The Woman on Pier 13 is a 1949 American film noir drama starring Laraine Day, Robert Ryan, and John Agar.

Brad had once been a stevedore in New York, but rose from the San Francisco waterfront to become a respected shipping firm vice president, prized for his experience on both side of the trade.

As a result, he becomes the target of a Communist cell led by Vanning, who orders an alleged FBI informer drowned in front of him to demonstrate the stakes.

Christine, bitter over being rejected years ago by Brad, is ordered to become closer to his young and impressionable brother-in-law, Don Lowry, and to indoctrinate him with a Communist world view.

He thinks this is a good solution, but wishes to hide her reasons, so destroys her confession of Communist involvement and has her thrown out the window of her high-rise apartment.

Rewrites were frequent and extensive, and the script had to pass through many hands before a final draft was constructed, including those of Art Cohn, James Edward Grant, Charles Grayson and Herman Mankiewicz.

[4] The script was still considered incomplete even with these contributions, leading RKO to bring on veteran screenwriter Robert Hardy Andrews to polish what would become the final iteration of the screenplay.

Merle Oberon was reportedly on salary as the film's female lead for several months before RKO announced that she would be replaced by Jane Greer, who was again quickly moved to a different production.

[4] Newsreel footage of J. Edgar Hoover was requested, but denied because the FBI feared "persons of communist sympathies" would seek to undermine the project's intentions.

[6] A contemporary Variety magazine review was tepid: "As a straight action fare, I Married a Communist generates enough tension to satisfy the average customer.

"[7] In 2000, Dennis Schwartz's Ozus review questioned the film's veracity: "The story was filled with misinformation: it distorted the communist influence in the country and how big business and unions act.

"[8] In 2009 the British critic Tom Milne in the Time Out Film Guide wrote: "The sterling cast can make no headway against cartoon characters, a fatuous script that defies belief, and an enveloping sense of hysteria.