The Pretender

With a solid cast and a good storyline, this film fits the bill for decent noir. Although made on a budget from a secondary studio, with less than great production values, the story is so compelling, that it will keep your attention from beginning to end. An investment expert gets knee deep in debt and marries a rich heiress to bail himself out, but there are complications. You will see them unfold as the story unwinds. A real treat. Reminiscent of The Scoundrel with George Sanders.

Albert Dekker does a great job as your average sleazeball broker, who would sell his own mother for a few bucks. The rest of the cast does an admirable job as well, with most playing gullible customers. Just so reminiscent of Wall Street, where I used to work selling baseball cards in front of the stock exchange.

A banker named Kenneth Holden (Albert Dekker) has been stealing funds from an estate and wants to marry the heiress named Claire (Catherine Craig) to basically keep the cashflow going. However, she has a fiancé. Holden orders a hit on him, simply saying to kill the guy the heiress is with. However (part 2), in short order, Claire breaks up with her fiancé and begins seeing Holden. But wait a minute, wasn't there something about a hit...?

There's another movie or two like this I've seen with the same general premise, but I can't remember the names. For all I know, maybe this predates them. I will say that for the first 2/3 of the movie, it's somewhat slow...but man does it pick up in the last 1/3! It gets really interesting and kinda twisty. A good plot gets better and better, anchored by Dekker's even-keeledness, never going overboard even when things got really bad.

In the end, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I'd see it again someday, in fact!

P.S. Recognize the second butler? It's Charles Middleton, probably most famous for playing Ming the Merciless. :)

What would it have been like if David Lynch were sitting in the director's chair in the golden age of film noir? This picture might give a hint of what it may have looked like. The thing is populated with phantoms inhabiting the bodies of some of the screen's most dastardly character types. There goes Charles Middleton posing as a butler from the nether regions. And here comes a young doctor in the guise of Charles Drake. I wonder what else he cuts up when he slithers out the door in the evening? And then there's the film's handsome, middle aged, Albert Dekker, in a bravura performance as an embezzler. He continually wrings his hands and worries about other fantasies that are too diseased for the light of night. He becomes obsessed and woefully paranoid about "those who are coming" to get him. He locks himself into his "fine and private" room there to gorge himself on a worthless diet of potted meats and stale crackers. His self perpetuated madness takes on epic proportions as he tries to get away from his internal horror and this makes for the ultimate bad choice in causing him to forfeit his life in a most chilling manner.

This is truly a low budget nightmare noir filmed with consummate skill and gusto by the German cinematographer John Alton before his career with the terrific director Anthony Mann. The two of them made some of the finest film noirs to grace the screen. Also, this particular picture uses forced perspective and scrunched miniatures to add to its otherworldly view. In the end, it is probably W.Lee Wilder, Billy's older brother's best attempt behind the camera. He wouldn't manage to trod any meaner streets than these again.

Dodgy financial swindler Albert Dekker (Holden) wants to get rid of the fiancé of wealthy Catherine Craig (Claire) so that he can step in and bag himself a fortune. He's not sure who the intended groom is but approaches nightclub owner and gangster Alan Carney (Victor) to take him out whoever he may be. Problems begin when Craig dumps her intended and agrees to marry Dekker in a quick wedding that gets plastered over the newspapers. The hit-man now knows who to go for – Dekker has unintentionally taken out a hit on himself! He tries to put things right with Carney but things get worse and we watch as he spends the rest of the film in total paranoia. Who's coming after him? When's it going to happen? How is it going to happen?

This film started a little slow but once the premise has been set up, the film gets a purpose and we watch to see how things will pan out. The film keeps you guessing and Dekker is good in the lead role. In real life, Dekker's death is a fascinating mystery that I recommend you read up on. It goes beyond auto-erotic asphyxiation as suggested. Someone seriously didn't like him! No S&M in this film, though, so you'll be disappointed if that's what you are watching for.

The Pretender, directed by Billy Wilder's much less talented brother, at time resembles nothing so much as an extended (though not by much; it runs 69 minutes) version of a TV show like The Twilight Zone. Albert Dekker plays a middle-aged financial advisor who has been plundering the accounts of his rich "ward," Catherine Craig. As he gets deeper in the hole, he dreams up the scheme of marrying her. Alas, she pops up with a fiance, who he arranges to have bumped off. Through several twists of fate and screenwriting, he ends up the target of the unknown hitman. Though living in the lap of luxury as a well-married husband, he refuses to eat food served by a series of butlers and gnaws on crackers and cold canned food in his room. His paranoia overtakes his life, until... Dekker plays the part with a convincing mixture of unction and fear, almost making a human being out of this contrived character. This is one of the first movies to score for theramin (oo-EEE-oo), which became a cliche in 50s it-came-from-beyond films, but here adds to the unsettling atmosphere.