L'homme de main

Johnny Allegro has George Raft in the title role as an ex-con trying to go straight. Under an alias he's living life as a hotel florist, but manages to get himself involved with the beautiful Nina Foch and get himself framed for a cop killing.

Foch is slightly married to the epicene George MacReady whom the Feds want to nab real bad. It's not just his elaborate counterfeiting operation that they want to shut down. MacReady is being financed by the Soviet Union and he's got quite a setup in distributing counterfeit and raking off a big bundle from his Soviet handler Ivan Triesault. MacReady and Foch live in fine style on an unknown Caribbean island that the Feds would like to know the location of to bust MacReady and his operation. In the end MacReady proves too much for his Soviet bosses.

Not so with Raft and his contact Will Geer who plays a Treasury agent. Geer in many spots steals the film from the leads with a nice laconic performance, not unlike his Wyatt Earp in Winchester 73.

Johnny Allegro is typical of the action/noir type films that Raft was doing at this point in his career. Soon he'd be working for Poverty Row Lippert films and Johnny Allegro from Columbia's B picture unit looked like Citizen Kane next to their stuff.

Fans of George Raft will be pleased. Especially with that ending borrowed from The Most Dangerous Game.

George Raft made a conscious decision to play ethical central characters--tough on his pocketbook, perhaps, but doing what was necessary. He turned down parts that others made successful in the popular sense; but "Johnny Allegro" was worth making, as "High Sierra" was not, not as "fiction". And this was a man who had scene first hand the negative influence gangsters could have on lives. In this case, Raft agreed to play a character well within his somewhat-limited range. Johnny Allegro is no saint, no genius. But he is a man willing to do the right thing to square himself with the law, and help the police investigate an "untouchable", a Mr. Big brilliant played by George Macready. Ted Tetzlaff directed this interesting mission film, with his usual skill, from a script by Karen de Wolf, Gene Endore and James Edward Grant. The idea is that Macready smuggles men to a remote Caribbean island, men who need to escape the law, and they then serve his criminal organization loyally because they must. Johnny's police pals set him up as a man on the lam for having killed a policeman to make his escape, all faked; then he is able to join another escapee and find his way to the island through the villain's usual channels. Then he falls in love with someone Macready, the usual Renaissance man and intellectual villainized in US films--holds as his prize possession--lovely Nina Foch, his wife. Investigating the island to which he has been spirited, he finds a way to call in the cops and cover his actions. But then he and Foch must escape Macready and his bow and arrow--with which he kills the disloyal in his empire...The film is attractive in B/W but not stylish; yet the cast is above average. other players include Will Geer as Raft's boss who believes in him,, Thomas Browne Henry as his boss who does not, Gloria Henry, Ivan Triesault, Harry Antrim, Bill Phillips, and many others. George Duning wrote the fine music and Frank Tuttle did the elaborate set decorations. The other element in the film is the noir mission sense of being beyond help, and the growing romance between Raft and the brilliant Nina Foch, who for once is given a sympathetic part in a film. This is a well- paced, interesting and well-mounted "B" effort; and one that bears repeated watching for its mystery, its situation-derived characters and the under-theme of loyalty which is interestingly examined. Above average.

This is one more more or less MOST DANGEROUS GAME rip-off, where the main interest is for me the face off between George Raft and George Mcready, the two most notorious villains of those days; I am not sure they played together before or after. Maybe I am wrong.... This is one good film from director Tetzlaff, a good noir adventure movie, but unfortunately too predictable for my taste. Forget it if you wish to really enjoy this movie, focus on the directing and this splendid cast: Mcready - Raft. It is not a wide known feature, such a shame, because it is worth watching, no matter my own taste concerning the ending for instance. Excellent little gem.

Johnny Allegro (George Raft) is a florist in Los Angeles with a dark secret. Femme fatale Glenda Chapman (Nina Foch) gets him to help elude the police. Treasury Department agents blackmail him into going undercover to discover her secret plot.

Setting up the plot is a little bit wonky and a little rushed. Raft does fine but this cannot rise above its B-movie nature. There is also an element of James Bond villainy and trying to be high class style. I sorta expected Allegro to order a martini although Raft is definitely no Bond. The movie is trying to be a few things at the same time but it falls a little flat. The tension is never raised that high. The bow and arrow is probably the definition of that. It's a little odd but it's not intense. It's also a little camp like summer camp. I'm giving this a passing grade.

I know the '49 film "Johnny Allegro" was late in George Raft's career and he was at or near age 54 when he did this picture in Los Angeles, but since the film is in black and white it also hides a lot of aged looks on an actor's face, etc..... However, "Johnny Allegro" is still one of his better starring efforts.....

Odd as it seems, George Raft is one of my top classic gangster figures from the golden age of Hollywood. However, I must admit, George Raft was usually better when he was the supporting actor and not so much as the lead.. I guess the reason is, as a supporter in a film, George Raft had the opportunity of working with guys like James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Paul Muni and Humphrey Bogart... Even if the script was below par, with the aide of an all-star cast it often can lift a poor film up a bit because of the cast of actors appearing in the scenes together.... I noticed that when George Raft was the lead actor, he often was forced to carry the film alone and was working with good but "Lesser" actors who weren't as popular with film viewer's.... Thus, those type of films get reduced to "B" quality.....

I guess that George Raft's peak years in Hollywood was more than likely between 1938 to 1945...... By '45 George Raft was age 50 and fully wearing some upper hair-piece to cover the horse shoe.... Cheers to George Raft....

MR.BILL Raleigh