I Married a Communist, later released as The Woman on Pier 13, is an American motion picture, directed by Robert Stevenson and released in 1949. It stars Robert Ryan, Laraine Day, Thomas Gomez and Janis Carter. I Married a Communist tells the story of Brad Collins (Ryan), a successful executive with a shipping company. Unbeknownst to his new wife Nan (Day), Collins is a man with a hidden past. During the Great Depression, he was Frank Johnson, a young stevedore with communist connections. While working in New Jersey, Johnson’s political views drew him into an argument with a shop steward. Johnson killed the man and fled the state, changing his name to Brad Collins and moving west to California. He obtained a job with a shipping firm and began his life anew.
Collins’ new life is disrupted when he runs into Christine (Carter), a former girlfriend. Christine is a fashion photographer who is still an active communist, holding glamorous cocktail parties so she can seduce men and recruit them to the Communist Party. She initiates a relationship with Nan’s brother Don Lowry (Agar) for this purpose. Collins, meanwhile, encounters the sinister union boss and undercover communist Vanning. Using Christine, Vanning blackmails Collins into sabotaging negotiations between company bosses and the unions. Lowry learns the truth about Christine and Vanning but is murdered by a communist agent. The film’s climactic scenes are a confrontation between its main characters in a warehouse serving as the communist headquarters.
I Married a Communist is an example of Cold War propaganda within post-war cinema. It combines standard film noir plotlines – hidden pasts, personal failings and doomed relationships – with unsubtle political warnings about subversive communists, troublesome unions and their alleged secret agenda. The film’s two main communists are hilariously stereotyped: Christine is a vampish, glamorous seductress, while Vanning is a malevolent and hilariously overplayed spy. In contrast, the movie’s capitalist businessmen are depicted as fair, honest and reasonable. Collins, who perhaps serves as a metaphor for America itself, is torn between his past mistakes and his new life as a successful businessman. I Married a Communist received poor reviews and was not a commercial success. In 1950 it was re-released as The Woman on Pier 13 after initial audiences responded poorly to its original title.
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