Shed No Tears

I love film noir movies. And, although "Shed No Tears" is from a tiny production company (Equity Pictures) and has mostly small-time or over the hill actors, it's a top film--gritty, intelligently written and cold-hearted...the way you WANT noir to be!

When the film begins, a husband and wife have just set up the fake death of the husband. Using a corpse they bought, they then started a fire in a motel room and made it appear as if the husband was the victim. The plan is to then use the husband's insurance policy to get rich and they'll take off and start a new life. However, what the man (Wallace Ford) doesn't know is that his wife is scum....a true femme fatale. You see, his beloved young wife (June Vincent) already has another lover and is planning on keeping all the money!

Into this twisted tale of domestic bliss comes an unknown quantity-- the husband's adult son from a previous marriage. No one anticipated that he'd not believe the way his father supposedly died--and he hires a skunk of a private detective to investigate. I say the dick is a skunk because he soon figures out what's happening and he plans on bleeding the 'grieving widow' of at least some of her insurance money.

If it sounds like most of the people in this film are scum, you have it right. Rarely have I seen a film with so many wonderful twists-- all because most everyone (aside from the son) are just dirt! Additionally, great dialog, lots of smart writing, acting and direction make this a surprisingly strong and entertaining film.

Wallace Ford fakes his own death and heads off to Washington until his wife, June Vincent, can can collect his insurance. Then they'll be off to Mexico to enjoy the money. Ford doesn't know that Vincent has a chiseling boyfriend. While the police agree it looks like an accident, the insurance company wants to investigate. Ford's son, Dick Hogan, thinks it looks suspicious and hires P. I. Johnstone White. White proceeds to play every side for profit.

Director Jean Yarborough has gotten his hands on a nice script by Brown Holmes, Virginia M. Cooke and Don Martin, Unfortunately, what could have been a noir with a mordant comedy turn in the Johnstone role (think of Laughton in THE BRIBE) turns out to be a competent turn by some decent performers; it demonstrates why none of them got out of the B movies. The question is never a matter of what the player will do next, nor how skilled cameraman Frank Redman will shoot this particular shot. Instead, it becomes a matter of wondering where this fascinating script will lead these characters.

Directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring Wallace Ford and June Vincent, Shed No Tears was once one of those lost film noirs that noiristas craved to see. Now widely available to view, it proves to be a decent journey into noirville, even if it becomes a touch shaky come the final third.

Plot has Vincent as a devious femme fatale wife who convinces her husband (Ford) to fake his own death. The plan is to get rich on the insurance claim, but soon it becomes apparent that hubby is caught in a web of murder, blackmail and treachery. The plot dynamics are laid out for us very early in the peace, leaving the rest of the narrative to tease us with the shifty shenanigans of the protagonists. Classic noir staples are adhered to with the characterisations, viper woman, dupes, dopes, crooks and cronies. Yarbrough moves it along at a good old "B noir" clip, while the screenplay has enough twists and surprises in it to keep the noir faithful pleased. 7/10

She certainly shed no tears, not even when her lover was murdered. Even less she shed any tears at the loss of her first husband, but didn't he tell her explicitly, when they met for the last time, to shed no tears? She looks very much like Ann Todd in this film, callous, calculating, ruthless and merciless, a shrewd beautiful woman at her most irresistible, and her husband really loves her, as does her lover, while it's hard to believe that she could love anyone. All she has is her beauty, all the rest is fraud and deceit. It's a very well written story, the dialog is terrific, and the detective (Johnstone. White) provides all the matchless eloquence. It's a messy story, and what a mess it will be to sort out afterwards, while at least one got out of it alive. It all starts with a fire and someone falling out of the window irrecognizable for his burns, and the end is perfectly logical. It's not a great film, but it is worth watching indeed for its very crooked tale.

Wallace Ford fakes his death in a hotel room fire. He hooks up with his much younger wife (who came up with the idea of the deception), June Vincent, and together they plan on bilking the insurance company for the payoff of 50 grand which will reunite them once she collects. She watches as he gets on the bus, then meets her boyfriend in the parking lot and they talk of how they're going to spend the money.

All this happens in the first ten minutes or so - there's no fat on this baby.

But meanwhile, Ford's son thinks that something is amiss, he thinks that Vincent killed Ford herself and he hires an investigator to prove it. This is where things really start perking as the Clifton Webb-like sleuth, played wonderfully by Johnstone White, soon figures out what's going on and he starts playing the supposed widow and the son against each other as well as Ford himself who comes back to town and discovers his wife in a clinch with her boyfriend.

But wait - there's still more but you're going to have to find out for yourself. Jean Yarbrough, veteran of just about every kind of movie and TV genre, manages to keep one's interest despite a lack of noirish touches. It's likely that he had to get this done in a week or so, so there wasn't any time for complicated camera set-ups. The story here is the main thing, you probably will not be disappointed.