Still image from the 1951 film Storm Warning.

Storm Warning

Directed by Stuart Heisler

A model on vacation discovers that her sister's husband is a murderous Ku Klux Klansman.

1951 1h 33m Drama TV-14

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CAST
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0

Stuart Heisler, Director
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Stuart Heisler
Director

1

Ginger Rogers, Marsha Mitchell
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Ginger Rogers
Marsha Mitchell

2

Ronald Reagan, Burt Rainey
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Ronald Reagan
Burt Rainey

3

Doris Day, Lucy Rice
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Doris Day
Lucy Rice

4

Steve Cochran, Hank Rice
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Steve Cochran
Hank Rice

5

Hugh Sanders, Charlie Barr
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Hugh Sanders
Charlie Barr

FULL SYNOPSIS

Model Marsha Mitchell takes advantage of an out-of-town assignment to visit her newly married younger sister, Lucy Rice. On her arrival, Marsha is struck by the unfriendliness of the townspeople, and when the taxi driver refuses to drive her to her destination, she is forced to walk to the recreation center where Lucy has a night job. On the way, Marsha secretly witnesses a lynching. Greatly upset, she finally reaches the recreation center and tells Lucy what she saw. Lucy realizes that the victim must have been Walter Adams, a reporter who had denounced the Ku Klux Klan. Although Marsha recognizes some of the men at the center as part of the lynch mob, she does not expose them when county prosecutor Burt Rainey questions the crowd. Later, Lucy, who is pregnant, takes Marsha home and introduces her sister to her husband Hank. Aghast, Marsha realizes that Hank was also one of the mob. When Lucy tells Hank what Marsha witnessed, he explains that he thought they were only going to try to scare Adams. Not wanting to hurt her sister, Marsha plans to catch the first bus out of town in the morning. A worried Hank then hurries to the recreation center to confer with Charlie Barr, his boss and the Klan leader. Rainey returns, having identified the rope used to hang Adams as belonging to Barr's company, but Barr dismisses Rainey's accusations, and George Athens, the recreation center proprietor, testifies that Barr was there the entire night. Rainey is waiting for Marsha when she picks...


VIDEOS
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I Just Saw A Man Murdered...
Movie Clip
They Blame The Klan...
Movie Clip
They Were Wearing Hoods...
Movie Clip

ARTICLES
Storm Warning, a 1951 release directed by Stuart Heisler, is unsettling from the start. A bus carrying small-time model Marsha Mitchell (Ginger Rogers) arrives in the town of Rock Point late one evening. Only a ten-minute stopover is planned, but Marsha wants to stay and spend the night, visiting her sister Lucy (Doris Day) and meeting Lucy's new husband, Hank Rice (Steve Cochran), for the first time. But odd things start happening the moment she steps off the bus. The driver nervously eyes the clock and ends the stopover early. A cab driver claims he isn't a cab driver, even though he's holding a cab-driver cap and his taxi is parked nearby. Disconcerted by these incidents, Marsha sets off on foot to the bowling center where Lucy works. She hasn't walked far when she hears angry voices in the darkness ahead. Slipping into the shadows, she sees a mob of men in Ku Klux Klan robes carrying a prisoner who's bound and gagged. The captive suddenly breaks free, runs for his life, and is shot in the back by a Klansman, dying instantly. The mob flees, leaving Marsha to find Lucy at the bowling alley and breathlessly tell what she's just seen. The sisters go to Lucy's house and wait for Hank to get home from work. An electrifying moment occurs when Marsha and Hank see each other for the first time: his eyes fill with lust as he sees her shapely figure and lovely face, and hers fill with horror as she sees that he is a Klansman from the lynch mob - and not just any Klansman, but...

NOTES

The film's working title was Storm Center. On October 20, 1949, Hollywood Reporter reported that Lauren Bacall was suspended by Warner Bros. after she refused the role of "Marsha." The following day, Ginger Rogers was named as star. According to a October 22, 1949 Los Angeles Times article, Bacall stated, "I am neither a puppet nor a chattel of Warner Bros. studio to do with as it sees fit." Shortly afterward, Bacall was released from her contract with the studio. According to Hollywood Reporter, the production began a two-week location shoot at Corona, CA on November 28, 1949. After completing this film, Ronald Reagan left Warner Bros., where he had been under contract since 1937.

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