The Cinematheque

“Phantom Lady, with its ingeniously structured screenplay and whiz-bang direction, is [a] devilish concoction, designed to keep the viewer in a perpetual state of unrest … An influence on everything from Hitchcock’s Psycho to the giallo and beyond.”

Clayton Dillard, Slant Magazine

High-heeled hep kitten Carol ​“Kansas” Richman (Ella Raines) combs New York City’s shadowy streets and seedy bars in a race against time to save her employer from the electric chair in Robert Siodmak’s suspenseful, stylish thriller, shot in the moody expressionist manner. Her boss (Alan Curtis) has been convicted of murdering his wife; the very existence of his only alibi, a mysterious woman in a flamboyant hat, is denied by every witness. Siodmak, the German expat who also directed Criss Cross and The Killers, is one of noir’s exemplary talents. So too is oft-adapted pulp author Cornell Woolrich, who penned the source novel (under the pseudonym William Irish) on which Phantom Lady is based. A steamy, sexually charged jazz sequence involving Kansas and, on drums, Elisha Cook Jr., still wows. This ravishing restoration premiered as part of a Siodmak retrospective in New York last year.

“By defining this world almost entirely by mise-en-scène, Siodmak and his associates created a virtual template for the studio period of the noir cycle.”

Robert Porfirio, Film Noir: The Encyclopedia

“Set the mould for a string of dark classics … [Siodmak’s] manipulation of the film’s key motif is masterly.”

Paul Taylor, Time Out

“A crackerjack piece of film noir that launched European expatriate director Robert Siodmak’s American career … It’s now rightfully viewed as one of the better films noir of the period.”

Paul Tatara, TCM