Cover Up

Despite the title and Dennis O'Keefe as the star, this B film is not a film noir. It is about a small town in Middle America where everyone in the town seems to be trying to conspire to cover up a murder. Dennis O'Keefe arrives in town as an insurance investigator. He is there as a matter of routine because the company for which he works has provided life insurance for the deceased. The sum insured is mentioned as $20,000, and everyone speaks of it breathlessly, and it is hard to realize that in those days $20,000 really was a substantial amount of money. That says a lot about inflation over time. The man is said to have committed suicide. However, O'Keefe is very smart and he soon realizes that the man was murdered. His efforts to bring this to the attention of the local sheriff, played by William Bendix, meet with a stone wall. There is a double indemnity clause in the insurance policy which says that if the person is murdered the payout will be double. But when O'Keefe offers to pay the extra $20,000 to the niece of the murdered man, she refuses it, insisting that her uncle committed suicide. O'Keefe is baffled by this refusal of so much extra money. The murdered man turns out to have been 'a poison in his community', who was hated by everyone in town. In fact, everyone in town had a motive to murder him. It is a very good yarn in theory, but mystery and tension are sacrificed to other aims, namely to concentrate on the dilemma of O'Keefe's budding romance with a girl called Anita, played by Barbara Britton. The murdered man was killed with a 9 mm German Lugar. Both the sheriff and Anita's father have such Lugars. Things are looking very bad indeed, as one of them seems to be the killer. The other main aim of the film is to concentrate on the cozy, though currently unsettled, life of the small town. It is snowing and it is nearly Christmas. People are lighting up their trees and getting the turkeys ready for roasting, tying up their presents, and O'Keefe (who has no family of his own) gets involved in the festivities while he is at the same time carrying out an investigation which threatens many of those with whom he is associating. If the intention had been to make a film noir, a great deal more mystery and suspicion and conflict would have been created, and the film would be dark and moody. Instead, the film attempts to retain a cheerful air, which belies the tensions underneath. Barbara Britton smiles charmingly, O'Keefe is falling for her like a schoolboy, her father is genteel and reassuring, and only the sheriff appears truly suspicious, though even he has a twinkle in his eye and casts mischievous little smiles aside from time to time, which suggest that he is not a bad guy after all. No attempt is made by the director to suggest any real sense of threat or menace. Everybody is simply too goody-goody, and there are no obvious villains. Well, the ending has something to do with the season of the year, and it is by no means obvious, but I won't spoil things by discussing that. The catchline for the film is: 'a small town with big secrets'. That is certainly true, but don't expect a nail-biter. The suspense is so diluted in this film that it should rather be described as diverting than absorbing. As a result, Dennis O'Keefe is not as effective as usual, because he was best in films where things get really tough, and here he has to be Mr. Nice Guy who in between wooing his gal dabbles in proving and explaining a murder, and worrying whether his gal and her father are involved in it. In other words, the focus is on the romantic conflict rather than on whodunit. You could call this a 'soft noir', or perhaps a 'black marshmallow', since it aims to be tasty, chewy and sweet with a dusting of crime sprinkled over it for appearance's sake.

Dennis O'Keefe, Barbara Britton and William Bendix star in this mystery about an insurance investigator who arrives in a small town to investigate the death of a policy holder.O'Keefe portrays Sam Donovan who is trying to learn the reason for a clients sudden death . The indifferent sheriff played by Bendix and the rest of the people in the small town who knew the man insist the cause of death was suicide and are openly hostile to Donovan's investigation.Donovan quickly ascertains that the cause of death was really murder, but no one seems to care. Even the niece of the dead man, when she is told by Donovan that there is a double indemnity clause for murder in his policy says that she does not want it. Lovely Barbara Britton plays Anita Weatherby the oldest daughter of the town's banker. She arrives on a bus in to and gets acquainted with Donovan,not knowing who he is or why he has come. She is very attracted to him but when she learns his assignment she becomes apprehensive that the town, her family, and feelings for Donovan will be negatively affected . Cover Up is relatively non violent. You never see the victim and the murder is really only speculation. It even has a hard to swallow morality ending. Nobody gets beat up,or threatened, and the pleas for Sam to just let the investigation go are more passive aggressive then raw anger. Britton is really good as Anita Weatherby in this film and there is a nice turn by Doro Merande as Hilda, the Weatherby's housekeeper, cook, and watch dog. Cover Upis a watchable film. with some dependable actors who give solid performances . A worthwhile way to pass an hour and 15 minutes

A good black and white mystery/murder story with some good acting and an interesting mystery that an insurance investigator named Sam Donovan (Dennis O'Keefe) must match wits with the small town sheriff named Larry Best (Willia Bendix) who claims the investigator Sam Donoovan is incorrect in his thinking and should just accept that the death of a prominent man in town was a suicide, and not a murder.

Sam Donovan is suspicious of Sheriff Best's claim of a suicide so he decides to stick around and stick he does, his nose that is. As the town is just in the process of getting ready to light up the towns Christmas tree at their annual street festival the town is advised of another sudden death of the towns beloved doctor from an apparent heart attack. The mystery thickens, and so does the insurance investigator Sam Donovan's affection for a lovely local lass named Anita Weatherby (Barbara Britton).

As the film progresses more clues are discovered that challenge Sam Donovan to question whether the whole town is hiding something about the murder victim who has a $20,000.00 life insurance policy that will pay out double indemnity to the victims niece if in fact it was not a suicide but rather a murder.

The film has some light humour, a new romance blossoming, a Christmas theme, and a battle of wits between the insurance investigator Sam Donovan (Dennis O'Keefe) and Sheriff Best (William Bendix). I liked the film throughout, and I have always been fond of the 1940's period, especial murder/mystery themes. I give the film a 7/10 rating.

I am no insurance expert, but I thought that in cases where someone killed themselves that their beneficiaries did not receive anything. So why would an insurance investigator, Sam Donovan (Dennis O'Keefe), investigate this in the first place? And, why would he try to prove it was a murder? I think this is a HUGE problem with the plot of "Cover Up"...unless I am mistaken.

The story begins with Donovan arriving in town to do his investigation. Surprisingly, most everyone in town either avoids him or lies--and Sam is very tired of it. To make things worse, the Sheriff seems ambivalent when Sam's investigation shows that the man was murdered.

If you can ignore the inconsistency of an insurance investigator trying to make his company pay out the biggest claim instead of the smallest, it is an interesting film. Not a great film but interesting and worth seeing despite its flaws.

By the way, I wish the film had used a ballistics expert to consult, as the film made a couple mistakes I noticed. First, Sam fires a gun (to get a ballistics comparison of the bullet) and IMMEDIATELY picks up the slug with his bare hands. It would be super-hot--and you'd either want to wait a moment or use gloves. Second, one piece of evidence that Sam has that convinces him the dead guy was murdered was that the killer was left-handed. Well, I am a right hander in everything...but I shoot left. This is not too uncommon, actually, as you often shoot based on your dominant eye not your dominant hand.

Another nice discovery for me: a pretty good thriller which, though not exactly a film noir, features two staples of the genre – Dennis O'Keefe and William Bendix – in top form. Their rapport throughout is quite delightful and this, along with the equally refreshing charms of leading lady Barbara Britton and the distinct Christmas flavor of its small-town setting, creates an overall mood of warmth not easily found in murder mysteries! The plot (whose insurance-investigation angle clearly derives from Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDENMITY [1944]) provides a good amount of tension – and red herrings – along the way, while the final revelation (bearing an unexpected moral emphasis) concludes the film on a satisfying note.