Cause for Alarm!

Cause for Alarm! centres on Ellen Jones, a young wife whose husband George is confined to bed, seriously ill in body and mind. He has come to believe that Ellen and his doctor are involved with each other and are plotting to kill him, and he puts his accusations in writing. The letter becomes the film's driving problem: it threatens to place Ellen in grave danger just as she is trying to care for her husband. What follows is a tense domestic situation in which a woman races against time to stop the letter from reaching its destination.

The film was directed by Tay Garnett, whose earlier work includes China Seas, Love Is News, Seven Sinners and The Postman Always Rings Twice; Cause for Alarm! was the fifth of the five features listed for him and followed that 1946 picture. Loretta Young plays Ellen, with Barry Sullivan as George, Bruce Cowling as Dr. Ranney Grahame, and supporting turns from Margalo Gillmore, Brad Morrow and Irving Bacon among a credited cast of 25. Tom Lewis and Mel Dinelli wrote the screenplay, and Lewis produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Released in March 1951 and running 74 minutes, the film is a compact crime drama with thriller elements. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.4/10 from around 2,900 votes, while on TMDB its rating is 5.9/10 from a much smaller number of votes.