overdose he took earlier will only add weight to the accusation, he just doesn't expect it to finish him off right at that moment.

The irony of her shooting the floor herself later on makes me think I'm right about that. It serves as a tidy little bookend moment.

I also love the ironic, abrupt ending that simply poleaxes Ellen and halts her in her steps. It's wonderful how the relentless, pounding pace of her mounting hysteria is like heart palpitations bounding out of control when suddenly it all just...stops. (Rather like George). Another great bookend moment. Delicious.

4 out of 5 stars Loretta Young in an exceptional performance.......2005-11-03

CAUSE FOR ALARM is a very entertaining film in the noir-suspense vein. Loretta Young plays a housewife whose terminally-ill husband becomes mentally unbalanced and accuses her of trying to kill him. When he writes a damning letter to the District Attorney, she must embark on a race against time to retrieve it.

A prime Loretta Young vehicle. She offers an amazing performance in what turned out to be one of her last movies before focusing on a lucrative television career. With Margalo Gillmore, Barry Sullivan, Bruce Cowling, Irving Bacon and Brad Mora. CAUSE FOR ALARM was directed with great skill by Tay Garnett, who several years before had directed the noir masterpiece THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. The score was composed by Andre Previn.

Alpha's DVD offers a fine-looking Public Domain print (taken from a good quality VHS master). For Loretta Young fans and admirers of the noir genre, this is quite the treat.

5 out of 5 stars Film noir comes to suburbia in this suspenseful gem.......2005-09-25

Cause For Alarm (1951) is something of an oddity in the film noir genre, bringing its gritty sense of increasing tension and suspense out of the shadows of the night into the bright, daytime light of suburbia. Only a talented actress could make this story work, and Loretta Young shines in the role of the distraught wife of a paranoid, dying husband. Her character Ellen Jones seems to be quite the devoted wife caring selflessly for her bedridden husband George (Barry Sullivan), and a flashback to the couple's first meeting reveals a husband madly in love with her from the moment he laid eyes on her. This happy-go-lucky fellow is a far cry from the man we meet upstairs suffering from a mysterious heart ailment, for he has come to believe that his wife and best friend/doctor, Ranney Grahame (Bruce Cowling), are plotting to kill him so that they can be together. He is so convinced of this that he sends a thoroughly incriminating letter to the district attorney before confronting Ellen with his charges. He tells Ellen all about the letter that she herself delivered into the hands of the postman but collapses before he is able to exact his mad revenge upon her personally. Ellen's in a real spot; the man she loves has just died trying to kill her, and the terrible letter already on its way to the D.A. will make everyone think she killed him. What she must do, of course, is get that letter back before it reaches its destination. What follows is a frustrating, maddening, increasingly suspenseful paper chase, with all manner of obstacles placed in Ellen's way. Trying to get a letter back from the postman may not sound exciting, but Cause For Alarm delivers an almost frenetically suspenseful plot that leaves one wondering what will happen at the very end. Not only did I wonder if she would get the letter back in time, I wondered if there was more to George's paranoid suspicions than there originally seemed, as Ellen climbs up to the very pinnacle of panic, enmeshing herself in an increasingly entangling web of lies and deceit that stand to bring upon herself the very suspicions that she seeks to avoid. Cause For Alarm really and truly kept me in growing suspense from start to finish, culminating in a perfectly effective and satisfying conclusion.

4 out of 5 stars "This girl is in trouble!".......2005-09-18

-Quite the self-explanatory tagline, used for the 1951 theatrical release of "Cause for Alarm", an almost forgotten "B" film noir starring the lovely Loretta Young. Directed by Tay Garnett (who directed the noir classic "The Postman Always Rings Twice") and produced by Loretta's husband Tom Lewis, "Cause for Alarm" was originally a radio play. Actually, it's very interesting how Loretta Young got to play the starring role in this film. Tom Lewis initially wanted Judy Garland for the role of Ellen Jones, but Loretta's lawyer told him that he was discriminating against her because she was his wife. Needless to say, she got the role!

Lorreta Young stars as Ellen Jones, a patient, loving, and devoted wife of her sick, bedridden husband George (Barry Sullivan). Over time George has become firmly convinced that his wife is having an affair with his best friend Ranney Grahame (Bruce Cowling) and is plotting with Ranney to kill him. George writes all this down in a letter to the District Attorney and gets his naive wife to hand the letter to the mailman. That's when he drops the bombshell and confronts Ellen about his suspicions. She of course denies his ridiculous claims and tries desperately to assure him of her love and loyalty, but it's no use. Totally losing control, he struggles to his feet and tries to kill her, but instead he falls over and dies.

Although she is spared from his murder attempt, Ellen's troubles are just beginning. She quickly realizes that if the letter from her husband reaches the District Attorney she'll be charged with George's murder. She then races against time to get the letter back before it's delivered, but along the way she continuously makes many self-incriminating mistakes (You know, the kind that only a scared innocent person could make!) and has to deal with several annoying people (and one VERY bratty kid) before achieving her goal. Finally George's best friend Ranney Grahame comes to her rescue after hearing what happened, although it may already be too late to save her from a murder charge...

The main flaw of "Cause for Alarm" is the abrupt ending which totally disappointed me. I was hoping for and expecting much more after the continuous buildup of suspense but instead the ending was very flat and unimpressive. Overall, though, it's quite an entertaining movie, especially for a low-budget "B" noir. In my opinion both Loretta Young and Barry Sullivan were highly underated, and their exceptional performances in this movie helped overcome the absurdities of the plot. I first learned of this movie when reading Arthur Lyons superb book _Death on the Cheap: the Lost B Movies of Film Noir_. "Cause for Alarm" is definitely recommended for classic film noir buffs.
Film Noir Vol. 1: The Stranger/Cause For Alarm
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • The Stranger/Cause for Alarm
  • Excellent service
  • The missing two minutes is no cause for alarm
  • Noir fans won't be dissapointed
  • Roan DVD is 95 min version, not 85 minutes.
Film Noir Vol. 1: The Stranger/Cause For Alarm
Starring: David Bond , John Brown , Fred Godoy , Joseph Granby , and Billy House
Manufacturer: ROAN
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305436479
Release Date: 1999-10-26

Amazon.com

There isn't much to connect these two features beyond the general umbrella of film noir and the presence of Loretta Young (hardly a noir icon), but the Roan Group's collection features excellent prints of both of these often poorly represented classics. The clean, sharp pictures and clear sound show these two films off at their best.

The legendary story that hovers over Orson Welles's The Stranger is that he wanted Agnes Moorehead to star as the dogged Nazi hunter who trails a war criminal to a sleepy New England town. The part went to E.G. Robinson, who is marvelous, but it points out how many compromises Welles made on the film in an attempt to show Hollywood he could make a film on time, on budget, and on their own terms. He accomplished all three, turning out a stylish if unambitious film noir thriller, his only Hollywood film to turn a profit on its original release. Welles stars as unreformed fascist Franz Kindler, hiding as a schoolteacher in a New England prep school for boys and newly married to the headmaster's lovely if naive daughter (Loretta Young). Welles the director is in fine form for the opening sequences, casting a moody tension as agents shadow a twitchy low-level Nazi official skulking through South American ports and building up to dramatic crescendo as Kindler murders this little man, the lovely woods becoming a maelstrom of swirling leaves that expose the body he furiously tries to bury. The rest of film is a well-designed but conventional cat-and-mouse game featuring an eye-rolling performance by Welles and a thrilling conclusion played out in the dark clock tower that looms over the little village.

In Cause for Alarm, Loretta Young is an elegantly tailored happy homemaker caring for her invalid husband (Barry Sullivan), a former pilot suffering from a mysterious heart disease that has driven him to almost complete madness. Convinced his wife and his doctor are in collusion to kill him, he's carefully recorded the "evidence" of their crime in a letter to the district attorney and prepares to turn the tables on them, but even his own sudden death can't stop the chain of events that plunges his wife into a waking nightmare. An unusual entry into the film noir school of paranoia, Tay Garnett's melodramatic thriller trades the dark alleys and long shadows of urban menace for the sunny, tree-lined streets of middle-class domesticity. Young, so often cool, calm, and carefully coifed in her studio roles, beautifully evokes the American Dream as the dutiful wife who collapses into a state of hysterical desperation. Spinning a web of lies to retrieve the damning letter, her world falls apart around her as she unwittingly sinks herself deeper into a morass of suspicion and circumstantial evidence. Though this is less slick and stylish than his claim to film noir fame The Postman Always Rings Twice, Garnett spins a simple premise into a tense, terrifying ordeal, and Young's deadened narration adds an eerie mood of doom to the suburban setting. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars The Stranger/Cause for Alarm.......2006-07-18

This double-sided DVD contains two suspenseful Loretta Young movies, and is well worth the bargin price, though video quality is not quite top notch.

The Stranger, 1946
The setting is a small New England town shortly after World War II. Loretta Young plays a young woman who returns from her honeymoon to find that a war crimes investigator (Edward G. Robinson) suspects her new husband (Orson Welles) of being a secretive high-level Nazi. The dramatic conflict concerns the wife's willingness to believe her husband is a war criminal, as the audience knows the truth almost from the beginning. Suspenseful, with good acting.

Cause for Alarm, 1951
Loretta Young plays a housewife caring for an invalid husband in post-war California. One day her husband (Barry Sullivan) tells her he believes that she and his doctor, a mutual friend, are planning to kill him, and that he has sent full details of their "plot" to the district attorney. When the husband suddenly dies of a heart attack, the wife's otherwise innocent actions seem to point to her guilt. The story is suspenseful and well-written, with everything falling into place at the end.

5 out of 5 stars Excellent service.......2006-07-01

Very satisfied. The Stranger is much better quality than my version that I purchased from England through Amazon.co.uk.

5 out of 5 stars The missing two minutes is no cause for alarm.......2005-04-02

This two-sided DVD by Roan Group is region 0 and contains two classic noir films: the excellent and widely available The stranger (1946), and the melodramatic and rarely seen Cause for Alarm (1951). This DVD is by far the best region 0/1 version available of The stranger and the only DVD version currently available of Cause for Alarm. Both versions are excellent: sharp images, with excellent contrast and very good blacks and whites. Both films have some scratches and dropouts, but these are not especially objectionable. This DVD version of The stranger is the best I've seen and reputedly only slightly inferior to the region 2 (UK) MGM version.
Neither film on the Roan DVD has menus or any extras. The stranger is divided into 20 chapters, Cause for Alarm into 16.
The stranger runs a full 95 minutes. Cause for alarm is supposed to run 74 minutes. The version on the Roan Group DVD actually runs 71 minutes and 44 seconds. Apparently the missing footage is at the beginning of chapter 4 (TT18.10), which begins abruptly. This DVD originally listed for $29.95 but lately has had a list price of $9.95. I recently obtained the latter version, which has been remaindered (closed out). Reportedly a new version of this DVD will be available to restore the two minutes of footage missing from Cause for Alarm. However, the present version of The stranger is fine and at $9.95 list, or less, this DVD is a great buy considering its overall image quality.

4 out of 5 stars Noir fans won't be dissapointed.......2004-07-11

This is a great buy for fans of film noir, and/or the actress Loretta Young (I'm both) On one side you have Orson Welles "The Stranger", the movie he made to prove he could work within the studio system without problems. The film was still cut, Welles version was over 2 hours long and the version released in the US was 85 minutes long, and the international release was 95 minutes. This DVD contains the 95 minute version, the cut scenes are thought to be lost. Even with the alterations this is still a terrific film with beautiful photography, tension and great performances all around.

On the other side is Cause for Alarm!, from the director of "The Postman Always Rings Twice". Even with a low budget and simple storyline this manages to be both tense and interesting. It's not a classic but definitely deserves attention from movie lovers. In both films Loretta Young plays a woman who is both scared but strong incredibly well.

The Roan Group did a very good job with the transfers, especially at this price. There are still scratches and grain, but it's nothing distracting. This set is a worthy purchase for noir and classic film fans and shouldn't be overlooked.

4 out of 5 stars Roan DVD is 95 min version, not 85 minutes........2001-03-02

The Roan Group DVD, "Film Noir #1: The Stranger/Cause for Alarm" has the 95 minute version of the Stranger. Great transfer and a great film. You also get Loretta Young in "Cause for Alarm" on the other side. Watta deal!
The Film Noir, Vol. 1: Stranger/Cause for Alarm!
Average customer rating: Not rated
    The Film Noir, Vol. 1: Stranger/Cause for Alarm!
    Starring: Loretta Young
    Manufacturer: Roan Archival Group
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    MysteryMystery | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video
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    ASIN: B000GAKNUG
    Release Date: 1997-12-30
    Cause for Alarm!
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • A Sunlit Street, Anywhere, California
    • "This girl is in trouble!"
    • Film noir comes to suburbia in this suspenseful gem
    • A very entertaining film.
    • Paranoia
    Cause for Alarm!
    Starring: Loretta Young , Barry Sullivan , Bruce Cowling , Margalo Gillmore , and Brad Morrow
    Director: Tay Garnett
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

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    ASIN: B00014W9Z4

    Amazon.com

    In Cause for Alarm, Loretta Young is an elegantly tailored happy homemaker caring for her invalid husband (Barry Sullivan), a former pilot suffering from a mysterious heart disease that has driven him to almost complete madness. Convinced his wife and his doctor are in collusion to kill him, he's carefully recorded the "evidence" of their crime in a letter to the district attorney and prepares to turn the tables on them, but even his own sudden death can't stop the chain of events that plunges his wife into a waking nightmare. An unusual entry into the film noir school of paranoia, Tay Garnett's melodramatic thriller trades the dark alleys and long shadows of urban menace for the sunny, tree-lined streets of middle-class domesticity. Young, so often cool, calm, and carefully coifed in her studio roles, beautifully evokes the American Dream as the dutiful wife who collapses into a state of hysterical desperation. Spinning a web of lies to retrieve the damning letter, her world falls apart around her as she unwittingly sinks herself deeper into a morass of suspicion and circumstantial evidence. Though this is less slick and stylish than his claim to film noir fame The Postman Always Rings Twice, Garnett spins a simple premise into a tense, terrifying ordeal, and Young's deadened narration adds an eerie mood of doom to the suburban setting. --Sean Axmaker

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars A Sunlit Street, Anywhere, California.......2006-08-09

    I'll watch anything with Loretta Young, a great actress often denigrated for her beauty, a strange beauty which seemed to preclude changes of expression, as though Botox had been invented way back when and she was its first recipient. Even when she's playing Suzy Homemaker, a caricature of the suburban wife in CAUSE FOR ALARM, she is astonishingly gorgeous. The movie opens with a "verite" type shot of her pushing a vacuum across a tastefully tiki split level living room, and it truly looks as though she's never handled a vacuum in her life. Director Tay Garnett must have introduced this shot as a way to signal his audience to watch out, this will be a Loretta Young you've never known before. Wish I had seen this in a first run movie theater to hear the gasps when Loretta Young looked frazzled and harried.

    She's the wife of an insanely jealous and paranoid lunatic who is cooking up a scheme to destroy her. This fellow is played by Barry Sullivan, who had a similarly evil part in the Lana Turner-Ray Milland Cukor picture A LIFE OF HER OWN. Here he lies in his twin bed, dreaming up schemes to bring his wife to her knees, for he's jealous of her affair with his doctor--an affair that exists totally in his head. She waits on the dope hand and foot, completely sacrificing her life to his, and she's always there to fluff up his pillows, bring him his meals, give him sponge baths, try to boost his confidence. Barry Sullivan is terrifying for he can turn on a dime from sulky to manic. His monologue about a ship in a bottle he had as a boy is illuminating. He tells Loretta Young that this toy was his most treasured possession, and another neighbor boy tried to swipe it. "I went for that boy with my rake, and my mother stopped me before I killed him, but his face was pouring red with blood . . ." As Loretta Young listens to this tale her expressions actually change, from placid sympathy to outright horror.

    All the period touches make CAUSE FOR ALARM even more of a must-see than other contemporary noirs. How many noirs are set in the sunlit, manicured blocks of suburbia? A little boy rides his tricycle down the sidewalk, dressed like his idol Hopalong Cassidy, blasting toy six-shooters at imaginary villains. Loretta Young's Aunt Clara drops by bringing a soupy bowl of jellied consomme to her favorite "invalid." On TV when they play this movie, an "info" screen drops down showing its 2 star rating and a squib which reveals, "Loretta Young spends the whole movie trying to retrieve an incriminating letter." That intrigued me, even though it turns out that she doesn't actually even begin to try retrieving that incriminating letter until about 45 minutes into the picture.

    Although her name doesn't appear in the credits, the scenario is so much like a novel by the late thriller queen Charlotte Armstrong that I'd be surprised if she didn't lend an uncredited hand to the proceedings.

    4 out of 5 stars "This girl is in trouble!".......2005-06-25

    -Quite the self-explanatory tagline, used for the 1951 theatrical release of "Cause for Alarm", an almost forgotten "B" film noir starring the lovely Loretta Young. Directed by Tay Garnett (who directed the noir classic "The Postman Always Rings Twice") and produced by Loretta's husband Tom Lewis, "Cause for Alarm" was originally a radio play. Actually, it's very interesting how Loretta Young got to play the starring role in this film. Tom Lewis initially wanted Judy Garland for the role of Ellen Jones, but Loretta's lawyer told him that he was discriminating against her because she was his wife. Needless to say, she got the role!

    Lorreta Young stars as Ellen Jones, a patient, loving, and devoted wife of her sick, bedridden husband George (Barry Sullivan). Over time George has become firmly convinced that his wife is having an affair with his best friend Ranney Grahame (Bruce Cowling) and is plotting with Ranney to kill him. George writes all this down in a letter to the District Attorney and gets his naive wife to hand the letter to the mailman. That's when he drops the bombshell and confronts Ellen about his suspicions. She of course denies his ridiculous claims and tries desperately to assure him of her love and loyalty, but it's no use. Totally losing control, he struggles to his feet and tries to kill her, but instead he falls over and dies.

    Although she is spared from his murder attempt, Ellen's troubles are just beginning. She quickly realizes that if the letter from her husband reaches the District Attorney she'll be charged with George's murder. She then races against time to get the letter back before it's delivered, but along the way she continuously makes many self-incriminating mistakes (You know, the kind that only a scared innocent person could make!) and has to deal with several annoying people (and one VERY bratty kid) before achieving her goal. Finally George's best friend Ranney Grahame comes to her rescue after hearing what happened, although it may already be too late to save her from a murder charge...

    The main flaw of "Cause for Alarm" is the abrupt ending which totally disappointed me. I was hoping for and expecting much more after the continuous buildup of suspense but instead the ending was very flat and unimpressive. Overall, though, it's quite an entertaining movie, especially for a low-budget "B" noir. In my opinion both Loretta Young and Barry Sullivan were highly underated, and their exceptional performances in this movie helped overcome the absurdities of the plot. I first learned of this movie when reading Arthur Lyons superb book _Death on the Cheap: the Lost B Movies of Film Noir_ and I was very pleased with the restored picture and sound quality of the VCI video. "Cause for Alarm" is definitely recommended for classic movie buffs.

    5 out of 5 stars Film noir comes to suburbia in this suspenseful gem.......2003-09-13

    Cause For Alarm (1951) is something of an oddity in the film noir genre, bringing its gritty sense of increasing tension and suspense out of the shadows of the night into the bright, daytime light of suburbia. Only a talented actress could make this story work, and Loretta Young shines in the role of the distraught wife of a paranoid, dying husband. Her character Ellen Jones seems to be quite the devoted wife caring selflessly for her bedridden husband George (Barry Sullivan), and a flashback to the couple's first meeting reveals a husband madly in love with her from the moment he laid eyes on her. This happy-go-lucky fellow is a far cry from the man we meet upstairs suffering from a mysterious heart ailment, for he has come to believe that his wife and best friend/doctor, Ranney Grahame (Bruce Cowling), are plotting to kill him so that they can be together. He is so convinced of this that he sends a thoroughly incriminating letter to the district attorney before confronting Ellen with his charges. He tells Ellen all about the letter that she herself delivered into the hands of the postman but collapses before he is able to exact his mad revenge upon her personally. Ellen's in a real spot; the man she loves has just died trying to kill her, and the terrible letter already on its way to the D.A. will make everyone think she killed him. What she must do, of course, is get that letter back before it reaches its destination. What follows is a frustrating, maddening, increasingly suspenseful paper chase, with all manner of obstacles placed in Ellen's way. Trying to get a letter back from the postman may not sound exciting, but Cause For Alarm delivers an almost frenetically suspenseful plot that leaves one wondering what will happen at the very end. Not only did I wonder if she would get the letter back in time, I wondered if there was more to George's paranoid suspicions than there originally seemed, as Ellen climbs up to the very pinnacle of panic, enmeshing herself in an increasingly entangling web of lies and deceit that stand to bring upon herself the very suspicions that she seeks to avoid. Cause For Alarm really and truly kept me in growing suspense from start to finish, culminating in a perfectly effective and satisfying conclusion.

    5 out of 5 stars A very entertaining film........2001-12-09

    I really like this film. It's very entertaining, and makes the viewer wonder what will happen next. Loretta Young is great in the role of the young housewife. Her husband kills himself, but writes a suicide note accusing her. A letter that she mailed incriminate sher and she must get it back from the postman before it reaches th epolice. She goes through a frantic and stressful fight to get it back. She ends up finding love and a new life with a doctor who hd een her friend for years. It's a film well worth seeing.

    3 out of 5 stars Paranoia.......2000-06-18

    Loretta Young got some of her best roles toward the end of her film career, and this was one of them. She stars as the patient and loving wife of Barry Sullivan, a bedridden man who has become paranoid and who manages to implicate her in his own death. Through a winding series of events, she must race against time to save herself from a murder charge. Young is excellent in the role, being given more opportunity to show her dramatic range than in many of the other films she made. The tension builds well and the story manages to remain credible. Although a small film and hardly a classic, it is quite good.
    Stranger/Cause for Alarm
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Stranger/Cause for Alarm
      Starring: Loretta Young
      Manufacturer: Koch Vision Entertai
      ProductGroup: DVD
      Binding: DVD

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      Release Date: 2003-02-04

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