Red Light ** (1949, George Raft, Virginia Mayo, Gene Lockhart, Raymond Burr, Harry Morgan, Barton MacLane) – Classic Movie Review 11,485

Producer-director Roy Del Ruth’s 1949 American film noir crime thriller Red Light stars George Raft as innocent Johnny Torno, who goes after the killers of his heroic Catholic chaplain brother Jess (Arthur Franz), when he is released from jail.

This interesting and acceptable if run-of-the-mill crime melodrama is briskly handled by Del Ruth, who gets the mood and tone just right.

And it is propelled with a neat performance by the perennially underrated Raft, plus good work from a strong support cast (Virginia Mayo, Raymond Burr, Gene Lockhart, Harry Morgan, Arthur Franz, Barton MacLane, Bill Phillips, Phillip Pine, Movita Castenada, Paul Frees, Edwin Max).

The black and white photography is by Bert Glennon, and Dimitri Tiomkin provides the effective score.

It is based on the story This Guy Gideon by Don ‘Red’ Barry, which has religious overtones, such as a clue to the killers can be found in the hotel room’s Bible, but it was retitled Red Light after a survey.

The cast are George Raft as Johnny Torno, Virginia Mayo as Carla North, Gene Lockhart as Warni Hazard, Raymond Burr as Nick Cherney, Harry Morgan as Rocky, Barton MacLane as Detective Strecker, Phillip Pine as Pablo Cabrillo, Arthur Franz as Father Jess Torno, Arthur Shields as Father Redmond, William Frawley as hotel night clerk, and Sen Young as houseboy Vincent.

Monogram signed a deal for United Artists to distribute Red Light and Gun Crazy, both financed by Pioneer Pictures, a new company half owned by Monogram.

Virginia Mayo (born Virginia Clara Jones; November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) starred in the 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives and in White Heat (1949).

The best of film noir icon Raymond Burr: 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).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,485

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