Detective G. sezione criminale

This could have been a better film if some money and more time was given to it. It has a solid story as well as better than passable acting. It's a bit of victim of it's time and studio. Republic Pictures had to cut back as TV was taking more revenue leaving less to go around for the motion picture industry. Republic was hard hit. That said the studio delivers a pretty decent late period noir flick. It feels like it was squeezed for time thus some story and character development is rushed. It gets the basics if it moves predictably fast not leaving a lot for the imagination. Definitely a solid enough story to trump most of it's short comings.

Double Jeopardy is a Republic crime drama that seldom makes even the most inclusive lists of film noir, even though, in all its grunginess, it's a little better than many that do make the cut. Its director, R. G. Springsteen, churned out umpteen dozen forgotten horse operas (and his most notorious credit was The Red Menace). That doesn't inspire confidence, but he does more than a passable job on a passable story.

`Stumblebum' Robert Armstrong hasn't worked for years, but manages keep himself in whiskey and occasionally to pay rent on the one-room flat he and his unfaithful wife (Gale Robbins) share with the $500 bucks he gets every month from a mysterious stranger. Meanwhile, on the much better side of the tracks, the stranger (John Litel) is putting together the financing for a new housing development but, to the bafflement of his lawyer and future son-in-law (Rod Cameron), won't consider low-interest government loans.

Their two worlds, existing in uneasy truce, collide when Robbins, conspiring with her used-car-salesman lover (Jeff Calder), goads Armstrong into strong-arming Litel for a big payoff (when he gets it, the adulterous couple plan run off to Mexico together). But in the deserted canyon where blackmailer and victim had their rendezvous, Armstrong's body is found inside a wrecked car; Litel is charged with his murder. Cameron starts sniffing around to find the truth in what the police think is an open-and-shut case.

There's a fair amount of crummy atmosphere in this low-rent, late noir, abetted by a seasoned cast of Hollywood B-movie veterans (Minerva Urecal as a meddlesome landlady and Dick Elliott as Calder's boss Happy Harry also appear). It's no Double Indemnity, but it passes the time.

It's a noir all right, but you can feel the increasing hollowness of the decline and impending fall of the noirs, at least of the great noirs. This is a small aftermath, and although well directed and well acted with terrific music as well, the classic enthusiasm and atmosphere of the noirs is gone, as the television was taking over the attention of the audiences, and the companies were getting broke from lack of audiences, having little left to afford for great noirs. The greatest actor here is Gale Robbins as the woman spider at the centre of the web, causing all the intrigues. She is perfectly lovely, you can't resist her charm, and you can well understand the obsession with her of both her men, her miserable drinking husband and her young dashing lover. The film is worth watching for her sake, and the intrigue could have been made into something by someone like Hitchcock, but here time and money truncate the possibilities.

Not in the top 10 of classic film noir but worth watching for 75 minutes.

No cell phones.

The women were not only sensual and elegant but beautiful in those days.

Yes it's a 'B' movie, probably a 'C', but for those who like a cinematic touch of the tawdry and sad underside of life, this movie isn't half bad.