The Big Chase

There is only one thing wrong with reviewing films on IMDb, and that is that there is no negative rating facility - i.e., rating a film below 1 (or preferably below zero). This is a film that deserves that rating, and I can't believe that the average of the four prior reviews comes to 5.1. I mean, the old joke about a film that wasn't so much released as simply escaped could have been invented for this film, which is absolutely the worst movie I've seen in about 5 years. Oy! Yet it is peopled by some pretty good actors. Did they read the script? Was there a script? The scenes between Langan and Jergens could have been written by a 10-year-old romantically-inclined little girl, except that would be insulting to 10-year-old romantically-inclined little girls. Kennedy's role is similarly ill-suited to anything approaching the dramatic arts, but at least it's better than Lon Chaney's dialogue. Oh, Lon Chaney doesn't have any dialogue? Then maybe Chaney's role is a better fit for this abortion of a movie. Jergens is the only one in the film who gives what sounds like solid readings, and here is Hollywood's ultimate late-1940s-early 1950s combination bad girl, gun moll, peroxide blonde, floozy (you name it) and she's playing a role that was tailor-made for Shirley Jones! What really annoyed me most about this film, other than its purely amateurish acting, photography, dialogue, presentation, etc. was that I bought it for Lon Chaney, and Lon is suddenly introduced into the film two-thirds of the way through it, sitting in the back seat of a speeding car, and we never even find out who he is (oh, we can infer such things, but golly gee, fellas, that's what a screenplay is for), and except for his hitting a guard over the head, and then running away from the cops through a railroad yard, that is pretty much where he remains. He has not a single line of dialogue, no interplay of any kind with the other characters in the car, etc., etc. And the woman who is somewhat pivotal to the story (well, if you can consider it a story), and who is the getaway driver for these miscreants, also has not a single word of dialogue, and gets shot in the back and thrown into a tar pit without so much as emitting a scream. She, too, must have liked the script. And Jim Davis, only 6 years after playing a leading man to Bette Davis, is stuck in this, too. His dialogue comes mostly in an early prison scene, and is delivered almost like it matters, which may be why he's the only one of these people who ended up with a decent post-BIG CHASE career (but only on TV, certainly not in films). I go back far enough to remember being originally introduced to Glenn Langan on the radio; this and THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN convince me that he should have remained on the radio. No doubt Mrs. Langan (the gorgeous Adele) took the expectant mother role in this film to support his career. No wonder she opted for retirement within another two or three years, but at least she provides something to look at when the film veers away from its chase scenes. (As for her smoking and drinking a bit heavily in the eighth month of her pregnancy, this was years before the Attorney General's report, and maybe Lippert was hoping for a sequel like THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT. Stranger anticipations have been noted in Hollywood.) And maybe I've been spoiled by THE FRENCH CONNECTION, but the big chase scene for which this film is named is pretty cheesy at best. Everything here looks like an Ed Wood product, except not half as professional and not a tenth as entertaining.

Usually the label Lippert Pictures on anything makes it suspect to quality. But I found this one to be an excellent crime drama. As for the title The Big Chase it certainly lives up to that as about the last third is nothing but chase scenes.

This film had its origins in a short subject that Lippert did the year before. The Last Bandit was the short subject and it was virtually a silent film concentrating on nothing but the crime aspect of this story. For The Big Chase the heist that is planned by Jim Davis is blended nicely with the story of Glenn Langan the police officer in pursuit of the robbers.

Douglas Kennedy who is an LAPD police lieutenant and who looks upon Langan as sort of a protégé narrates both the Langan and the heist stories to reporter Joe Flynn. While Korean war veteran Langan is learning the ropes as a rookie cop, Davis is working out a heist while still in prison. The story of Langan who with wife Adele Jergens is expecting their first runs parallel with the heist until the final confrontation.

If you like action and chase scenes, The Big Chase is definitely your kind of film.

Sure, the acting is abysmal but try to look beyond that. This is pure 1950s schlock, probably not intentionally so. The footage from the original 3-D scenes is so blatant - throw everything at the camera including a steam locomotive - that one can only laugh. Not to laugh at is the very smoggy backdrop they were filming in; this is the only movie I have seen that shows L.A. like it really was. I lived there at the time and it was that bad most days, sometimes worse. On a lighter note, check out the gorgeous 1954 Chrysler convertible with the wire wheels. Ultra desirable today, if you have a spare $40,000 or $50,000 pick one up but do not run any roadblocks in it!

"The Big Chase" is a B-movie released by tiny Lippert Productions...a studio which made the cheapest of cheap films during its run. It also appears to have been assembled from a couple different productions...one a silly 3-D film with lots of over-the-top stunts. Yet, despite all this, it's actually a GOOD film...worth seeing and enjoyable.

The story is a drama about a gang of crooks planning a heist and shows the policework done to bring them to justice. It's told in a straight forward, almost documentary style way and it's also awfully violent for 1954...which actually helps the movie and gives it some noir elements. No, it's not exactly film noir, as it lacks the artistry and great camerawork of a good noir film...but it still works nevertheless.

Robert L. Lippert's June 1954 release of "The Big Chase" was hardly an auspicious event, but coming one year after the original 3-D short "Bandit Island" from March 1953, serves as the only glimpse of what is now a lost film. Robert L. Lippert Jr. directed "Bandit Island" in color without a script or dialogue, a total of four days of shooting, with Lon Chaney contributing ideas on how the story should be told, and supplying stuntmen he knew from years past to perform their usual thing (Lou Roberson takes the fall from the helicopter, while Gil Perkins plays the robbed payroll clerk). Less than 20 minutes of "Bandit Island" is used however, beginning at the 35 minute mark of a 59 minute programmer, with nearly 40 minutes of dull exposition bringing back Glenn Langan, Jim Davis, and Jay Lawrence to repeat their roles from the year before (only Lon Chaney remains absent from the newly shot scenes). While "Bandit" was filmed in gorgeous 3-D color, the 2-D "Chase" is strictly routine black and white, as Langan is joined by real-life wife Adele Jergens to play on screen wife, pregnant with child, endlessly fretting over his dangerous job while hubby does all the cooking (I kid you not!). Meanwhile, the new character of Police Lt. Ned Daggert (Douglas Kennedy) practically narrates the entire film to a newshound played by Youngstown's own Joe Flynn (McHALE'S NAVY), here billed as 'Joseph Flynn' in virtually his feature film debut (he later appears opposite Lon Chaney in Allied Artists' "Indestructible Man"). We see Jim Davis and Jay Lawrence in newly shot prison footage, spending six months to plot a payroll robbery that looks as though they cooked it all up during a 5 minute coffee break! Glenn Langan cooks, Adele Jergens boozes and smokes, Douglas Kennedy narrates at tortoise level speed, making the 'big chase' seem more impressive than it really is. The director was longtime film editor Arthur David Hilton, whose only other credits in that capacity were "The Return of Jesse James" and "Cat-Women of the Moon." It's nice to see Lon Chaney in anything, but like everyone else from "Bandit Island," his characterization is mute and nonexistent, henchman Kip biting the dust at the railway yard, in what amounts to little more than three minutes-plus screen time (his demise is accompanied by the musical theme from Bela Lugosi's 1940 "The Devil Bat"). Even Chaney fans will feel let down by this one, the actor's first effort for Lippert Pictures, followed by two more, "The Black Pirates" and "The Silver Star." Producer Robert L. Lippert Jr. fondly recalled Chaney as a real pro who knew his business, half drunk half the time, yet always reliable and never holding up production.