the audience applauded

One of my all time favorites.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Hard-boiled LAPD detective Royal Dano, tracking a fugitive in San Francisco, rubs local reporters the wrong way with his failure to communicate, none more so than fiercely independent Barbara Stanwyck, whom he advises to go home and make dinner for her husband. She doesn't have one, of course, but she soon does after falling in lust with Dano's stolid but hunky sidekick Sterling Hayden.Marry in haste, repent at leisure. The dullest audience member can see this is a bad idea. After the life of a suburban LA housewife has driven her literally to tears, Stanwyck devotes her Lady Macbethian wiles to advancing her hubby's career ahead of that of his superior officer. These machinations involve police commissioner Raymond Burr and his wife Fay Wray. Yes, Kong's crush is now married to Perry Mason.Needless to say, all does not end well here. The cast alone would make this film worth a look, but it has many other virtues, including a slick professionalism and enough twists and turns to keep things moving along without any filler or padding. Although feminism and women's liberation were not in the general public's consciousness until the 60s, one can see their roots in many 50s films. If there is a Film Studies course somewhere entitled Proto-feminism in Film Noir, and there probably is, this would be right up there as subject matter along with various other films featuring Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Ida Lupino et al. Not that it preaches about it, just something there as a springboard for Stanwyck's actions.

A hard-boiled middle-aged newspaper woman (Barbara Stanwyck) inexplicably falls for a police detective (Sterling Hayden) and gives up her career. Considering that they just met and then got married, it's not surprising that soon afterwords she would come to hate the banality of life in suburbia. She can't stand the life of a housewife and the dull friends--she wants more. So, this scheming and ambitious woman sets out to make changes in their lives--and her first order of business is to get her husband a more important job--even if he is quite content with his lot in life. So, she begins arranging 'coincidences' that help her get in good with the higher-ups at the force and thus improve the quality of their friendships. And, considering that Hayden isn't all that perceptive, she is able to manipulate him throughout the film and use other men (particularly Raymond Burr) for her wicked plans. But, when her plans don't go as she expects, she's even willing to kill! This is a strange film noir-like film. The camera angles and elements of the plot are very noir, though it's highly unusual to make such a film without focusing on everyday criminals but the police. It's actually a noir and the 1940s/50s 'manipulative woman' genre combined (manipulative woman films are often associated with Joan Crawford though Stanwyck also made a few). I really enjoyed it and there was only one sour note--solving the crime at the end of the film was way too easy. There is no logical reason why Stanwyck would so readily admit to the killing. Still, it's an entertaining film from start to finish.

Barbara Stanwyck delivers an outstanding performance as a hysterical woman who pulls every string ethically and then eventually unethically in "Brass Legend" director Gerd Oswald's hidden gem of a crime noir "Crime of Passion" that qualifies as a sociological expose of the displaced women in the late 1950s that anticipated the feminist movement. Since this movie was under the aegis of the Production Code, the savvy viewer will know that crime doesn't pay and it doesn't pay in this sharp sage. The Stanwyck protagonist is the epitome of an independent woman who doesn't believe in marriage but she turns around and marries a veteran Los Angeles detective who lacks ambition. Compensating for his lack of ambition and her lack of a job, she pours her energy into getting her husband promotions, even if it means 'playing dirty' and relying on underhanded schemes, finally she embraces murder as a means to an end. Sterling Hayden is perfectly cast as the level-headed cop, while Raymond Burr makes his presence felt even when he is not on screen as Hayden's superior and Stanwyck's illicit lover. "Crime of Passion" qualifies as a film noir and the low-budget and concise direction by Oswald adds a luster to it. The last quarter hour is a clincher. Look for Stuart Whitman as a police lab technician. Atmospheric and edgy material, "Crime of Passion" depicts a headstrong woman's collapse in a contemporary society when she has no outlet for herself. The moral of this movie is that the Stanwyck character should never have quit her job as a manipulative newspaper advice columnist.

The successful columnist of The San Francisco Post Kathy Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) is an independent woman that has the intention of never getting married. However, when she meets the LAPD Detective Lt. Bill Doyle (Sterling Hayden) during the investigation of Dana Case that is resolved with her support, they immediately fall in love for each other and get married. Kathy quits her job and moves to Los Angeles to be a housewife. Bill is very close to his colleagues and their wives, and they have frequent dinner parties at his home, and the boredom of the conversation with other wives and the lack of ambition of Bill in the Police Department make Kathy to plot a scheme to push Bill's career to a higher position. Kathy forces the encounter with his superior Police Inspector Anthony Pope (Raymond Burr) and his wife Alice Pope (Fay Wray) and destroys the friendship of Bill with his immediate superior Police Capt. Charlie Alidos (Royal Dano); then she has one night stand with Tony to get the promise that he will recommend Bill to his position since he is planning to retire. When Kathy realizes that Tony's promise was just pillow talk, the ambitious woman takes a decision with no return.The film-noir "Crime of Passion" is quite dated today but I believe that it was ahead of time in 1957 with an engaging and amoral story of ambition and murder. Barbara Stanwyck plays Kathy Ferguson Doyle, an ambitious woman in the 50's not tailored to be a conventional housewife that loves her husband that is a man that prioritizes his family over his career. The emptiness of her life associated to the lack of interest of her beloved husband in his career drives Kathy insane and capable of committing a murder and destroy her family and certainly Bill's career. Just as a curiosity, the wife of Police Inspector Tony Pope is Fay Wray, the unforgettable Ann Darrow from "King Kong". My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Da Ambição ao Crime" ("From the Ambition to Crime")Note: On 24 Jul 2018, I saw this film again.