Phone Call from a Stranger is a
1952 American drama film directed by
Jean Negulesco, who was nominated for the
Golden Lion at the
Venice Film Festival. The screenplay by
Nunnally Johnson and
I.A.R.
Wylie, which received the award for
Best Scenario at the same festival, centers on the survivor of a plane crash who contacts the relatives of three of the victims he came to know on board the flight. After his wife
Jane (
Helen Westcott) admits to an extramarital affair,
Iowa attorney
David Trask (
Gary Merrill) abandons her and their daughters and heads for
Los Angeles. His flight is delayed, and while waiting in the airport restaurant he meets a few of his fellow passengers: troubled, alcoholic
Dr. Robert Fortness (
Michael Rennie), haunted by his responsibility for a car accident in which a colleague, Dr.
Tim Brooks (
Hugh Beaumont) was killed, is returning home to his wife
Claire (
Beatrice Straight) and teenage son
Jerry (
Ted Donaldson), and plans to tell the district attorney the truth about the incident; aspiring actress
Binky Gay (
Shelley Winters), who is hoping to free her husband
Mike Carr (
Craig Stevens) from the clutches of his domineering mother, former vaudevillian
Sally Carr (
Evelyn Varden); and overly loud traveling salesman
Eddie Hoke (
Keenan Wynn), whose photograph of his young, attractive wife
Marie (
Bette Davis) wearing a swimsuit proves to be quite different from reality. When a storm forces the plane to land en route, they continue to share their life stories via flashbacks during the unexpected four-hour layover. They exchange home phone numbers with the idea they may one day have a reunion.
Following a plane crash that kills his three acquaintances, Trask contacts their families by phone and invites himself to their homes.
Despite Claire's objections, Trask tells Jerry the truth about his father's past, but assures him he was a good man determined to right the wrong he had committed.
Hoping to change Sallie's opinion of her daughter-in-law, he tells her Binky had been cast as
Mary Martin's replacement in
South Pacific on
Broadway and had recommended Sallie for a role. Trask's final visit is to Marie, who he discovers is an invalid paralyzed from the waist down. Marie reveals that early in her marriage she had left Eddie, who she found to be vulgar and tiresome, for another man,
Marty Nelson (
Warren Stevens), who deserted her after she hit her head on a dock while she was swimming. While in the hospital, she was confined to an iron lung and feeling hopeless about her future when Eddie arrived to take her home. Marie tells Trask that despite his often obnoxious behavior, Eddie was the most decent man she had ever known, and had taught her the true meaning of love.Marie's story teaches Trask a lesson about marital infidelity and forgiveness, and he calls Jane to tell her he's returning home.
- published: 04 Aug 2015
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