As it is described in the collection in which it now appears, The Man Who Cheated Himself is definitely a classic piece of textbook film noir. I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of Lee Cobb until I saw him in 12 Angry Men a couple months ago. He was an astonishingly busy actor between the 1930s and 1970s, appearing in more than 100 films and television shows. The video quality of the copy that I saw was not the best, the picture was unclear and scratched and the sound was like an old vinyl record, but I watched the movie expecting to see a stunningly bad old movie, given that I bought it in a collection of something like 15 movies, most of which seem to have been long since forgotten.
I will admit that I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between Cobb's police chief Cullen and Lois Frazer, Jane Wyatt's femme fatale, but I was willing to accept it as a catalyst to propel the plot and their fates further down the tubes. There is a definite effort to generate Hitchcockian suspense during the middle portion of the film as their cover story grows thinner and thinner. I have read some reviewers that disagree, but I think that this part of the film is done particularly well, given that it is so realistic. The process is complicated by the fact that the other lead investigator on the murder is Cullen's younger brother, who grows continually closer and closer to the truth, which he desperately doesn't want to be true, while Cobb's Cullen has more and more often to talk down to him as though he's a rookie, telling him he is naïve and inexperienced when, in fact, he is doing everything right.
(spoilers) The chase sequence at Fort Point at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge is the best part of the film, although for some reason it seems like it is dragged out a bit, as if they wanted to get as much out of their access to the site as possible, yet the scene was barely five minutes long. I have visited Fort Point many times when I was a kid and lived in the Bay Area, and I seem to remember a rather eccentric portrayal of it in Bicentennial Man, but this is clearly a much more interesting and successful use of it in a film, at least until Kim Novak threw herself into the Bay here in 1958.
The very end of The Man Who Cheated Himself is a little confusing to me. The plot is clear and the ending is perfect, although I can't understand the half smile on Cullen's (Cobb's) face as he sees Lois walk by with her new lawyer boyfriend, whom she is entrusting to ensure her freedom almost as a trade for her love, as Cullen is led away to his miserable fate. Maybe he simply can't believe what has happened. The movie has a definite B-movie feel (not the least reason for which is Wyatt's uninspired performance) but it is well written and otherwise well made.
I will admit that I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between Cobb's police chief Cullen and Lois Frazer, Jane Wyatt's femme fatale, but I was willing to accept it as a catalyst to propel the plot and their fates further down the tubes. There is a definite effort to generate Hitchcockian suspense during the middle portion of the film as their cover story grows thinner and thinner. I have read some reviewers that disagree, but I think that this part of the film is done particularly well, given that it is so realistic. The process is complicated by the fact that the other lead investigator on the murder is Cullen's younger brother, who grows continually closer and closer to the truth, which he desperately doesn't want to be true, while Cobb's Cullen has more and more often to talk down to him as though he's a rookie, telling him he is naïve and inexperienced when, in fact, he is doing everything right.
(spoilers) The chase sequence at Fort Point at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge is the best part of the film, although for some reason it seems like it is dragged out a bit, as if they wanted to get as much out of their access to the site as possible, yet the scene was barely five minutes long. I have visited Fort Point many times when I was a kid and lived in the Bay Area, and I seem to remember a rather eccentric portrayal of it in Bicentennial Man, but this is clearly a much more interesting and successful use of it in a film, at least until Kim Novak threw herself into the Bay here in 1958.
The very end of The Man Who Cheated Himself is a little confusing to me. The plot is clear and the ending is perfect, although I can't understand the half smile on Cullen's (Cobb's) face as he sees Lois walk by with her new lawyer boyfriend, whom she is entrusting to ensure her freedom almost as a trade for her love, as Cullen is led away to his miserable fate. Maybe he simply can't believe what has happened. The movie has a definite B-movie feel (not the least reason for which is Wyatt's uninspired performance) but it is well written and otherwise well made.