Wed 28 Jul 2010
THE MISSING JUROR. Columbia Pictures, 1944. Jim Bannon, Janis Carter, George Macready, Jean Stevens, Joseph Crehan, with Trevor Bardette & Mike Mazurki (both uncredited). Director: Oscar Boetticher Jr.
Two stars carry over from the movie which I previously reviewed here, Janis Carter and George Macready (in The Fighting Guardsman), and Jim Bannon was in the one I reviewed before that (in The Great Jesse James Raid). It’s like old home week here on the blog.
Jim Bannon plays Joe Keats in The Missing Juror, an ace reporter who saved a man from going to the gallows for a crime he didn’t commit. Too late, though, for the previously condemned man (played most convincingly by George Macready) had gone mad while on Death Row, and he perishes instead in a mental institution – by his own hand, his body burned beyond recognition.
Bad karma all round, you might say, but then things start to get interesting. The members of the jury who convicted the innocent man have begun to disappear or to die in a series of unfortunate accidents. Janis Carter plays Alice Hill, one of the jurors who has survived so far, and in the process of warning her – she doesn’t believe a word of it at first, naturally – Keats finds himself falling in love with her.
It’s a great premise for a real noirish tale. It’s only too bad that no one involved in the production of this movie knew how to produce a real noirish tale, nor even how to tell a tale that makes any more sense than this one does.
There are enough holes in the story to sink a battleship, and no one in the cast ever stops to make the obvious questions – with the answers equally obvious – if there are any. Some questions simply don’t have any answers, or at least none that I can think of.
It may be as obvious to you, if you’ve read this far. I’ve tried to careful in how I described the basic structure of the plot, but with deficiencies as great as those that this movie has, I’d have to say nothing to avoid saying anything.
But do you know what? It doesn’t really matter that the story has more leaks in it than a sieve that’s been used for target practice. This is a fun movie to watch, from beginning to end. And some (if not most) of that is due to the director, more familiarly known as Budd Boetticher. Unusual camera angles, imaginative lighting and clever dolly shots keep things interesting, and the story doesn’t stop moving once, even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense.
July 28th, 2010 at 1:39 am
Macready made his film debut with Bannon (and Nina Foch) in the first film in the I LOVE A MYSTERY series, subtitled THE DECAPITATION OF JEFFERSON MONK. Macready is the title character who hires Bannon and Barton Yarborough, Jack Packard and Doc Long of the Five Star Detective Agency, to protect him from Tibetan monks who have told him his head is sacred and must be returned to their monastery, and a threatening seaman who appears out of the fog.
Based on the Carlton E. Morse radio serial it is much better than THE MISSING JUROR as are its two sequels; THE UNKNOWN — based on the serial THE THING THAT CRIED IN THE NIGHT — with Jeff Donnel and THE DEVIL’S MASK. All were pretty good little films despite the poverty row budgets. More than I can say for JUROR, despite the cast and the director.
But as you say, JUROR looks great so long as you don’t think about it.
I was always amused by Macready in John Farrow’s ALIAS NICK BEAL where he plays the older priest despite the fact he was fifteen years younger (at least) than either of the leads Thomas Mitchell or Ray Milland. Still, I suppose with that scar on his cheek like a Prussian dueling scar it was only natural he quickly became one of those villains we loved to hiss. Even when he was one of the good guys, as in SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, he was seldom likable on film.
July 28th, 2010 at 6:27 am
I can always watch Macready, even in stuff like THE MONSTER AND THE APE, where he’s the perennial Mad Doctor. Given a good part, as in MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS or GILDA he’s even compelling.
As for Boetticher, at his best, he’s magic and memorable, but this ain’t his best.
July 28th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Macready is also good in JOHNNY ALLEGRO, an otherwise minor George Raft film with Macready’s master criminal having a taste for hunting his victims with a bow and arrow ala ‘The Most Dangerous Game.’
With that dueling style scar on his cheek he was always particularly good as Nazis and other Prussian style villains. Of course with a villain that good the trick was to find a hero who could stand up to him.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Just saw and enjoyed this on TCM.
Added an analysis to my Boetticher article:
http://mikegrost.com/boettich.htm
Jim Bannon’s voice and manner remind one of cowboy star Wild Bill Elliott. Wonder if they had the same acting teacher.
July 28th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Jim Bannon had a great voice, no doubt about it. I know he played Jack Packard in I LOVE A MYSTERY in the movies, but some sites say he played the same role on the radio. I’ll have to investigate further before I’m sure about that. In the 1940s, it was Michael Raffetto who most famously played Jack, but I imagine others did as well.
Bannon did do a lot on radio, but mostly (I think) announcing and voice-over narration.
Mike
That’s a great write-up of THE MISSING JUROR on your site. I’d have to watch the movie again before I was fully cognizant all of those camera movements and other techniques that Boetticher used.
The first time through I’m aware of them, but I’m so focused on the story, they don’t really register, if that makes sense.
September 22nd, 2016 at 3:19 pm
Have watched Missing Juror numerous times, and never fail to be amazed at Macready before and after his character went mad. Scenes in the steamroom/bathhouse with Big Mac getting his neck and throat rubbed, and his looking like, won’t say it, must be why he had to close his eyes. Bannon shows some beefcake,but George didn’t, wonder why — related to the accident that gave him such a deep, extensive scar? He sure used the scar for good effect in Knock On Any Door.
February 27th, 2021 at 12:49 am
I love George MacCready’s performances, every one of them, bar none.
It doesn’t matter to me whether he plays a gut-churning villain or not. I can take it.
I think he was supremely courageous as an actor, in that he was willing to accept such withering, vile, despicable, and inhumane characters and give them life and humanity.
When he was given a chance to play a ‘good guy’ he did so just as capably.