Sun 18 Jan 2015
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: RAW DEAL (1948).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[7] Comments
RAW DEAL. Eagle-Lion Films, 1948. Dennis O’Keefe, Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt, John Ireland, Raymond Burr. Phototography: John Alton. Director: Anthony Mann.
Claire Trevor, who narrates the film in her husky, bruised voice, helps O’Keefe escape from prison, and they head for the Big Bad Guy (Burr), taking with them O’Keefe’s sympathetic correspondent, Marsha Hunt.
The film’s brutality is still startling, especially a scene in which effete gangster Burr, angry at a girl who has spilled liquor on him, ignites a warming-dish and throws it at her face.
The girl is off-camera but the shock of that gesture, in which almost everything is left to the viewer’s imagination, is still powerful.
O’Keefe is an actor of limited resources, and Hunt is too pert and glossy, but Trevor is very fine as the rejected girl-friend. It’s a film of multiple betrayals, and is less smooth than The Big Combo [reviewed here ], but its very rawness adds to the impact.
January 18th, 2015 at 2:40 pm
I wish I knew more about Eagle-Lion films…
January 18th, 2015 at 5:13 pm
All I know is that the last four Red Ryder films with Jim Bannon were made by Eagle-Lion.
January 18th, 2015 at 5:20 pm
O’Keefe does well here since he is usually cast as the tough but likable light comic role and here he’s mean to the bone with just enough humanity to keep us rooting for him, but this is about as hardnosed and brutal as it got in that period and that scene with Burr isn’t all that far from Widmark and that iconic old lady in the wheelchair.
Hunt does about as well with her role as she can. It’s essential to the movie, but it would be difficult for anyone.
John Ireland is fine here as Burr’s henchman who Burr is about half afraid of. At times it seems a real question whether Ireland will do his job or kill the sadistic Burr. It’s an edgy part and he handles it well.
With this and T-MEN Mann teamed with O’Keefe set the standard for tough in noir along with WHITE HEAT and BRUTE FORCE.
January 19th, 2015 at 3:50 am
The big plus here is John Alton’s cinematography. Absolutely anything photographed by John Alton is worth seeing. I liked this movie quite a bit.
January 19th, 2015 at 9:22 am
Eagle-Lion was started in 1947 by J. Arthur Rank, with a view to releasing British films in the U.S. and making a few B-pictures on the side. They acquired that legendary B-Movie-Mill PRC and released films like THE RED SHOES while turning out HE WALKED BY NIGHT, THE AMAZING MR X, CANON CITY, RAW DEAL and others. Unfortunately, the “and others” movies predominated, and Eagle-Lion sank in the red ink.
For me, RAW DEAL has its moments, but it’s definitively sunk by Dennis O’Keefe.
January 19th, 2015 at 10:28 am
It’s been too long since I’ve seen this film for me to say, but Dan, it certainly sounds as if you’re agreeing with Walter when he says that “O’Keefe is an actor of limited resources.”
Thanks too for the background on Eagle-Lion, a movie company whose name hadn’t registered on me until I started putting together the credits for this review.
January 19th, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Dan, Thanks also from me for the background of Eagle-Lion. I knew of them only through some of their productions. The Red Ryder films were in color so Jim Bannon could appropriately display his red hair as the character. Prior to that “Red Ryder” had been portrayed in black and white by Don Berry, Bill Elliott, and Allan Lane.