La città che scotta

You want to talk about dated - the sight of people going through paper files of people's fingerprints - wow.

Something else dated - there was a time when someone planning to run for governor was concerned about an old murder he committed under another name being discovered when his fingerprints are run. I guess back then if you had a record, it would be difficult to be elected.

In order to keep his secret, the card with the fingerprints has to be stolen. Pressure is brought to bear on a man to make his sister steal the card.

Several murders follow.

Done in the semidocumentary style of the day, the film stars Cesar Romero, George Brent, Audrey Totter, and Raymond Burr.

One thing I noticed immediately- one of the members of a particularly awful TV act was none other than Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall.

Cesar, Audrey, and George had seen better days as this was a strictly B movie. Raymond Burr was looking toward a bright future in television.

Could this be it? The Holy Grail, the zenith of film noir mediocrity, the quintessential 'B' movie? F. B. I. Girl is no ordinary quickie/cheapie, but comes packed with a gallimaufry of bonus features: Stilted, wooden acting, unintentionally amusing dialogue, two investigators (Romero and Brent) who are about as charismatic as a wet week-end in Widnes and a thoroughly muddled plot, involving the stealing of incriminating fingerprint records.

Ambitious, but corrupt governor, Raymond Greenleaf, in collusion with his ruthless P. R. man, Raymond Burr, decide that the best way to beat a murder rap is....er... to commit more murders. Burr, a character who exudes all the charm of a fox ravaged bin bag, orchestrates the proceedings. His first patsy is Margia Dean. She may hold a responsible position with the F. B. I., but will she be prepared to FIB?

The growing body count produces a priceless sequence. Disguised as a priest, gravel voiced hood, Alexander Pope gains easy access to the merely critically wounded, hospitalized Don Garner, hoping to add a few finishing touches to the job, but events take a wildly unexpected turn, with uproarious results.

Despite having little going for it, F. B. I. Girl works surprisingly well on another level. It never descends to the depths of the gut-wrenchingly, mind numbingly abysmal. Moreover, from its mock military opening score the movie continues along a consistently entertaining, ham-fisted plateau, even raising the temperature by a few degrees for the relatively tense, fast moving finale. All involved appear to be tinkering with the dynamics, the nuts and bolts of the genre, creating, whether by design or not, a finished work, which conveys an air of affectionate parody. Taken in this context, F. B. I. Girl ticks all the boxes and emerges as a must-see vehicle.

This all but lost docu-noir was released By Poverty Row Lippert Productions, shot in just twelve days and directed by William Berke.... This gets better and better! Watch at your earliest opportunity and neatly avert years of regret.

CODA: Startling stat. In 1951 six million Americans had police records. There must be a message (in a bottle) for all of us.

For a Lippert Production, this sports a cast of A-picture performers. George Brent and Cesar Romero are FBI men. Audrey Totter, still at her prime and looking lovely, helps the Bureau out. Raymond Burr is a villain. Tom Drake plays a good guy. And hey! It even has Joi Landsing!

The plot is only slightly more than routine: A weak governor has a criminal past. His fingerprints could reveal that. So Burr sets out to switch those fingerprints around. At any cost.

As a sidelight, this movie features three actors who are now known to have been gay: Burr was not open about it. Romero took few pains to keep it quiet. Drake, Judy Garland's "boy next-door" -- I don't know. Not much is known about his life other than that proclivity.

This coincidence has no effect on the film, which is surprisingly good for something that was obviously made on the cheap. But it's a footnote to the sociological history of Hollywood.

Raymond Greenleaf is the governor of a generic state. He wants to run for senator, but he has a secret. He's an escaped criminal, and a campaign of that order will reveal it. So machine fixer Raymond Burr applies pressure and gets a girl in the FBI's fingerprint file to remove his card. Burr arranges for everyone else down the line to wind up dead.

The FBI won't stand for its own personnel being killed. They get a line on the original name on the file and assign agents Cesar Romero and George Brent to the case.

There are some fine actors in this, including Audrey Totter in a good-girl role (alas, she's far more interesting in her evil roles in noirs). Other well-known players include Joi Lansing, Byron Foulger, Marie Blake (grandma in THE ADDAMS FAMILY) and O. Z. Whitehead. Under-rated B cinematographer Jack Greenhalgh gets a fine night-time river pursuit, and William Berke directs the film with a nice arc of excitement.

The Lippert organization was not known for producing great movies. They had a chain of theaters, and with the slowdown in post-war B production, they used their connections to set up a releasing organization, including some Korda films, and began their own production with talent fallen on hard times. Although none of their approximately 150 movies, most produced between 1948 and the mid-1950s, can be considered great films, they showcased interesting talent. This is one of their best.

Among my William Berke's favourites with BETRAYAL FROM THE EAST, the most interesting crime films he ever made, with a good plot, a good cast and a good surprise because there are no real lead character here, no one and unique hero above the rest of the cast. It is not too long and it is tense all long the movie. Produced by Lippert Company, it is at the same quality scale as a RKO picture, a company for which William Berke also worked. The cops duo, some kind of a buddy scheme - Cesar Romero, George Brent - is a bit improbable but surprising in the good way. You can trust me, this film is not a masterpiece but a damn good B movie.