(3 of 3)
After Born Yesterday's Hollywood press première, William H. Mooring, syndicated movie columnist for 40 Roman Catholic newspapers, blasted the movie as Communist propaganda, "a diabolically clever political satire . . . subtly molded to carry destructive comment." Hollywood hurried to set the record straight. Hearst Columnist Louella O. Parsons (herself a Catholic) politely suggested that Critic Mooring "really reaches for something." Inviting Catholic editors to form their own opinion, the Motion Picture Association assured them, with good reason, that the picture "gives warmth and positive support to the democratic ideas, principles and institutions of America."
Woman on the Run (Universal-International) pins a melodrama on a creditably ambitious idea. A witness to a murder flees from both the killer and the authorities who want him to testify. His half-estranged wife (Ann Sheridan) joins the hunt to give him medicine he needs for a heart ailment. Along the way (while unwittingly playing footie with the murderer), she meets friends and acquaintances of her husband for the first time, begins to see why her marriage went wrong and how to patch it up. The picture's attempt to dovetail its marital problem with its manhunt makes for a promising story skeleton; unfortunately, it has been fleshed out with a minimum of imagination.