RAW DEAL (director: Anthony Mann; screenwriter: from a story by Arnold B. Armstrong & Audrey Ashley/Leopold Atlas/John Higgins; cinematographer: John Alton; cast: Dennis O'Keefe (Joe Sullivan), Claire Trevor (Pat), Marsha Hunt (Ann Martin), Raymond Burr (Rick), John Ireland (Fantail), Curt Conway (Spider), Whit Bissell (Escaped Murderer), Chili Williams (Marcy), Cliff Clark (Gates), Richard Fraser (Fields), 1948)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Anthony Mann (T-Men/He Walked by Night/Desperate) knows how to direct a low-budget noir film, something he did quite often in the late '40s and early '50s, until he switched to Jimmy Stewart/Gary Cooper big-budget Westerns and later on in the '60s to unsuccessful commercial Hollywood films, such as El Cid and The Fall of the Roman Empire. John Alton is an excellent cinematographer, with noir films being his specialty, as his camera knows how to capture that shadowy world of half-lit images and dark background scenery. His camera work adds the extra-element of suspense and by using many different and odd camera angles he makes things seem unbalanced, something that works rather well for this nightmarish tale. In this film, the director and the cinematographer are fortunate to have a tight, tough, no-nonsense script to work with and they make the best of it, touching a raw nerve or two, as the film is fast-paced and packed with scenes that are shockingly brutal. This film is one of the best kept noir secrets, as it is not mentioned enough when powerful noir films are discussed by aficionados of the genre.
Pat (Claire) is talking to herself in a world-weary manner while riding in her car to visit her boyfriend doing prison time for a rap he took for a racketeer named Rick (Burr). She is trying to convince herself that everything will be fine, but is fatalistic about that prospect, in an evocative voiceover narration, that continues throughout the film, which is a role-reversal, as she becomes the voice of the story, the one who most feels the hurt of a life she can't cope with. This is usually the man's role in such films.
Her tough-guy boyfriend, Joe Sullivan (O'Keefe), is a small-time crook. He has another visitor, someone who worked in the law office of those who handled his case when it went to trial. She took a special interest in his case, thinking she saw something good in him he had as a child when he heroically went into a burning building and rescued those trapped inside. It is that innocence he had as a child that he lost, that Miss Ann Martin (Hunt) feels could be replenished. The attractive young lady has come to tell him that he might be eligible for parole in three years, that he should not lose hope. His next visitor has even better news, as Pat tells him that Rick has arranged for a breakout that evening. He tells her that he is anxious to get out, saying he needs the fresh air to breath again.
Back in Rick's San Francisco headquarters, he is seen gloating to his gang members, Spider (Conway) and Fantail (Ireland), as he tells them he is going to double-cross Joe, that he arranged for him to get past the first few prison doors, but there is little chance that he can go over the wall and escape, and therefore the cops will do his dirty work and kill him, so therefore he won't have to pay him off the $50,000 he owes him for their deal.
But Joe gets over the wall and with Pat's help, as she brings him the getaway car, they go on the run, avoiding the police chasing them. But their car is riddled with bullets in the gas tank and they have to abandon it and alter their getaway plan. Joe is determined to get his money from Rick in Crescent City and then take a boat from San Francisco to South America, as he has a phony passport. He gets the idea, since they are near where Ann Martin lives, that he should visit her, thinking he has no one else to turn to for help, and so he climbs through her bedroom window, awakening the sleeping Ann with a kiss. When she wants him to turn himself in and refuses to help, he tells her they are taking her and her car. When he goes to the window to look down her street, the ominous moonlight shines in through the Venetian blinds, causing the light to enter the room in horizontal slats of light. We have witnessed a special poetic moment in noir film, a shot that has since become a classic, telling more in its noir imagery than words could ever express.
Claire in a voiceover, sensing how Joe feels about Ann and recalling that he never said that he loves her, mentions how she feels worst than before, and now that she got him out of prison, she isn't even sitting next to him in the car. She doesn't want to take Ann along, but goes along with Joe's thinking, fatalistically inclined, believing there is nothing she can do to stop what is happening.
The three of them are on the run, as Pat remains hopelessly in love but knows she won't have her man in the end, and he is the only thing she wants in the world. Ann represents what Joe will never have, she is a reminder to him of what it is to be normal in the outside world. While Joe is the decent sort of criminal-type, who can't win because he thinks the cards are stacked against him. The three manage to allude the massive police dragnet and head for a mountain retreat, where Joe knows the owner and they will be able to switch cars, having stolen a car from a gas station to throw the police off for a while, as they left their car in the gas station and the gas station owner got picked up in their old car that was targeted by the police, as he chased after them.
In an unneeded melodramatic scene, a wife killer flees up the mountainside and is tracked there by the police, who shoot him outside of where Joe is hiding out in his friend's resort. This was the weakest scene in the movie. It seemed too contrived, as the killer's wild comment to them was, "I killed her but I don't know why; I deserve to die."
Meanwhile, the confident Rick is not as confident as he was before, as he learns from his boys that Rick is free and is needled by Fantail that it looks like he'll have to pay Joe what he owes him in Crescent City. The psychopathic Rick, who is filmed from his waist up, making him look even more imposing than he is, goes into a snarling rage and when his girlfriend who is dancing with one of his gang, accidently bumps into him, his picks up a bowl of flaming brandy and throws it at her. The plan now becomes to send Fantail to Crescent City and eliminate their unsuspecting partner.
In the taxidermist store, Joe goes to meet Rick, while Ann remains outside in the car; but, instead of meeting Rick, Fantail is there and pulls a gun on him. Somehow Joe manages to knock the gun out of his hand, as Ann enters the store and picks up the dropped gun and fires at Fantail, grazing him, as they both escape after Joe knocks out the store owner. They spend the night together, as Ann realizes that she really loves Joe.
When they return to the motel in the morning, Joe knows it can't work out with Ann, and gets her to take one of the cars back to San Francisco, while he and Pat go their own way to San Francisco. Bent on revenge, Joe wants to get Rick, saying no one can make a sucker out of him and get away with it, but is talked out of it by Pat, who is telling him how unimportant Rick is, that they have their whole life ahead of them. Joe finally gets to say what she always wanted to hear, of them settling down and living a regular crime-free life. But it, somehow, sounds to her, that he is saying it to Ann not her.
Fantail spots Ann on the road and kidnaps her, taking her back to Rick's place. And while Pat and Joe get ready to depart on the ship, Pat answers the phone and is told that if Joe doesn't come over to Rick's, Ann will be savagely beaten. Pat decides not to tell this to Joe and they make their way through the fog onto the boat, where Joe sends a message to the captain that he wants to get married aboard the ship. Suddenly, Pat has a vision that whenever he kisses her, he will be thinking of Ann, so she decides to tell Joe of the phone call. He rushes through the fog to reach Rick, after blasting his way through the gang who have the house surrounded. The film ends in the final showdown between the crime boss and the perennial loser. The photography is electric, consisting of low angle shots and reflections of light coming in from the open window, giving the scene a naturally eerie look and a depth perception creating the illusion of how far apart the men have now become in their lives, as the light from the candelabra highlights the shadows in the room. With Joe backed up at the far end of the room, pointing a pistol at Rick, asking for Ann, the elegantly robed Rick surprises him by firing a small gun he had hidden in his pocket, as Joe reacts by firing back and then Rick trips over the candles which sets the place on fire, as he tries to pull Joe into the fire with him, then jumps out the window in a ball of flames. Ann is found locked in another room and escapes outside with Joe, where Joe dies in her arms, with the arrested Pat watching on the street, as the police stand-by in silence.
This fatalistic drama ends in total violence, with no winners. It's a sad reminder of burning desires and romantic dreams going up in flames. Claire's voiceover narration gives the film some added chills, and the three main characters become studies in emotional deprivation, giving the film an added depth in its character study. The acting was first-rate. The look of the film was beyond reasonable expectations of how good a noir film should look. The sexual tension was penetrating. This was, to say the very least, an interesting work.
REVIEWED ON 1/27/2000 GRADE: A-
Dennis Schwartz: " Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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