Glossy trash has wealthy, beach front-living Joan Crawford wooed by shady gigolo Jeff Chandler. Low-brow fun, an adaptation of Robert Hill's play "The Besieged Heart", with steamy clinches and page after page of florid dialogue. Director Joseph Pevney seems to be a perfect match for Crawford: he's obviously tough on the unyielding actress and doesn't let her get away with many "Mildred Pierce"-isms. Crawford also seems to have been personally swayed by hunky Chandler, who doesn't let her hog the spotlight. However, neither star is guided with a trace of self-effacing humor, which turns the proceedings into straight-faced camp. Some of the lines are howlers. **1/2 from ****

In Female On The Beach widow Joan Crawford inherits a nice Pacific Coast beach house from her late husband. Recently Judith Evelyn was renting the place and she also got dead by falling off her terrace. Detective Charles Drake isn't sure it was an accident and his prime suspect is Jeff Chandler.

I noted that Female On The Beach was based on a play that according to the Internet Broadway Database did not make it on Broadway. So author Robert Hill got it sold to Universal and he helped adapt it for the screen. For some of the themes this play was exploring Tennessee Williams would have been ideal.

Chandler is a guy without visible means of support. Courtesy of the late tenant Judith Evelyn he ties his boat on her dock. Whatever he's got every female in heat wants, Crawford, Evelyn, real estate broker Jan Sterling even Natalie Schaefer who is married to neighbor Cecil Kellaway. The two are a pair con artists, but you can Schaefer checking Chandler out.

Chandler is part of a come on to get lonely women to gamble their life savings with Kellaway and Schaefer which is what he did with Evelyn. But he's starting to get pangs of conscience with Joan.

Female On The Beach is the kind of film that is perfect for Joan Crawford. But it needed two things, Tennessee Williams to write it and it also is flawed in its ending. It has the same problem as the Alfred Hitchcock classic Suspicion and the ending that Hitchcock was forced to make there.

This campy melodrama focuses on the sudden death of a drunken aging woman who may or may not have been pushed off her seaside balcony. The next day, Joan Crawford, whose late husband once owned the building. Real estate agent Jan Sterling doesn't tell Joan about the tragedy, only about the frequent visitation by a man (Jeff Chandler) who forgot to take his pipe and jacket. The next morning, Joan is shocked to find him bringing her fish, just walking in unannounced. Their encounters are initially sarcastic at his expense, but eventually, she can't get him out of her mind. More questions are answered when she finds the woman's diary (hidden in the wall) and learns that she received attention from Chandler as well. Crawford shows her indignation after meeting the older couple (Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer) whom he claims are his aunt and uncle, but are obviously using him to fleece lonely older women.

it's pretty obvious early on as to what has been going on and what the intentions for Crawford are, but she's no slouch, telling Kellaway and Schaefer off the minute she meets them, with them basically intruding on her date with Chandler. The scene where she tells them off is hysterical, a perfect example of Crawford at her most vicious, even though her character is actually extremely vulnerable.

Jan Sterling is hilariously melodramatic as the steaming real estate agent who has more than just a passing interest in Chandler. In fact, it reeks of obsession. Veteran Broadway character actress Judith Evelyn plays the role of the deceased older woman in flashbacks, and delivers a terrific drunken scene. The film overall is campy and melodramatic, predictable and unbelievable. But it is certainly a lot of fun and a must for Crawford fans.