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While stationed in France during World War II, an American fighter pilot marries a French girl, but when he goes home he doesn't take her with him--because he's already married to a successful lawyer back in the U.S. The war bride follows him to the U.S. anyway, one thing leads to another, and she winds up killing him and finds herself being defended in court by the wife of the man she has just killed.

John Carroll, Ruth Hussey, and Vera Ralston in I, Jane Doe (1948)

More weeper than thriller, improbable courtroom drama's strongest point is Ruth Hussey

Though its title contains a suggestion of film noir, I, Jane Doe is more of a post-war women&#39;s weeper hung along a suspense plot. That plot can be swiftly summarized: War bride kills American husband and is then defended by bigamous husband&#39;s widow. It&#39;s neither a terrible nor an incompetent movie, but it&#39;s rather a dull and improbable one, redeemed mainly by Ruth Hussey&#39;s fresh and unmannered portrayal of the two-timed defense attorney. She had it all, at one time: A thriving Manhattan law practice, a modern high-rise apartment boasting a fireplace as big as Charles Foster Kane&#39;s at Xanadu, and a husband whom one of the characters, obviously deranged by the wartime shortage of men, calls a `dreamboat&#39; (John Carroll). When Carroll goes to France as a fighter pilot, a chain of circumstances heavy on stock footage lead him to wed a French war widow (Vera Ralston). When she doesn&#39;t hear from him after his return Stateside, she sells her country farmhouse and pursues him to New York, using a forged passport. Carroll&#39;s so glad to see her he turns her in to the immigration authorities. Bad move, for hell hath no fury.... The bulk of the story is told in a courtroom during Ralston&#39;s second murder trial (following the first, when she was sentenced to death, she was found to be pregnant). Frequent glissandos on the harp accompany `washes&#39; forward and backward that come with the monotony of pounding surf. (They&#39;re the only things approximating `style&#39; in the movie.) But Gene Lockhart as the prosecuting attorney and Benay Venuta as Hussey&#39;s assistant liven matters up tolerably, lending able support to Hussey&#39;s strong central performance.

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I, Jane Doe

When I watched this classic from Republic Pictures, a scene between a female lawyer and her female client caught my attention: LAWYER: Why didn&#39;t you tell them you were going to have a baby? It might have made a difference in the verdict. CLIENT: I didn&#39;t tell because I didn&#39;t want it to be born. LAWYER: But you realize you might have taken that baby to the electric chair with you? CLIENT: Yes. LAWYER: Why would you want to kill him? It was your crime, not his. He has a right to live just as he had a right to be born. The dialogue seems anti-abortion in nature. Interestingly, the script was written in the late 1940s by a woman and a man, and it presents a conservative view of feminism. Not the radical left feminism that has since become popular. The exchange occurs after the title character (Vera Ralston) has been found guilty of murder. Her execution has been postponed, because of pregnancy. The state will not allow an unborn child to be put to death. Ralston&#39;s character is still in prison. There is no get out of jail free card being played. In the next part of the story the lawyer, played by Ruth Hussey, fights to have Ralston&#39;s case retried on appeal. Prosecuting attorneys (John Howard and Gene Lockhart) make strong arguments to the jury that they should not have sympathy for Ralston since she did in fact murder the father of the baby. With Hussey&#39;s help, Ralston gets off and is cleared of the murder charge. What makes this film interesting is that we have a woman in peril represented by a career woman whose job comes at the cost of marriage and domestic tranquility. The twist is that Ralston and Hussey were both married to the same man (John Carroll). As I watched the film, the scene I quoted really stood out to me...because the screenwriters are using the basic scenario to bolster the point of view that a child should still be born despite the murky circumstances of its conception. Later there&#39;s another twist involving the baby. I think this is a film people should watch and judge for themselves. It has morally gray areas. A lot of men had come home from the war, hiding the fact that they&#39;d been with other women abroad. In this story, the man had become a bigamist and was found out. The filmmakers do not fully demonize him. Instead they turn his quandary into a morality tale to preserve the sanctity of the American home.

...skip this awful film. The script is amateurish, the acting is sub-par, while Ruth Hussey does her icy best. Her acting is okay, but she&#39;s just not believable as the altruistic wife/attorney.

Critics had a blast in the 1940&#39;s and 50&#39;s blasting the films and acting of Vera Hruba Ralston, the Mary Pickford and Norma Shearer of Republic pictures, minus Oscar worthy material. She&#39;s the supposedly shady lady here, in trial for the murder of a man she key during the war, minus the truth of his marital status. By chance, she ends up being defended by his legal wife (Ruth Hussey) who learns surprising truths about the man she loved as the facts unfold. It&#39;s nasty, media obsessed trial is more scandalous than any case she&#39;s tried, and it&#39;s possible that the outcome may end up being heartbreaking for both ladies. Within the meat of the trial story cones the soap opera, exposing the late husband (John Carroll) for all sorts of unethical goings on. Hussey has her hands full, not only for the barrage of convoluted testimony she gets but the tough rebuttal by determined Gene Lockhart. Flashbacks to Hussey finding out how dishonorable her husband was before he left for France on active duty, how Carroll and Ralston met and became involved, how Carroll dumped Ralston to return to his wife, and the final curtain in Carroll&#39;s life leads to a convoluted melodrama that requires a map to route it all out. As an actress, Ms. Ralston follows directions very well, but is simply just bland and uncinematic. Compared to Hussey, she&#39;s a blank slate. What stands in the way of this being memorable for Hussey&#39;s performance is the unbelievably confusing script. As far as women&#39;s pictures go, this is weepy simply because you&#39;re fighting to restrain yourself from falling asleep and get more frustrated by the absurdity. Benay Venuta, Adele Mara, John Howard and especially Gene Lockhart deliver excellent performances that along with Hussey&#39;s barely escape Ralston&#39;s ineffectiveness and the shallowness of the script.

User reviews

I, Jane Doe

More weeper than thriller, improbable courtroom drama's strongest point is Ruth Hussey

An important anti-abortion film..?

If You Don't Love Ruth Hussey...

Oh what a tangled web men weave...

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