These two photo-illustrated posters were made for the drama Cause for Alarm!, and it shows star Loretta Young in wide-eyed panic mode, a state in which she spends most of the film as the wife of a man who’s decided she and his doctor are teaming up to kill him with a progressive overdose of heart medicine. It’s pure paranoia. The guy is losing is mind. But he’s written an incriminating letter to the district attorney that details the imaginary plot. When Young’s husband keels over dead after taunting her about the letter that the mailman has just carried away minutes earlier, she realizes the law might believe him and tries to undo what he’s done. This has the effect of making her look like a guilty woman even though she isn’t. It’s a classic case of crossed up circumstances, though these days it plays somewhat differently than originally meant, with a layer of unintended commentary about the stultifying lives of mid-century suburban housewives. While it’s reasonably diverting as a psychological drama we wouldn’t say it’s top notch. But it’s certainly worth a look. It premiered in the U.S. today in 1951.
1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt
In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.