Step by Step

From what I've heard about Lawrence Tierney, he often played brutal tough guys, but here he played against type, as a clean cut Marine just home from WWII who meets a blonde on the beach (Anne Jeffreys). The blonde returns to her beach house, and when the Marine locks his keys in his car it's a great excuse to knock on her door for help . . . but the people in the house say they've never heard of her. Thus begins a merry little chase film. With a running time of just about an hour, you could do worse with your time!

This programmer is action packed with a story filled with intrigue and suspense. It was released during the transitional year 1946 when Hollywood was switching from the Nazi/Japanese menace to the Communist Cold War threat. Apparently, this entertaining little item was a hold over from the year before.

"Step by Step" deals with a Nazi spy ring in American attempting to stop vital intelligence information from reaching a US senator, involving murder and impersonation. Two innocents, Evelyn Smith (Anne Jeffreys) and Johnny Christopher (Lawrence Tierney)--if you can believe Tierney as an innocent--stumble into the espionage web as a result of a chance confrontation on the beach where Christopher is walking his dog, Bazooka, a friendly little mutt who's not bad as a Nazi hunter. Christopher becomes suspicious when the Nazi agents try to pass one of their own, Gretchen (Myrna Dell), off as Evelyn. Christopher comments to the effect that Gretchen has the body but not the face. "She looks like she just bit into a green persimmon," is one comment used in the film to describe Gretchen's puss. Christopher and Smith find an ally in motel keeper, Caleb Simpson (George Cleveland), a jolly old chap who provides a lot of fun in this otherwise rather dour tale of mistaken identity.

One of the best program thrillers to come out of Hollywood at the time, the acting is first rate with Lawrence Tierney playing against type. He was the definitive big screen "Dillinger," released the year before, until Warren Oates came along nearly thirty years later to equal his performance.

A programmer was approximately an hour-long B (budget) film released to play as a second feature to a major Hollywood release or as a double feature with another B movie. This is the way it worked in my home town: The major release would play as an "owl show," beginning at midnight on Saturday. It provided a good excuse for a teenager, called youngster back then, to keep his date out late without upsetting her parents too much. The major flick would continue to play on Sunday through Tuesday. Then for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the early evening show on Saturday, a double feature, sometimes a triple feature, would be shown which presented the programmers such as "Step by Step." Included in all this would be cartoons, selected short subjects, advertisements, previews (coming attractions), and newsreels. Saturday afternoons were set aside for the kids. Usually, B westerns, two or three, would be shown along with cartoons, shorts, advertising, previews, newsreels, plus the added attraction of a serial. This was a treat for the children. For only a nickle or later a dime, kids would be entertained all afternoon while their parents shopped or took care of other business. They might all stay around for the early evening shows. Only the teens and adults usually stayed for the owl show.

Phil Rosen directs this B picture with flair and to that end he is greatly helped by the debonair and good looking leads, Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys, the latter a stunning beauty reminiscent of a pinup model... and a very, very cute mutt who gets to have the last snarl in the movie!

Cinematography is quite good for a B pic, action sequences - especially the fisticuffs - are well worked (though you can tell a stuntman does Tierney's fight sequences), and the script is strong, credible and very funny in parts, with the abovementioned cute dog making us wag our tails...

At a short 61', a most enjoyable way to spend time.

Lawrence Tierney didn't often get to play good guys, and--judging by his performance in this compact, tight little actioner--he's actually pretty good at it. Tierney plays an ex-Marine who inadvertently gets mixed up with a pretty blonde (Anne Jeffreys, looking fetching), German spies and a murdered secret agent. There's more comedy than you usually see in a Tierney picture but there's also the kind of shootouts and fisticuffs you expect in a Tierney picture, and director Phil Rosen expertly blends them all together; in fact, this is probably the best of Rosen's pictures that I've seem (he could usually be found grinding out cheap Bowery Boys programmers for Monogram and shoddy jungle pictures, and worse, for PRC). There's a good supporting cast--John Hamilton, George Cleveland, James Flavin--it's well acted, moves like lightning and everything gets wrapped in just about an hour. Location shooting along the California coast helps greatly. A fun picture, definitely worth an hour of your time.

From somewhere "back east," pretty blonde Anne Jeffreys (as Evelyn Smith) arrives on the Southern California coast to work for a US Senator. Because he is to receive some delicately "top secret" information about Nazis plotting a post-World War II comeback, Ms. Jeffreys is sent to the beach for a swim. Comely filling her striped bikini, Jeffreys attracts wolf whistles, a "Hubba, hubba!" and binoculars from handsome ex-Marine Lawrence Tierney (as Johnny Christopher). Changing into his bathing trunks, Mr. Tierney moves in for a closer look. Despite having a cute little dog "Bazooka" and a beefy frame, Tierney is rebuffed on the beach and Jeffreys goes home. Accidentally locked out of his car after his own swim, Tierney goes to the Senator's mansion to ask Jeffreys for help...

There, Tierney is told Jeffreys doesn't exist and is introduced to another blonde claiming to be the Senator's secretary...

Producer Sid Rogell's bottom-billed B-picture is intriguing and well-paced. No doubt "Step by Step" pleased many filmgoers more than whatever accompanied it on a double-feature or matinée. The plot is typically silly and melodramatically played, but never tries to be anything else. Veteran director Phil Rosen know the territory and moves it briskly. Paul Sawtell's soundtrack music appropriately evokes old Hollywood serials. Often cast as a hardened criminal, Tierney is fine as a hero –he should have been cast this way more often. He and "Bazooka" are a good team. Jeffreys is lovely. Leading the capable supporting characters is almost impossibly helpful ex-Marine motel manager George Cleveland (as Caleb Simpson). This is not a bad way to fill an hour, if you've got one.

******* Step by Step (8/23/46) Phil Rosen ~ Lawrence Tierney, Anne Jeffreys, George Cleveland, Phil Warren