Les dés sanglants

When I see a film was made by Monogram Studio, I usually assume it's going to be a low-budgeted stinker. Of course, there some exceptions, such as their Charlie Chan series and a few others, but generally the studio's name was NOT one associated with quality! So, when I saw this no-name cast in a Monogram picture, I naturally thought it would be adequate at best. Boy, was I wrong!

When the story begins, two thugs are fighting over the number racket. One thinks he's a lot smarter than he is and is soon killed. Soon, his brother arrives in town...fresh from WWII and the Army Air Corps. Despite his great reputation as a war hero, he's very happy to step into his brother's shoes as head of that racket. The rest of the film consists of Joe (Warren Douglas) trying to convince everyone, including himself, that he's a tough jerk. What's next for this tough guy? See the film and find out for yourself.

Warren Douglas was terrific in the film and having an actor without a familiar face worked well...helping to make the story seem credible. Excellent writing also help with this one. My only quibble, and boy is it minor, is that the ending is just TOO perfect! Still, it showed that even Monogram could make a dandy film...on occasion.

Warren Douglas is back from the war and prepared to take over his dead brother's night club. The mobbed-up guys who have been running it are not keen on the idea, but he settles them with his fists. He thinks he's paid his dues and is ready to get fat, but when it turns out that he's been using underage girls in the racy shows, and falls in love with Ramsay Ames, his conscience revives. THen it turns out his brother isn't dead.

It's a Monogram movie directed by William Beaudine, so you probably wouldn't expect it to be very good. It's not great, but it is a solid little noir, thanks to a decent script (co-written by Ivan Tors), and a cast good enough to get it on the first take, even on Monogram's uninspiring budgets.

...but there were some interesting elements to "Below the Deadline" from 1946.

This is an almost noir from Monogram directed by William "One Shot" Beaudine. The studios must have loved him.

This movie dealt the problems of a returning veteran, Joe Hilton (Warren Douglas). Certainly this has been explored in films such as "The Best Years of Our Lives," but I liked this take.

A gangster (Philip Van Zandt) dispatches two thugs to to threaten Jeff Hilton (George Meeker), using Jeff's attorney (Paul Maxey) in order to keep him from muscling in on certain rackets.

Jeff's girlfriend (Jan Wiley) convinces him to go out on his own and forget about the mobsters. We know what happens next, he's iced.

When his war hero brother Joe returns from service, seeing that his brother has been killed, he takes over his rackets. He wants revenge not only for his brother, but for these gangsters who made money on the black market while he was "eating out of cans covered with lice" and fighting for his country. Don't blame him.

He takes up with a woman (Ramsay Ames), who works in one of the clubs.

Short and not bad, and I wasn't familiar with the work of Ramsay Ames before this. She was a staggeringly beautiful woman -- and very modern looking -- someone else on this site mentioned that as well. She had a very "today" look. Apparently a lot of men fell off of catwalks at the studios trying to get a gander at her. She was multitalented - a former model and dancer-singer who had her own interview show in Spain. She was married to Man of La Mancha playwright Dale Wasserman.

Decent film, with some familiar faces who later worked a lot in TV, including Paul Maxey, Phillip Van Zandt, and the star, Warren Douglas, who became a writer and producer as well as an actor.

Why not... since it's in black-and-white, made in the 40's and has a crime theme. At that, it fits better than most now residing under that genre.

This'un has gangster Oney Kessel (Philip Van Zandt) sending two of his henchies (Charles Sullivan and Meyer Grace)to threaten Jeff Hilton (George Meeker), through Jeff's attorney, Arthur Brennan (Paul Maxey,) in an effort to stop Jeff's muscling in on Kessel's rackets. Jeff disregards the threat, and he is killed when his girl friend Vivian (Jan Wiley)talks him into going out without his mobsters, Nichols (Clancy Cooper) and "Pinky" (John Harmon.) Brennan calls in Jeff's brother Joe (Warren Douglas), a returned veteran, who takes over the 26-game racket (six dice in a bucket)as revenge against civilians who made money in the black market while he was fighting for his country. Joe beats up night-club owner Kane (George Lloyd), one of his 26-game operators, to stop him from holding out game-table receipts under pressure from the Kessel syndicate. Joe also takes up with Lynn Turner (Ramsay Ames), one of his 26-game operators (but really a nice girl when all's said and done...and stacked like nobody's business), but warns her not to try and reform him.

Reform candidate-for-mayor Vail (George Eldredge) is refused a campaign donation by Joe, who is backing the crooked incumbent Turner (Alan Bridge.) But Joe's war buddy Sam Austin (Bruce Edwards)talks Joe into backing Vail, and this serves to break the truce between Joe's gang and Kessel's hirelings and henchies...and a gang war breaks out.

The loser dies and the winner reforms. Ramsay Ames and Jan Wiley make it worth while, and George Meeker and his slickest-in-the-business moustache cash in early and that is also a plus.

Little known or discussed Gangster Film Noir where our main man "Jumpin' Joe" Hilton is just that... And in the role, Warren Douglas is perfect. He seems ready for anything and yet is cool as that proverbial cucumber... in an ice box: Just returned from World War II, having inherited his slain, more proper and distinguished (and pretentious) older brother's gambling outfit, he's got just about everything, literally...

Including a beautiful young dame in Ramsay Ames's Lynn, going from a roulette wheel worker to the girl who chips at his icy heart... Which is what makes Joe a worthy Noir persona, initially moving forward like a shark: But as cold-blooded as he may be, his recent-past... which had lasted five grueling years... provides a light at the end of the tunnel...

Joe keeps repeating the fact that, when he was in the Pacific, knee deep in a trench, other men were getting "fat" back here, back home - and now it's his chance. Which is what 99% of BELOW THE DEADLINE is... Joe's turn at bat with a game pretty much rigged in his favor, with a few important exceptions...

With a title that sounds cool enough, it hardly fits the storyline here. There's no real DEADLINE or urgency weighing Joe down. Plus the whole "crime doesn't pay" Noir Commandment is out the door from the start since the money's inherited ten minutes in... It's more a "Crime's Already Paid, So Now What?" kind of thing (and he's not a "disillusioned" returning soldier... he wants the dream i.e. Tons of moneyt but not legally!)...

But before he arrives, the prologue feels like a short film that has a nifty beginning, middle and end as Joe's classy, thin-mustached brother throws caution to the wind, entering the villain's territory while taking over particular locations from his cozy office (like, decades later, James Caan running things badly while his more patient and logical war hero younger brother waits unknowing in the wings)...

It's during these ten minutes we meet the company's faithful fat cat lawyer/advisor and an even more faithful accountant, and our second woman on board - the bad of the token Noir angel and devil dame twosome. Later on, Jan Wiley's gold digging Vivian becomes Joe's port once the nice girl can't handle the inevitable storm, and the fact her man keeps dismissing advice from a former war buddy, who, wanting Joe in on a straight business venture involving airplanes, has his heart in the right place but is actually quite lofty and downright annoying...

A double triangle - Joe and the two girls, and Joe and the good girl and his buddy doesn't amount to much, but it fills the time nicely enough, teetering in-between... Meanwhile, the boss keeps moving ahead, busting heads, proving he's in charge; and then in a more professional, non-violent manner, he tries to square things with his former rival since an antagonistic (to the mob, making him, technically, an overall protagonist) mayor could be elected...

His number one campaign promise is to delete Joe's particular trade as DEADLINE is a lean, mean yet still mellow and slowburn vehicle without red-herring distractions, convenient detours, perpetual twists and turns, too many complications or annoying self-doubts: And while Warren Douglas's character is far from being a movie-household name, in any genre, perhaps he should be. Then again that'd run what he's all about: too quick for anyone to hang a sign on, and too comfortable to give a damn about it.