Equívoco Fatal

Predictable Picture with some Fun and a Few Good Scenes Highlight this Minor Movie that Suffers from a Small Room Template.

Check-Out the Machinations of Actor Placements Within the Frame of a Cramped Environment.

It's Humorous to See a Grouping of Characters Shoehorned Like a Jigsaw Puzzle Into the Card-Board Sets.

Virtually On-Top of One-Another with Heads Dangling Above and Along-Side of One Another. It's a Hoot.

It's All Familiar Stuff About a Look-Alike Crook Replacing a District Attorney to do the Bidding of a Crime-Boss.

This Particular Mr. Big is a Smooth Talking Wheel-Chair Bound (Edward Keane) who Seems about as Intimidating as one of His Aquarium Fish.

The Wheel-Chair, by the way, Comes in Handy when the Police Move In.

Part of the Fun is Watching the Switcheroo.

Keeping it All Straight and Identifying just Who is the DA Now.

You Can Bet One of the Girl-Friend Dames will Be Able to Tell by a Smoocheroo.

More Fun can be Had Spotting Noir Regular Charles McGraw's Gravely Voice Bullying People, Jeff Chandler as a Giant Blondie Named "Knuckles", and James Arness as a Cop.

Slightly Above Average in the Low-Low Budget Sphere of B-Noirs.

More Airy than Most with a Bouncy, Side-Glance Look, and an Almost Tongue-in-Cheek Patina.

Worth a Watch.

As the credits rolled, I noticed that this cheap film managed to have a rather interesting supporting cast. The likes of James Arness, Joe Sawyer, Jeff Chandler, Charles McGrawm Paul Guilfoyle and Charles Lane all appear in this movie--several of these before they went onto become stars.

The plot of "Roses Are Red" is dumb. It all rests on the clichéd idea that there are two identical strangers--one a crusading District Attorney and the other a crook! When you see this in the film, resist the urge to stop watching. That's because despite this, the filmmakers and actors did a great job in carrying off this silly idea. As far as the actors go, I really liked Joe Sawyer in his slimy cop role but no-name actor Don Castle also deserves kudos for being able to pull off the dual roles as the DA/crook. I won't tell you what happens next--it would spoil the fun--and this film noir movie is fun. If you don't believe me, get a load of some of the snappy dialog:

"No matter how you slice her, she can't be any deader!"

(after the cops look through a murder victim's purse and count her money--"...looks like her next ride will be on the city..."

Roses are Red from 1947 is a poverty row B starring Don Castle in a dual role. It's notable for an early appearance by Jeff Chandler with dark hair.

This script was a repeat of a Columbia film with the locale changed. Castle plays a new district attorney, Robert Thorne, in a corrupt town. Unfortunately, he and a convict, Don Carney, look like they were separated at birth. The crooked political boss (Edward Keane) has Thorne is kidnapped with the idea of having Carney replace him.

He's held captive, with Chandler as one of his guards, while Carney can study him. Meanwhile, Thorne's girlfriend (Peggy Knudsen) attempts to trace a photo found in a murdered woman's apartment that looks like Thorne, but he never knew her. She learns of Carney's existence and finds his wife (Peggy Knight).

Not bad. Castle, a handsome man who resembled Clark Gable, alas had a poor career that went further down, finally going to work as an associate producer for Bonita Granville Wrather's company. He died at 47 of a drug overdose.

This is one of the movies made during the waning days of Sol Wurtzel's reign at Fox's B division. Don Castle plays a dual role: the newly elected DA and the newly released convict who looks just like him, so local Big Boss Edward Keane has a dark-haired Jeff Chandler kidnap the one and arrange for the other to study him for a substitution. However, they get into a fight, and Chandler shoots the wrong one, leaving Castle imitating himself imitating himself, while various subplots dead end against each other.

While 20th Century-Fox had the best B movies in the late 1930s and early 1940s, by the time this was made, they looked cheap; the long-time money-spinners like Charlie Chan and Jane Withers had gone, and the entire B division would be shut down within a year. Int he meantime, the pleasures available are watching older reliable actors like Paul Guilefoyle and Charles Lane (in a rare straight role) and untested youngsters like James Arness and Charles McGraw.

Compact, tough little noir with Don Castle playing a dual role as the new D.A. and a criminal who impersonates him. Complications ensue when the good guy then has to impersonate the bad guy -- but the bad guy's wife shows up. Joe Sawyer is effective playing against his normal type as a corrupt cop. Edward Keane plays the main bad guy, wheelchair-bound but still able to be dastardly. Good to see Jeff Chandler (on the bad side) and James Arness (on the good side) in small but effective roles. It moves fast, the story's not bad and the cast acquits itself well. This one's a rarity that I saw at the American Cinematheque film noir festival. Very much worth your time.