The Strange Woman

1946

1h 40m

Drama

List

40%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

50%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Isaiah (Gene Lockhart), a 19th-century businessman, has his eye on the beautiful and very young Jenny (Hedy Lamarr). Finally of age, she accepts his marriage proposal, but their love affair quickly turns sour. Ephraim (Louis Hayward), Isaiah's college-age son, comes for a visit, immediately striking up a chemistry with Jenny. She promises marriage -- if he murders his father first. But Jenny also swoons for John (George Sanders), the fiancé of her best friend, Meg (Hillary Brooke).

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Phil Hall

Film Threat

The production is strange, but for the wrong reasons.

Rated: 2/5

Aug 8, 2014

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Despite its higher budget and starrier cast, the tale is no less mad than Ulmer's Skid Row hallucinations

Feb 11, 2013

Full Review

Michael E. Grost

Classic Film and Television

Grim look at an evil femme fatale and the men she lures into murder, it is far from Ulmer's best.

Jul 6, 2010

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 3/5

Jul 21, 2005

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Should suit the many fans of Hedy Lamarr.

Rated: C+

Jan 16, 2005

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Martin B

Only one woman could have played that role and she did. Hedy Lamarr, married so many times briefly the reason being she was too complex and too brilliant for most men to keep up. In this roll she was as strange as she was in life. Sensitive and generous one minute, then snaps into the iron willed calculating woman sure of herself in another. A cauldron of different emotions and behaviors manifesting as different people at different times with different motives but each authentic at the time it's displayed. They had to make her regretful and die in the end for the sake of the plot but Heddy Lamar would never be regretful and certainly would never have died young being reckless over a man. Movie goers in that era did not particularly like complex, ambiguous characters. This character was not all good nor bad. This movie under rated mainly because people don't understand the complex woman Lamar was and how much she resembled her character in real life excluding the last part.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Jack S

A slow moving melodrama that benefits from a strong turn by a luminous Lamarr, who clearly relishes portraying such driven, manipulative characters. A great supporting cast provides typically solid support, but it's unfortunately all in the service of a rather dreary and depressing soap opera.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

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Audience Member

While this film doesn't necessarily feel like a film noir, Hedy Lamarr is a revelation as a femme fatale and the film kept me guessing until the end. Terrific hidden gem.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

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Jessica C

This woman is not strange, this woman is straight up rude and vile. She was really getting on my nerves.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

10/07/20

Full Review

kevin w

Edgar G. Ulmer directs this unusual cautionary tale about what can happen should a beautiful girl grow up without a mother = she can become a shrewd and evil manipulator of men. Hedy Lemarr is great as a bad, bad " I don't want to be bad" woman in this dark tale, aided by a steady George Sanders as a "good" guy (for a change). Louis Hayward and Gene Lockhart are a surprise too, all given a chance to shine outside of the typical formulaic Hollywood roles usually assigned them, to stretch and play characters totally different than the cash cow cliches Hollywood endorsed. An interesting watch.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Hedy Lamarr is so irresistible and twisted in the movie that fulls it completely.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Edgar G. Ulmer

Director

Hedy Lamarr

Jenny Hager

George Sanders

John Evered

Louis Hayward

Ephraim Poster

Gene Lockhart

Isaiah Poster

Hillary Brooke

Meg Saladine

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Synopsis

Isaiah (Gene Lockhart), a 19th-century businessman, has his eye on the beautiful and very young Jenny (Hedy Lamarr). Finally of age, she accepts his marriage proposal, but their love affair quickly turns sour. Ephraim (Louis Hayward), Isaiah's college-age son, comes for a visit, immediately striking up a chemistry with Jenny. She promises marriage -- if he murders his father first. But Jenny also swoons for John (George Sanders), the fiancé of her best friend, Meg (Hillary Brooke).

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Production Co: Hunt Stromberg Productions, Mars Film Corporation
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 30, 2016
Runtime: 1h 40m

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