classicsoncall
I like my film noir dark and gritty, and it helps if there's some credibility built into the story. What's with the character of social worker Ann Martin (Marsha Hunt)? She falls for a common street thug like Joe Sullivan (Dennis O'Keefe), has a bleeding heart for a wife killer who crashes Oscar's Tavern, and then turns around and shoots one of the henchmen sent by big Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr) to put Sullivan away. Who by the way, pulled off a one in a million getaway from a prison break while his own gang was conspiring to have him fail.Boy, I don't know. There seems to be a whole lot of fans for this flick in the reviews section, but the most I'll grant it is the slick John Alton cinematography. And say, what gives with Oscar's Tavern? I didn't seen any bar or liquor in the joint, it looked like someone's living room when you came through the front door.For this viewer, the entire story had a disjointed feel to it with Pat Cameron's (Claire Trevor) pining over a guy she can't have, and treated like a yo-yo when it looks like Sullivan's romance with Ann Martin falls through. In fact, the most believable thing about the whole story was the five gallons of gas for a buck at the Union Oil station. I've been around long enough, so that's something I could relate to.
joedebritz
This is a film about a man who cannot seem to escape the system that he is stuck in. He is a criminal who is misunderstood and only commits crime out of necessity. It is an excellent film, very well made, and easy to get involved in. This film has a low, ambient sound track, with a sort of dissonance that really adds to the mise-en-scene that it is a gritty Film Noir. There are many establishing shots of trees and the cloudy sky that gives the film a very creepy, unsettling vibe. Reinforcing that it is not a happy film. The film has a lot of long cuts, shot in an extremely dark environment. It is true to its genre of Film Noir. There are some quick cuts of over the shoulder shots, but for the most part the film is shot with long stationary shots. The light is extremely low to show how the world is a dark place. The only thing that is consistently lit up is the faces of the actors. I believe that this is to show the strong emotions in the face of the two women, and lack of emotion in Joe. The general feeling that this film gives you is that there is no hope, and the death in the end is inevitable.
rosarypliers
Raw Deal (1948) is simply a great noir. The plot is nothing extraordinary, but interesting nonetheless. Jailbreak, love triangle, not-so happy ending. (As usual, my reviews are full of spoilers, be warned…) Raw Deal does not bother with details that would make it unnecessarily long. It does not specify what kind of crime got Joe (O'Keefe) in jail, and how exactly he makes his escape. It is just implied that his escape was somehow assisted by fellow gangster Rick Coyle (Burr) who owes him 50 grand for taking sole responsibility for whatever the felony was they committed together. We are briefly introduced to Rick and his henchman Fantail (Ireland) and Spider (Conway). Rick struts around in his lair in a robe that seems to have "gay, gay, gay" written all over it, and he has a disturbing interest in fire. His favorite toy is a cigarette lighter, and there's many candles burning in his headquarters on Corkscrew Alley, which is also the street where both Joe and his moll Pat (Trevor, also the narrator) grew up. Rick is convinced that Joe will be killed during his escape, so he can keep the 50.000 bucks for himself. But Joe and Pat do make it. However, the prison snipers punctured the getaway car's gas tank, so first hijack a taxi and later pay a nightly visit to Ann (Hunt), the young woman who had been visiting Joe in prison, and who seems to believe that underneath the hardened criminal there's a good soul in hiding. Joe kisses her awake, and hours later the three of them squeeze into Ann's car and continue their escape. Pat notices that Joe is attracted to Ann, and she gets very jealous of her. On Corkscrew Alley, it is Rick's birthday, and his mood is neither improved by his bad luck at card games, nor by the news that Joe made it through the police dragnet and seems to be in the clear. When a girl who fancies him (Chili "polka dot girl" Williams) accidentally spills her drink on his threads, he throws a fiery desert into her face. Rick sends out Fantail (I love that name, by the way) to a scheduled meeting with Joe in a taxidermist's shop near the ocean…to finish him off. Joe goes with Ann, leaving Pat, who sprained her ankle (probably deliberately, so Joe will carry her in his arms) back. And he walks straight into the trap. The crooked taxidermist, aptly named Grimshaw, disarms Joe, but Joe does not give up easily. He struggles with both Grimshaw and Fantail, and they use the the taxidermist's props: knives, metal rods, even a deer's antlers, in their fight. When it looks like Joe is going to be killed, Ann picks up Joe's gun and shoots Fantail. Then she runs down the beach, sobbing. Joe tries to console her, first by telling her that Fantail survived, and when it that doesn't really work, he tells her she did it to save him. Ann passionately declares her love for Joe. Joe, however, looks glum. Joe does not believe in a common future with Ann, and he sends her home…but near a gas station she is captured by Fantail, who actually did survive. Meanwhile, Joe and Pat are at a hotel, packing their suitcases, they plan to flee to South America. The phone rings, Pat picks it up, and Spider tells her that Rick has Ann, and that he will do some very bad things to her if Joe doesn't show up. Pat lies to Joe, telling him it was the desk clerk. Joe and Pat are aboard a steamer, and Joe tells a steward he wants to get married at sea. Pat is initially happy, but she soon realizes that Joe does not love her, he loves Ann, and she will only be a proxy for her. And then she blurts out the truth about the phone call. Joe does not hesitate a minute. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS, STOP READING NOW!!!Joe turns up on Corkscrew Alley, he does away with Spider and Fantail and confronts Rick at the dinner table. Joe really seems to have mellowed out, he hesitates when Rick, tells him: "You know I never carry a gun." Except he does…he shoots Joe without retrieving the gun from his pocket, through the folds of the clothes. Joe, shoots back, the two engage in a nasty fight that causes the curtains to catch on fire. Joe pushes Rick into the flames and out of the window. Rick gives two nice screams before hitting the ground. Joe manages to get out of the burning building with Ann, but he is mortally wounded. He dies in Ann's arms, while Pat watches, handcuffed. There's no happy ending for anybody in this movie, which only adds to its appeal. It has both soft (but never sappy) and violent moments, and great acting by everybody. I liked especially Burr and Ireland, who play really vicious thugs, but O'Keefe and the two ladies are also great. Great camera work, too.
evanston_dad
"Raw Deal" is one of the best film noirs I've seen, with seedy production values that enhance the seediness of the story.Dennis O'Keefe plays a man who escapes from prison with the help of his girlfriend, Claire Trevor in a fabulous performance. He and Trevor end up taking his social worker, played by Marsha Hunt, hostage to keep her from alerting the authorities. He then sets off on a plan to get vengeance against the crime boss (Raymond Burr) that landed him in prison in the first place.This is as cynical, brutal and jaded as noirs get, reminding me in its nearly total absence of moral considerations and its lack of redemption for just about any of its characters of another supremely cynical noir, "Detour." One of the most interesting things to me about "Raw Deal" is how much it's actually about the women around our main character, almost more than it's about the main character himself. It's as if the women can't help but be dragged down by the criminal world they've attached themselves to -- the social worker ironically becomes a killer, while the gangster moll is the one who faces the film's primary moral dilemma.Terrific off-kilter compositions and camera work by John Alton (a surreal scene late in the movie filmed through fog is a stand out) heighten the sense of decay and sleaze. Movies like "Raw Deal" are what got me hooked on film noir in the first place.Grade: A
