A Chama do Pecado

"The Flame" from 1947 is a B film starring John Carroll, Vera Ralston, Robert Paige, Broderick Crawford, and Victor Sen Yung.

In the beginning of the story, George McAllister (John Carroll) shoots someone. He goes home, calls the cops to report it, and then, while waiting to be arrested, reads a letter sent to him by Carlotta (Ralston).

The film dissolves into flashback. Carlotta is a nurse in the home of Barry McAllister (Paige). He apparently has some disease and not a tremendous amount of time to live. On this particular evening, Carlotta has some harsh words for Barry. However, the next day, he proposes, and she accepts.

Turns out the harsh words were to express her discontent with living there and force him into a proposal. Carlotta is actually in love with Barry's brother George. Since George is not in Barry's will, having Carlotta marry him is the way to get to his money.

Things - no surprise - don't go as planned. First of all, Carlotta begins to realize that all the stories George has told her about Barry aren't true, and that he does care about his brother.

Then, Broderick Crawford enters the scene and blackmails George.

Vera Ralston was Czech; here she's supposed to be French, though she has a Czech accent. Though limited as an actress, she is okay in this role. Victor Sen Yung has a small part, but he is effective. Carroll is a good bad guy, and Paige is a good nice guy.

Barry's big house lends some neat atmosphere.

John Carroll has spent all his inherited money and lives on what his brother, Robert Paige gives him. He's a good egg, and when Carroll fell ill, Paige hired nurse Vera Ralston for him. They fell in love and were going to be married, until she changed her mind and married Paige. Now here's Broderick Crawford, blackmailing Carroll lest he Tell All.

Under director John Auer, this one hits almost all the Film Noir tags: movie told mostly in flashback, femme fatale -- although Mrs. Herbert Yates, as she was known when the credits weren't rolling, is one of those inadvertent types who changes her mind more or less honestly, perhaps -- quirky angles, dark lighting...... except no Venetian blinds, for some reason. It's also well acted, except for Mrs. Yates, who is typically wooden and whining in her performance. Republic was quite capable of footing the bill on a pretty good movie, and did so, except for the female lead. Her husband wanted to make her a star, despite a lack of interest in anyone not on his payroll. THe result is pretty good anyway.

"The Flame" is a dark but disappointingly routine melodrama of the seen-it-a-million-times-before variety. A French nurse, in cahoots with her sleazy American lover, agrees to marry his ailing half-brother in order to gain his wealth. Guess what -- she begins to fall for the bore (who whiles away the hours playing dirges on his Hammond organ).

John Auer was one of the more talented directors working in the B-movie mill of the 40s, and he injects the picture with enough visual panache to give it a professional veneer and subtle moodiness. But what can you do with this cast from hell -- particularly Vera Ralston, at her most wooden (her voice-over narration is practically indecipherable).

A couple of reels into the film, things briefly perk up when a young Broderick Crawford unexpectedly slides into the narrative as a dour potential blackmailer who gets wise to the scam. Even better, his sometime girlfriend is a sexy cabaret performer played by the always fascinating Constance Dowling -- her Gilda-style song and dance routine gives Auer a chance to show his licks. But the brittleness all dissolves pretty quickly into some very unwelcome sentimentality towards the end.

John H Auer was a major director at Republic Pictures and gave some good films, with the major star of the studio, John Carroll, who also served under Allan Dwann's direction. In this film noir, he is not brilliant but good enough to face Broderick Crawford, whom I did not expect in a Republic film. A classic story for a film noir, with a tepid Vera Ralston performance. Only the ending is very interesting, dark, gloomy and reminds me the end of LE DOULOS, from film maker Jean-Pierre Melville.

This is told by way of the reading of a letter that explains the story of how "George" (John Carroll) has frittered away his family inheritance and is now dependent on his half-brother "Barry" (Robert Paige) - a situation which he bitterly resents. A solution to his predicament presents itself when he suggests that his girlfriend "Carlotta" (Vera Ralston) take up the position of nurse to the ailing "Barry". Their plan is quite simple, really. She befriends him, gets him to fall in love with her and then they marry. Once married, "Barry" will meet his end and she will be free to marry "George" and inherit the family fortune. It's not so much a flame this as a flicker. It's pretty obvious what's going to happen, and but for a few scenes with the scheming "Ernie" (Broderick Crawford) and Henry Travers as the well meaning "Dr. Mitchell" this story proves to not quite have the courage of it's convictions. It's all just a little too formulaic in the end. Blanche Yurka does her best impersonation of Queen Mary as his aunt "Blanche" - no fool, herself and Hattie McDaniel livens things up, sparingly, too - but sadly this all just goes the way of the damp squib after a promising start.