Road House (1948) is an odd one. The preposterous screenplay wasn’t worth making, and the actors don’t have an easy time of it. Ida Lupino’s saloon singer (who can’t sing) is mostly sullen and unappealing, and strikes no sparks with romantic partner Cornel Wilde (otherwise sturdy). Richard Widmark overdoes his maniacal bit. Celeste Holm, in an underwritten part, comes off best.

But the northwoods setting is fresh, and the sets and photography are stupendous, even the fake studio forest. So there is plenty of atmosphere, and there needs to be in order to distract us from the unconvincing dramatics.

The fictional village of Elton is reasonably close to Chicago, but only a few miles from a border crossing to Canada, a large plot point. Hence, although never specified, it must be in Northern Minnesota; there is no place in Michigan or Wisconsin where one can enter Canada by land.

As I am not the first to notice, there is a pretty obvious linkage between this film and Twin Peaks, which features “The Road House” as an important setting on the Canadian border. Whether this was by way of David Lynch or Mark Frost I don’t know, but I don’t believe it is an accident.