I Walk Alone **** (1948, Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey) – Classic Movie Review 2,158

‘Once I trusted a dame… now I Walk Alone!’ Burt  Lancaster and Lizabeth Scott star with Wendell Corey and Kirk Douglas in director Byron Haskin’s authentic 1947 film noir I Walk Alone.

‘Once I trusted a dame… now I Walk Alone!’ ‘RAGING… Because a girl gave him her lips… and the biggest double-cross in history!’

Lizabeth Scott relishes another of her key roles as torch singer Kay Lawrence, sandwiched between two Hollywood greats – Burt Lancaster as tough guy Frankie Madison, who returns to New York after 14 years in prison for a cop killing, and Kirk Douglas as Noll ‘Dink’ Turner, Frankie’s former crime partner in bootlegging, now a reformed wealthy nightclub manager.

Booze smuggler Frankie is expecting Dink to honour their fifty-fifty agreement made as he was caught and Dink got away. But Frankie finds everything changed when he seeks his money from his Dink, who stalls him by offering him his ex-girlfriend, chantoose Kay, as a plaything. Soon Frankie is seeking not only his money but also vengeance on Dink.

Hal B Wallis’s production for Paramount Pictures’ glum 1947 film noir gangster movie I Walk Alone enjoys cutting a swathe through its typically complicated storyline, and has the inestimable value of presenting this great star trio in their prime. In his third picture, Lancaster looks tough and dour as the hoodlum and Douglas is no happier as his now rich nightclub-owner buddy who soon decides it is high time he was out of the way.

Wendell Corey as the accountant Dave and Mike Mazurki as the heavy Dan, plus Leo Tover’s cinematography and Hans Dreier’s set designs, conjure up the authentic noir atmosphere needed to complete the picture.

Byron Haskin directs Scott, like he does in another classic film noir, Too Late for Tears (1949). Charles Schnee’s screenplay is based on Theodore Reeves’s play Beggars Are Coming to Town.

Release date: December 31, 1947 (US).

Lancaster and Douglas also star in the classic noir Out of the Past (1947), which premiered in New York City on 25 November 1947.

I Walk Alone cinema release poster.

The restored film played at the Noir City festival at the Castro Theatre, San Francisco, in February 2018 and then it was released on home video for the first time on 24 July 2018.

The cast are Burt Lancaster as Frankie Madison, Lizabeth Scott as Kay Lawrence, Wendell Corey as Dave, Kirk Douglas as Noll ‘Dink’ Turner, Kristine Miller as Mrs Alexis Richardson, George Rigaud as Maurice, Marc Lawrence as Nick Palestro, Mike Mazurki as nightclub doorman Dan, Mickey Knox as Skinner, Roger Neury as Felix Walter, and Freddie Steele as Tiger Rose.

I Walk Alone is directed by Byron Haskin, runs 97 minutes, is made by Hal Wallis Productions, is distributed by Paramount Pictures, is written by Charles Schnee, Robert Smith (adaptation) and John Bright (adaptation), based on the play Beggars Are Coming to Town by Theodore Reeves, is shot by Leo Tover, is produced by Hal B Wallis, and is scored by Victor Young.

Lizabeth Scott was born Emma Matzo in 1922. Her most recent film is Pulp in 1972. From then she was engaged in real estate development and volunteer work for various charities, such as Project HOPE and the Ancient Arts Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Scott suffered heart failure at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and died on January 31 2015, aged 92.

© Derek Winnert 2015 – Classic Movie Review 2,158