CRY DANGER (1951)

After a decade of sweet-voiced male ingenues in Depression Era Warner musicals, then nice guy/chumps around town, Dick Powell made a startlingly successful transition to film noir tough guy at RKO in MURDER, MY SWEET/’44 and CORNERED/’45.*  This third one, released by RKO but independently produced, is nearly as good yet barely remembered.  (Out of circulation before a recent UCLA restoration?)  This time, Powell’s on the wrong side of the law, but out of prison thanks to a belated/phony alibi.  He really is innocent, but detective Regis Toomey doesn’t believe it and follows him all over town hoping to find the missing 100-Gs he supposedly stole.  Powell’s helped by Rhonda Fleming, wife to his possibly guilty/still jailed partner, and his lying alibi, Richard Erdman, a fellow WWII vet with a wooden leg  and a bottomless thirst.  With plenty of tasty bad guys (and gals) all around town, Powell attempts to find who pinned the crime on him, who’s setting him up now, and where all that loot is, while getting bopped, shot at & lied to in traditional noir fashion.  Loaded with neat twists, unexpectedly believable L.A. trailer park æshetics and seriously chintzy interiors, a gaslighting bookie, and other tasty characters, only a final denouement disappoints.  (Too neat, too easy, too out-of-the-blue.)   NOTE: First directing gig for former actor, then editor Robert Parrish.  Powell rumored to have been at least partially in charge.  But whomever, good job!

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *With the same director, scripter & star, CORNERED is the less acclaimed but looser, more relaxed, funnier, altogether preferable followup to MURDER, MY SWEET. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/12/cornered-1945.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  As the lying alcoholic pal, Richard Erdman steals all his scenes.  And in a nice bit, they have him pour the contents of a glass of milk back into the bottle before loading up on the whiskey without rinsing out the milky residue.  Yuck!  Almost makes up for a big boo-boo when they show him fall into bed without taking off his prosthetic leg.  Yikes!  Gonna hurt come morning.  ALSO: That’s legendary 007 title designer Maurice Binder getting his very first film credit as Assistant to producer.