The Damned Don't Cry

Ethel Whitehead is stuck in a small town in a marriage with no money. After her son's death she leaves everything and goes to the city. She becomes a model, changes her name, works her way into society and ends up at the center of a criminal organisation. Every step up gains her something and takes something else back. Vincent Sherman's film fuses noir with the woman's melodrama. Ethel is neither a victim nor exactly a perpetrator; she is someone choosing the most profitable option the system leaves her. The film shows this without judgment, even inside the censorship of its era. Joan Crawford leads and gives one of the clearest versions of the hard woman she played at this stage of her career. David Brian and Steve Cochran are in the cast. Who it's for: Viewers who like noir of the 1940s and 1950s, Joan Crawford, and rise-and-fall narratives. Who it's not for: The moral closure is built to the censorship rules of the time and feels forced. The plot also moves too fast.