Crime of Passion

Historical Movies, Media

April 19, 2013

By: Pure History

Crime of Passion (1957 film)

Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden and Raymond Burr.

Crime of Passion

Plot

Kathy Ferguson (Stanwyck) is a San Francisco newspaper advice columnist. One day, Bill Doyle (Hayden), a Los Angeles police detective, and his partner Charlie Alidos (Royal Dano) travel to “Frisco” to arrest a fugitive wanted for murder. He meets Kathy and they fall in love. Kathy had been offered a big job in New York City, but she abandons her career, marries Doyle and moves to Los Angeles.

Her new role as a 1950s suburban wife and homemaker quickly makes her unhappy. She wants her husband to move up in the world. She wants him to have the same kind of ambition she had in her last job, to become “somebody.” Doyle has different values. He works in order to afford a comfortable lifestyle, no more.

Kathy schemes to push her husband up the ladder by any means necessary. She manipulates his boss Tony Pope (Burr), who has an ailing wife (Wray), to sleep with her. She wants Pope to promote her husband, but he is not so easily manipulated. He refuses to grant Doyle a plum job, believing he’s not qualified.

Dropping by the police station, she steals a gun used in a crime her husband is investigating. Kathy then confronts Pope in his home and pleads that he not grant Charlie Alidos the promotion. Pope refuses so she coldly shoots him.

Doyle is assigned to Pope’s murder investigation and all trails lead to his wife. When Bill confronts Kathy, she tells him, “Now I’ll know just how much of a cop you really are.” Bill responds, “The same cop, Kathy. The same cop you met in Frisco. Same cop I was 10 years ago, pounding a beat. The same cop.” Bill Doyle then takes Kathy Doyle to police headquarters to be booked for murder.

Cast