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When Strangers Marry
When Strangers Marry
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	William Castle
Screenplay by	Philip Yordan; Dennis J. Cooper
Story by	George Moskov
Produced by	Frank King; Maurice King
Starring	Dean Jagger; Kim Hunter; Robert Mitchum; Neil Hamilton
Cinematography	Ira H. Morgan
Edited by	Martin G. Cohn
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Production; company	King Brothers Productions
Distributed by	Monogram Pictures
Release date	August 21, 1944 (United States);
Running time	67 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$75,000 or $50,000

When Strangers Marry (rerelease title Betrayed) is a 1944 American suspense film directed by William Castle and starring Dean Jagger, Kim Hunter and Robert Mitchum.^[3]^[4]

Plot

Millie Baxter, a naïve woman, comes to New York City to meet her salesman husband Paul Baxter, whom she had met only months before, and discovers that he may be a murderer.

Cast

Dean Jagger as Paul Baxter
Kim Hunter as Millie Baxter
Robert Mitchum as Fred Graham (billed as Bob Mitchum)
Neil Hamilton as Det. Lt. Blake
Lou Lubin as Jacob Houser
Milton Kibbee as Charlie (billed as Milt Kibbee)
Dewey Robinson as Newsstand Owner
Claire Whitney as Wife on Train
Edward Keane as Husband on Train
Virginia Sale as Hotel Chambermaid
Dick Elliott as Sam Prescott
Lee "Lasses" White as Old Man (billed as Lee White)
Marta Mitrovich as Baby's Mother
Billy Nelson as Louisville Driver
Rhonda Fleming as Girl on Train (uncredited)

Production

The film was originally known as Love from a Stranger and then I Married a Stranger.

Producers Frank and Maurice King liked The Whistler, a film that director William Castle had made, and borrowed him from Columbia Pictures for $500 a week. Castle later said that the script originally offered to him was "horrible", the story of a gangster who is killed, rejected from heaven and returned to earth. Castle had previously directed Chance of a Lifetime from a script that he disliked and did not wish to repeat the experience. He advised the King brothers that they should not make the film, and they agreed. The brothers introduced Castle to writer Philip Yordan, with whom he devised a new story idea that the Kings liked.^[5] Yordan gave the story to aspiring novelist Dennis Cooper, but Yordan later rewrote Cooper's work. Cooper and Yordan were given joint screenwriting credit in the film.^[6]

With only seven days and a budget of $50,000,^[5] filming took place in June 1944. Neil Hamilton and Kim Hunter were borrowed from Selznick International.^[7] Castle persuaded the leads to rehearse without pay and on their own time.

When Strangers Marry marked Rhonda Fleming's film debut in a small role. Fleming later claimed that she had been cast when Castle saw her walking through the backlot and said "you'll do." She also said that she was not paid for her role.^[8]

Robert Mitchum's role is among his earliest, and he had previously appeared in Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore for the King brothers. The Kings later claimed that they had Mitchum under a multi-picture contract and tried to enforce it, but he made no further films for them.^[9]

Castle was slated to next direct Dillinger for the King brothers but instead accepted an offer to direct the Broadway play Meet a Body.^[10]

Reception

Critical response

Variety's review was positive: "Only thing wrong with this film is its misleading title. Tag, When Strangers Marry, suggests another of the problem plays of newlyweds when in reality pic is a taught (sic) psychological thriller about a murderer and a manhunt full of suspense and excitement."^[11]

In a contemporary review of the film, Orson Welles wrote: "It isn't as slick as Double Indemnity or as glossy as Laura, but it's better acted and better directed ... than either."^[12] Welles would later work with Castle on The Lady from Shanghai.

James Agee later wrote: "The story has locomotor ataxia at several of its joints and the intensity of the telling slackens off toward the end; but taking it as a whole, I have seldom, for years now, seen one hour so energetically and sensibly used in a film".^[6]

Adaptation

The film was adapted for an episode of Lux Video Theatre as "I Married a Stranger."^[13]

References

^ Hedda Hopper: LOOKING AT HOLLYWOOD Los Angeles Times 8 Oct 1946: A3.
^ Castle p 83
^ When Strangers Marry at the TCM Movie Database.
^ When Strangers Marry, Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 12, Iss. 133, (Jan 1, 1945): 22.
^ ^a ^b Castle p 80-85
^ ^a ^b McGilligan, Patrick. Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1991. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft0z09n7m0/
^ SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD: Warners Will Remake 'Sweet Adeline' -- 'Attack!', Army Film, Due Next Month Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES 16 May 1944: 18.
^ Rhonda Fleming... Lucky Star!: RHONDA FLEMING Hopper, Hedda. Chicago Daily Tribune 15 June 1952: g6.
^ Controversy Looms Over Robert Mitchum Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times 17 Oct 1946: A3.
^ Castle p 85
^ Variety, film review, 1943. Accessed: July 6, 2013.
^ Callow, Simon (2006), Orson Welles: Hello Americans, Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0-224-03853-9, OCLC 63185891
^ Grant Takes KMPC for New Contract; Cotten Hosts'On Trial' Series Ames, Walter. Los Angeles Times 13 Apr 1956: B6.