Il prezzo della paura

It's the Plot that Propels this Good Looking but Dull Unfolding of this Crime Flick with Film-Noir Elements.

The Noir is the Doomed Femme-Fatale and Her Down-Beat Relationship with Lex Baxter, the Framed Protagonist.

Baxter is Miscast as is the Aging and Far From Glamorous Romantic Lead, Merle Osbourne.

That Captures Baxter in Her Web as She Falls-From-Grace and Spirals Ever Downward Toward Destruction.

The Voice-Over Narration from Copper Charles Drake Surprisingly just Vanishes After the First-Act, almost as if They had Second-Thoughts.

Overall, Watchable but Unremarkable Acting, Warren Stevens is Unconvincing as a Crime-Boss Forever in Threatening Mode.

The Movie Doesn't have much of an Edge, but the Talky Plot can Keep Viewers On-Their-Toes while Not Offering much of a Suspenseful or Edgy Tone.

"The Price of Fear" is a movie that has quite a few film noir sensibilities....though I am sure many purists would consider it just a crime film because it lacks the slick cinematography and lighting of a noir classic. Nevertheless, it's an awfully good film....and the ending really, really worked great for me.

Dave (Lex Barker) is a nice guy. But like so many nice guys in noir films, he's behind the eightball. A crook hates him and decides to frame him for murdering a man he'd been seen threatening. In addition, a selfish lady (Merle Oberon) runs over an old man and instead of staying to talk to the police, she ran and reported her car stolen. Soon, Dave is picked up for BOTH crimes. He could NOT have done the hit-and-run robbery AND shot a man across town at the same time. But it sure looks like they'll be able to pin at least one of them on him unless he can somehow prove his innocence.

Barker and Oberon were good....as were all the actors. But to me, the star were the writers. They created a very interesting story with great characters and a finale that leaves you breathless. No sentimental crap here...just gritty folks and a grittier ending. Well worth seeing.

Like a lot of Universal-International's 1950s output, THE PRICE OF FEAR is a studio-bound soap opera that borders on kitsch, but within that soap opera, star Lex Barker and an exciting plot in the Hitchcock vein struggle to make the film something better. Barker plays the co-owner of a racetrack where the mob is trying to muscle in. One night, he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and his life begins unravelling and he goes on the run. Unfortunately, Merle Oberon enters the picture. I don't know if Ms. Oberon had something else on her mind while making this picture, but she seems to be posing for still photographs throughout the film. Oh, she's gorgeous! glamorous! stunning! But her posing and gown-modeling belongs in a 1920s Gloria Swanson vehincle--or maybe a PARODY of a 1920s Swanson vehicle! It's hard to believe that a savvy character, such as the racetrack owner played by Barker, would fall in love with such a cipher as Oberon's character. If you can forget the soap-opera elements of the plot, there's a good mystery here...and the climax and ending are genuinely surprising. However, only devoted Barker fans should try to find this film.

Merle Oberon stars as a beautiful, glamorous business woman who is motivated by fear to do some despicable things. Guilty of a hit-and-run car accident, she must frame the man she loves in order to get away with murder! Along the way, she becomes involved with gangsters and detectives, and becomes ever more deeply mired in a chain of incriminating events. This is the type of role we are used to seeing Barbara Stanwyck fill, and Oberon does a beautiful job, but plays it her own way -- not as a tough dame, but as gracefully refined and secretly cunning. Sadly, this would be one of Oberon's last starring films. Clearly, Hollywood stopped offering her work too soon, but those were the days when glamorous female stars were phased out after 40.

This film is now available on DVD as part of the TCM Vault Collection's "Women in Danger: 1950s Thrillers" Collection (all Universal films). The quality is very good and this is a set worth adding to your collection.

Businesswoman Merle Oberon runs over an old man and speeds off. She has second thoughts and stops at a phone booth. After she gets the police, Lex Barker, on the run from gangsters who are about to kill his partner, spots it, hops in and zooms off. Miss Oberon reports the car stolen. Buddy/police Lieutenant Charles Drake thinks there's something wrong with the set-up.

There's something about this sort of 1950s drama that strikes me as not impossible, but brittle. So many of the lines are delivered without any emotional weight to them, as if the character is thinking about his words, then considering why he has chosen those words, until all feeling has been rendered out out them. Perhaps it's the pace of the dialogue that I find so unappealing. In the late 1930s, the pace of dialogue in the movies sped up, and the audience was given the impression of a stream of consciousness. Certainly Joseph Gershenson's two bars of theme that rise up majestically from a large orchestra overwhelm the performances instead of accentuating them.