mark.waltz Four strangers on a plane meet, reluctantly bond, yet are doomed by destiny. The survivor of the plane crash that kills three of them steps in to reach out to their survivors, realizing the next step in his own future thanks to the lessons he learned along the way.Gary Merrill stars as the embittered lawyer who has left his wife for mysterious reasons, with Shelley Winters, Michael Rennie and Keenan Wynn the three people of different lives who encounter him and let him in on their lives. Rennie seeks legal help for a drunken car accident which killed a colleague; Winters is a failed Broadway musical comedy performer with a vindictive mother-in-law and weak husband; Wynn is an obnoxious and overly jokey salesman who brags about his wonderful sex-pot wife. The truths about them are revealed in different moods that range from touching to comical to a truth revealing final that shows what is on the surface isn't always whats in the heart.Evelyn Varden, best remembered for her character parts in "Pinky" and "The Bad Seed", is truly a monster as the Sophie Tucker like vaudevillian, once a Palace headliner, who resents daughter-in-law Winters and presents herself as an angel while the truth is the complete opposite. Taking on a really noble small role, Bette Davis is touching as Wynn's widow who reveals her own sins while learning the truth about her husband's inner character that is hidden by his outward brashness.The flashback scene between Varden and Winters (with Varden clad as if she was the Maharenee from "The Rain's Came") is presented comically with Winters a gum-chewing tramp made to appear crass. It is funny to see the truth really come out as Merrill tells Varden a hysterical lie that ends up exposing her for the crude witch she is in her son's eyes. Rennie's storyline involves a wife who stood by him yet became emotionally distant afterwards, having had to lie to save him from further alcoholic degradation, and deals with a teenaged son who totally misinterpreted the entire situation between his parents. Merrill's participation in the lives of these widowed people may at first seem intrusive, but he ends up giving a Mr. Jordan like assistance to the survivors to help fast forward these people past their grief while using his survival from the crash as a lesson to move on. It is this lesson which helps this multi-tiered story become an enjoyable drama that is both enlightening and entertaining.

vitaleralphlouis Early in this movie, Gary Merrill and Shelley Winters are seated together in an aircraft taking off during an intense rainstorm. When the plane levels off, he unbuckles his seat belt, reaches in his pocket and pulls out a pack of (real) Lucky Strikes. He offers one to the girl, they light up, and casually enjoy two of the best cigarettes known to man...As the movie continues, we enjoy a great story written by Nunnally Johnson, directed by Jean Negulesco, and finely acted by a team players who know how to handle their roles. Best of all the story is for and about grown-ups. I was a young teen in 1952 and the way it was with movies was that most films were for and about adults, and this helped us learn where we were going and how to get there.These days in 2012, there are virtually no movies for adults; nor are there any movies of quality. Just as Luckies were dumbed down to Lucky Strike filters (cheap tobacco stubble) movies have been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.

wgregh This movie was so awful I thought it might have been a satire of the excellent melodramatic movies of that era! This film just got worse and worse the longer I viewed it.I really thought I was viewing a satire when Bette Davis ran off from her hubby with some hottie (she understandably dumped Keenan Wynn for the cutie pie of a guy). As cream puff drove towards Chi-town with Bette, who'd hit her head AFTER a successful dive in a crystal- clear lake (major klutz!), there was a GREAT but silly scene where the two headed off into the night while names of tawdry motels flashed their neon names before us, e.g. "Toddle Inn"... "Meander Inn"... "Crawl Inn"... "Stagger Inn"... names that stunk with the slutty behavior the two were over their heads and in their laps for.THAT was my fave part of this trash-o-rama drama. Too bad there wasn't one named for Bette's persona, the "Slut Inn." She filled the bill and THEN some.Actually, this movie shows the sexism in such flicks in how not only Bette but also Shelley Winters were portrayed. It was okay for handsome Gary Merrill to carry on, but NO, not those vixen tramps! Rent this flick if you need a good laugh.

bkoganbing Phone Call From A Stranger casts Gary Merrill, Shelley Winters, Michael Rennie and Keenan Wynn as four complete strangers who bond during a cross country flight that ends in tragedy. Of the four Merrill survives the plane crash and feels it his duty to call on the survivors that the three others left. In the process he works out a few issues for himself.Michael Rennie was a prominent doctor who became a whole lot less prominent after he got out of a vehicular homicide charge by throwing the blame on the other man in the car. Merrill calls on wife Beatrice Straight and son Ted Donaldson who've been living with an alcoholic for many years.Shelley Winters had left her husband Craig Stevens and his domineering mother Evelyn Varden to seek some fame and fortune on the stage. She was returning home in defeat. Varden is one truly hateful woman, a kind of Sophie Tucker like entertainer on steroids. Merrill conceives it his duty to give Varden a temporary comeuppance of sorts.The most poignant tale is that of Keenan Wynn. Wynn is a traveling salesman, one of those characters who is constantly 'on'. Keenan borrowed a bit from his borscht belt comedian character from The Hucksters for this role. He carries a picture of his wife Bette Davis from her pinup girl days in a Betty Grable poise in a bathing suit. The Davis that Merrill meets is quite a bit different than what Wynn showed the others. In fact Davis when she recites her own story paints a picture of Wynn as a person of real character that you would never suspect in meeting him casually. This role may have been Keenan Wynn's best screen performance, at least I think so.The Davis/Wynn story is the best, but the others aren't bad either. The writing by Nunnally Johnson from an I.A.R. Wylie story is just superb and Jean Negulesco gets great performances from his cast. Phone Call From A Stranger is a soap opera, but an intelligent and moving one that may wring a tear from a few hardened hearts.