Big Town After Dark *** (1947, Phillip Reed, Hillary Brooke, Richard Travis, Ann Gillis, Vince Barnett, Joe Sawyer, Robert Kent) – Classic Movie Review 6343

‘POLICE SLAY GAMBLING CZAR…AS EDITOR ESCAPES DEATH! ‘ Director William C Thomas’s sharp and intriguing 1947 film noir is written by Whitman Chambers and stars Phillip Reed, Hillary Brooke, Richard Travis and Ann Gillis.

There are plenty of thrills in this short, pacy, capable B-movie film noir thriller about The Illustrated Press’s managing editor Steve Wilson (Phillip Reed) and his female ace crime reporter Lorelei Kilbourne (Hillary Brooke) helping the cops capture a dangerous gang. Unfortunately, there is corruption in one vital part of the newspaper.

Lorelei gives Steve two weeks’ notice from her newspaper job after her first novel is accepted for publication. Steve quickly replaces the departing Lorelei with the publisher’s niece Susan Peabody LaRue (Ann Gillis), who gets involved with gangsters in plotting a $50,000 swindle against her uncle Chuck LaRue (Richard Travis), which Lorelei returns to work to help Steve to uncover.

This time, it is all brisk, involving going, and there are fresh performances and new ideas everywhere you look. Reed and Brooke hit their stride, and all the cast seem to spark up effortlessly, but then this time they have plenty of decent lines to speak.

It is based on the radio programme Big Town by Daniel Mainwaring and Maxwell Shane.

It is shot in black and white by Ellis W Carter, produced by William H Pine and William C Thomas, scored by Darrell Calker and designed by Frank Paul Sylos.

Also in the cast are Vince Barnett as Louie Snead, Joe Sawyer as Monk, Robert Kent  [aka Douglas Blackley] as Jake Sebastian, Charles Arnt as Amos Peabody, Joseph Allen [aka Joe Allen Jr] as Wally Blake and William Haade as Marcus.

Paramount Pictures released the Pine-Thomas production on 12 December 1947.

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film’s copyright resulted in it falling into public domain.

The third film in a short series of four, it follows Big Town (1946) and I Cover Big Town (1947), and is followed by Big Town Scandal (1948).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6343

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