Alias Nick Beal(1949)

[ERROL23]

DA Joseph Foster(Thomas Mitchell)an honst family man wants to rid the city of crime czar Frankie Faulkner(Fred Clark)Joseph swears to sell his soul to put the mobster in jail.

A strange MR Nick Beal(Ray Milland)sends for the DA and gives him the gangsters books and Faulkner is convicted.

Joseph is made a local hero and is asked to run for governor.

His wife Marha(Geraldine Wall) and REV Thomas Garfield(George Macready)meet Beal and both take an instant dislike to him knowing hes up to something.

Beal hires b Girl,Donna Allen(Audrey Totter)to help on Thomas campign and soon Thomas and Donna start seeing a lot of each other.

Thomas begins to suspect who Beal is.

Film Noir as good as it gets.

 

Edited by: ERROL23 on Dec 21, 2013 3:49 PM

[faceinthecrowd]

*Alias Nick Beal* is a fascinating film, a mixture of noir and fantasy. (Note the name -- once we learn who the title character is, "Nick" is easy to understand, but also think about "Beal.")

 

Milland is unusually sinister here, and Audrey Totter is perfect. I can never decide whether she's alluringly sleazy, or sleazily alluring. Either way, she's terrific.