Yep, she’s trying to fall out of her dress, and he’s busy smoking a pipe he doesn’t know how to use.
Woman In The Shadows (1934; aka Woman In The Dark) is a pleasant and engaging what-the-hell story which never quite lives up to its promise. Former inmate John Bradley, imprisoned for manslaughter for killing a man in a brawl, moves to a family lake cabin in order to avoid trouble and how to learn to smoke a pipe, a futile endeavour on his part. Trouble finds him, though, first in the person of the sheriff’s daughter, Nell, who thinks she loves him, and then a singer named Louise who stumbles through his front door one night. In hot pursuit are a couple of ne’er-do-wells, Tony & Kraus, who say they want to take her back to her home she shares with Tony.
She’s having none of it, but Tony knows the sheriff hates John, so he clues the sheriff in that his daughter is visiting John on the sly. Soon enough we have multiple escapes, and Kraus is down with a dent in his skull courtesy John, although he leaves John’s place under his own power.
John and Louise make it to the big city, but the cops are looking for him and he’s soon hosting a cop’s bullet in his shoulder and has to visit a doctor, who gives the game away. Meanwhile, Louise is shipped back to Tony, where it turns out Kraus is knocking at death’s door – and if he makes that transition, John will be sent up the river for a long time. All this time, John’s antics with his pipe, such as putting the lit instrument in his pocket, serve to keep the audience amused.
Unfortunately, with the exception of the final plot twist, the audience probably knows a little bit too much to be surprised by most of the story. Of course, this can be made into a game, guessing what comes next. But it also tends to feel a little contrived, and despite some good acting, the ending is a little hollow.
Still, if you have a little downtime and want a short taste of a Dashiell Hammett-inspired story, this might be a way to satisfy the curiosity.
