No Man of Her Own Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

No Man of Her Own Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 16, 2024

Mitchell Leisen's "No Man of Her Own" (1950) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critic Imogen Sara Smith; new commentary by critics Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff; and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Strangely, Barbara Stanwyck did not earn at least an Oscar nomination for her performance in Mitchell Leisen’s No Man of Her Own. She is sensational in this film. The quality of her performance in this film is on par with the one from Double Indemnity and unquestionably better than the one from Ball of Fire. Stanwyck plays a couple of different characters and together they set the tone of the drama and give the film its identity. She is surrounded by very good actors and a few certainly leave lasting impressions, but they do not have the same impact on the film.

In the prologue, Stanwyck quickly describes what is clearly the end of a moving story. She is in a small town in Illinois, feeling overwhelmed and awaiting the police. The film now jumps back in time, to a lousy building somewhere in New York City, where Stanwyck’s character, Helen Ferguson, is seen begging a man to give her a second chance. The man’s name is Steven Morley (Lyle Bettger) and he is a lowlife who has been lying to her that he would be her husband and father of the child she is carrying in her womb. Despite her desperate plea, the lowlife refuses to talk to her and instead hands her a train ticket. Shortly after, the heartbroken and penniless Helen boards a train bound for San Francisco.

On the train, Helen is approached by Patricia and Hugh Harkness, a newly married couple sensing that she has been hurt. While they consider grabbing a bite to eat in the dining car, the train derails. Helen barely survives, but her new friends are not so lucky.

At the hospital, where she gives birth to a beautiful baby boy, Helen is mistaken for Patricia and when she recovers Hugh’s wealthy parents welcome her with open arms. Even though she fully realizes that it is amoral, Helen permanently assumes Patricia’s identity so that her son would have a better life than her. Hugh’s brother, Bill (John Lund), then gradually falls in love with her, but she tries to keep a distance between them because of her secret and her heart insisting that she does not deserve him. Some months later, when Helen finally agrees to go out dancing with Bill at a local club, Steven reappears and demands a hefty sum of money not to reveal her secret.

In 1932, Wesley Ruggles directed another film with the same title starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, but the story that is told in it is different. The only obvious similarity between Leisen and Ruggles’ films is that both have young characters assuming new identities in desperate attempts to alter their lives.

Leisen’s film is based on a very good novel by Cornell Woolrich that tells a notably darker story with a different ending. Some of its intensity is preserved, but the truth is that the film Leisen delivered is awfully difficult to profile as a conventional film noir. (Good examples of conventional film noirs based on original stories by Woolrich are Black Angel and Fall Guy).

At the center of Leisen’s film is a woman’s struggle to permanently distance herself from her miserable past and overcome a powerful sense of guilt. The only noirish material is introduced in the final third of the film, where her secret unleashes a short chain reaction of tragic events. But even here there is sufficient melodrama of the kind that had become very popular after the end of the war, and its impact on the character arcs remains uninterrupted. In other words, the very particular profiles and ambience that film noirs utilized at the time are missing.

Stanwyck moves through the film with incredible authority, and this is essentially what makes the crucial difference. It is not that the actors around her are not as good, but she leads and legitimizes the drama in a very obvious way.

No Man of Her Own was lensed by award-winning cinematographer Daniel L. Fapp, whose credits include such grand classics as West Side Story and The Great Escape.

No Man of Her Own Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, No Man of Her Own arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

In 2022, we reviewed this Australian Blu-ray release of No Man of Her Own, which is the only other Blu-ray release of the film that I have in my library. I viewed Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release last night and then compared various areas from the film's presentations on these releases.

Both presentations reveal very similar inherited limitations, like density fluctuations, large blemishes, uneven grain exposure, and even some minor stability issues. However, there are noticeable discrepancies in terms of delineation and sharpness. I think that many are similar to the ones I observed when I compared the most recent and older presentations of Secret Beyond the Door. On this release, a lot of visuals tend to look softer, which is fine, but there is loss of detail. Sometimes it is just a little bit. Sometimes it is more. You can get an idea what these discrepancies may look like if you compare this screencapture from the new presentation with this screencapture from the previous presentation of No Man of Her Own. However, I still think that you will get very similar viewing experiences with both presentations. Why? Because No Man of Her Own needs to be properly restored to look as it should. Currently, both presentation retain many similar limitations that have a greater impact on the overall quality of its visuals than the discrepancies that are highlighted above. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

No Man of Her Own Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is very good. The dialog and narration are clear and very easy to follow. The upper register is healthy and there are no odd dynamic fluctuations that aging could have introduced. However, I suspect that small enhancements could be introduced in a few areas to help improve balance and fullness of some exchanges.

No Man of Her Own Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for No Man of Her Own. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Commentary One - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic Imogen Sara Smith.

• Commentary Two - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff.

No Man of Her Own Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even though Mitchell Leisen's No Man of Her Own does have some noirish qualities, I do not think that it deserves to be profiled as conventional film noir. It is a powerful drama about a woman trying to escape her miserable past and secure a better future for her child. Barbara Stanwyck gives an astonishing performance in it that is one of her all-time greatest. Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release is sourced from a recent 4K remaster supplied by Paramount Pictures. However, it is not the revelation I hoped it would be. No Man of Her Own is a fantastic film, so I still think that the Blu-ray release is worth picking up, but it will be unfortunate if this is its final home video release. It is included in Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XIX, a three-disc box set. RECOMMENDED.