Phantom Lady is a 1944 American film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, and Alan Curtis. Based on the novel of the same name by Cornell Woolrich (writing as "William Irish"),

Cliff's frantic drum solo was dubbed by former Harry James and His Orchestra drummer Dave Coleman. In The Nation in 1944, critic James Agee stated, "Miss Harrison is doing nothing that Hitchcock has not done a great deal better... She is simply an intelligent, entertaining worker in an idiom which badly needs not only restoring but developing... There is plenty in Phantom Lady to enjoy, and to be glad of." Pauline Kael wrote: "The mood and pacing lift this low-budget thriller out of its class, but the ideas, the dialogue, and the ending that the studio insisted on prevent it from being a first-rate B-picture." Leslie Halliwell gave it two of four stars: "Odd little thriller which doesn't really hold together but is made for the most part with great style." Leonard Maltin was enthusiastic: "First-rate suspense yarn... Sexual innuendo in drumming scene with Cook is simply astonishing... " Eddie Muller called it a "breakout film" for Harrison and Siodmak: "They sacrificed some of the screw-tightening suspense in favor of a waltz into Woolrich's particular strain of darkness. In addition to the inky menace brushed over desolate locations, they amplified sounds of urban dread: the screeching of elevated trains, footsteps echoing on wet pavement, and, most famously, the scary abandon of an after-hours jazz club."

Home media

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released a made-on-demand DVD-R of the film through Turner Classic Movies.

Arrow Films released a region A Blu-ray edition of the film under their Arrow Academy label on March 5, 2019.

Radio adaptation

The Phantom Lady was presented on Lux Radio Theater, March 27, 1944.

The Phantom Lady was presented on Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre September 11, 1944. The 30-minute adaptation starred Ralph Bellamy, Louise Allbritton, David Bruce and Walter Abel.

References

Streaming audio

  • Phantom Lady on Lux Radio Theater: 27 March 1944
  • Phantom Lady on Screen Guild Theater: 11 September 1944