Shed No Tears (1948) User Reviews

Single Indemnity

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 19 February 2015]

Directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring Wallace Ford and June Vincent, Shed No Tears was once one of those lost film noirs that noiristas craved to see. Now widely available to view, it proves to be a decent journey into noirville, even if it becomes a touch shaky come the final third.

Plot has Vincent as a devious femme fatale wife who convinces her husband (Ford) to fake his own death. The plan is to get rich on the insurance claim, but soon it becomes apparent that hubby is caught in a web of murder, blackmail and treachery. The plot dynamics are laid out for us very early in the peace, leaving the rest of the narrative to tease us with the shifty shenanigans of the protagonists. Classic noir staples are adhered to with the characterisations, viper woman, dupes, dopes, crooks and cronies. Yarbrough moves it along at a good old "B noir" clip, while the screenplay has enough twists and surprises in it to keep the noir faithful pleased. 7/10

Short noirish tale of a scheming femme fatale - surrounded by schemers.

[declancooley · 6/10 · 22 May 2022]

The 1948 book's dust jacket states: "Using a brutal pen, Don Martin (the author) has etched a novel-sized portrait of EDNA, a woman without heart or conscience. Edna has only glands, greed and beauty.... It is an earthy, sordid story which must occasionally become indelicate. It is a book to be admired or loathed". Indeed, the icy if slightly 2-dimensional femme fatale (June Vincent) is the central character here who schemes to get her way no matter what, while those around her seek to either investigate or thwart her plans. Fast-paced and twisted (perverted even for a moment or two), her schemes start to unravel and she flails around to try to save what she can. The movie also features a certain detective, an overly verbose, oily and clever maneuverer who gets caught up in the cogs of the plot only to start to pull the levers somewhat himself (while also providing some subtle humour). Keeps you holding on till the end as June Vincent gives a great (if minor) performance as the spiky, brittle, shallow and depraved Edna. Distributed by the short-lived Eagle-Lion Films, whose roster of other B-noirs are also worth a look (e.g. T-Men 1947) - see Wikipedia or the IMDB page for a list.

When things go wrong

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 23 December 2018]

Shed No Tears was a product of short lived Eagle-Lion Pictures. Too bad this one was not done by even a studio like RKO. The thing looks like it was shot with my father's old Bell&Howell movie camera, the sets are threadbare. But it's a fascinating story about how things can go wrong when you hook up in a confidence game.

Wallace Ford fakes his own death in a fire and wife June Vincent and his insurance policy names her the beneficiary. So he hides, she collects the money and they run off to live large anonymously. Only Ford really has picked a winner in two timing June Vincent. She's been two timing Ford with Mark Roberts and she plans to have him bumped off and the two of them go to Rio by the sea-o.

All this doesn't sit well with Ford's son by his first marriage Dick Hogan. He hires a private detective, a Nero Wolfe like character in Johnston White. But White's also a two timer. In fact he steals the film whenever he's on screen.

Quite a lot of plot is packed into this short B picture. It's a shame it had such an amateurish production.

No tears, just applause

[clore_2 · 14 May 2012]

Wallace Ford fakes his death in a hotel room fire. He hooks up with his much younger wife (who came up with the idea of the deception), June Vincent, and together they plan on bilking the insurance company for the payoff of 50 grand which will reunite them once she collects. She watches as he gets on the bus, then meets her boyfriend in the parking lot and they talk of how they're going to spend the money.

All this happens in the first ten minutes or so - there's no fat on this baby.

But meanwhile, Ford's son thinks that something is amiss, he thinks that Vincent killed Ford herself and he hires an investigator to prove it. This is where things really start perking as the Clifton Webb-like sleuth, played wonderfully by Johnstone White, soon figures out what's going on and he starts playing the supposed widow and the son against each other as well as Ford himself who comes back to town and discovers his wife in a clinch with her boyfriend.

But wait - there's still more but you're going to have to find out for yourself. Jean Yarbrough, veteran of just about every kind of movie and TV genre, manages to keep one's interest despite a lack of noirish touches. It's likely that he had to get this done in a week or so, so there wasn't any time for complicated camera set-ups. The story here is the main thing, you probably will not be disappointed.

Cold, Cruel, and Deadly

[Femme_Fatale_Flix · 7/10 · 24 August 2020]

A shrewd woman helps her husband fake his death to collect life insurance. He plans on them running away together to live the high life. What he doesn't know is that she has a life of her own.

Efficient And Dull Handling of A Great Script

[boblipton · 6/10 · 24 December 2018]

Wallace Ford fakes his own death and heads off to Washington until his wife, June Vincent, can can collect his insurance. Then they'll be off to Mexico to enjoy the money. Ford doesn't know that Vincent has a chiseling boyfriend. While the police agree it looks like an accident, the insurance company wants to investigate. Ford's son, Dick Hogan, thinks it looks suspicious and hires P. I. Johnstone White. White proceeds to play every side for profit.

Director Jean Yarborough has gotten his hands on a nice script by Brown Holmes, Virginia M. Cooke and Don Martin, Unfortunately, what could have been a noir with a mordant comedy turn in the Johnstone role (think of Laughton in THE BRIBE) turns out to be a competent turn by some decent performers; it demonstrates why none of them got out of the B movies. The question is never a matter of what the player will do next, nor how skilled cameraman Frank Redman will shoot this particular shot. Instead, it becomes a matter of wondering where this fascinating script will lead these characters.

Insurance fraud with a twist of irony.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 10 May 2013]

You'd think after watching "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice", people desiring to defraud insurance agencies would have learned a lesson, but not these film noir characters, which includes the typical older man/younger woman, and the younger woman intends to use the money to run away with her lover. But the older husband is a bit wiser than his wife thinks he is, and just as she thinks she's getting away with everything, he's back to get his cut, with or without her remaining at his side.

Slightly clever repeat of an old theme, this offers some suspense and a femme fatal (June Vincent) worthy of inclusion in the hall of fame for film noir vixens. Wallace Ford gives an excellent performance of the seemingly cuckolded husband with Mark Roberts the unfortunate lover who is too consumed with Vincent to realize he's involved in a loosing game. There's also the family angle of Ford's first wife's son, especially in a scene with Vincent that may or may not be attempted seduction simply to keep his mouth shut. But there's too many scenes of nothing but talk to take away from the intrigue that unfortunately leads to a predictable conclusion.

"I'll Eat Popcorn at the Funeral"!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 11 July 2014]

...so says sexy Edna (June Vincent with her distinctive blonde hair streaks), the much younger wife of businessman Sam Grover (Wallace Ford) when he tells her she must shed no tears!! At her urging he has faked his own death to defraud the insurance company out of a fortune - the only problem is that while he is desperately waiting, holed up in a distant town, she is definitely shedding no tears in the arms of her lover Ray.

There are more twists and turns than a mountain road - enter Sam's son, Tom, who has been estranged from his father since his marriage to Edna. He has doubts that his father is dead and Edna's icy demeanour doesn't exactly quell his suspicions. His eager fiancé puts him in touch with debonair private eye Huntington Stewart (just imagine Clifton Webb from "Laura") who seems to have a finger in everyone's pie. His first port of call is the "grieving widow" where a phone call indicates that she is not grieving nor a widow. He tries to shake her down for $5,000 - to give Tom a start in life but Tom wants to handle things in his own "rough house" way!!

Then Sam returns, he has only had one letter from Edna and he is now completely suspicious - but don't feel sorry for poor cuckolded Sam. He is not above bilking his landlady by selling off all her furniture when she is away for the day!! Once back he seems to know exactly what is going on - staking Ray out and then leaving Edna with a finger-printed gun and looking at a stretch in the big house whichever way she turns!!

You have seen it all before but at just over an hour there is no wasted space. There couldn't have been any other actor in mind than Wallace Ford as the befuddled Sam who re-enters with a steely purpose but it is June Vincent's movie all the way, from crying crocodile tears when she is told of her husband's death to her only sincere bit of emotion when she realises something nasty has happened to Ray. It is also to Frank Albertson's credit that he makes his role as the standard detective stand out what with all the slippery characters abounding.

Say, ain't you supposed to be dead?

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 12 November 2013]

There is a sleazy private detective (Johnstone White) in a prominent role as blackmailer and conniver. I swear his character is lifted directly from Clifton Webb's in "Laura," which appeared a few years earlier to bouquets of praise. White is a flit, like Waldo Lydekker. He looks a little like Clifton Webb. He uses the same elegant phrases: "You may abandon that ree-DICK-ulous position." He pays great attention to his wardrobe and grooming, and he's the most interesting character in this twisted hour-long B story of theft, fraud, intrigue, adultery, and murder.

Wallace Ford fakes his own death to gain insurance money for him and his wife, Jean Parker. Unknown to Ford, Parker has a boy friend on the side. Tom, Ford's virtuous son by a previous marriage enters the picture, convinced there was some skullduggery involved. He hires White, the private eye, to dig into the matter and White finds out everything and tries to blackmail everyone and then it gets anfractuous and somebody gets shot and somebody falls out the window -- not the same person who got shot -- and it's all a little confusing, but not as confusing as, say, "War and Peace." Not in my estimation anyway.

It's an interesting and uninspired move. It exemplifies the Peter Principle. All of the actors, bit parts included, seem to have worked their way up the ladder until they have reached their level of incompetence. Their careers will go nowhere. The performers walk from place to place, as directed, and recite their lines with the same credibility that you and I might show if we'd had a few acting lessons. On those rare occasions when Jean Parker, than whom no femme was ever more fatale, smiles, the smile carries all the significance of that of a synchronized swimmer. There isn't a moment when you believe anything other than that you're watching a movie in which nobody is bringing much to the party.

As a performer, Wallace Ford is made of wood here. Too bad. He was capable of better things in better movies. (He was Frankie McPhillip in "The Informer".) He was reliable as a supporting player, usually some Irishman, in other works, but was always hampered by a voice that sounds as if his false teeth were loose or he had half a load on.

Overall it's pretty dull except for Johnstone White as the recherché shamus.

"You're through with me, and I don't want you anymore. Very nice timing."

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 9 December 2022]

IMDb viewers have been generous with this film's 6.3 rating as I write this; it makes me wonder if I watched the same picture. The film quality is fairly gritty to begin with, and the characters reminded me of how actors spoke their dialog coming out of the silent era, not quite knowing how to relate to each other. It was like they were speaking at each other instead of to each other. The story had promise, as Sam (Wallace Ford) and Edna (June Vincent) Grover figure they can bilk an insurance company out of fifty thousand dollars by faking his death. I can't tell you how many programs I've seen recently where one of the characters simply ups and buys a corpse for some nefarious scheme. I mean, how easy could that be? Do you walk over to the local mortician and make an offer? There has to be more to it.

In any event, circumstances get in the way of the Grovers' plans. A big one would be Edna's lover Ray Belden (Mark Roberts) looking to cash in on the insurance fraud. It didn't seem to me like he was all that much in love with Edna. Then there's Sam's son Tom (Dick Hogan), who can't be quite convinced his father is dead. Throw in private investigator Huntington Stewart (Johnstone White), and you've got that fifty grand gradually getting whittled down to the point where the whole enterprise becomes as shaky as it should have been.

Here's what I don't get - what was the point of Edna taking a plea deal saying she shot her lover Ray? How was that going to help her out? Ultimately it didn't have to, because she took a header over the balcony after shooting her husband and struggling with her no-account attorney. And just like that, it was over, but you could have fooled me how any of it made any sense.

About as rotten a dame as you'll ever find in a film noir movie...and a bunch of rotten guys to boot!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 24 July 2016]

I love film noir movies. And, although "Shed No Tears" is from a tiny production company (Equity Pictures) and has mostly small-time or over the hill actors, it's a top film--gritty, intelligently written and cold-hearted...the way you WANT noir to be!

When the film begins, a husband and wife have just set up the fake death of the husband. Using a corpse they bought, they then started a fire in a motel room and made it appear as if the husband was the victim. The plan is to then use the husband's insurance policy to get rich and they'll take off and start a new life. However, what the man (Wallace Ford) doesn't know is that his wife is scum....a true femme fatale. You see, his beloved young wife (June Vincent) already has another lover and is planning on keeping all the money!

Into this twisted tale of domestic bliss comes an unknown quantity-- the husband's adult son from a previous marriage. No one anticipated that he'd not believe the way his father supposedly died--and he hires a skunk of a private detective to investigate. I say the dick is a skunk because he soon figures out what's happening and he plans on bleeding the 'grieving widow' of at least some of her insurance money.

If it sounds like most of the people in this film are scum, you have it right. Rarely have I seen a film with so many wonderful twists-- all because most everyone (aside from the son) are just dirt! Additionally, great dialog, lots of smart writing, acting and direction make this a surprisingly strong and entertaining film.

Faking a murder could have any accumulation of consequences and complications

[clanciai · 8/10 · 11 April 2021]

She certainly shed no tears, not even when her lover was murdered. Even less she shed any tears at the loss of her first husband, but didn't he tell her explicitly, when they met for the last time, to shed no tears? She looks very much like Ann Todd in this film, callous, calculating, ruthless and merciless, a shrewd beautiful woman at her most irresistible, and her husband really loves her, as does her lover, while it's hard to believe that she could love anyone. All she has is her beauty, all the rest is fraud and deceit. It's a very well written story, the dialog is terrific, and the detective (Johnstone. White) provides all the matchless eloquence. It's a messy story, and what a mess it will be to sort out afterwards, while at least one got out of it alive. It all starts with a fire and someone falling out of the window irrecognizable for his burns, and the end is perfectly logical. It's not a great film, but it is worth watching indeed for its very crooked tale.

Fifty Thousand Nightmares

[davidcarniglia · 8/10 · 4 December 2023]

Deceit and greed rule the night in this clever noir. We literally jump right in to this plot, as a body falls out the window of a burning apartment. It's a morgue stiff, an imposter for Sam, who plans to score $50k from his life insurance policy. He'll disappear to the East coast while his wife Edna stays in L. A. to collect.

But Edna is actually in love with Ray; so they're gonna cash in. After all, Sam is officially dead. Things get more complex as Sam's son Tom, unwilling to believe that the fall was an accident, hires a dapper private detective. That Clifton Webb-esque character wants in on the money as well.

He sets about hustling and blackmailing whoever he can. Meanwhile, Sam, intentionally kept out of the loop by Edna, shows up. When he finds out about Ray, he kills him. After some further conniving, Edna kills Sam, but herself falls to her death.

This all happens in a little over an hour; the tension and passion keep building, offset to some extent by well-placed verbal barbs from the enjoyable detective. It's like having Vincent Price give a decorous but macabre commentary to remind us that we're not playing at cops-and-robbers.

The only disappointment might be that the ending is a bit too neat; Edna dying in the same way as the fake death that started this trail of crime seems reaches for a level of mythology. Otherwise, this is one worth staying up for. Very entertaining.