Thu 3 Sep 2020
IMPACT. United Artists, 1949. Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn, Helen Walker, Anna May Wong, Mae Marsh, Tony Barrett. Co-screenwriters: Dorothy Reid & Jay Dratler. Director: Arthur Lubin.
This one’s billed in most film references as noir, but on my own privately developed (and trademarked) Noir-ometer, I’d give it a 65 at best. To tell you the truth, though, what you get when you watch this movie is three movies in one, each lasting about 25 minutes.
It’s the first third which is the most noirish, with a highly regarded plant manager (Donlevy) discovering that his wife (Helen Walker) is not the loving and faithful wife he thinks he to be. Avoiding a trap set to murder him and his pride hurt for being played for such a sucker, he ends up in a small town in Idaho, where he meets the new owner (Ella Raines) of an about to fail gas station.
In a way the least noirish third of the movie, but maybe it isn’t, he finds that life in a quiet, almost idyllic small town, is not so bad after all. Especially when the attraction between the two continues to grow. But idylls don’t last forever, and when she learns his secret, she convinces him that he needs to go back to the big city (San Francisco) and face his day in court, both figuratively and literally.
Leaving the final half hour of the film to be a rather ordinary detective mystery, chasing down witnesses and other clues, all of which is fine, to be sure, but I still found the ending to be disappointing, especially in comparison to what had come before. And I have to tell you, I found Miss Raines more of pleasure to watch in her garage service garb than I did seeing her all dressed up in the big city.
September 3rd, 2020 at 7:48 pm
It’s rep is somewhat better than the actual movie, but it is pleasant and Donlevy and Raines work well together. Once in a while it is a bit jarring to see Donlevy in these ordinary guy roles when he has played so many tough guys and bad guys (and good bad guys), but here it all comes together without any harm done and is diverting enough you don’t regret the time spent with it.
September 3rd, 2020 at 8:01 pm
Nicely summarized, David. Reading through my own comments again, I see I should have said more about Helen Walker in this movie. As the villainess in this film, she’s really quite marvelous.
To see her confronted with Donlevy in a police station when she thinks he’s been dead for six months or more and thinking fast, and how she manages to turn the table on him 180 degrees in a matter of seconds — both wonderful writing — and acting.