Fortune Is a Woman

Fortune Is a Woman

British quad poster
Directed by Sidney Gilliat
Produced by Sidney Gilliat
Frank Launder
Written by Winston Graham (novel)
Val Valentine
Sidney Gilliat
Frank Launder
Starring Jack Hawkins
Arlene Dahl
Dennis Price
Music by William Alwyn
Cinematography Gerald Gibbs
Edited by Geoffrey Foot
Production
company
Individual Films
John Harvel Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • 15 April 1957 (1957-04-15) (United Kingdom)
  • 8 July 1958 (1958-07-08) (United States)
Running time
 90 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Fortune Is a Woman is a 1957 British crime film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Jack Hawkins, Arlene Dahl and Dennis Price. Its plot concerns an attempted insurance fraud goes badly wrong.[1] In the United States, it was released as She Played With Fire.[2] The book is based on Winston Graham's novel Fortune Is a Woman (1953).[3]

Plot

London insurance investigator Oliver Branwell goes to Louis Manor to probe a recent fire. Tracey Moreton lives there with his wife Sarah and his mother. He introduces them to Oliver, as well as his neighbor and cousin, Clive, and describes a valuable painting that was lost in the blaze. Tracey isn't aware that Sarah and Oliver were once romantically involved.

Months later, on another case, Oliver meets a woman, Vere Litchen, who has a painting that appears to be the one allegedly destroyed. The next time he and Sarah speak, she asks questions about the best way to start a fire.

When he later sneaks into the manor, Oliver finds the dead body of Tracey as well as flames that are about to engulf the house. Sarah is beneficiary of her husband's insurance policy but Oliver remains suspicious of her involvement.

Vere's rich fiance, Croft, who gave her the painting, is shown a photo of Sarah and denies she was the woman who sold it to him. A relieved Oliver proposes to Sarah and they leave on a honeymoon. Now the police begin to consider him a suspect.

Blackmailed by a shadowy figure, Oliver and Sarah follow him and discover that Clive was the scheme's mastermind. And that the dead man's mother, Mrs. Moreton, had accidentally caused Tracey's death, believing that her son was about to start a second fire.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ Fortune Is a Woman. BFI Film Forever. 1957.
  2. ↑ She Played With Fire. IMDb. 1957.
  3. ↑ Graham, Winston (1953). Fortune Is a Woman. DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY. ASIN B000QBA4GS.

External links

Fortune Is a Woman at the Internet Movie Database

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