Violence

This 1947 Poverty Row film noir about some racketeers organizing returning vets into strong-arm squads has an awful score of overwrought music from Edward J. Kay. Nancy Coleman is investigating the organization, but comes down with amnesia.

Since we know the set-up before she comes down with memory loss, there's no sense of noirish what-in-hell-is-going-on suspense. It all comes down to a cozy non-mystery shot on small sets with occasional bouts of rear projection, punctuated by loud, frantic musical stings. Besides Coleman, we get Sidney Sheldon, Michael O'Shea and Emory Parnell.

"Violence" is a 1947 low budget black and white film dealing with the problem of veterans adjusting to a society that seemingly doesn't provide adequately for their post-war needs. Most viewers today may not understand the topic but in 1947 this was a major topic as returning servicemen tried to adjust to society and as society tried to absorb them back into the workforce and life in general.

During the War strikes were forbidden and women took on major roles in the workforce. With millions of returning servicemen looking for jobs, businesses took the opportunity to reduce wages. So jobs were in short supply and wages were low. Many industries were scaling down from war production. Strikes began in major industries.

In the Great Strike Wave of 1945-46 Truman threatened to take over railroads if strikes persisted. Democrats lost the election in 1946 and the Republicans passed the Taft-Hartley Act limiting the ability of unions to strike.

On top of this, many veterans had mental health problems that were not being treated, promoting Truman to establish NIMH in 1946.

In the middle of this turmoil, HUAC was created in 1945 and became extremely active in 1947.

By the early 50s the Cold War was well in progress and the U.S. experienced enormous prosperity, and this transitional period between 1945 and 1950 was forgotten.

This film, as ordinary as it is, reflects some of the concerns of the times.

My favorite films about this era are "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946), "Till the End of Time" (1946), "Home of the Brave" (1949), and "The Men" (1950).

There's a corruption plot here, and in almost every movie with a corruption plot, it is the dogooder politician behind the corruption. I'm not giving any secrets here. This movie is markedly different for some reason. My suspicion is they either ran out of film, money or time and had to wrap it up.

With peter whitney as the joker (no it's not set in gotham city) and sheldon leonard (no, he's not telling anyone which elevator or railroad train to take), the stage is set for a great reveal at the end of mr x's identity (no it's not elon musk or pierre watkin), but then the story just ends and michael o'shea goes off with the cute muckraking reporter. Also featured in here, as a doctor, was john (no he's not telling the copyboy don't call me chief) hamilton, a star on early tv. The most important thing in this movie is it prepared us for a corrupt, much bankrupted businessman to make a lot of noise about cleaning out the swamp, so to speak, while corrupting it himself.

Reporter Ann Dwire is undercover in a neo-fascist group as the secretary to the leader, True Dawson. They are recruiting disgruntled veterans returning from the war. She is ready to escape to report her findings to her Chicago newspaper but group member Fred Stalk is suspicious. Her cab is being pursued and ends up in a crash. She is left with amnesia and everything else burnt up in the fire. She recalls her fake identity Ann Mason. She returns to her fake job and speaking in support of the movement.

The premise is good but the execution is weak. There is good violent plot but it falters on execution. Lead actress Nancy Coleman is fine. It's mostly in the weak production and direction. I do like the general premise but this is not good.

The film is about a group which calls itself "The United Defenders". It's a pseudo-political group that has very vague goals and agenda for achieving it apart from mob violence. The group is run by some cynical men with no real political beliefs...just the belief that they can lead stupid veterans into creating a fascist-like organization in order to make the leaders rich. Ann works for the group but really is a reporter there to get the dirt on this hateful group.

So far, I liked the film. However, when Ann heads to Chicago to meet with her publisher, the movie gets a bit dumb. She's in an accident and has amnesia!!! I hate the amnesia bit...it's way overused in films and would make sense if Ann suffered a massive head injury...which she didn't! No head bandage...no obvious trauma of any kind...just movie amnesia!!! Despite this bad plot device, the film did remain interesting...mostly because the villains (led by Sheldon Leonard) were enjoyable to watch. But at heart, the film misses the mark despite being quite entertaining at times.