By the time the 50s were arriving, Poverty Row studios were cranking out 'federal investigator' type movies like clockwork. Most of them can be easily recognized by their title, such as 'Federal Agent At Large' which I reviewed here, 'Customs Agent', 'Insurance Investigator', 'Secret Service Investigator' and 'Western Pacific Agent', all made between 1948 and 1951. Republic probably made the most of these movies, and on average also the best. The previously
mentioned and reviewed 'Federal Agent At Large' wasn't one of the better ones,
but this one is a good example of why these movies can be a lot of fun.
The movie starts with the following message, which in tone was no different
than how a lot of these other movies start out, but somehow it's more
comical... You decide:
Stamp collecting is the international hobby of an estimated fifteen million people. Small boys and millionaires pursue it with equal zest, finding in it pleasure, education, and a form of savings.
Collectors, with millions of dollars invested in their hobby, are ever on the lookout for rare and priceless stamps... and so, sometimes, are criminals.
In this case, the criminal is George Zelger (Marcel Journet) who poses as a wealthy stamp collector. He is in cahoots with auction house employee Clara Kelso (Audrey Long) to steal an expensive stamp during an auction. The idea is simple, Clara switches the stamp with a forgery and Zelger's associate mails the real stamp to Zelger's home address. However, Clara's boyfriend has an even better idea, what if they steal the letter before it is picked up by the mailmen, and sell the stamp themselves? That way they can get all the money for themselves rather than only a small cut. So Clara convinces the mailmen collecting the mail to give her back the letter. One of the mailmen, Bill Mannerson (Warren Douglas) tries to get a date with Clara, and she gives him a phoney address. When the police figure out mailing the stamp would be the best way to get it out of the building unnoticed they interrogate the mailmen. Knowing they would lose their job or worse if they explain they gave the letter back, which is against postal regulations, they lie. Instead they decide to check out the address Clara gave for their date and there they find secretary April Shaughnessy (Jeff Donnell). A casual remark by April makes Bill remember the mailing address of the letter they gave back, and they head to Zelger's address who is beginning to suspect Clara double-crossed him...
The movie's plot is more intricate than most of these movies, which tend to be a bit crude plot-wise. Here however, the double-cross Clara pulls off adds some tension and intrigue to the movie. It makes things slightly more complicated with more separate parties involved, and as a result, the movie focuses less, or really hardly at all, on the federal aspect of the investigation, but on Bill, Clara and Zegler. It's a minor thing but it works really well for this movie. It does make the admittedly top-notch poster feel a bit weird however. The toughguy on the left is meant to portray one of the agents investigating the case, but he plays only a minor role in the movie. I can agree with the artist however that his face is far more interesting and rugged than Warren Douglas', but it's Douglas who's the main actor here together with Audrey Long, who is the dame holding the gun in the poster.
Neither Warren Douglas nor Audrey Long are household names, and in the case of Douglas that makes sense. Douglas is too light-weight and milquetoast to be a proper noir leading man, but his casual, inoffensive acting is good enough for these noir-light crime movies. Douglas had a long but unremarkable acting career, but as of 1950 he also found steady work as a screenwriter, both for movies such as the noir 'Cry Vengeance' which he co-wrote and also played a part in, and for TV series such as 'Bonanza'. Audrey Long on the other hand had what it takes to be a noir dame, and she had had her chance already, first in the Lawrence Tierney classic 'Born To Kill', and then co-starring opposite Steve Brodie in 'Desperate', an underrated noir directed by the great Anthony Mann. Her career never really took off tho, and she was stuck playing in B-movies.
But the face that is most familiar to the casual viewer will likely be that of Jeff Donnell, who played one of Humphrey Bogart's friends in the classic noir 'In A Lonely Place' from 1950. Born Jean Marie Donnell, she gave herself the nickname Jeff, and it stuck. She steals every scene she is in with her bumbling and infectious acting. She's got a bit of a 'girl next door' quality to her and looks like she could be Gloria Grahame's more wholesome sister. The two were actually friends in real life, but unlike Grahame and like Long, her career unfortunately never really took off and she was a supporting actress for most of her career.
It should come as no surprise that this movie zips by, it is just shy of an hour long. Director George Blair and director of photography John MacBurnie also worked on the aforementioned 'Fderal Agent At Large' as well as a boatload of other movies. Their professionalism shines through here as well, if you just remember that on Poverty Row professionalism equates to 'getting things done as quickly and as cheaply as possible'. Which is not a bad thing if you're into these no/low budget crime movies like I am! They even manage to make the nighttime scenes, especially those happening inside cars, look pretty noir with a lot of shadows and blocked out parts. The best shot of the movie comes when April is following Clara around after accidentally bumping into her and they're inside a metro station. April keeps an eye on Clara via her make-up mirror, which is visualized quite nicely.
This is not a hidden gem. But it is entertaining and fast-paced, which is not a bad thing. It is a typically well-made, unremarkable but also inoffensive, noir-ish crime movie which came a dime a dozen. And in this case, it's above average. If you have an hour or so to waste, you could do a lot worse than watching this movie.
6+/10
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