Wed 12 Oct 2011
ABANDONED. Universal International Pictures, 1949. Dennis O’Keefe, Gale Storm, Marjorie Rambeau, Raymond Burr, Will Kuluva, Jeff Chandler, Meg Randall, Jeanette Nolan, Mike Mazurki. Director: Joseph M. Newman.
Dennis O’Keefe makes for a good newpaper reporter in Abandoned, and Raymond Burr makes an even better private eye, one definitely on the shady side. Before he became Perry Mason and famous, as we’ve said before on this blog, he was best known for his villainous roles in cheap crime dramas, albeit often weak and shifty ones. His part in this movie, in other words, was tailor made for him.
So what this is, as you may have guessed, is a cheap crime drama, but is it noir, as it’s often advertised as being? Not with Gale Storm in the leading role, even though the movie’s in black and white, with lots of noirish lighting and noirish dialogue.
As the sister who died trying to regain her baby from a gang specializing in illegal baby adoptions, calling on Dennis O’Keefe for help, she’s too giggly and perky for the part (think My Little Margie). The ending, after a lot of gunfire and fatal automobile accidents, is also too upbeat for Abandoned to really fall into the noir category.
But it comes close, indeed it does. And if the entire script had been part of the movie, if as I have a feeling it wasn’t, it would have been a whole lot closer.
Unanswered by the movie I saw is the question of the two girls’ father, who hired Raymond Burr (the shady PI) in the first place, and the connection with the baby racketeers, whom Burr works for as well.
And I’m sure I remember a scene in which Gale Storm’s character tells O’Keefe (the reporter) that the reason her sister left home and headed for LA, was because their father wouldn’t leave either one of them alone.
Neither of these two threads of the story line is followed up on, but at the time this movie was made, all they could probably do is leave hints.
October 12th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
According to my notes in a couple of film noir reference books, I last saw this movie on a decent quality bootleg dvd in 2007 and enjoyed it. Another example of how the film noir elements can elevate a mediocre film to such a level that you can watch it more than once.
Raymond Burr had quite a career playing villains in crime and film noir movies. For almost 10 years he was the leading bad guy in these films and even if he had not starred as Perry Mason, we would probably still remember his career as a character actor.
October 13th, 2011 at 6:18 am
I have often wondered where Raymond Burr’s career might have taken him if he hadn’t stumbled across the Perry Mason job. As you say, fans of his early work in crime and noir films would still remember him, but would anyone else? I’ll have to look at his resume and see what kind of movies he was the leading player in, if any. Godzilla?
October 13th, 2011 at 7:30 am
He also had the lead in BRIDE OF THE GORILLA but I can’t recall any other starring roles. But as a character actor playing villains he was very prolific.