Marie Windsor is a piece of work. She's living apart from her husband, John Archer, but taking half his earnings. He wants to get married to Nancy Gates, so he asks Miss Windsor for a divorce. She wants a continuing half his earnings, plus $300,000 in cash; his father can sell his half of the business. Meanwhile, Miss Windsor is partners in an art gallery with Patrick Knowles, and putting the moves on Richard Crane, who's engaged to her assistant, Jil Jarmyn. In fact, she's just got Miss Jarmyn to return her engagement ring by telling her she's carrying on an affair with Crane.

So naturally she's shot by someone standing just offscreen. Enter the police.

It's a cheaply shot Republic B movie, and while everyone is decent, their line deliveries are rather declamatory. It's directed by Franklin Adreon(1902-1979). He had been writing Republic serials since 1937, and had directed a few for a couple of years. Now he was directing movies, and television, but it looks like the habits of the serials had stuck with him: grind them out cheap, grind them out fast and don't worry about the nuances. It's a well-written mystery, but the execution of the film is dull, except for Miss Windsor and her nasty attitude. I'd've shot her myself.

Windsor plays a conniving, unfaithful wife whose fed up husband wants to marry a "nice" girl and is willing to make her a fair offer in exchange for a divorce. She makes an exorbitant demand and ups the price by 100 grand after he responds by throwing a drink in her face. This is followed by her shocked father-in-law's remark "no matter how you look at it, that woman is a witch!" To which his son replies "no matter how you spell it either." A good example of some of the clever (not to mention funny) pseudo-profanity and "no-no" innuendo script writers had to develop back then.

As usual, Windsor plays her part to the hilt and makes a very credible villain. Unfortunately, the script writers went overboard with her character, almost making her a caricature of herself. They exaggerate her "W" or "B"ness to such a degree that it becomes unrealistic and even comical. What self-respecting cold, calculating gold-digger would publicly commit adultery with her secretary's fiancée before she was done squeezing her husband? Windsor herself seems to display an inner grin even with her nastiest facial expressions. She no doubt realized how ridiculous some of the script was. In the movie, she owns and lives in an art gallery. Since the real Marie Windsor was a multi-talented individual who achieved some success as a painter and sculptress, I wonder if this is simply coincidental.

I guess one purpose served by making her such a larger than life meanie is to make all the suspects seem equally likely to have killed her.

A mix of true "noir" and standard "whodunit" hurt by overdone melodramatics, yet still worth seeing.

If you love Marie Windsor, "The Narrow Margin" (1952) & "The Killing" (1956),you are certain to enjoy "'No Man's Woman." Here we see the statuesque beauty at her nasty best. Marie plays Carolyn Grant, a conniving, duplicitous,cheat who will do anything, short of murder, to get her way. She's highly successful too. Unfortunately, after double-crossing five people, one of them shoots her dead.

The story is told in a linear format with no (or minimal) flashbacks. This alone makes it refreshing. Though Carolyn is "snuffed" about midway through the film, considerable screen time is devoted to the character and Marie takes the spot-light up to the point of her character's death.

Carolyn has an arrangement with her husband. They live apart and he pays her an allowance plus the mortgage on her home. She also owns a gallery. You get the distinct impression that Carolyn was cheating on him, but it isn't clearly stated. Her husband, Harlow Grant (played by John Archer) has a new love interest, but Carolyn isn't about to give him up to divorce without a very lucrative settlement. This annoys both her ex and his new lady friend, Louise Nelson (played by Nancy Gates). Both now have a motive to get Carolyn out of the way.

Add to this the fact that her business partner,Wayne Vincent (played by Patric Knowles) has just been fired and blacklisted as an art reporter for giving Carolyn far too much free advertising. Wayne asks Carolyn for help, but she turns him down because he's unemployed. Considering that his career was ended for helping her, Wayne is none too happy about Carolyn's attitude. Another "burn victim" with a motive.

Finally, Carolyn goes after her assistant's boyfriend by inviting herself on a fishing trip with Dick Sawyer (played by Richard Crane). When her advances are rejected by Dick, Carolyn threatens to tell her assistant, Betty Allen (played by Jil Jarmyn) that Dick has been unfaithful. Dick rejects the threat and basically tells Carolyn that she's the nastiest woman he has ever met, and he has met quite a few as a soldier.

We now have five people with sufficient motive to kill Carolyn.

The police quickly determine that all five are prime suspects. It doesn't help that some lie about their whereabouts from the outset, that the husband was blind drunk and doesn't remember anything, and that three others have access to both the weapon and access to Carolyn's home.

The second half of the movie is a straight up "who done it" with the expected plot twists and revolving prime suspects.

It's certainly entertaining and the fact that the "flashback" device wasn't used makes it refreshing.

This is a "B" picture though so don't expect any stand-out performances.