Ultimatum a Chicago

Shades of Laura here.

A reporter, Ed Ames (Alan Ladd), looking into the death of a young woman, finds her address book before the police do. He goes through it and tries to uncover information about her. Her name is Rosita.

Most people hang up on him or claim not to know Rosita. He does locate her brother (Arthur Kennedy) and a friend (June Havoc) and learns that Rosita was married and later widowed. Why are so many people afraid to admit they knew her? Why did she spend time living under another name? Intrigued and entranced by her photo, Ames keeps digging.

Good noir with a solid performance by the handsome Ladd, who always underplays and lends a great presence to a film. Reed is lovely, though she actually doesn't have much to do.

Dark, just like a noir should be.

Ace reporter Ed Adams (Alan Ladd) is at a skid row hotel on an assignment when a woman is found dead of natural causes in another room. Ed views the body and concludes that there is a story behind the death of this woman. Ed also pockets the woman's personal notebook of phone numbers. Her name had been Rosita Jean d'Ur (Donna Reed, seen in flashback) but anybody that Ed calls or sees to ask about Rosita, he is forcefully told by each that they never heard of her. What's up? Was she evil? Her brother (Arthur Kennedy) insists she wasn't. Was evil done to her? Ed needs to find. Getting thrown out of people's houses and beaten up by the local gangster's thugs only make him more determined. Also with June Havoc, Barry Kroeger, Shepherd Strudwick, and Dave Willock. The print I saw was pretty bad. The video probably came from a VHS recording off local TV. My first clue was when the logo for "KHGT TV 26 Honolulu" appeared for a few seconds in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. This is a little seen film but at the time was nominated for an Edgar Award as Best Motion Picture by the Mystery Writers Of America.

When a reporter finds a beautiful girl dead of tuberculosis in a cheap hotel room, he pockets her little black book to learn more about her... but no one's talking, and the ones that try to have a nasty habit of getting killed. The basic detective story template in the Hammett vein with a touch of CITIZEN KANE and LAURA as Rosita's life is revealed through flashbacks. Alan Ladd is fun to watch, and there's some pretty good supporting parts. Donna Reed gets second billing, but she only appears in snippets for maybe about 10 minutes total. The film has good atmosphere and makes nice use of locations, but is so convoluted that it can be tough to follow. The lousy copy I watched didn't help. I'd like to see it again in a decent presentation. A solid and moody film but a little too confusing.

Alan Ladd does a good job as a Chicago newspaper reporter in this mystery tale of a beautiful young girl in her twenties whom he finds dead. He takes her address book and puts it in his pocket and then reports her death to the police. He is determined to find out about her. And that leads to dangers, murders, and plenty of complications. Ladd one by one contacts the people she knew to try to piece together what is going on, nearly getting killed several times in the process, and others are killed as well to stop them talking. He identifies her and meets her very sympathetic brother, played by Arthur Kennedy, but he cannot tell the whole story. We see flashbacks as different people tell Ladd parts of the tale, and in those the girl is played by Donna Reed with her usual sympathetic face and quiet manner. This excellent film noir is little known but deserves attention. It is a good'un.

I prefered ILLEGAL and CHICAGO DEADLINE from the same director Lewis Allen and also starring Alan Ladd, but all those Paramount Pictures film noirs are true crime noir features, no problem. Alan Ladd is a bit more wooden as usual, and Berry Kroeger is not Paul Stewart - APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER - either. The plot is also weaker than in the other two films which I mentioned just above. The story of investigation could have been grittier, tougher, but this movie remaiins worth watching if you have never seen it before. When Alan Ladd was still a big star, before his fall down. Donna Reed also brings much to this movie. Take advantage of it.