Nobody Lives Forever
Directed by Jean Negulesco
Written by W.R. Burnett
1946/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Nick Blake: I don’t wanna get rough with you unless I have to![/box]
Average noir with good performances by John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Walter Brennan and George Coulouris.
Nick Blake (Garfield) is honorably discharged after a war wound and returns to New York. Al (George Tobias), his buddy from his days as a con artist, is raring to get back in business. All Nick wants to do is take a long vacation at the beach in California. Before he goes, he looks up his girlfriend Toni (Faye Emerson) with whom he left the $50,000 in proceeds from his last con. Toni claims she lost the money in a failed nightclub but it looks like she invested it in a new beau’s club. After strong-arming the money back from the boyfriend, Nick departs for his well-earned rest.
The first thing Nick does in California is look up a washed-up associate he calls Pop (Brennan). The old man has been reduced to running a racket on the boardwalk in which he picks people’s pockets while they are looking through his telescope for one thin dime.
Nick is not to be allowed to sunbathe in piece. Doc Ganson (Coulouris) approaches Pop about a sure-fire con he’d like Nick to help him with. Doc has spotted a lonely heiress who should be good for $2 million. Pop and Al are both eager, if not desperate, for a cut of the proceeds and Nick reluctantly agrees. It turns out, however, that the widow, Gladys Halvorson (Geraldine Fitzgerald), is not only lonely but young and beautiful. Nick has no problem worming his way into her affections. But, when he falls in love with her in the process, he must protect both of them from the ruthless Doc.
This could have been better paced but it was basically quite enjoyable. My favorite performance was by Coulouris. He sounds pretty funny mouthing gangster slang with a British accent but is marvelous at portraying a weak, neurotic, self-agrandizing hoodlum. Next came Brennan. I seem to like more every time I see him.
Trailer
