MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

drjgardner This is a pretty good gangster film from MGM, but it certainly doesn't qualify as classic film noir and fans of that genre will be disappointed. There are some noir elements (crime drama, set in big city, a merry band of criminals) but the critical elements are missing. Taylor (who does a good job trying to make viewers forget about "Camille" and "Magnificent Obsession") doesn't fit the profile of the man lured by his own greed or bad judgment into the underworld, nor is he lured and betrayed by a femme fatale. On a more superficial level, there are no rainy scenes nor does the camera work have those shadows and unusual angles we come to associate with film noir Put aside the idea that you're watching film nor and it's an enjoyable film, though a bit too long for my tastes.

dougdoepke No need to recap the plot. The glamour studio MGM shows here why it made so few gangster films. The emphasis throughout is on polish instead of grit. The resplendent Taylor does a decent enough job as a tough guy, while Turner provides enough eye candy to bankrupt Hershey's. Too bad she's largely wasted. But the narrative clearly prefers parlor room plotting to barroom savvy. That would be okay if there were more atmosphere, but director LeRoy films in uninspired fashion conveying little sense of evil. The story merely unfolds without engaging.Notice, however, how indifferent pretty boy Taylor is to the women who flock around him. Notice too how attached the generally useless Heflin is to Taylor and vice-versa. In my book, there's a subtle homosexual connection here that's not accidental and pretty daring for the times. Check out their last few scenes together if you think this is a stretch. All in all, the movie's for fans of Taylor who want to catch him in tough guy mode. But as a gangster film, it's a long way from Warner Bros.'s brand of compelling moxie.

Prof-Hieronymos-Grost Former crime boss John 'Johnny' Eager (Robert Taylor) is out of jail and now content to have a job as a taxi driver, he's good humoured about the good old days when he had flash suits and fast cars and he tells his parole officer this every time he checks in. The district attorney's daughter Liz (Lana Turner) drops in on the parole officer to see how things are run there, she takes a fancy to Johnny who is just leaving and asks to be introduced. Liz soon finds out that Johnny isn't as clean as he makes out and he is still running his crooked business from the local race track. They hit it off, but to protect himself from her father, Johnny sets up a fake murder in his office, committed by Liz, so that she can never report him. Decent thriller, high on melodrama, so not particularly Noirish, Taylor is very watchable as the nice guy Johnny, a pleasant romantic character, but he is a little stretched as bad guy Johnny, Van Heflin steals the show as the romantic, poetry and prose spouting friend and sidekick Jeff Hartnett, who takes Johnny's abuse in order to be supplied with alcohol for which he deservedly won an Oscar.

MartinHafer If this film hadn't been made at MGM, it probably would be considered a good example of Film Noir. However, given that the film is very polished, has somewhat less dark dialog, features big-name actors and is rather pretty to look at, I would consider this almost like "Film Noir-Lite". This isn't necessarily a complaint--it is a good film. However, the film just doesn't have that grittiness to it you'd expect for the genre--though all the actors in it did a very good job.The film stars Robert Taylor as the mobster "Johnny"--quite a departure from his 1930s "pretty boy" image. Here, he pretends to be a parolee going straight, but he's still in charge of the local mob and everyone but Taylor's dim-witted parole officer can see this. The man especially aware of just how dirty Taylor is happens to be the father (Edward Arnold) of the girl (Lana Turner) Taylor is pursuing. He's the district attorney who hates Taylor and yet is powerless to stop his impetuous girl from throwing her life away on the mug. Why she loves Taylor is a bit hard to follow. Sure, he's very handsome and charming, but he's also extremely selfish and just plain bad! Johnny is usually accompanied by either Van Heflin, as his alcoholic and well-educated sidekick, or Paul Stewart, who oddly plays a Hispanic! Stewart made a long career out of playing mobsters and why they insisted on sticking this bizarre accent on him is beyond me--he's plenty interesting and menacing already.There are many, many twists and turns in the film--too many to discuss here. However, and important one is a sleazy set-up where Johnny convinces his girl that she killed someone in order to give him something with which to blackmail her father!! This and his subsequent actions serve to convince Heflin and the audience that Johnny has no soul--though late in the film he comes to actually feel guilt for destroying Lana and he makes amends in a very rousing and violent finale.As I said, the acting was extremely good as was the dialog. About the only negatives were the silly accent by Stewart and the somewhat convoluted and overly complicated plot. Still, it's a very good flick and one that old film buffs will enjoy.