Fri 9 Jan 2009
LOAN SHARK. Encore Productions/Lippert, 1952. George Raft, Dorothy Hart, Paul Stewart, John Hoyt, Helen Westcott, Margia Dean, Larry Dobkin. Director: Seymour Friedman.
Loan shark racketeering must have been big business in 1952 to have warranted the production of an entire movie devoted to it and warning the American citizenry of its evil perniciousness.
Filmed on location in part in a tire plant, the film occasionally has the feel of a documentary feature, and then in others (but not enough) as a film noir.
Such as the opening scene, with a frightened, hunched up blue collar type of guy trying to make a getaway from the gang of hoodlums he’s in too deep with. With the rain coming down at night, the sidewalks glistening in the street lights, fear exuding from every inch of the man’s being – this is it, the real thing, you think.
And once in while the promise of this prelude is kept, but not often enough to warrant a recommendation from me. Other reviewers have been more positive, but George Raft’s monotone approach to acting has never appealed to me, and at 57 he’s far too old to be romancing Dolores Hart, who was just over half his age at the time.
Raft plays Joe Gargen, recently released from prison. When his sister’s husband is killed by the lone shark syndicate, Gargen is convinced to work undercover not only to obtain proof that they did, but to nab the guy at the top as well.
Dolores Hart, whose first appearance on this movie is bound to make the jaws of the male half of the audience drop in awe. One barely remembers what a cleverly cantilevered bra can do for a woman’s figure, but in the 1950s, geniuses walked on this planet.
Alas, this was the last movie she ever made. She appeared in a few television shows over the next two years, and that was it. The end of her show business career, a loss to movie viewers I’m still mourning today. (She went on to work for the Red Cross and the United Nations.)
She’s Ann Nelson in this movie, the downstairs neighbor to Gargen’s sister, and one simply cannot fathom her interest in him. Vice versa, yes. Just out of prison, he forcibly takes a kiss the same evening he meets her. She angrily pushes him away, but are they still friends the next day? Yes,and no matter how long I think about it, I still don’t get it.
But as for the bad guys, now we’re talking. Paul Stewart, John Hoyt and Larry Dobkin are perfectly cast, oozing evil from their very pores. They’re names you should remember if you watch many crime films like this from the 50s and 60s.
Margia Dean didn’t have a movie career that anyone remembers, but as Ivy, a good-looking waitress in a joint across from the tire factory, she can take a pass with the best of them, with plenty of repartee to go with it. It wasn’t a big part, but she made the most of it.
January 10th, 2009 at 12:59 am
I saw this movie a few months ago(It’s part of the Forgotten Noir box sets) and I had the same reaction as you concerning George Raft. He’s not called “The Great Stone Face” for nothing. But I love crime and film noir movies and enjoyed even this mediocre effort.
Now I’m going to watch PICKUP starring the Ed Wood of crime films, Hugo Haas. Beverly Michaels is in this and if she is anywhere near the maneater she was in WICKED WOMAN, then I may not survive the night.
January 10th, 2009 at 1:07 am
I think the only Hugo Haas film(s) I’ve seen had Cleo Moore in them. If you were to ask me which one(s), I couldn’t tell you, as the story lines were all variations on the same theme.
— Steve
PS. Is it morning where you are now? Can you walk?
January 10th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Somehow I managed to survive the team of Beverly Michaels and Hugo Haas in PICKUP. Half the movie I almost died laughing and the other half I almost choked drooling. Beverly Michaels is just too much.
I just saw Hugo Haas and Cleo Moore in ONE GIRL’S CONFESSION. They made a half dozen or so movies together, most of which I have. When some people talk about girls with bazookas, they must of been referring to girls like Cleo Moore.
January 10th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Walker
As usual, every time I write and post a review of a movie I’ve just seen, I end up with adding 10 to 15 more to my “must see” list.
— Steve
January 10th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Steve:
Have you ever seen a film called “Crime Against Joe”? I did a short review of it on the GADetection Forum last July and was wondering what you might think of it:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GAdetection/message/17475
Best regards,
Mike
January 10th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Steve,
The only film I’ve seen directed by Seymour Friedman is “The Crime Doctor’s Diary”, the last of the series of Crime Doctor movies. It is neither bad nor good – rather just sort of OK. That seems to be how you are ranking “Loan Shark”.
As for Lee Sholem of “Crime Against Joe”, both he and the movie are completely new to me.
The bottom line: film historians don’t really know too much about B-Movies. They don’t watch B’s much, and rarely record their reactions. So there are thousands of B’s like these, who hardly anyone has watched since their release. We are in Darkest Obscurity here…
*
IMHO, discussions of whether a certain movie is “really a film noir” can be frustrating, maybe futile. Alain Silver, the film noir expert, defines film noir as “Hollywood crime films made from 1940-1962 that are not series whodunits” (such as the Saint, the Falcon, Charlie Chan, etc.) By this definition, both “Loan Shark” and “Crime Against Joe” are automatically film noir.
We can then ask whether “Loan Shark” shares characteristics with the great noir films – and give the opening “night and rain” as a classic example. It’s in lots of great noir movies (Woman in the Window, My Name Is Julia Ross, etc.)
January 11th, 2009 at 1:06 am
CRIME AGAINST JOE is a movie that’s managed to fly totally beneath my radar. I’ve never heard of it … and of course it’s now a Must See…!
Rather than leave Mike Tooney’s link hidden in a comment where relatively few people are going to see it, I’ve just posted it as a separate blog entry.
See https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=960, if you’ve come here first.
And to Mike Grost, yes, I’ve felt that way too about some of the movies I’ve been reviewing … Darkest Obscurity indeed!
Whether they’re noir or not, I love B-movies. Most of the A-pictures that TCM shows many times over, I have no interest in. February is Oscar month over there. Yawn.
I doubt if you’ll ever see Ma and Pa Kettle reviewed here, or the Francis movies, but movies like LOAN SHARK, CRIME AGAINST JOE, of course. And small budget westerns, war films, comedies, musicals or whatever — they’re terrific!
— Steve