Take One False Step(1949)

[ERROL23]

 

Prof Andrew Centling(William Powell)has a happy life with his wife Helen(Dorothy Hart)While making a speech Andrew runs into an old flame,Catherine Sykes(Shelly Winters)a drunk with an unhappy marriage.Andrew takes her out for a drink,but the next day Catherine vanishes and is thought murdered.

 

 

Andrew has his problems with Police Captain Gledhill(James Gleason)and Detective Paccino(Sheldon Leonard),mobsters,Cathrines roomate(Marsha Hunt)a vicious dog belonging to Catherines husband who bites Andrew and makes him sick,and Helen flying in.

 

 

This is a GREAT FILM NOIR that will keep you in suspense.

 

 

http://www.impawards.com/1949/take_one_false_step.html

 

 

[jamesjazzguitar]

Very interesting sounding movie and one I had never heard about. I check for reviews and found one on a film noir website that says the movie fall flat. I have to admit that as soon as I saw that James Gleason was the police captain I wondered if the film was a comedy since Gleason rarely plays straight parts (at least in most of the movies I have seen him in). The review said that Gleason was the type of police captain clown (e.g. similar to the police captains in the Thin Man Movies?) as was Leonard as the detective.

 

So I wonder if the film really is able to balance the suspense (i.e. the noir elements), with the comedy, or if much of the movie comes off as camp.