Shuttled off to low-budget indie projects after a hit debut on R.K.O.’s THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR/’48, left-leaning Joseph Losey may have been the most accomplished ‘Grey-Listed’ director in town; four fine B-pics before self-exile in Europe.* This exceedingly creepy film noir stars Van Heflin as a beat cop fixated on ‘radio widow’ Evelyn Keyes, home alone night after night while her husband broadcasts. Checking in, having a beer, offering protection and consolation on her loveless marriage, Evelyn wants this sexually aggressive cop to go nearly as much as she wants him to stay. And since Van is a man with a plan, ‘accidental’ murder is in plain sight; with a new bride who may suspect, but won’t know. Above board; in the open; a perfect murder. Or would be if Evelyn weren’t already four months pregnant. Yikes! Destroying the timeline that proved their innocence. It all leads to a nail-biting third act much influenced by Erich von Stroheim’s never-topped desert finale in GREED/’21. Plus an extra twist from Heflin’s patrol car partner (and wife); nice, nosy people who unknowingly put the screws on. As scripted, Heflin’s easily readable neurotic behavior something of a narrative hurdle, but super cinematography from Arthur Miller (his last credit) helps to smooth things over. A real find, now nicely restored from UCLA.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *The other three: THE LAWLESS/’50; an L.A. remake of Fritz Lang’s M/’51; and THE BIG NIGHT/’51. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-big-night-1951.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Evelyn Keyes was amicably divorcing John Huston who made this film something of a goodbye gesture putting top assistant Gladys Hill on staff along with his production company Horizon Pictures and producer S.P. Eagle whose next release, under his real name Sam Spiegel, was THE AFRICAN QUEEN/’51.
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