Opiniones de usuarios

Edward G. Robinson and George Raft team up for the second and last time in A Bullet for Joey, a cold war noir espionage thriller set in Montreal.

Their first teaming as a memorable one. They co-starred in Manpower 14 years earlier and had a fistfight on the set over the affections of co-star Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich was involved with Raft at the time and Raft got jealous of Robinson who was a very cultured man and could talk to Dietrich about things that Raft knew little about.

A whole lot of water went under the bridge in the interim and there was no reported friction between the co-stars. Marlene had gone out of Raft's life and she was never in Robinson's at all.

Robinson's a Canadian R.C.M.P. inspector and he gets drawn into an investigation that involves the kidnapping of an atomic scientist George Dolenz and the device he's working on. A whole lot of dead bodies start turning up around Dolenz including a suspicious Mountie that starts the ball rolling.

Raft is a deported American gangster, living in Lisbon, who is recruited by Communist spy Peter Van Eyck to pull off the kidnapping. Raft sneaks into Canada, gets some of his old gang back together and proceeds on the job.

A Bullet for Joey proceeds on a parallel plot track with Raft putting together the kidnapping and Robinson working on a multiple homicide investigation.

Both Robinson and Raft were now B picture players. Robinson would make a big comeback the following year in The Ten Commandments. There was not to be a comeback for George Raft however.

Look for another good performance by Audrey Totter as the gang moll who Raft recruits to entice Dolenz. Totter graced many a B film back in the day competing with Veda Ann Borg for brassiest moll.

A Bullet for Joey is good noir film with a cast headed by two guys who knew their way around the genre. It's a cold war relic of a film, but I think can still be enjoyed by today's audience.

This is an odd little relic from the 1950s. While there were quite a few gangster films made at the time as well as anti-Communism thrillers (such as MY SON, JOHN and I MARRIED A COMMUNIST), this is the only film I can think of that merges the two genres! In a highly unusual move, the Communists enlist the aid of a deported American gangster (George Raft) to orchestrate the kidnapping of a nuclear scientist. This makes the film's concept rather interesting, but the film itself is hampered by low-energy performances (particularly Edward G. Robinson and Raft to a lesser extent) and poor casting (almost none of the people spoke with French-Canadian accents despite the film supposedly taking place in Montreal). In fact, Robinson sounded pretty much like he was on sedatives! Perhaps the reason for this muted performance was just because this excellent actor was so badly miscast. As a result, it is STILL watchable but also quite skip-able as well.

This lesser and curiously-titled noir re-unites two stars (who had previously been teamed in Raoul Walsh's MANPOWER [1941]) from the gangster heyday – Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. Robinson, by now, was alternating between good-guy/authoritative roles and villainous types – so it was Raft who got saddled with the obsolete hoodlum figure (albeit a mere cog in the wheel in the plot to kidnap a nuclear scientist, with Peter van Eyck as the true ring-leader).

While I thoroughly enjoyed ILLEGAL (1955), also with Robinson and by director Allen and which actually preceded this viewing, I was less enthused with this one: tolerable in itself but not especially interesting as drama (though, again, it was concocted by two noir specialists – OUT OF THE PAST [1947]'s Geoffrey Homes, a pseudonym for Daniel Mainwaring, and A.I. Bezzerides who, soon after, would contribute the far more significant KISS ME DEADLY [1955]); still, the hard-boiled dialogue (especially as delivered by the cynical Raft) is one of the main sources of entertainment throughout the film.

For most of the duration, though, Robinson takes a back seat to the criminals' activities – whose scheme is handled in a needlessly convoluted way that involves a couple of seductions (of the scientist by Raft's moll Audrey Totter, herself a noir staple, and of his prim female assistant by one of the gangster's lackeys) and, of course, leaves a trail of murder behind it! A couple of twists late in the game see Totter really falling for the naïve scientist and Raft persuaded by Robinson into doing his patriotic duty and turning against van Eyck (atypically, the climax takes place aboard ship).

For the record, I've six more Robinson films in my "To Watch" pile – three vintage titles (the compendium TALES OF MANHATTAN [1942], the sentimental family saga OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES [1945], and the noir-ish melodrama THE RED HOUSE [1947]) and three minor outings, all of which happen to be capers, from his twilight period (OPERATION ST. PETER'S [1967] THE BIGGEST BUNDLE OF THEM ALL [1968], and IT'S YOUR MOVE [1969]).

In Montreal, a police inspector (Edward G. Robinson) slowly discovers a plot to kidnap a nuclear physicist. American mobsters, foreign spies and a blonde seductress are all involved.

John Howard Reid considered the movie dull. He said a slow pace, one-dimensional characters, and an unconvincing climax plague the film. Sadly, I tend to think he is right. I was all invested the first ten or fifteen minutes, but found myself less interested as the movie went on.

I have a special fondness for George Raft, and an even bigger fondness for Edward G. Robinson, so you simply cannot go wrong with a film that has both men. And then adding all the film noir elements, along with spies and such, you have real potential. I just do not know if they actually reached it.

After the FBI, the Post Office, and the NYPD, we travel north of the border to Montreal; where a police inspector (Edward G. Robinson) is suspicious about several deaths and a possible attempt to kidnap a nuclear physicist.

George Raft is the mobster doing a job for unknown masters to get money and back into the US. Audrey Totter is tapped to seduce the scientist to make the job easier.

Calling this noir is really stretching it. It doesn't have any of the dark seediness that one expects. It's more a straight police procedural.

Trotter is the most interesting character in the film. The rest just seem as if they are collecting paychecks.

I have always been deceived every time I have watched this Lewis Allen film, I don't know why. Despite the fact that two heavies of the American crime film genre are together. Maybe because of the mix up between gangster element and the spy - cold war- one. But it remains worth seeking and seeing only for the presence of those two. I am not sure that they worked together besides.

A Bullet for Joey (1955)

There are some quirky oddball aspects to this film that keep it interesting--but only in spurts. First of all, there's George Raft, who is past his best days, but it's interesting all the same to see an actor with some great movies in his past. The whole strange premise of the movie, which gets a little lost in petty distractions, is about Communist spying, with a gangster (Raft) doing some gangstery things across the border--in Canada. The good guy is the inimitable Edward G. Robinson, who has a minor role despite his big billing.

What drags the movie is the basics--the story, and the direction. Lewis Allen has a couple of decent films to his credit--"Suddenly" is great, and so is "The Uninvited"--but the mundane settings and amorphous plot here are sometimes just dull. I think this is classic case of too many variables that didn't quite click, and Allen couldn't lift it up to something fabulous. As usual, the best scenes are good, but even the ending, with all its drama, doesn't quite click.

I was drawn to this one, as many viewers were, by the presence of the great Edward G. Robinson and the legendary George Raft. However, not even their presence can salvage this stinker.

First off, one thing must be made clear: there seems to be, in reviews of this flick, the idea that any crime drama in black & white is "film noir," a phrase which is widely overused. This movie follows none of the conventions of film noir and cannot be called noir by any stretch of the imagination. Actually it seems to have the appearance of a made-for-TV cop drama.

Secondly, the script is simply atrocious. It is loaded with so many clichés, overripe formulations and contrived dialogue that it feels like it was written by Ed Wood. A leaden phrase like "Women are what make life a pleasure for men," comes to mind. What a howler!

Thirdly, anyone with any knowledge of espionage knows that, historically, neither the Nazis nor the Communists employed elements of the criminal underworld; they cannot be relied on.

Fourthly, this is as great an assemblage of lousy actors as I have ever seen in one flick. The level of acting is simply terrible, and that includes Robinson, who, as noted elsewhere here, phones in his performance. This is probably to be expected, with such a lousy script. Why he signed on to this effort is beyond me; he must have needed the money badly. And this flick also shows that Raft, despite his reputation, was no great actor. Audrey Totter is a familiar face, but she's nothing to write home about either.

Lastly, the concluding scene aboard the ship is so contrived, patched together and full of improbabilities as to defy belief.

To summarize in two words, skip it.

Not bad, but rather formulaic 50's crime/spy movie. However, it was redeemed by George Raft's delivery of one of the best and funniest lines I've ever heard. No spoilers here, but pay attention during the scenes between Robinson and Raft.

Edward G. Is the quintessential detective and he doesn't let down in this picture. I can't help thinking of my grandfather when I watch Raft. The low deadpan voice is a dead ringer plus he has a passing resemblance. Those who are into a study of contrasts between Robinson and Raft will surely enjoy this movie. However if you are more for slam bang action at a faster pace I'd recommend skipping this one. Overall it's slightly above average for a 50s caper with a bit of intrigue, mainly because of the two leads.

Communist agents in Canada are spying on Dr. Carl Macklin, an atomic physicist whose knowledge they want to steal. To kidnap him, Eric Hartman, the party's top man in Montreal, offers $100,000 to deported American criminal Joe Victor.

Joe's former flame Joyce Geary is blackmailed into helping with the plan. Police inspector Leduc of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigates. A thug working for Victor kills the scientist's secretary after using her to gain information. Leduc is taken prisoner aboard a ship as Hartman and Victor attempt to take Dr. Macklin with them to Europe.

Leduc pleads with Victor, who misses his native country, to do the right thing for and help stop the communists. A shootout ensues between Victor and Hartman ...

Decent crime thriller that gets a major boost by the doyens of gangster films -Edward G Robinson and George Raft - and the story is intriguing enough and there's some exciting moments, though it does drag a little and it's not too exciting at times. Raft and Robinson are a joy to watch, however- loved Raft's one liners.

Bad film-noir, if you could call it that. Its as if the stars involved were sedated through the whole film, and lets not talk about the plot.The worst performance Edward G.Robinson ever gave in a film, with his emoting over his partners death with as much passion as if a waitress served his coffee black instead of with cream. And his bad decisions were responsible for his death to boot. And Geroge Raft-first he's sort of a good guy gangster, then he turns completely cold-blooded brushing off the death of a completely innocent 21year old woman by his partner, then he turns to be a good-guy again because the writers could'nt think of anything else. I LOVE old black and white movies, but don't waster your time with this stinker.

Two groundbreaking crime genre actors from the 1930's team up in a movie that could have only come out in the middle-1950's since A BULLET FOR JOEY, while sounding like a gangster flick concerning crooked union bosses, is a bonafide Cold War Thriller, or in this case, a Cold Noir Thriller...

With Edward G. Robinson billed first but hardly the main character as an inspector/investigator in charge of trying to stop bigwig criminal George Raft from entering America through Canada, where he had flown to from Europe, where he was in hiding because of...

Well it's never entirely clear since JOEY, named after Raft's dodgy crime boss character... in cahoots with communist agents... basically takes backseat to semi-fatale Audrey Totter, hired to snare important scientist George Dolenz, who she winds up falling for...

And there's a second seduction, but in reverse... involving William Bryant coaxing the cute-while-trying-to-be-homely Toni Gerry... as legendary Robinson and Raft are basically watching, along with the audience, a multi-tier potboiler that Mrs. Totter could have controlled by herself.

In Montreal, an organ grinder with a monkey kills a RCMP officer to avoid questioning. Inspector Leduc (Edward G. Robinson) slowly uncovers an international Communist plot to kidnap an important atomic physics scientist.

This is a little espionage thriller with EGR. It's ironic that he's hunting down a communist conspiracy in the movie while struggling with the communist witch-hunt in real life. It's a little slow. It's not cinematically exciting. The setting is Canada which doesn't mean much of anything visually. It could have done something with the local French but I don't think they do that back in the day. This movie needs a couple of action scenes early. There is a little bit of action at the end but it's barely anything and it's too little, too late.

"Joey" (George Raft) arrives in Canada tasked with kidnapping a nuclear scientist on behalf of his nefarious principles. What he finds when he arrives is a rather messy state of affairs as there are already corpses mounting up and that's attracted the attention of the RCMP's finest inspector "Leduc" (Edward G. Robinson) who knows that the only thing connecting the deaths so far is the professor "Macklin" (George Dolenz). "Joey" re-assembles his old gang and that includes his ex "Joyce" (Audrey Totter) who is to try a more persuasive approach with the scientist - but one way or the other they are determined to get his secrets or himself. It's got a bit of an Cold War edge to it, this drama, and as the story develops we can see that the villain of the piece isn't fully aware of the ramifications of his task, nor of it's implications for the freedom loving nations of the world, and as the detective gets closer to tracking down who did what to whom and why, a crisis of conscience begins to trouble the unscrupulous gangster and that makes things way more perilous for just about everyone. There is not much jeopardy here and Raft is curiously underwhelming as the thrust of the plot is a little too contained by a more overt political message that rather dragged the story down. Totter also doesn't really deliver anything substantial and it takes until very near the end before it livens up enough to get Robinson out of his office and into the people smuggling racket. It's perfectly watchable but hasn't quite the bite of the usual Raft/Robinson characterisations and falls a bit flat.

If you watch this independent Canadian flick, you're going to need all your mental faculties at the ready. I fell asleep three times and couldn't make heads or tails of it! I don't know why I found it so complicated, but it did involve a kidnapping, a group of assassins, an international conspiracy theory, and two police forces - perhaps it was just too much for me.

George Raft, Audrey Totter, William Bryant, and Peter van Eyck are the bad guys, gathered from everywhere from Germany to Brazil to get close to the people who are close to a Canadian scientist, George Dolenz. Do they just want information, or is there something more sinister going on? When the bodies start dropping like flies, that question starts answering itself. Edward G. Robinson, the head of either the Canadian or American police force (I really couldn't keep track), gets called in to crack the impossible case. He's faced with no witnesses, no fingerprints, no clues, and seemingly random bodies.

Unless what I have written really pops out at you, I don't think this movie will be your cup of tea. I love Edward G. Robinson, but he didn't seem to be very happy to be in this movie. George Raft's acting talents were pretty stinky, and even though he had the lead role, it didn't seem like he wanted to be in the movie either.