Joan Crawford portrays a successful, independently wealthy playwright who fires struggling actor Jack Palance from her latest production. Eventually she and Palance kiss and kiss and kiss and make up, which leads to marriage. One day, Crawford turns on her dictaphone, only to hear the voice of Palance plotting her murder with tartish Gloria Grahame. But Crawford isn't a celebrated playwright for nothing; she takes to her typewriter and concocts a scenario that will hoist Palance on his own petard. There's a notably suspenseful climax, but Sudden Fear is so strident at times that it looks like a Carol Burnett Show parody.