Impact **** (1949, Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn, Helen Walker) – Classic Movie Review 8,966

The highly impactful 1949 black and white film noir crime drama Impact stars Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn and Helen Walker. It is B-movie noir thriller film-making par excellence.

Director Arthur Lubin’s highly impactful 1949 black and white film noir crime drama film Impact stars Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn and Helen Walker. It is B-movie noir thriller film-making par excellence.

Unfaithful young wife Irene Williams (Helen Walker) and her young lover Jim Torrence (Tony Barrett)’s plan to murder her millionaire industrialist husband Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) on a car ride to Denver goes awry, but luckily for the husband fate and canny old police detective Lieutenant Tom Quincy (Coburn) are on his side.

Williams survives a hit on the head from Torrence, who is killed in a collision with a petrol tanker truck, and his body wrongly identified as Williams. The wounded, dazed Williams ends up in the small town of Larkspur, Idaho, where he takes work as a service station mechanic and falls in love with the widowed station owner Marsha Peters (Ella Raines)…

Ella Raines and Brian Donlevy in Impact.

Lubin directs with maximum impact, there is excellent acting all round, and moody black and white cinematography by Ernest Laszlo, with California location filming, while the twisting screenplay by Dorothy Davenport [Dorothy Reid] and film noir writer Jay Dratler keeps up the suspense. It is based on an original story by Jay Dratler.

Impact may not be quite top drawer film noir, but it is certainly the second from the top. It is excellent of its now much admired kind.

Also in the cast are Anna Mae Wong, Mae Marsh, William Wright, Robert Warwick, Philip Ahn, Art Baker, Erskine Sandford and Jason Robards Sr.

Impact is directed by Arthur Lubin, runs 111 minutes, is made by Harry Popkin Productions, is released by United Artists, is written by Dorothy Davenport [Dorothy Reid] and Jay Dratler, from an original story by Jay Dratler, is shot in black and white by Ernest Laszlo, is produced by Harry M Popkin (executive producer) and Leo C Popkin (producer), scored by Michel Michelet, and designed by Rudi Feld.

Charles Coburn and Helen Walker in Impact.

Filming began in San Francisco on September 14 1948 on a budget of $900,000. It is filmed entirely in California, including locations in Sausalito, and at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and elsewhere in the city.

There is considerable product placement in the film at a time when it was uncommon for brand name products to be seen in movies.

The famous gossip reporter Sheilah Graham appears as herself, reading a news item about the case on the radio.

The cast are Brian Donlevy as Walter Williams, Ella Raines as Marsha Peters, Charles Coburn as Lieutenant Tom Quincy, Helen Walker as Irene Williams, Anna May Wong as Su Lin Chung, Robert Warwick as Captain Callahan, Clarence Kolb as Darcy, Art Baker as Defense Attorney Eldredge, William Wright as Prosecutor, Mae Marsh as Marsha’s mother Mrs. King, Sheilah Graham as herself, Tony Barrett as Jim Torrence, Philip Ahn as Ah Sing, Glen Vernon as Ed, Linda Leighton [Linda Johnson] as Telephone Operator Miss Revere, Jason Robards Sr as Judge, Erskine Sanford as Dr Henry Bender, Ruth Robinson as Apt. Manager, Lucius Cooke as Burke, Tom Greenway as Moving Van Driver, Ben Welden as Moving Van Helper, Joel Friedkin as Uncle Ben, Joe Kirk as Hotel Clerk, William Ruhl as Fingerprint Expert, Mary Landa as Walker’s Secretary Della, and Harry Cheshire as Irene’s Attorney.

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

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,966

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