No Man of Her Own is an interesting hybrid film that
came at the tail end of the golden age of film noir and also anticipates
the so-called “womens’ pictures” that would become popular in the 50s. And star Barbara Stanwyck, of course, was the
perfect actress to reach between these two genres. Perennially tormented by men and by fate, she
endures through great patience, sacrifice and a little cunning. Here, she boards a train out of town when the
father of her unborn child dumps her with nothing but a ticket and few bucks. A train wreck, tragic deaths, and a quirk of
fate land her in a stranger’s home, having adopted the identity of one of a
deceased woman. It’s only a matter of
time before the past, and the truth, catch up to her; which they do in the form
of her brutish ex-lover who blackmails her in order to get his hands on her new
wealth. The plot is absurd on paper but
the steady execution of the melodramatic elements, combined with its flashback
structure, impart a sense of doom particular to film noir. We feel something more than this sole
overheated storyline; we sense the larger themes running through all the best noir;
the moral malaise following the war and especially the plight of women at a
disadvantage in society and finding means of survival, whether through resolve
or ruthlessness, resulting in the staple persona of noir; the femme
fatale. Unlike in Double
Indemnity (1944), though, Stanywick’s character here isn’t a femme
fatale, but the milieu is the same; a dark urban landscape where people are
divided into predators and victims, and victims survive not because of their
goodness but by learning to be clever too.
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