Another hidden gem
I came across this film on YouTube: my thanks to them for an excellent print of a noir I'd never heard of. David Shipman's book "The Great Movie Stars", supposedly a comprehensive survey, doesn't even mention it among Glenn Ford's films. It does, though, mention "Convicted" (1950.) He was having a rough time on screen in those days.The plot has various plot holes, which are noted above. I would add more. It seems unlikely that Barry Sullivan, who'd married the boss's daughter and become VP of the bank, would have manage to embezzle $250,000 (a really huge amount in those days) and hide it in Janis Carter's safety deposit box without anyone noticing. It's also unlikely that Ford, out of work and down on his luck, would be so snappily dressed, or that Carter, waitress in a crumby cafe should have such a swish apartment and such glamorous clothes (but to be fair this does arouse Ford's suspicion.) It's not convincing that such a flinty fatale femme would miss two chances to kill Ford , presumably because she had feelings for him. There are probably other anomalies, and but I don't care, I enjoyed this film considerably.
The fact that Janis Carter was such a knockout helped a lot. The only other film of hers I've seen was "The Woman on Pier 13", where she used her charms to further the cause of Communism in the US. An alternative title was "I Married a Communist": in those McCarthyite times that title was as scary to Americans as "I Married a Monster from Outer Space." BTW, why were there so many utterly gorgeous women in films in the 1940s and 50s? None of today's screen queens comes near them.
One of the critics called Sullivan the king of film noir. With movies like "Gilda", "The Big Heat", "Human Desire", "Undercover Man" etc, I'd say Ford was a strong contender for that title.
score 9/10
tony-70-667920 8 November 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6245958/34805
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