Fortune Is a Woman [She Played with Fire] ** (1957, Jack Hawkins, Arlene Dahl, Dennis Price, Bernard Miles, Ian Hunter) – Classic Movie Review 12,547

Director Sidney Gilliat’s 1957 British-American black and white film noir crime thriller film Fortune Is a Woman [She Played with Fire] is a promising, dark-toned mystery about an attempted insurance fraud that goes badly wrong.

Jack Hawkins stars as a London insurance investigator called Oliver Branwell, who is probing the facts behind a recent blaze at a manor house and uncovers a corpse, and gets mixed up with a married woman named Sarah Moreton (American star Arlene Dahl), who might be an arsonist and guilty of fraud.

On Christmas Eve, Branwell is sent north to probe the fire at Lowis Manor, where Tracey Moreton (Dennis Price) lives with his mother (Violet Farebrother) and wife Sarah. Branwell and Sarah conceal their affair five years earlier in Hong Kong.

There is plenty of intrigue and plot in the screenplay based on Winston Graham’s 1953 novel Fortune Is a Woman, and also a more than goodish cast, but the story sags midway before a final recovery for the climax, and there is no bite in Gilliat’s direction.

Also in the cast are Dennis Price, Bernard Miles, Ian Hunter, Geoffrey Keen, Violet Farebrother, John Robinson, Greta Gynt, Christopher Lee, and Patrick Holt.

She Played with Fire is the US title.

Dennis Price also stars as Tracey Moreton,.

The cast are Jack Hawkins as Oliver Branwell, Arlene Dahl as Sarah Moreton, Dennis Price as Tracey Moreton, Violet Farebrother as Mrs Moreton, Ian Hunter as Clive Fisher, Malcolm Keen as Old Abercrombie, Geoffrey Keen as Young Abercrombie, Patrick Holt as Fred Connor, John Robinson as Berkeley Reckitt, Michael Goodliffe as Sgt Barnes, Martin Lane as Detective Constable Watson, Bernard Miles as Mr Jerome, Christopher Lee as Charles Highbury, Greta Gynt as Vere Litchen, John Phillips as Willis Croft, Patricia Marmont as Ambrosine, George A Cooper as Hotel Porter and Leslie Perrins as Chairman of Tribunal.

Production companies: Individual Films and John Harvel Productions. It is distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Release dates: 15 April 1957 (UK) and 8 July 1958 (US).

Running time: 95 minutes.

Fortune Is a Woman [She Played with Fire] is directed by Sidney Gilliat, runs 95 minutes, is made by Individual Films and John Harvel Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat and Val Valentine (adaptation, is shot in black and white by Gerald Gibbs, is produced by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and is scored by William Alwyn.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,547

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