Written by James M. Tate / 7/08/2016 / No comments / fifties , film noir or melodrama , forties
DOUBLE NOIR VEHICLE OF 'THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT' & 'ROADBLOCK'
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Roadblock YEAR: 1951 |
Insurance Detective "Honest" Joe (another Joe with a nickname) Peters strays from the straight-and-narrow, and it's because of a dame... no shock there...
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Year Released:**1/2 |
The main problem with ROADBLOCK is the guy who turns out being the hero. Joe's old partner Kendall Webb, played by a sturdy-eyed Lowell Gilmore, isn't the person you'll want to root for, or enjoy playing cat to the proverbial mouse in a vulnerable anti-hero McGraw eventually becomes, who did try to do the right thing but couldn't get out: so when the clock's running, and the title becomes clear. And being a Film Noir, crime doesn't ever pay. But in this case, and in film's like, for example, THE PROWLER and a handful of others, you might want the "bad guy" to actually win, especially if a sore winning go-gooder is dogging their heels.
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Foreign Poster looks more Casablanca |
Alas, this should have been his first starring vehicle as the capable yet sometimes drowsy George Raft plays his older brother, a truck driving tough guy who thinks on his toes and never falls asleep at the wheel, unintentionally hypnotizing two beauties – a tall waitress and a rich man's trophy wife – as if he didn't resemble a pygmy hobo...
Then again, James Cagney and even Bogie himself weren't exactly Clark Gable types, making the dames dizzy without trying very hard... It just too far fetched here, and Raft doesn't even seem to be in the same movie most of the time. Not only that but the story – another of several (to come) A.I. Bezzerides adaptations dealing with the struggle of the working class trucker against the big bad companies – detours into a dizzy romantic triangle with murder thrown in, taking away from the adventurous plight of the two male leads right when it was getting good and as their job was becoming second-hand knowledge for the audience, feeling their hardship as truck driving underdogs.
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Year Released: 1940 MOVIE SCORE: *** |
The best scenes involve his wheeling and dealing with independent dealers while Bogart stands nervously behind. It's too bad murder, which does actually catapult this into the Film Noir Melodrama category with gusto when the second act veers into the third, and Raft gets higher up in the company owned by Alan Hale's happy drunk rich guy with a lustful trophy wife in Ida Lupino, who takes the proverbial baton and runs with it – not only is she smitten, but is willing to throw everything away for her dream man, and, for better or worse, you'll forget all about the plight of the working man once she's in the spotlight.
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