Felonía

Dealing with police corruption in a small American city, The Sellout isn't all that far away from films like The Phenix City Story or Kansas City Confidential. Walter Pidgeon plays a crusading journalist trying to get the goods on bent sheriff Thomas Gomez before Gomez gets the goods on him. The MGM cast is solid throughout, including John Hodiak as the reluctant out of town prosecutor, Karl Malden as the policeman assisting him, and good ol' Whit Bissell as a whistleblower. There's a small role for Audrey Totter--whose place in the credits implies a more significant part--and oily Everett Sloane is excellent as the misguided local lawyer. There's not much original here, but the film takes itself seriously and reminds the viewer of a time when it was possible for independent journalism to hang the bad guys out to dry.

Idealistic and respected newspaper editor Walter Pidgeon (as Haven D. Allridge) is accosted by corrupt sheriff Thomas Gomez (as Kellwin "Casey" Burke) in a nearby town and treated poorly in jail. Vowing to "skin this tin badge off that sloppy shirt of yours if it's the last thing I do," Mr. Pidgeon wants his newspaper to help blast the nasty Sheriff out of office. Then, suddenly, he becomes "The Sellout" and stops his exposé. Following a likely murder, state attorney John Hodiak (as Charles "Chick" Johnson) and detective Karl Malden (as Buck Maxwell) attempt to prosecute the case, but find Pidgeon uncooperative. The transition of leading men is awkward, but this is an engaging little drama, with a nice supporting cast.

****** The Sellout (5/30/52) Gerald Mayer ~ John Hodiak, Walter Pidgeon, Karl Malden, Thomas Gomez

A slow, talky, noirish drama that's pretty light on the noir and pretty heavy on everything that makes movies not very interesting. I was drawn to this by the promise of seeing Audrey Totter, one of my favorite noir actresses, but unfortunately she plays a good girl in this one, which is nowhere nearly as fun as when she's playing a femme fatale, and she's sadly underused. With all due respect to Walter Pidgeon and John Hodiak, if Totter is in the film, it's her face I want to see, not theirs.

Grade: C-

MGM wandered out of its league when it made "The Sellout" and the result is a mildly entertaining thriller that doesn't have much tension. All the pieces are in place -- Walter Pidgeon as a crusading newspaper editor, John Hodiak as a government sleuth, Audrey Totter as the sexy pianist at a sleazy roadhouse. But whereas Warner Bros. would have given the tale a hard edge, it comes up sorta' soft in Metro's hands. Perhaps the best performances in the film go to the villains, led by Thomas Gomez as a brutal, corrupt sheriff and Everett Sloane as his smarmy mouthpiece. They're fine. But something's not quite right when the villains stroll off with the movie.

1951, the Kefauver congressional committee on organized crime and corruption is making headlines, and MGM under new head Dore Schary is trying to make that famously big-budget studio relevant to news of the day. The trouble is that the so-called Tiffany of studios just doesn't have the same feel for gritty material as a Warner Bros. or an RKO. Too bad this film doesn't sustain the harrowing feel of the first 15 minutes, when prominent editor Allridge (Pidgeon) is brutalized after a minor traffic infraction by corrupt Sheriff Burke (Gomez). Allridge's ordeal has the feel of a "sudden nightmare" to it, as if he's been abruptly forced into a savage new world where the old civilized rules no longer apply. It's a backwater county run by the sheriff like a private fiefdom and a jailhouse where inmates rule once the cell door slams shut. I like the way we're shown the difficulties state prosecutor Johnson (Hodiak) encounters in trying to rid the county of Burke and his outlaw regime.

Still and all, the longer the movie lasts, the more momentum it loses, ending with a final 20 minutes of plodding courtroom procedure. There's still some suspense in the air (why did Allridge skip town), but the initial energy has long since dissipated. At least part of the problem lies with uninspired direction that can't sustain the early sense of tension and evil. Too bad noir maestros like Phil Karlson or Anthony Mann weren't running the show. Those reviewers contrasting this film with Karlson's similar Phenix City Story are right on target. Nonetheless, the movie does have its moments, along with a vibrant turn from the under- rated Audrey Totter who never seemed to get the recognition her talent deserved.