Pushover

Enjoyed this great classic film from 1954 starring Fred MacMurray, (Paul Sheridan) who is a detective and gets involved with Lona McLane,(Kim Novak) who is connected with a bank robber and Lona cons Paul to kill her boyfriend so they can take the money for themselves. The only problem is that Paul Sheridan is assigned to watch Lona on a stake out with other detectives and have her apartment watched and her telephone wires tapped. There are many problems that face Paul and Lona and one of Paul's detective friends gets involved with a girl named Ann Stewart, (Dorothy Malone) who lives in the same apartment house as Lona and lives down the hall. This story becomes quite exciting as a crooked cop tries to cover his tracks and makes mistakes after mistakes. Don't miss this Classic it is great with outstanding acting and a great cast of actors. Enjoy.

It's Fred MacMurray again, as a virtuous agent for the causes of good. Instead of playing an insurance salesman with an eye for the fast buck, here he's playing a cop assigned to shadow Novak, the mobster's moll. Kim Novak is as beautiful as she's ever appeared on the screen. The lighting in her early scenes is as dramatic and sensual as it can be. Who wouldn't fall in love with her? Comparisons with Double Indemnity just can't be ignored. She is the vamp that Barbara Stanwyck could never be. She's softer and more feminine in that 50's style, and less hard-edged than Stanwyck, which makes her much more dangerous. Novak's generally wooden acting style & "flat affect" gives way to a softer sex-kitten demeanor. MacMurray's character is a more active participant in the events that unfold than in "DD", where he seemed to get his courage and strength from Stanwyck's cold & calculating personna. Billy Wilder could have made this a masterpiece, but even without the guidance of the master's hand, this one is definitely well-worth watching.

In Pushover Fred MacMurray dusts off his acclaimed portrayal of Walter Neff the luckless insurance agent from Double Indemnity and gives him a badge as an easily corruptible cop. The temptation in his path is another dame, in this case Kim Novak being 'introduced' in this film as Columbia's answer to Marilyn Monroe.

MacMurray's a cop who is assigned to get close to gangster Paul Richards's moll Novak. Richards and his mob have pulled off a bank heist and if they had any sense, they'd be out of the country and fleeing. But police captain E.G. Marshall reasons that Richards ain't going nowhere without Novak.

Of course what he doesn't figure on MacMurray's libido as well as Richards. Novak's one cool ice princess in this one, she's willing to spend the loot with one crook as another and one with a badge sounds pretty good to her.

There's a side romance going as well with Novak's neighbor, nurse Dorothy Malone and fellow officer Philip Carey. Malone gets innocently caught up in the intrigue. Carey while doing surveillance on Novak's apartment gets to peeping in on Malone next door. His little Rear Window act pays off in the end.

Pushover is a fine noir drama and highly recommended for those who like myself know full well that Fred MacMurray is capable of a lot more than Disney films and My Three Sons which I think most know him for today. Novak makes a stunning debut as the ultimately luckless moll and the rest of the cast backs them up with a splendid ensemble effort.

Pushover (1954)

An early widescreen black and white film noir gem. It comes late in the noir cycle but it crackles with precision and sharp acting. Though the details of the plot differ, it is an obvious echo of "Double Indemnity" with the leading man, played again by Fred MacMurray, sucked into a risky plot for big money and alluring love. And of course things don't go as planned.

MacMurray is an interesting choice in both films, because he really is more of an everyman than a noir type. Noir types are variable, I know, but you can range from Mitchum to Bogart to Dana Andrews to a whole bunch of minor actors who all have a kind of coolness or hardness to them, and you never see a regular fellow like MacMurray (the closest might be Mickey Rooney, of all people, in a neglected oddball noir, the 1950 "Quicksand"). MacMurray would later find his true calling as the dad in "My Three Sons" but when you see him in these early film roles there is something wrong and some perfect about his presence.

I don't mean to neglect the femme fatale here, a young Kim Novak, in her first full role. She's terrific, really, a bit cool (which was her style) but more convincing, to me, than her more famous appearance across from Sinatra in "Man with the Golden Arm." Maybe it's partly how well matched she is as an actress to MacMurray, though if there is a flaw to the film , it might be the unlikeness of these two falling in love, even with $210,000 to persuade them. But love is love and who's to say? The two of them, often playing in separate scenes (talking on the phone, or MacMurray watching her through binoculars), make this a full blooded drama as well as a crime noir.

The pace and editing of this movie, and the script and story, are perfect. It's easily the kind of film you could study for its structure, and for the writing, which isn't filled with noir doozies but with believable fast lines between two people looking to get through a growing debacle. It's a conventional structure, but its precision is comparable (for its precision) to "The Killing," that famous Stanley Kubrick film from 1956. And if it isn't as inventive, and if it lacks that amazing ending, "Pushover" is resilient because it is so reasonable. It could very well happen, and these relatively ordinary types (Novak being admired for her looks, but there are lots of lookers like her out there, especially gangster's girls) make it all the more compelling.

The filming is great, Lester White not known in particular in the cinematography world but shot a whole slew of decent and unamazing westerns (as well as the Ida Lupino "Women's Prison" which has it moments). Little known director Richard Quine made lots of lightweight and comic fare (he worked a bit with both Blake Edwards and Mickey Rooney, then later with Jack Lemmon) and this might be his most serious 1950s film, in tone. It's certainly the kind that you can't look away for a second because it clips along without a lull for an hour and a half.

Don't read the reviews comparing it to other films before watching it on it's own merits, which are many. A damn fine Noir which isn't beholding to any other.

IMDb requires ten lines of text, but instead of impressing you with my opinions, I'll do this:

Kim Novak is stunning physically and memorable performance wise.

Fred Mc Murray is excellent on the northern-edge of his leading man days.

The first 3 minutes are perfect.

Really, the first 3 minutes make it worth watching.

LA at night, the land that built noir.

See it. Trust me.