'Storm Warning'
This 1951 Warner Bros. production is a very strange film. It stars Ronald Reagan, Ginger Rogers, Doris Day (in a very early role), and Steve Cochran.
In the movie, Rogers' character is a model who is visiting her sister (Day) in a small southern town as a break from a stressful tour. Shortly after she arrives, Rogers surreptitiously witnesses a murder by the Ku Klux Klan. Even more shocking is that she learns Day is married to the murderer (Cochran) and she soon finds herself torn between telling the crusading District Attorney (Reagan) what she knows and sparing her sister's feelings.
'Storm Warning' has been called a "feverish melodrama" and it is certainly that, but what is really odd about the film is the way it portrays the KKK. It wants to be an expose' of the hate group, and I suppose in a way it succeeds, but the movie's conception of the Klan is radically different from how most people today view them.
The KKK, as seen here, are essentially a corrupt men's club, an older bad boy's fraternity if you will, whose main crime seems to be spending their members' dues unwisely.
There are no black people in the film, not a hint of the Klan's intolerance of Jews or Catholics... not the slightest inference of all the things people normally associate with them. Yes, Cochran does kill the man (a newspaper reporter) at the beginning, but it's made to appear that he and the boys just got a little carried away. Basically, they're all a bunch of small town louts who don't know any better, except of course for their corrupt boss.
Reagan is pretty good as the laidback DA who's been trying to nail the KKK for something, and hasn't had much luck. The reason, not surprisingly, is that all the locals are scared and unwilling to testify.
Rogers wavers, saying at first she will identify them and then changing her mind because of her sister. It's only when Cochran shows his true colors, first by making passes at her (this is the 'feverish' part) and then beating up both her and Doris Day, that she decides to turn him and the rest in.
The final scene, finally, shows a typical Klan meeting out in the woods, everyone decked out in hoods and robes and a big burning cross. Rogers has been kidnapped and brought before the Klan leader, who demands she remain silent and leave town. She refuses, so she is bound and whipped with a bullwhip. (Maybe this is the 'feverish' part.)
Even here, the scene is not very believable... as the whip comes down, the Klan boss taunts Rogers by saying through a megaphone, "Busybody! Outsider! Troublemaker!" The Klan might not have been the sharpest knives in the silverware drawer, but I daresay they came up with more cutting remarks than that in real life.
Reagan and a couple of cops with rifles show up, everyone in the crowd is shamed for being there (One woman wearing a Klan robe has a little girl in similar garb; Reagan tells her, "She should be home in bed.") and the meeting breaks up. The end. Presumably, justice is done after the end credits roll.
Why did Warner Brothers want to tackle such a subject, and then hold back to the extent they did?
Perhaps they figured the shocking subject matter would be enough to sell the film, and there was no need to actually present the evidence. Perhaps in that more innocent time, it wasn't possible to in a mainstream movie.
'Storm Warning' remains a real curiosity.
In the movie, Rogers' character is a model who is visiting her sister (Day) in a small southern town as a break from a stressful tour. Shortly after she arrives, Rogers surreptitiously witnesses a murder by the Ku Klux Klan. Even more shocking is that she learns Day is married to the murderer (Cochran) and she soon finds herself torn between telling the crusading District Attorney (Reagan) what she knows and sparing her sister's feelings.
'Storm Warning' has been called a "feverish melodrama" and it is certainly that, but what is really odd about the film is the way it portrays the KKK. It wants to be an expose' of the hate group, and I suppose in a way it succeeds, but the movie's conception of the Klan is radically different from how most people today view them.
The KKK, as seen here, are essentially a corrupt men's club, an older bad boy's fraternity if you will, whose main crime seems to be spending their members' dues unwisely.
There are no black people in the film, not a hint of the Klan's intolerance of Jews or Catholics... not the slightest inference of all the things people normally associate with them. Yes, Cochran does kill the man (a newspaper reporter) at the beginning, but it's made to appear that he and the boys just got a little carried away. Basically, they're all a bunch of small town louts who don't know any better, except of course for their corrupt boss.
Reagan is pretty good as the laidback DA who's been trying to nail the KKK for something, and hasn't had much luck. The reason, not surprisingly, is that all the locals are scared and unwilling to testify.
Rogers wavers, saying at first she will identify them and then changing her mind because of her sister. It's only when Cochran shows his true colors, first by making passes at her (this is the 'feverish' part) and then beating up both her and Doris Day, that she decides to turn him and the rest in.
The final scene, finally, shows a typical Klan meeting out in the woods, everyone decked out in hoods and robes and a big burning cross. Rogers has been kidnapped and brought before the Klan leader, who demands she remain silent and leave town. She refuses, so she is bound and whipped with a bullwhip. (Maybe this is the 'feverish' part.)
Even here, the scene is not very believable... as the whip comes down, the Klan boss taunts Rogers by saying through a megaphone, "Busybody! Outsider! Troublemaker!" The Klan might not have been the sharpest knives in the silverware drawer, but I daresay they came up with more cutting remarks than that in real life.
Reagan and a couple of cops with rifles show up, everyone in the crowd is shamed for being there (One woman wearing a Klan robe has a little girl in similar garb; Reagan tells her, "She should be home in bed.") and the meeting breaks up. The end. Presumably, justice is done after the end credits roll.
Why did Warner Brothers want to tackle such a subject, and then hold back to the extent they did?
Perhaps they figured the shocking subject matter would be enough to sell the film, and there was no need to actually present the evidence. Perhaps in that more innocent time, it wasn't possible to in a mainstream movie.
'Storm Warning' remains a real curiosity.
posted by gbj at 3:38 PM
2 Comments:
I don't recall ever seeing it for sale or rent anywhere. The copy I had was taped off of one of the local D/FW stations late at night; they showed a crucial courtroom scene upside down and backwards! It's possible my copy still exists somewhere but I kind of doubt it.
I don't know any reason though that it WOULDN'T be on tape or disc. I might do a little search here shortly and see what I turn up.
Amazon's got it as part of a Ronald Reagan box set, so I'm sure it would be a fairly easy matter to find an individual copy.
Their review said basically what I did, as in, how do you make a film about the KKK without mentioning the racial angle? They said the Klan was presented more as a crime syndicate that needed to be cleaned up.
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