- Directed by Jean Renoir and based on a novel by Mitchell Wilson, The Woman on the Beach is an odd film noir helped considerably by Robert Ryan in the lead role as Scott Burnett, a Coast Guard lieutenant who survived having his ship sunk by a mine during the war. Now he spends his days working the mounted patrol, which mostly means riding a horse along a foggy beach. Scott's nights, however, are plagued by phantasmagoric dreams of exploding mines and ghostly women. Maybe he got the idea of proposing to his girlfriend Eve (Nan Leslie) from one such dream, although that was back before he ran into Peggy Butler (Joan Bennett).
- Like Scott, Peggy wanders around on the beach like she's guided by some invisible hand. It's not surprising that she and the equally haunted lieutenant hit it off so well, but their situation is complicated by the fact that Peggy is also Mrs. Butler, wife of the tragically blinded painter Tod Butler (Charles Bickford). Since becoming blind, Tod has obviously become bitter and manipulative, wielding aggressive hospitality as a means to drive Scott away from his wife. In an interesting twist, Scott even begins to wonder if Tod is truly blind, an obsessive doubt that culminates in a tragic walk along the edge of a cliff. That the source novel was titled "None So Blind" is telling.
- Unfortunately, the film's wonderfully eerie opening dream sequence sets a high bar that the rest of the film never manages to top. Deep down, there's just so much plot you can get out of a love triangle that features a blind painter, I suppose. Ryan, as always, is excellent as a damaged man who has more nobility than sense. Unlike many of film noir's more famous leading actors, Ryan could play a misguided sap just as well as he could a world-weary tough guy, and I mean that as a compliment. Bennett and Bickford are both good, too, although I found myself most surprised by the appearance of a young-ish Irene Ryan, better known to me as Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies.
