Tonight I watched a psychological thriller called "The Chase"(1946), once again starring Robert Cummings, who we saw the other night as a French patriot in "Reign of Terror". This time he plays "Chuck Scott", a down on his luck sailor who gets a job as chauffeur for cold-blooded hoodlum "Eddie Roman". Eddie lives in a garish Miami mansion. His wealth comes from contraband, shipped over from Cuba. He's got a sociopathic sidekick named Gino (Peter Lorre) and a trophy wife (Michele Morgan) who hates him. Thus you have your setup. Morgan is so desperate to get away from her husband, even for a few hours, that she takes to having Chuck drive her to the beach in the evenings while Eddie is out doing business. One night, Chuck sees her standing on the edge of the pier. It's obvious she's contemplating suicide, so he stops her. She confesses her plight (Eddie is a tyrant), and the next thing you know, Chuck wants to protect her so they fall in love. Remember that Cummings had a hit series called "Love That Bob"! And that's what happens here. Michele Morgan falls for him and they sneak off to Havana in the middle of the night on a tramp steamer.
But the thing is, that no one does this to Eddie Roman, especially not his formerly captive wife. Roman is played by an actor named Steve Cochran, whom I hadn't heard of before, but he's fantastic. He's got the looks of Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power and the menace of......hmmm.....the menace of......well, I can't really think of anybody who compares. As Cochran plays him, Eddie is alternately charming and threatening, but always quiet and articulate, and above all he's extremely scary. He feels like a real life character, and I'm surprised that Cochran didn't have a bigger career, with his looks and acting talent.
Well anyhow, after the lovers split for Havana, Eddie and Peter Lorre track them down. Something happens that I can't tell you about, and then - whoa! - the movie does a 180 on you. I can't tell you about that, either, but you get a hint of it at the beginning, and at one or two intervals afterwards, when you briefly see Cummings popping prescription pills for an unspecified reason.
There are a number of good twists in "The Chase", and the suspense holds tight throughout. I don't know what your opinion will be on the 180 degree turn. As a device, I found it a little too easy, yet clever at the same time. The movie has a ton of style, and there is one touch that is downright original. I told you that Robert Cummings is Eddie's chauffeur, right? Well, Eddie is also a backseat driver, literally. His limo has a custom gas pedal installed in the back seat, so that Eddie can take over and "floor it" whenever he wants to.
"The Chase" has an air of smoothness to it, with gauzy photography and a romantic score. But it's Steve Cochran's performance you'll remember above all, it's chilling. Despite the plot gimmick, it's a very good flick and highly recommended. /////
Last night's movie was a weird little noir called "Inner Sanctum" (1948), a title taken from the hit radio show of the same name that ran in the '40s. I'll just give ya a quick synopsis on this one. Charles Russell plays "Harold Dunlap", a man who gets into an argument with his girlfriend one night, at a train station in the pouring rain. He accidentally kills her, and fearing he'll be blamed for murder, he dumps her body on the back of a departing train, and then skulks away in the darkness.
But he's been seen, by a boy whose hobby is trainspotting. This kid ("Mike", a goofball with a propeller cap on his head) lives at a nearby boarding house with his mother. Charles Russell winds up staying at the house and has to keep Mike quiet as the news gets out about the murder. The road's been washed out by the rainstorm, so Russell can't leave town as he'd planned. Instead, he's stuck in the boarding house with a whole host of characters, including a newspaper reporter who's hot on the murder story, a couple of drunks (included for comic relief), and a Disillusioned Dame who's hot to leave the scene as well. She's played by Mary Beth Hughes, as a self-sufficient chick who's tired of being alone. She wants to hook up with Russell and get out of the boarding house in which she's felt trapped for several years. But as the news comes in about the body on the train, she becomes aware of what Russell is hiding. And so does Mike, the kid from the train station.
The print on this movie was so-so, and at first the plot felt constrained by the low budget production values, where you have everything filmed in one location (the boarding house). But that is overcome by the high standard of the writing and editing, and the pushing to the forefront of the Mary Beth Hughes character. Once she catches on to Russell's deception, the gig is up. Now he's caught between her and the kid, and something's gotta give.
As with Steve Cochran in "The Chase", I hadn't heard of Charles Russell, but he is also good in the sociopath role, playing it nonchalant as opposed to frightening. And his onscreen presence is as strong as Cochran's in the opposite way. But it's Mary Beth Hughes who steals the picture, with her "been there, done that" insouciance. She sees Russell coming from a mile away, and in her determination he's met his match.
Well, so there you have it, two above average crime films, noirs, thrillers, call them what you will. They may not match up to the perfectionist standard of "Loophole", but the lead performances are more than enough reason to watch either one, and both have enough twists to keep you on your toes. ////
That's all for tonight, see you in the morning, tons of love!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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