Watchable Low Budget Programmer
gordonl56 2 January 2014
This one is a Republic Pictures quickie with the always ravishing, Adele Mara, as a private-eye. Mara played many a damsel in distress, femme fatale or general all round babe in 60 films between 1941 and 1950. Here, in a real change of pace role, Mara plays a female version of a hard-boiled, wise cracking private detective.
A rich industrialist type, Russell Hicks, pays Mara a visit at her office looking for a P.I. Though somewhat at a loss for words after discovering the detective is a woman, he hires her. Hicks explains that he thinks his step-son Mark Roberts might be in some sort of trouble. Roberts is withdrawing large amounts of cash from the family business without any explanation.
Mara agrees to take the job and arranges to meet Roberts at Hick's home that afternoon. When she arrives, there is a more than slight problem, Hicks has been murdered. The Police are summoned and the Inspector assigned turns out to be Mara's father, Robert Armstrong. Armstrong of course is not at all pleased with daughter Mara's choice of profession.
Suspects and red herrings abound as Mara and her assistant William Hadde, sift through the clues. In the mix beside Roberts, is his sister, Adrian Booth, the butler, Harry Shannon, the family doctor, Colin Campbell, the shady company lawyer, Charles Evans, the ex-business partner, Paul Burns, gangster, Bob Steele and Edward Gargan as a less than helpful drunk.
Everyone seems to have a motive for the killing, or at least for helping to cover for the killer. Who did, or is going to do what, to who, is the theme here. First the coroner says it is murder, then suicide, then a heart attack and finally back to murder. There are plenty of snappy lines traded here between Mara and the various suspects.
The only real problem with this film is that there is really too much story. They cram far too much dialogue into the plot. This cuts down to a degree on the action, which for Republic film fans, is one of the reasons they watch these low renters. There is one good knock down fist fight between Bob Steele and William Haade.
But with a runtime of only 59 minutes, it still moves along more than fast enough.
The director here is Republic regular, George Blair. Blair helmed several very under-rated low rent crime/film-noirs. These include POST OFFICE INVESTIGATOR, UNMASKED, FEDERAL AGENT AT LARGE, INSURANCE INVESTIGATOR, LONELY HEART BANDITS and SECRETS OF MONTE CARLO.
While not a world-beater by any means, if you take it as the programmer it is, it will pass the time nicely on a rainy afternoon. If you want to see Miss Mara in full-tilt femme fatale mode, hunt up 1945's THE TIGER WOMAN. (Not to be confused with the 1944 serial of the same name)
The Trespasser, 1947, George Blair,, 71, 3, 6.2
Journalism by the book.
mark.waltz 17 December 2020
This complex Republic mystery is very unique in its subject matter and the characters involved with the story and the avant-garde way it plays out. The plot revolves around a rather upper class newspaper (that seems more like a ritzy literary magazine) where there seems to be a scheme to forge first edition books to make them seem antique. This starts off almost like a comedy with a rather bizarre prank played on a hopeful young journalist Janet Martin who is perhaps a bit too bold, and she ends up investigating the car accident that leads to one of the primary player's deaths, possibly a murder.
Warren Douglas, one of the top journalists on the staff, is engaged to nightclub singer Dale Evans, sister of colleague William Bakewell whom he hates. There's also the managing morgue reporter (Douglas Fowley), secretary Adele Mara and managing editor Francis Pierlot who has a love for old books but apparently unaware of the fakes he has in his collection. It gets pretty complicated at times with the switching in moods and a subject that most people wouldn't be familiar with.
In spite of all that, this is one of Republic's most lavish 40's films not to star their queen (Vera Ralston), and it's a refreshing switch for cowgirl Evans, glamorously dressed, but not really the lead in spite of top billing. With elements of a light film noir and some sparky dialog, this seems influenced by the literary devices of The Big Sleep. Well worth seeking out.
The Flame†, 1947, John H. Auer,, 97, 6, 6.6
Blackmailing the blackmailer.
MartinHafer 14 December 2019
The Flame stars John Carroll, a second-tier actor who made a living mostly playing sleazy or cocky guys. In many ways, he's Republic studio's answer to Dan Duryea. In the second lead is Vera Ralston, the girlfriend of the head of the studio that made the picture. While her Czech accent was problematic, she was pretty good in this movie...although she has a reputation as a terrible actress who only got to where she did because of her connections. Regardless, she's good in this picture.
The story begins with George (Carroll) shooting someone to death. In the process, he himself is shot. Soon, he phones the police to report the killing...and then the film goes into flashback mode where it stays most of the picture. Oddly, occasionally the viewpoint changes from his to his ex-girlfriend (Ralston)...something that seems sloppy when they both address the camera. In other words, is it his story to tell or hers? Regardless, the tale is about blackmail and it's an odd case where another blackmailer discovers the blackmail and begins to blackmail the original blackmailer! What exactly is going on here? Watch the film.
Despite the changing narration and Ralston's odd accent (she's supposed to be French...but just sounds Czech), the plot is quite engaging and the film is very well written considering it comes from Republic, a studio mostly known for B-movies--and mostly with cowboys. It is a very unique film...one that is excellent for folks who want to see something gritty and different.
By the way, although Victor Sen Yung was not a big-time actor, mostly assigned to secondary roles such as playing sons for Charlie Chan, here he really showed his talents in a scene late in the movie. A tiny scene, but an amazingly well-acted one.
Is This The Dame Who Is Known As 'The Flame'?
boblipton25 May 2020
John Carroll has spent all his inherited money and now lives on what his brother, Robert Paige gives him. He's a good egg, and when Carroll fell ill, Paige hired nurse Vera Ralston for him. They fell in love and were going to be married, until she changed her mind and married Paige. Now here's Broderick Crawford, blackmailing Carroll lest he Tell All.
Under director John Auer, this one hits almost all the Film Noir tags: movie told mostly in flashback, femme fatale--although Mrs. Herbert Yates, as she was known when the credits weren't rolling, is one of those inadvertent types who changes her mind more or less honestly, perhaps--quirky angles, dark lighting (except no Venetian blinds, for some reason). It's also well acted, except for Mrs. Yates, who remains wooden and whining in her performance. Republic was quite capable of footing the bill on a pretty good movie, and did so, except for the female lead. Her husband wanted to make her a star, despite a lack of interest in anyone not on his payroll. The result is pretty good anyway.
Blackmail, 1947, Lesley Selander,, 67, 8, 5.9
Don't move sweetheart, this thing doesn't shoot marshmallows!
XhcnoirX30 June 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Private detective William Marshall is hired by wealthy playboy Ricardo Cortez to look into who's blackmailing him. During their talks, someone is snooping around. After a brawl and Marshall knocked out on the floor the intruder runs off but is shot, with Cortez holding the smoking gun. But once Marshall calls in the cops, the corpse has disappeared and Cortez and his girl Adele Mara claim there never was a corpse. Reluctantly Marshall continues working for Cortez and starts digging at his favorite casino, run by Roy Barcroft. There he finds out torch singer Stephanie Bachelor was blackmailing Cortez, for not giving her a shot on the radio as he had promised. She has snapshots of Cortez and her in compromising positions. But before they can pay her off to get the photos back, she ends up dead. The blackmailing doesn't stop however, and Marshall has to dig deep to help Cortez.
Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, was a character created by prolific pulp author Robert Leslie Bellem (with an estimated 3000 stories to his name/pseudonyms!). He was a true pulp author, mostly known/remembered for his creative use of hard-boiled language. I highly recommend checking out some of his short stories, they're true pulp but a lot of fun to read in an almost campy way. I don't know if Republic meant for this movie to test the waters for a Dan Turner series of movies, but that never happened. Which is unfortunate, despite the many flaws, the movie's a lot of fun. The fistfights are fun and exciting (and make use of/destroy every piece of furniture in sight), the one-liners are hilarious, and there is even a true femme fatale.
Marshall wasn't exactly the most talented actor; his private life was much more interesting (his wives include Michele Morgan and Ginger Rogers!), but he does okay enough here. He comes off a bit like Ralph Meeker in Kiss Me Deadly, shooting one-liners left and right from the hip, but lacking Meeker's bravado and swagger. He's also the first detective who can handle himself in a fistfight, but passes out when he's pushed into a pool. RicardonCortez is perfectly cast in the suave playboy role, and Adele Mara is also quite good (though her role is too small given the importance of her femme fatale character).
Director Lesley Selander (Passkey To Danger) and Reggie Lanning (Strangers In The Night) have tons of B-features to their name, and their professionalism shows. For a low-budget feature, this movie looks quite good. It's in the plot department that it really falls apart, however: too much happens and too much relies on coincidence, with some parts not making much sense, rendering the movie less than memorable. But I don't care, I had fun with it. Heck, I'll give this one a rewatch just for the one-liners ("Take your mitt of your mutt"). Extra point(s) for the fun factor...
The Pretender, 1947, W. Lee Wilder,, 69, 10, 6.5
The madness of one's mind is the great destroyer.
mark.waltz 21 November 2020
If you can get past the garish wallpaper in wealthy Catherine Craig's huge home, you might find something interesting in regards to the sets of this interesting art deco film noir. Perhaps the wallpaper is meant to represent the muddled thoughts going through the mind of Albert decker, but since he's not the one to have picked it out, that doesn't seem possible.
He's the troubled financial adviser to the wealthy Craig whom he marries on a spur of the moment mad moment, and from there becomes paranoid over the possibility that someone is out to get him. Considering some of the slime ball characters he's had business dealings with, that's not really all that far-fetched and it takes a while to figure out what's behind his maddening behavior.
Eerie sci-fi style music populates the score in the more tense scenes and seems to be driving Dekker crazier along with his paranoia. This is a film that seems at first to be going in one direction, then completely fooling the viewer as it twists off onto a side road to go in a totally different direction.
Alan Carney, best known for B comedies along with Wally Brown as a second rate Abbott and Costello, does well as a sleazy nightclub operator, and Charles Middleton is effectively creepy in a small role as one of Craig's butlers. But it is Dekker's performance and the dizzying photography and direction that makes this intriguing, leading to a tense conclusion. Somehow, however, there's something missing to tie it all together in a totally convincing way.
from Dan Stumpf at MYSTERY*FILE
I read someplace that film noir was a genre in which even lesser talents could shine, a premise borne out convincingly by this film, because if ever there were a definitive Lesser Talent, it was surely Billy Wilder’s brother: William “W. Lee” Wilder.
In fact, The Pretender isn’t bad at all, and in places it’s surprisingly good, coming from the auteur of Killers from Space and The Man Without a Body.
Albert Dekker’s usual noir persona was as the Criminal Boss a little too intelligent for his own good, to be brought down by his less-mentally-encumbered underlings in films like Suspense, The Killers, and Kiss Me Deadly. Here he’s an investment broker who’s been pilfering from a client (Catherine Craig) and plots to cover the theft by marrying her.
But it Ms Craig has marital plans of her own, and is about to be engaged to Charles Drake. Dekker doesn’t know the identity of her prospective fiancé, but figures if he can put whoever it is out of action, he can catch Craig on the rebound. And he knows a guy (Alan Carney, just split from his godawful comedy-team-up with Wally Brown at RKO) who knows a guy who can eliminate the inconvenient beau—if Dekker can tell him who it is.
Here’s where Don Martin’s script gets tricky. Dekker arranges for Carney’s hit man to rub out the rival when his name and picture show up in the Society Column. Whereupon fickle Ms Craig has a change of heart and elopes with Dekker--who then finds his own name and picture in the papers!
I’ve mentioned Martin before, in connection with the movie Arrow in the Dust (which, come to think of it, also deals with mistaken identity) and he does a fine job here of fleshing out the characters, laying the groundwork for plot twists, and papering over the implausibilities.
When it comes to establishing mood, though, I must tip the hat to cinematographer John Alton, whose work includes The Big Combo, Reign of Terror, He Walked by Night, and big-budget things like Elmer Gantry and The Brothers Karamazov. Alton fills the screen with striking compositions, looming shadows and those just-slightly-strange lighting effects that can cast an eerie atmosphere into an otherwise mundane moment.
This off-beat approach extends to the casting, with Dekker going from stodgy to desperate quite convincingly. Charles Drake projects his usual bluff nothingness, and he does it well. Christine Craig is really quite good as the middle-aged socialite bent on marriage, but the big surprise is Alan Carney, as the sleazy middle-man for murder. There’s just something about his performance here that makes you wonder how a fat man like him crawled out from under a rock. Add serial queen Linda Stirling in a showy part as a vengeful moll, and you have a colorful ensemble indeed.
It’s a combination even a mostly flat-footed director like Wilder can’t mess up, and The Pretender comes off as an enjoyable, even memorable noir worthy of your attention.
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