The British filmmaking team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat had been working together for decades by the time they made She Played with Fire (1957), an engrossing, noir-ish mystery melodrama. For almost forty years they collaborated on screenplays, specializing in suspense and comedy, and turning out such gems as The Lady Vanishes (1938), Night Train to Munich (1940), Green for Danger (1946), The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954) and The Green Man (1956). They also sometimes produced and directed their own scripts. For She Played with Fire, Gilliat took the directing honors.

Released in England in the spring of 1957 under its original title, Fortune Is a Woman, the film was re-titled for its American release by Columbia Pictures in spring 1958. But it was relegated to the lower half of double bills and ignored by most American critics. Gilliat attributed the poor U.S. reception to what he considered a lousy title. He didn't care for the British title either, and actually wanted to call it Red Sky at Night, but by the time he thought of that title it was too late to change it.

The story, drawn from a novel by Winston Graham, centers on an insurance man played by Jack Hawkins who investigates a fire at the country manor home of Dennis Price, only to discover that Price's wife (Arlene Dahl) is an old flame. Hawkins suspects Dahl of foul play but keeps it to himself as his desire for her is reawakened. And that's just the beginning of a twisty, gothic tale of fires, fraud, blackmail, art theft and romance. Ultimately, Hawkins' own investigative career and professional integrity become at risk.

She Played with Fire was filmed in and around London in 1956, with the atmosphere and moodiness of the area coming through. Some sequences were shot in the actual Lloyds of London insurance house. British reviews were very strong. In the U.S., Variety deemed the film a bit too bogged down by its intricate plot but still a success overall, with outstanding acting: "Jack Hawkins, one of Britain's most consistent performers, turns in a thoroughly convincing and acceptable study of the insurance man, who keeps quiet for too long. It is an unfalteringly dependable performance." Also in the cast are real-life father and son actors Malcolm and Geoffrey Keen, as father and son employers, and Christopher Lee as a comically arrogant Welsh murder suspect and wannabe opera singer.

American actress Arlene Dahl, as usual, drew notices more for her elegant beauty than for her underrated acting. But in fact, her performance is key to this film's success, as she leaves the audience guessing until the end as to her guilt or innocence.

Influential gossip columnist Louella Parsons once wrote that there were only three actresses in Hollywood who were so naturally beautiful that they could step in front of a camera without makeup: Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner and Arlene Dahl. But after this film, Dahl appeared on movie screens only sporadically, as she transitioned more to a career as a health and beauty columnist and author. In fact, when she made She Played with Fire, she was already publishing her column three times a week.

Film scholar William K. Everson later wrote that She Played with Fire looks like "an echo of early Hitchcock and Agatha Christie at a time when thrillers were starting to get more serious...and when the slickness and gimmicks of James Bond were just around the corner. It's still old-fashioned, but...that has become rather a virtue. It's traditional rather than clichéd, a cozy, civilized, non-violent but quite absorbing mystery."

By Jeremy Arnold

SOURCES:
Rolf Canton, Minnesotans in the Movies
William K. Everson, The New School film program notes, Feb. 26, 1982
Tom Johnson and Mark A. Miller, The Christopher Lee Filmography