Bodyguard **** (1948, Lawrence Tierney, Priscilla Lane, Phillip Reed, Elizabeth Risdon) – Classic Movie Review 7122

Director Richard O Fleischer’s 1948 Bodyguard is a tough, taut and tense little Forties B-movie thriller, very fine of its type. It is an outstanding and excellently handled film noir who-done-it.

Lawrence Tierney stars as suspended homicide detective cop Mike Carter, who is set up on a phoney murder charge when he reluctantly takes on a job as a bodyguard to protect a widow woman, Mrs Gene Dysen (Elizabeth Risdon), the owner of a meat-packing plant.

Bodyguard is very well scripted by Fred Niblo Jr and Harry Essex, from a story by Robert Altman and George W George.

It is punched home by the bold and brassy performances of Tierney, Risdon, Priscilla Lane (as Doris Brewster) and Phillip Reed (as Freddie Dysen), as well as by the imaginative film-making style of resolute director Fleischer.

Bodyguard is directed by Richard O Fleischer, runs 62 minutes, is produced and released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by Fred Niblo Jr and Harry Essex, based on a story by Robert Altman and George W George, is shot in black and white by Robert DeGrasse, is produced by Sid Rogell, scored by Paul Sawtell, and designed by Feild M Gray and Albert S D’Agostino.

The director’s cut 75 runs minutes.

It is notable as Robert Altman’s first film credit, though he worked on Christmas Eve (1947) uncredited.

It is the final film of Priscilla Lane (1915–1995) before retiring in 1948 after making just 22 movies. She is fondly remembered for Four Daughters (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), and Saboteur (1942).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7122

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