Before turning respectable in the mid-‘50s, Richard Fleischer earned street cred with low-ball/hard-boiled noirs like THE NARROW MARGIN/’52. And while this early credit doesn’t hit that high mark, it points the way there in acceptable manner. Tougher than tough guy Lawrence Tierney is on the right side of the law for a change . . . well, almost right. An overly aggressive cop just kicked off the force when he’s pushed into acting as bodyguard to the unwilling owner of a meat packing operation. He’s really there to be framed for murder, part of a coverup on a weight-fixing scam worth thousands a day. Fortunately, girlfriend Priscilla Lane (in her last film) works back at the station and is able to dig up all the info he needs to figure things out. Pretty straightforward stuff, but Fleischer shows a neat hand and a touch of experimental moxie with some closer-than-close closeups and tricky edits. No great shakes as a film (even as a B-pic), and Tierney can be pretty raw up there, but fun to watch Fleischer flex his cinematic chops, especially for those who know where he’s headed.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Tierney shows his best/nastiest form playing strength-to-strength against a rock solid Claire Trevor in his previous pic, Robert Wise’s BORN TO KILL/’47. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/08/born-to-kill-1947.html
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