Tag Archives: 1948

Raw Deal (1948)

Posted on July 3, 2013 | 2 comments

Raw Deal
Directed by Anthony Mann
1948/USA
Edward Small Productions (as Reliance Pictures Inc.)
First viewing

[box] Joseph Emmett Sullivan: [referring to Ann] Keep your eye on Miss Law & Order here. She might go soprano on us.[/box]

I love it when a movie I have never heard of shows up and becomes a new favorite. This fabulous B-noir is available now on Netflix Instant streaming and is not to be missed by fans of the genre.

Joe (Dennis O’Keefe) is itching to get out of prison for a breath of fresh air and to collect $50,000 owed to him by crime boss Rick (Raymond Burr). At the same time, good-girl Ann (Marsha Hunt) has been visiting Joe and encouraging him to work for parole. Rick has financed the escape with the thought that Joe will almost certainly be killed in the attempt and faithful moll Pat (Claire Trevor) is there to help with the getaway.

When Joe is forced to find a hideout, Pat and he run to Ann’s apartment and eventually flee with her as a kind of hostage. The story follows the trio on the run as they evade the police and eventually confront Rick and his thugs. The escape is complicated by the growing feelings between Ann and Joe and Pat’s jealousy.

Publicity still

I loved everything about this picture. The story has unexpected twists and turns, with great noir dialogue and a poignant voice-over narration by Claire Trevor. All the acting is good but my favorite is Raymond Burr in a chilling turn as the villain. The cinematography by noir great John Alton is fantastic as is the unique theramin-dominated score. My highest recommendation.

Clip – Raymond Burr and John Ireland – inspiration for the Big Heat?

Clip – showdown in the fog with theramin

2 Comments

Posted in Movie Reviews, Noir Month

Tagged 1948, film noir, Hollywood

Call Northside 777 (1948)

Posted on June 29, 2013 | 2 comments

Call Northside 777
Directed by Henry Hathaway
1948/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing

[box] Tomek Zaleska: Sure, I could say I did it. Then maybe have a chance of getting out, like you say. And if I confessed, who would I name as my partner, Joe Doaks? I couldn’t make it stick for one minute. That’s the trouble with being innocent – you don’t know what really happened.[/box]

This is an enjoyable film noir/docu-drama based on a true story and filmed on location in Illinois. The performances are all good and fairly understated and the story is photographed with style.

James Stewart plays Chicago reporter P.J. McNeil, who is assigned to look into a classified ad that offered $5,000 for information on the murder of a policeman 11 years earlier. The mother of Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte) published the ad in hopes of proving the innocence of her son. Although McNeil is quite sceptical, his editor (Lee J. Cobb) asks him to dig further. Slowly, McNeil becomes convinced of Wiecek’s innocence as well and ends up championing his case despite many difficulties in tracking down evidence.

In a departure from his usual gangster roles, Richard Conte gives a sensitive portrayal of the convicted man. According to the commentary on the DVD, James Stewart sought out his role after the box-office failure of his previous two movies, Magic Town and It’s a Wonderful Life. Stewart was turning 40 and decided his persona of a gangling, sincere young man no longer suited him. This was the film that formed his character for the darker roles he would play in the Mann and Hitchcock films of the 1950’s.

There’s an interesting tie-in to Antonioni’s Blow-Up in this picture.

Trailer

2 Comments

Posted in Movie Reviews, Noir Month

Tagged 1948, Hollywood, noir

Force of Evil (1948)

Posted on June 21, 2013 | 6 comments

Force of Evil
Directed by Abraham Polonsky
1948/USA
Enterprise Productions/Roberts Pictures, Inc.
First viewing
#204 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Wally: What do you mean “gangsters”? It’s business.[/box]

This dynamite noir was the only film directed by screenwriter Abraham Polonsky before he was blacklisted by the Hollywood studios when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Joe Morse (John Garfield) is a corrupt Wall Street lawyer. His client Ben Tucker is a crime lord who seeks to organize the numbers racket into a combine by breaking the many small “banks” that take bets. At the same time Joe is trying to cash in, he is also trying to protect his brother Leo, who runs one of the very banks that will be put out of business. Along the way, Joe befriends and attempts to seduce Leo’s sweet young secretary, Doris. Joe rapidly finds out that business and family loyalty do not mix. As this is a noir, he also learns that he is not as smart or in control of the situation as he thinks. With Thomas Gomez as Leo Morse, Roy Roberts as Ben Tucker, Marie Windsor as Ben’s wife, and Beatrice Pearson as Doris.

This indictment of greed has a lot going for it. The screenplay is very literate, though the romantic bits are perhaps a bit cute for their own good. The ending monologue as Joe walks down the stairs to the river is almost poetic. The cinematography by sometime Hitchcock D.P. George Barnes is wonderful. There is a gunfight in a darkened room that is just exquisite. All the actors acquit themselves well. Recommended.

In 1994, Force of Evil was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Trivia: Beatrice Pearson shares my own maiden name. This is one of only two films she made.