Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
dougdoepke
A faked robbery goes awry and a cop is killed, causing the perpetrators to frame an innocent kid to take the rap. What they don't foresee is the kid's stubborn sister.John Ireland makes one nasty bad guy, and when he lovingly polishes that gunbarrel with perfumed bullets, we get the idea. Yes indeed, he's more than just a bad guy. The movie's a crime drama done in noirish style by the expert Anthony Mann. There's little of the hallmark ambiguity of classic noir in the characters. Nonetheless, there's the innocent kid Steve (Kelly) who looks to be the victim of a malevolent noirish fate. Of course, there has to be a cheap dame in the crime mix, and Jane Randolph flops around effectively as Duke's (Ireland) brassy blonde punching bag. Note how the movie starts out in slam-bang fashion, and how effectively Mann uses close- ups, especially of the suddenly terrified Marie (Converse), to turn screen violence into a sense of real violence. This, I think, was a Mann specialty and one reason he's treasured by fans of noir. Then too, that shootout in the shadowy nightclub amounts to a clever touch of visual imagination. No, the story itself is not exactly novel, while Beaumont makes the kind of cop you'd expect from Beaver Cleaver's dad. Still, the movie's done with style and conviction, with an outstanding turn from Ireland, and rightfully belongs in the canon of 40's noir.
Robert J. Maxwell
John Ireland plays Duke, a thief who dumps his wounded partner, sets up a frame for an innocent young man, then goes around knocking off people who are wise to what's going on or who have money he wants or who otherwise crimp his cool, manipulative style. At the end he is caught and killed in a shootout with the good-guy cop. C'est tout.The acting isn't as poorly done as the script. Ireland is one dimensional, but the head honcho is kind of neat, an older guy fond of quoting Oscar Wilde. I'd never heard of the good girl, Shiela Ryan, and now I know why. I keep getting her name mixed up with the far more appealing and vulnerable girl from "Odd Man Out." Jane Randolph plays a hardened whorish blond who is Ireland's property. It's impossible to fathom what appeal he has for her. He slaps her around, scowls constantly, insults her, and tells her things like, "Why are you getting tough with me? Crackin' up like that. Drinkin' like a fish. I don't like people who get tough with me." She's his devoted accomplice in the frame too, at least until her conscience gets the better of her and she wants to spill the beans to the cops, at which point what happens to her is what happens to all of the people who try to cross or get tough with John Ireland. When she whines she sounds like Claire Trevor in "Key Largo." But I don't care is she's garish and nasty. To me she'll always be the pointy chinned adoring friend of Kent Smith in "The Cat People." Try to shake it as she might, she still has the screen presence of a light cream-filled pastry.The problem with the movie is that -- directed by Anthony Mann or not -- it has no flair. None of the characters has much complexity to begin with and the director adds nothing to what is essentially a routine B crime movie. Nothing INTERESTING happens on screen. When someone is shot, he or she falls down and dies -- period. The camera placement and staging are functional, no more than that. Nobody is quirky. Well, maybe the Oscar Wilde quotes and the perfumed bullets are a nod in that direction but they don't clear the bar. Neither has anything to do with the story. And the guy who is in the hot spot? The innocent young man who was framed? He disappears half way through and we don't see him or hear about him again.I guess there IS one particularly noticeable feature of the movie. It's dark. The photography in fact isn't bad. At least we can feel the photographer trying to do something. There are lots of table lamps casting like upward and making sinister faces into images of evil. Sometimes the lighting overreaches. When Ireland is plugged (oh, so implausibly) at the end and sinks down out of the frame, the only lighted object we can make out is his right ear sliding deliberately from our sight.
wiggy3056
This was the first time I heard of this movie and it was really good,dark and is B/W still the best in those 40's crime movies. John Ireland really good as villain and woman beater,Leave It To Beaver father Hugh Beaumont a surprise as good guy detective. The police methods Pre-Miranda are frightening,no lawyers and roughing up suspects and obvious shaky evidence and possible frame-up. But the one great thing about the movie is that great fight between the Babes(rarely ever seen today) It was great to watch. This has to rank as one of the all-time woman fights on screen! Great cars and of course nightclub with people all dressed up and smoking.
strrl
A nice moment between John Ireland and Wilma, his boss' mistress. She teases him with a nickname, and he answers "The name is Duke." She jokes "You petrify me!" A quip that is a nod to Bogey's Duke Mantee character in "Petrified Forest," but Ireland's Duke is relatively without Mantee's charm, he is definitely not go to fall in love with the leading lady, or do her any favors. He is only looking out for his own hide. And brutally so, even while perfuming his ammunition.Keeping his lascivious eye on Ryan's sister while pretending to help her with her brother's case, he is always a leering physical threat to her. Fine noir ingredients include dark streets and dangerous shadows. Much camera movement and interesting closeups keep up the pace. Watch Turner Classic for future airings.
