Dama, Valete e Rei

At the centre of Rossen's film noir debut feature is Dick Powell's hard bitten Johnny, a casino manager and junior partner in a gambling club who has a selfish streak a mile wide. O'Clock gets up late, always looks after number one, and has enjoyed a twenty year partnership with club owner Pete Marchettis. To him - as he confesses to Nancy - a new roulette wheel is just as attractive as a woman. But there are cracks in his icy façade. He's had an affair with Marchetti's wife and she still wants him back. O'Clock's weakness (if one can see it like that) is the underlying humanity in his makeup, an eventual need for affection in the arms of a woman. Although resolutely cold to Mrs Marchetti, the death of the Hobbs sister and his growing distaste for the cop Blaydon (elegantly conveyed in the discarded-sandwich scene they share close to the start of the film) gradually reveal his emotional feet of clay. In fact Blaydon reflects many of the unpleasant aspects of O'Clock's character, ones which could so easily come to dominate his personality: total greed and emotional coldness. The resolute Inspector Koch (Lee J. Cobb in an excellent cigar-chomping heavy performance) is hounding them both and, despite his casual coolness, we feel that inside O'Clock is secretly nettled by a feeling of oncoming nemesis.

In fact, for most of the film, O'Clock has done nothing overtly wrong. He is merely guilty by association with the worst elements, and by his disdain for any emotional display or real involvement with others. Marked, then dogged by fate, caught in a web outside of his control (Blaydon's emotional cruelty, the resultant suicide, then murder, the mix up with the watch), O'Clock's life increasingly assumes a powerlessness typical of film noir.

This is a film with many of the genre archetypes intact: hard bitten dialogue, a drunken moll, noir 'fetish' items for the camera's gaze (guns, watches/clocks, cigarette cases etc) and a pervading sense of cynicism and corruption. O'Clock's close relationship with his 'flatmate' Charlie (he wakes him up at the beginning of the film for instance) adds a suspicion of homo-eroticism to the plot. In fact one suspects that jealousy perhaps is what really lies at the back of Charlie's eventual betrayal.

What makes this film somewhat different from others of its type is the cool character of O'Clock: unusually for a noir hero, for a long time he is distanced from the growing predicament. Only as the film proceeds, starting with his angst over the suicide, does a real feeling of paranoia and fate set in.

Rossen's composition within the frame is effective throughout the film and makes for some memorable set ups, while his handling of a complicated plot assured, belying the fact that it is a first film. Although his work in noir would reach its height in the superb 'Body and Soul' (also with Thomas Gomez), never the less Johnny O'Clock is an excellent example of the genre and well worth viewing. Watch out for a young Jeff Chandler in a minor role.

I loved the dialog and the endless stream of wise cracks, many said by Dick Powell, who was great at that sort of thing. After watching a lot of film noirs, I think Powell and Sterling Hayden are my two favorites in that genre. Powell was suave, sophisticated, a quick man with a quip and still a tough guy. Hayden exuded raw manliness, a no-nonsense thug whether he was a good guy or a crook.

That said, the film is only so-so because, like a number of films being viewed today, some 60 years later, they are a bit slow and sometimes too talky. This film begins to bog down halfway through and it gets tough to finish, even if you like the actors in here, which I certainly do.

Besides Powell, Cobb and the tough guys, there are some really good examples of film noir women in here. My favorite was Ellen Drew as "Nelle Marchettis." I only wish her role had been bigger. Those who like Evelyn Keyes will be more pleased, since her role is bigger. She reminds me a bit of another "tough film noir broad:" Marie Windsor. Then there is Nina Foch as the softer "Harriet Hobson," who sadly leaves the movie in the first half hour.

Overall, if you like actors and some snappy lines, check this out. I saw it on TCM. To my knowledge, it's not available on disc. If you are looking for an action-crime film, however, go on to something else.

A well acted, above average film noir from the late 1940's, "Johnny O'Clock" stars Dick Powell as the title character. His "juvenile" roles in such films as "42nd Street" long behind him, Powell's Johnny is a tough gambling-house operator, who is involved with a mobster named Guido and a crooked cop named Blayden. When Lee J. Cobb as Inspector Koch arrives to investigate the murder of a gambler, the plot thickens. A vulnerable Nina Foch plays a hat-check girl in Johnny's establishment, who is involved with Blayden. However, Blayden disappears, and Foch evidently commits suicide. Convinced of Blayden's involvement, both Koch and Foch's sister, played by Evelyn Keyes, pursue the missing cop. A blood-stained coat fished from the water, an expensive engraved watch, a bright new Mexican coin; the clues surface along with the betrayal and duplicity in Robert Rossen's taut screenplay, which was adapted from a story by Milton Holmes.

The sharp tough dialog is delivered by pros, with Powell, Cobb, and Keyes especially good. However, lovely Ellen Drew is a standout as Nelle, the alcoholic moll, who is Guido's wife, but harbors a history with and a persistent yen for Johnny; watching her expressions, even when silently in the background, is a lesson in film acting. Film buffs will spot a young Jeff Chandler as Turk, one of Guido's boys, in a small uncredited part. Nicely directed by Robert Rossen, the film features shadowy black and white photography by Burnett Guffey and a good score by George Duning. While not film noir of the first caliber, "Johnny O'CLock" is nevertheless an entertaining entry in the genre, and watching Powell during his tough-guy period is always a pleasure.

This glamorous post-war crime story has a protagonist who carefully walks that fine line between cops and crooks. In fact--that seems to be almost a requirement in the best noir flicks. Dick Powell is Johnny O'Clock, a smooth operator with an eye for getting himself the best of whatever's going around. Is he selfish down to the core, or is there a lingering speck of humanity in there somewhere? O'Clock is a partner in a swank gambling house, and when the hat-check girl is found murdered, he gets involved with crooked cops and more crooked criminals. A great supporting cast and nice 'behind the scenes at the casino' feel add to the fun. Powell played a similar role in Murder My Sweet, but his Phillip Marlowe was more the wise-cracking smart-Alec, while Johnny O'Clock is decidedly more shady. A real treat.

Johnny O'Clock is a film about a man who walks the narrow edge of the fence between the legal and illegal. He's partners with Thomas Gomez in an illegal gambling establishment and they've got a crooked cop in Jim Bannon to do their dirty work insofar as rivals are concerned. Bannon's made several 'legal' killings of rivals which has interested honest cop Inspector Lee J. Cobb who wants very badly to close this particular racket down.

Dick Powell plays the title character who never quite gets involved in the dirty end of the business leaving that to Gomez. Bannon's girl friend is Nina Foch, a nice young woman who runs the cigarette and candy counter at Powell's swank hotel. When Foch turns up a very suspicious suicide and Bannon goes missing, Powell goes into action.

The other factor in the story is that Powell and Gomez's wife Ellen Drew were once involved and she'd like to get involved again. Powell ain't buying that trouble though, especially after Evelyn Keyes who is Foch's sister comes to town and she also suspects foul play.

Powell's character Johnny O'Clock is one of his most cynical, he makes his Philip Marlowe from Murder My Sweet look like Dudley DooRight the Mountie. His cynicism almost costs him because he finds a damning piece of evidence that could lead to the murderer and if would have cooperated with Lee J. Cobb from the gitgo it would have all been solved. But Powell's got other irons in the fire and some conflicting motives. In any event he does a great job in the title role.

Making his screen debut in a small part as one of the gamblers is Jeff Chandler. His hair is dark, but would shortly turn that premature iron gray that he was so identified with. There is also a very good small part for Mabel Paige who plays a nosy neighbor of Foch's who keeps offering her unwanted observations and opinions to Lee J. Cobb.

Robert Rossen was one film away from his career film as a director with All The King's Men. Powell was impressed with his work and personally had Harry Cohn get him as director for Johnny O'Clock. Rossen creates a moody and trenchant atmosphere for his players to work in and gets a near perfect noir film out of this material.

And that's a good reason to not miss Johnny O'Clock when it is broadcast.