L'inseguita

This is a film that manages to keep the viewer's interest through well- conceived plot twists and a well-played romantic relationship between the two lead characters. Preston Foster is believable as a tough cop with a hard-nosed exterior who has a complicated emotional entanglement with an enigmatic and dangerous woman. Foster does a great job in the role.

A now rather obscure actress named Belita gives a studied and endearing performance as the ex-con blonde noir babe who maybe does or does not love the cop. She manages to convey a vulnerable yet dangerous persona that is not easy to maintain for an entire film length but she pulls off this feat with remarkable consistency and aplomb. The multi-talented Belita also gives us a fine and professionally done figure skating routine wherein her rather tall, lean and graceful style reminds me of the great Olympian Peggy Fleming. And its good to see noir icon Charles McGraw in a supporting role.

I found "The Hunted" to be a rewarding blend of constant emotional tension between the characters and plot tension related to the twists and turns of its basic noir story line. View it if you get the chance.

Police detective Johnny Saxon (Preston Foster) is on high alert when his former girlfriend Laura Mead (Belita) is released on parole for a bank heist which she was found guilty of four years earlier. Despite always having proclaimed her innocence, at the trial she had threatened to kill those she thought were responsible for her conviction, including boyfriend Saxon who helped put her away for the crime. Despite his misgivings Saxon again becomes involved with Mead when she appears in his apartment after arriving back in town. Though she is seemingly repentant, Saxon remains suspicious of her motivations. When a body turns up, Saxon pegs Mead as the likely suspect and figures he might be next. Did she do it or not?

A crime, mystery and melodrama mixture, this film could be described as a niche noir. The casting with the well into his forties Foster and Belita as his 21 year old girlfriend is on the surface a bit odd since the premise of the film teeters on the chemistry of the two characters. The older Foster, a definite candidate for a smoking cessation program, is spot on as the hard boiled cop and former boyfriend. The big surprise is Belita. 'The Hunted' is the third in a trio of crime programmers the former skating champion did for Monogram / Allied Artists. After watching this film it's hard to understand why her career never gained much traction. She certainly had the screen persona even though not what might be described as a classic Hollywood look.

Even though there is some padded fluff (superfluous ice skating sequence) and an over-extended early scene where the characters rehash their previous relationship, the movie is also a stylized and entertaining trek though the post war era of tough-guy detectives and dangerous dames. Again, not a straight up noir film but for viewers who enjoy filmdom's golden age of grit and duplicity it will likely check off enough boxes to make them happy.

A B movie noir from 1948. The only reason I bring up B movie is that this particular outing had a cheaper budget than most in this tale of a recently released woman from prison & the cop who arrested her re-entering her life to see if she really is walking the straight & narrow. Starring Belita (a once popular ice skater, I kid you not) who parlayed a film career specializing in noir roles, plays the ex-con & since she wasn't trained as an actor, most of her line deliveries sound strange & ill prepared but it actually works in the narrow confines of this story. Shot handily on minimal locations, this slight nugget of noir may not redefine the genre but it does what it sets out to do.

In this detective story, a private eye must send his fiancee to prison as he truly believes that she was involved in a bank robbery. Unfortunately, she is innocent. Still she serves her time. Upon her release someone frames her for murder. The detective is in quite a quandary until the real criminal is found. The woman finally returns to her beloved private eye. More romantic melodrama than 'noir' 'The Hunted' still shines as 'Belita ' the "Ice Queen" who was in the 1936 Olympic games as a figure skater for England ; serves up a great cat and mouse performance as Laura Mead . B-film crime story ably directed by Jack Bernhard. The Hunted is lit on 'noir' but is still a great Crime, Drama and Film-Noir in the end . Highly entertaining .

Internet Rule 34 says if there's a subject on the Web, there's porn about it. Maybe we need something like that for Film Noir: if it exists in the movies, there's a Film Noir about it. I suppose that's why this one has Belita as a femme fatale who does ice dancing routines.

Four years ago, cop Preston Foster arrested his girlfriend Belita for a jewelry robbery. Now she's out on parole, and he's gotten her a job at a hockey rink, teaching and performing. She says she was framed. He yearns for her and drinks. Eventually they reconcile, but then the defense attorney she claims threw her case is murdered.... and Belita's ring is found at the murder site.

Foster was at the end of his starring days. He was in his late 40s, and had been mature-looking when he entered the movies in the early days of sound. Fortunately, his solid presence would keep him working in star character roles. Belita is all right, but awkward off the ice. Longtime B cinematographer Harry Neumann (more than 300 films from 1918 through 1959) offers a lot of night-time shots, particularly a carnival midway sequence, for shadowy film noir lighting.

It's not a great movie -- Monogram didn't distribute those -- but it is a solid film noir for fans of the genre.