Desperate ***½ (1947, Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, Jason Robards Sr, Douglas Fowley, William Challee) – Classic Movie Review 3,543

Director Anthony Mann’s 1947 neat and nifty suspense film noir Desperate stars Steve Brodie as trucker Steve Randall, who is taken hostage in a fur robbery and told to confess to a cop’s death or the robbers will harm his new wife Anne (Audrey Long).

After Steve alerts the police, ruthless mobster Walt Radak’s younger brother Al is caught and held for killing a cop. When Radak tries to force Steve to clear Al, Steve and Anne flee for their lives, with both the mob and the police in hot pursuit.

Talented director Mann is desperate to ensure that he whips up the excitement in RKO Radio Pictures’ taut and classy, if dour support B-movie thriller, written by Harry Essex and Martin Rackin, and raised high with sharp photography from George E Diskant.

Also notable in the indispensable cast are Raymond Burr as creepy gang boss Walt Radak, Jason Robards Sr as Detective Lieutenant Louie Ferrari, Douglas Fowley as private eye Pete Lavitch and William Challee as Reynolds.

The Best of Raymond Burr: San Quentin (1946), Desperate (1947), Sleep, My Love (1948), Raw Deal (1948), Pitfall (1948), Abandoned (1949), Red Light (1949), M (1951), His Kind of Woman (1951), The Blue Gardenia (1953), Walk a Crooked Mile (1948), Borderline (1950), Unmasked (1950), The Whip Hand (1951), FBI Girl (1951), Meet Danny Wilson (1952), Rear Window (1954), They Were So Young (1954), A Cry in the Night (1956), Affair in Havana (1957), and Crime of Passion (1957).

Warner Bros released Desperate on DVD on 13 July 2010 in its Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 5.

The main cast are Steve Brodie as Steve Randall, Audrey Long as Mrs Anne Randall, Raymond Burr as Walt Radak, Douglas Fowley as private eye Pete Lavitch, William Challee as Reynolds, Jason Robards Sr as Detective Lieutenant Louie Ferrari, Freddie Steele as Shorty Abbott, Lee Frederick as Joe Daly, Paul E Burns as Uncle Jan, and Ilka Grüning as Aunt Klara.

Audrey Long.

Audrey Long, Hollywood star of Tall in the Saddle (1944), A Game of Death (1945), Wanderer of the Wasteland (1945), Born to Kill (1947), Post Office Investigator (1949) and Indian Uprising (1952) died on September 19 2014, at the age of 92. She was the widow of The Saint author Leslie Charteris.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,543

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/