Fri 25 Oct 2019
FINGER MAN. Allied Artists, 1955. Frank Lovejoy, Forrest Tucker, Peggie Castle, Timothy Carey. Director: Harold D. Schuster.
The opening voiceover narration took me back right away to the old time radio show Night Beat, which Frank Lovejoy starred in for two years between 1950 and 1952. His voice was unmistakable: strong, no-nonsense and gritty, perfect for radio and not a bad choice, either, for this full notch better than average crime drama.
In Night Beat, he played Randy Stone, a Chicago newspaperman who spent his evenings out on the streets looking for human interest stories, and always finding them. He’s on the other side of the law in Finger Man, a three-time loser named Casey Martin who’s caught hijacking a truck one time too many. His only way out of a long prison sentence is to work on the inside to help the cops bring down a multi-state racketeer named Dutch Baker (Forrest Tucker).
Helping him make a solid contact with Dutch is a girl (a very pretty Peggie Castle) who used to work for him. (Doing what is left unsaid.) Casey thinks the only way to get in solid with Dutch is to act as tough as he can, and that’s exactly what he does. Dutch’s second-in-command, Lou Terpe, played in his usual over the top fashion by Tim Carey, doesn’t convince so easily, with devastating consequences.
With Casey as solidly caught between the law and the head of the underworld as he is, Finger Man is a late but very solid entry in the category now known as film noir. In spite of budget limitations, it’s well directed and it packs quite a punch. There’s a lot going on in this one, and in my opinion, it’s well worth your time — less than 90 minutes — to sit down, make yourself comfortable, and enjoy it to the hilt.
October 25th, 2019 at 7:02 pm
In case anyone is wondering, no, this movie has nothing to do with the story by Raymond Chandler of the same title.
October 25th, 2019 at 8:54 pm
Lovejoy did some good tough little films in this period and was always worth watching or hearing on television or radio.
October 25th, 2019 at 9:27 pm
Not only is this a lough little film, but Lovejoy is awfully tough with his fists in this one as well. One the highlights in FINGER MAN is seeing pile into Timothy Carey, who was quite a bit bigger, but his larger size doesn’t help him much.
October 26th, 2019 at 6:24 am
Someone — I forget who — once said here, “The more films I watch (and I’ve watched a few) the more convinced I am that Cinema in the last half of the 20th Century was all about Timothy Carey.”
October 26th, 2019 at 7:08 am
Yes, you’re right, Dan.
From this very same blog, just over a year ago:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=56808
October 26th, 2019 at 9:10 am
I remember ‘Night Beat’ but found it just a tad slow-paced and I didn’t become a regular listener. A similarly-named show struck me in the same way: ‘Broadway is my Beat’ —a police ‘beat’ this time, of Detective Danny Clover.
Anyway –for that dry, ‘gravel’ style of voice-over narration, I gave the nod instead to ‘Rocky Jordan’, voiced by Jack Moyles.
Larry Thor, announcer for that program went on (if I’m not mistaken) to play Clover in the show cited above. Odd instance.
Tim Carey is indeed, outlandishly good. I was startled to spot him recently –uncredited cameo– in Susan Hayward’s 1955 “I’ll Cry Tomorrow”, biopic of Broadway star Lilian Roth’s alcoholic tailspin. At one point Roth winds up being passed from one bum to another in a Bowery flophouse and it is Tim Carry who gets her last. He doesn’t say a word, just sneers and cinches up his grimy bathrobe. Wince…