Ginger Rogers is cast as a model (a very OLD model) on her way to see her sister (Doris Day) and her new husband (Steve Cochran). After arriving in the town, she wanders upon an ugly scene--a crowd of Klansmen taking a prisoner from the local jail and killing him vigilante-style in the street. In addition, she sees the identities of two of the men! Following the murder, the county prosecutor (Ronald Reagan) investigates but finds nothing but silence. It's obvious the 'nice' townsfolk participated and many know their identities--but no one is willing to talk. When he learns that Rogers saw the killing, he's excited to finally have a witness--but keeping her alive for the trial may not be easy--especially after her brother-in-law learns that she saw HIM at the killing! A lot more follows--and I won't say more because it could spoil the suspense.In many ways, this is a taut and excellent drama. BUT, it also pulls some of its punches. It's VERY strange that there are no black folks as characters in the film--not even as the victim. Now I am NOT saying the KKK didn't sometimes kill whites, but this was the exception to the rule and completely negates the whole racism angle. It's sad, but the film seemed to want to play it safe by playing it that way. However, while Hollywood was very hesitant to address race, 1949 (when the film was made--though they held it for a bit before release) was a good year with wonderful race films like "Pinky" and "Intruder in the Dust" also coming from rival studios, Twentieth-Century Fox and MGM. Fortunately, the film does manage to rise above this due to an exciting script--especially at the end (which is top-notch). Because of this and a few excellent performances (particularly for Reagan), it's well worth your time.

For those who feel the film wasn't ardent enough in its attack on the Klan, I wanted to point out that in the early 50s the hot button issue of the day was organized crime and the mafia. Many, if not most, Americans at that time shared racist and anti-semitic attitudes, and attacking the Klan on those grounds would not have had the effect it would have now. By positioning the Klan as an organized criminal gang,the filmmakers denied the Klan their ideological purity and their claim to 'cleaning up' communities. For those who protested the lack of Southern dialect in the film, you need to know the Klan was not uniquely Southern: it originated in Indiana and flourished up North as well. To this day white supremacist organizations are based in the North, and the two most segregated cities in the U.S. are Detroit and Chicago. Not limiting actors to a Southern dialect widens the perception of the problem. I'm not a Southerner, but I do think we need to be fair about this.

Model Ginger Rogers arrives in the small Sothrin town of Rockpoint from New York on a bus. She's going to visit her sister for the first time in years. The bus departs and Rogers finds herself alone in an unfriendly, night-time town that's filled with ominous shadows. She witnesses a brawl a block away. A dozen men in white pointed hoods are beating a man. She scurries into a dark nook and watches the man get shot twice. Some of the killers remove their hoods and she sees their faces, although they don't know she's there.She arrives shaken at his sister's house, Doris Day, and describes what she saw. Then Day's husband, Steve Cochran, walks in and she recognizes him as one of the men standing around the dead body. The beans are soon spilled.So here's the situation. A sophisticated woman visits her younger sister in a Southern town and is confronted by the brutal husband in a shabby flat. It's A Streetcar Named Desire, transfigured into a melodrama with overtones of social messaging.The social message is that the Ku Klux Klan isn't an admirable outfit. No blacks ever show up on screen but the murdered man is repeatedly described as a reporter from a Northern newspaper, down here just to cause trouble, and why don't they leave us folks alone? Ronald Reagan is stuck in the stock part of the upright District Attorney who can't get the local people to cooperate in the prosecution of these periodic murders. The natives agree with the Klan, are afraid to get involved, or don't care.It may be hard for younger viewers to see this as anything other than a fantasy, unless they've lived during the Civil Rights era when such things happened. (They happened for the next twenty years.) A lot of powerful symbols are flickering away on the screen but, lamentably, it's not a very good movie. The writing is clumsy and full of speeches. The behavior of some of the principles is idiotic. Why would Ginger Rogers, knowing that Cochran is a vicious murderer, shout at him so provocatively and tell him she's on her way to the DA to squeal on him? The photography is poor. The story isn't noir but the photography certainly is. There are about ten minutes of daylight. The direction by Stuart Heisler is pedestrian but there is an occasional nice touch, as when one of the Klansmen at a burning cross hoists his white-hooded child to his shoulder so he can see the ritual more clearly. The script preaches, and I've never liked being preached at because sermons seem to me to say, "You are stupid and I am trying to instruct you." I had all the scolding I could take during my marriage.

Ginger Rogers is going to visit her sister, Doris Day, who she hasn't seen in two years. When she gets to the small town at night, she encounters very anti-social people. A cab driver won't give her a ride, and shops are closing like there's a fire to go to. She barely got the clerk at the bus station to check her baggage, before he locked up. She had to walk ten blocks to Doris Day at her place of business, because of that....that cab driver. The roads and sidewalks are quiet and everything is deserted. She's walking in the dark, when she hears noises and fighting. A man runs by her and gets shot in the back. A group of people covered with hoods gather around the body, not seeing her, as she is hiding near by. Two men take off their hoods and she sees them. Then she comes to find out later one of them is her brother-in-law, Doris' husband, played by Steve Cochran.Such is the gist of her dilemma. Should she tell what she's seen of the Ku Klux Klan and Steve or stay out of it? Apparently, everyone else has. Ronald Reagen is the d.a. who's been trying to get the Klan run out of town ever since he's been elected. But no one ever remembers anything, knows anything, or has ever seen anything, which must make it very easy for them.This is a very well made film that shows Ronald Reagen and company at their best. Reagan gives a very understated and effective performance as not only a man of the law trying to do his duty, but as a man trying to get at the truth and trying to get others to see things as they really are. And, never at any time does the viewer feel that Ginger Rogers is out of her element, being in a controversial suspense film and not being in a light comedy/musical. While it's great to see Doris Day in something different than her usual fare, it still feels somewhat strange to see her perky and upbeat character in this sobering tale of hatred and bigotry.I was very impressed with this film, particularly as it neared its dramatic conclusion and how well it all came together, where much is expressed with little to no words. If you've never seen "Storm Warning." then you ought to see this intelligent film, that was ahead of its time. I liked and respected Reagan before I saw this, but after wards I think I've grown even more respect for a man who knew this was a project he wanted to be a part of. This may be only a movie, but as actors make choices as to what films to make, this certainly reveals Reagan and his conscience to stand for what is right.Discover "Storm Warning" and learn today that tomorrow can be better if we stand together against intolerance.