No Man of Her Own

Based on a Cornell Woolrich novel (I Married a Dead Man) that bears many similarities to his Waltz Into Darkness (filmed by Truffaut as La Sirène du Mississipi), this is an excellent little thriller, tautly directed by Leisen and with a powerhouse performance from Stanwyck as a pregnant woman who assumes the identity of a young bride killed with her husband in a train crash. Just as she is enjoying the fiscal fruits of deception, her lover (Bettger) shows up and blackmails her. Apart from John Lund's predictable performance as the romantic lead - he's as anaemic here as in Wilder's A Foreign Affair - the film is constantly surprising and deliriously implausible.