I know it was directed by Anthony Mann, who was to go on to do some really interesting things over the next decade, but this is for the most part a routine flick.
Basically, Dennis O'Keefe breaks out of the slams with the help of his moll, Claire Trevor. He took the fall for somebody else, Raymond Burr, and wants to get settle the deal between them. Along the way he kidnaps the well-meaning attorney Marsha Hunt. I understand Hunt got into some kind of trouble with the House Unamerican Activities for engaging in some kind of Unamerican activities. Probably some nefarious subversion like promoting the cause of more public restrooms. It's obvious right away that she was a real Commie. You can tell by the glint in her eyes.
Where was I? Sometimes I get carried away by my passions. Oh, yes. Anyway, the low budget shows and the acting is pretty much mediocre. The best performance is by Claire Trevor. than whom nobody ever played a used woman with a yen for the wrong guy better. But the photography and lighting are up to noir snuff. The latter is especially carefully done. Note the scene in which Trevor is parked outside the prison, waiting for O'Keefe to make his escape. There is darkness all around except for the big windows overlooking the prison walls. It's like the eerie castle with the light in one window at the beginning of Citizen Kane. Note too that she's parked on a highway and when a car zooms past in the opposite direction her panicked face blazes with light until the screen is almost bleached out. There are plenty of shadows. Fishnets. Antlers on walls. Lots of visual texture.
Everything else is unremarkable. Not bad, just not innovative. And the story itself isn't especially engaging. The power that O'Keefe's character has over women is puzzling. His face looks as if it had been made of dough, ready to be baked. And he's bitter for reasons never explained. He has no sense of humor. He's not overly masculine. He's rough and clipped in his speech, like Lawrence Tierney was at the time. Maybe it's his pheromones? Marsha Hunt is pretty cute, with a ski-slope nose that might have been designed by somebody using one of those plastic cut-out French curves used in high school plane geometry classes.
Anyway, it IS Anthony Mann and a historical curiosity that doesn't often turn up on TV. Worth catching for that reason, but not for much else.
Basically, Dennis O'Keefe breaks out of the slams with the help of his moll, Claire Trevor. He took the fall for somebody else, Raymond Burr, and wants to get settle the deal between them. Along the way he kidnaps the well-meaning attorney Marsha Hunt. I understand Hunt got into some kind of trouble with the House Unamerican Activities for engaging in some kind of Unamerican activities. Probably some nefarious subversion like promoting the cause of more public restrooms. It's obvious right away that she was a real Commie. You can tell by the glint in her eyes.
Where was I? Sometimes I get carried away by my passions. Oh, yes. Anyway, the low budget shows and the acting is pretty much mediocre. The best performance is by Claire Trevor. than whom nobody ever played a used woman with a yen for the wrong guy better. But the photography and lighting are up to noir snuff. The latter is especially carefully done. Note the scene in which Trevor is parked outside the prison, waiting for O'Keefe to make his escape. There is darkness all around except for the big windows overlooking the prison walls. It's like the eerie castle with the light in one window at the beginning of Citizen Kane. Note too that she's parked on a highway and when a car zooms past in the opposite direction her panicked face blazes with light until the screen is almost bleached out. There are plenty of shadows. Fishnets. Antlers on walls. Lots of visual texture.
Everything else is unremarkable. Not bad, just not innovative. And the story itself isn't especially engaging. The power that O'Keefe's character has over women is puzzling. His face looks as if it had been made of dough, ready to be baked. And he's bitter for reasons never explained. He has no sense of humor. He's not overly masculine. He's rough and clipped in his speech, like Lawrence Tierney was at the time. Maybe it's his pheromones? Marsha Hunt is pretty cute, with a ski-slope nose that might have been designed by somebody using one of those plastic cut-out French curves used in high school plane geometry classes.
Anyway, it IS Anthony Mann and a historical curiosity that doesn't often turn up on TV. Worth catching for that reason, but not for much else.