Strange Bargain (1949)

The salary of assistant bookkeeper Sam Wilson (Jeffrey Lynn) isn't enough to pay the bills for his family, so his wife Georgia (Martha Scott) pushes him to ask for a raise. Instead his boss Malcolm Jarvis (Richard Gaines, Fred MacMurrary's boss on 'Double Indemnity') fires him, as the company's been making a loss for quite some time already. Jarvis himself is also broke, but he has a plan. And for that plan to work, he needs Wilson, so he has a proposition for him... Jarvis intends to kill himself so his family can collect his life insurance policy, but that won't happen if his death is ruled a suicide. So he needs Wilson to make it look like a murder, and he will give him $10,000 in exchange for helping him. Wilson declines, but later that evening Jarvis forces his hand by announcing he's going through with his plan. Wilson rushes over to the Jarvis mansion to dissuade him from it, but he's too late. Jarvis is dead on the floor with a gun in his hand... and an envelope containing $10,000 with Wilson's name on it on the desk. Wilson reluctantly does his part, shoots the gun a few more times and gets rid of it. He hides the $10,000 at home, unsure of what he should do... The new boss, and former adversary of Jarvis within the company, Timothy Hearne (Henry O'Neill) gives Wilson his job back, with a promotion and a hefty pay raise even, and his family thinks all is well again... But Wilson's already conflicted mind gets even more conflicted when police lieutenant Webb (Harry Morgan) views Hearne as the prime suspect for Jarvis's murder...

While Martha Scott is the top-billed name on the movie's poster, her role in this movie is fairly minimal. Scott made a big entrance into Hollywood with her first movie, 1940's 'Our Town', which landed her an Oscar nomination. Her star didn't shine bright for too long however, but apparently bright enough for RKO to bill her over the principal actor of he movie, Jeffrey Lynn. She is decent enough but given she doesn't have to do much here, I wouldn't expect anything less, hah...

I wasn't very familiar with Jeffrey Lynn ('Whiplash', 'The Roaring Twenties') and this movie didn't exactly peak my interest either. In a way his performance is perfect for the character he's playing, as it's meek, unremarkable and bland, but if that's all there is to it... Lynn reminded me here of another everyman actor I find bland, Macdonald Carey... Actors who might do a great job, but the second the movie's over you've forgotten about the part already. And given he's the principal character in this movie, that's not a good sign! Sorry to all the Jeffrey Lynn and/or Macdonald Carey fans out there!

Harry Morgan is the name I was most familiar with, as he's got quite the noir resume. He played in films such as 'Moonrise', 'Appointment With Danger' and 'Dark City'. But he's probably most famous for playing Bill Gannon on the late 60's version of the iconic TV series 'Dragnet'. He plays a limp police officer here, who's cane is quite helpful in the movie's climax. Morgan could play these type of tough police officer serious in his sleep, it's always a pleasure to see his face pop up.

When you see the family's son, you'd be forgiven to think it's Billy Chapin who played the kid in 'The Night Of The Hunter'. In fact, it isn't him but his older brother Michael Chapin. The resemblance is uncanny however. And if I'm being honest, based on these 2 movies, Michael was the better (kid) actor between the two them. His character idolizes Webb, making Sam even more uncomfortable whenever Jarvis's death is brought up around the dinner table, as the son reminds him how good of a detective Webb is. It's a nice touch to the movie.

Visually there isn't a lot noirness going on here. The plot is pretty noir for the first half of the movie, but it wraps things too neatly and happily for Sam Wilson at the end... I can't say I was surprised, or even all that disappointed. The movie does move at a nice pace, and it does twist and turn a bit. It's a solid but very minor film noir.

While I doubt many people who saw this movie at the time will remember it, this movie does have a genuine claim to fame. In the season 3 episode 'The Days Dwindle Down' of the iconic TV series 'Murder, She Wrote', 3 of the principal actors of the movie (Jeffrey Lyn, Martha Scott and Harry Morgan) reprise their roles. While the episode retains the basic premise of the movie, and also uses footage from the movie as flashbacks, it does not use the movie's ending. Instead Wilson ended up taking the rap, spending 30 years in prison. And now that he's out, his wife asks Jessica Fletcher to find out what really happened to Jarvis and to finally clear Wilson's name. As with most MSW episodes, it's a lovely episode and using 'Strange Bargain' as well as several of its actors as an integral part of the episode really makes this a standout episode. I highly recommend it!

7-/10