... with Paul Henreid kicking noble freedom fighter Victor Laszlo of "Casablanca" down the stairs and embracing his dark side. Henreid plays recently released ex-con John Muller. He violates Clint Eastwood's timeless warning "A man has got to know his limitations" and walks out of jail and into the robbery of a gambling joint that goes wrong. He escapes, but the guy whose place he robbed, Rocky Stansyck, makes it a rule that he hunts down and kills anybody who even tries to rob him. Some of his associates are immediately caught by Rocky, and he knows they will talk, so Muller is a dead man with 60 thousand dollars. That would be about 1.2 million in 2021 dollars.
Now Muller's basic problem is not only that he is not as clever as he thinks he is, but that he is actually very intelligent. And counting on that intelligence lets his thrill seeking side get the best of him so he doesn't plan things out as well as he should. He overlooks things that he should not. The plot is improbable, but it works well as Muller finds a novel way to disappear into the life of another. Irony upon irony brings our overconfident protagonist closer to his unexpected ending. What is that ending? Watch and find out.
The lucky break this film had was not only getting ground breaking John Alton as its cinematographer, but getting Joan Bennett to play the leading lady. And here is a secondary theme you won't see much in the Leave It To Beaver world of mid 20th century production code filmland - that of the single woman past a certain age. And not the stereotype of a "spinster" who is often an object of derision of films made at this time. Bennett is playing a beautiful woman of intelligence and class who is probably early 30s. And yet despite her frantic yoo-hooing, life has passed her by. "It's a bitter little world" she says at one point. She knows the score, she has become callous and hard from so many romances that haven't worked out so that she almost can paint them by number. Do you know the future of a single childless woman in mid 20th century America? Look no further than the char woman towards the end of the film - who has a pivotal scene by the way -to see her eventual destination. And I'm sure she knows that.
This film fell into the public domain years ago, so murky prints are plentiful on youtube, but there was an excellent Blu produced of it a few years back. I recommend that print. It's the best way to enjoy Alton's noirish photography.
Now Muller's basic problem is not only that he is not as clever as he thinks he is, but that he is actually very intelligent. And counting on that intelligence lets his thrill seeking side get the best of him so he doesn't plan things out as well as he should. He overlooks things that he should not. The plot is improbable, but it works well as Muller finds a novel way to disappear into the life of another. Irony upon irony brings our overconfident protagonist closer to his unexpected ending. What is that ending? Watch and find out.
The lucky break this film had was not only getting ground breaking John Alton as its cinematographer, but getting Joan Bennett to play the leading lady. And here is a secondary theme you won't see much in the Leave It To Beaver world of mid 20th century production code filmland - that of the single woman past a certain age. And not the stereotype of a "spinster" who is often an object of derision of films made at this time. Bennett is playing a beautiful woman of intelligence and class who is probably early 30s. And yet despite her frantic yoo-hooing, life has passed her by. "It's a bitter little world" she says at one point. She knows the score, she has become callous and hard from so many romances that haven't worked out so that she almost can paint them by number. Do you know the future of a single childless woman in mid 20th century America? Look no further than the char woman towards the end of the film - who has a pivotal scene by the way -to see her eventual destination. And I'm sure she knows that.
This film fell into the public domain years ago, so murky prints are plentiful on youtube, but there was an excellent Blu produced of it a few years back. I recommend that print. It's the best way to enjoy Alton's noirish photography.