Johnny Allegro

An ex-gangster (Raft), now a florist, is hired by a federal agent to go undercover and keep tabs on Nina Foch, and after a nifty set-up, Nina takes him to an island where her crime lord husband (Macready), who enjoys hunting humans for sport, playing with his bow and arrow, revelling in the comforts of his room regaled with trophies, and relaxes to classical music, reigns supreme. Cautiously he integrates Raft into his crime ring, and Raft has the tenuous task to get enough info to get Macready arrested.

One of my fave Raft thrillers, Johnny Allegro goes at a nippy pace, is thoroughly engaging, and the ending -a la the most Dangerous Game - is a tense one. Stone-faced tough guy Raft is his usual reliable self, delivering wry quips, countering Macready's sanctimonious and snobby commentary. But Macready, a scene stealer as the bow and arrow-toting villain, has some good lines ("But your type never changes. Just looking at you makes one think of alley fighting, tommy guns."). Just love his voice, has enough menace to shame a rattler. The beautiful Nina Foch is very good as his wife. Highly enjoyable Raft thriller.

A decade before TV brought us Johnny Staccato, Columbia Pictures presented Johnny Allegro, a florist with a concession in a fancy hotel who gets wrapped up in a police manhunt.

We start with what appears to be a typical Hitchcock setup: an innocent man gets drawn into peril thanks to a leggy blonde. But is Allegro truly as innocent as he appears? Not in the eyes of "Schultzy" the cop (played convincingly by Will Geer, almost unrecognizable to those of us who only remember him as "Grandpa Walton").

So now we have a new plot developing: a crook infiltrating another crook's operation in order to clear his name with the police. He ends up in a swanky manor on a secluded Florida island, trying to track down some counterfeit money that could ruin the US economy.

And finally, we end up with a finale that steals a page or two from "The Most Dangerous Game," as Raft is hunted across the island by a foe with a bow.

In my opinion, Raft was too old for this role, and not terribly convincing as an action figure. The plot seems like a jigsaw puzzle made from three different boxes that don't quite match, and there's nothing outstanding about the visual aspect of the picture. It's got some good moments (mostly thanks to Geer and Foch) but overall it's not satisfying. More like Johnny Andante, not quite up to speed.

Johnny Allegro has George Raft in the title role as an ex-con trying to go straight. Under an alias he's living life as a hotel florist, but manages to get himself involved with the beautiful Nina Foch and get himself framed for a cop killing.

Foch is slightly married to the epicene George MacReady whom the Feds want to nab real bad. It's not just his elaborate counterfeiting operation that they want to shut down. MacReady is being financed by the Soviet Union and he's got quite a setup in distributing counterfeit and raking off a big bundle from his Soviet handler Ivan Triesault. MacReady and Foch live in fine style on an unknown Caribbean island that the Feds would like to know the location of to bust MacReady and his operation. In the end MacReady proves too much for his Soviet bosses.

Not so with Raft and his contact Will Geer who plays a Treasury agent. Geer in many spots steals the film from the leads with a nice laconic performance, not unlike his Wyatt Earp in Winchester 73.

Johnny Allegro is typical of the action/noir type films that Raft was doing at this point in his career. Soon he'd be working for Poverty Row Lippert films and Johnny Allegro from Columbia's B picture unit looked like Citizen Kane next to their stuff.

Fans of George Raft will be pleased. Especially with that ending borrowed from The Most Dangerous Game.

George Raft made a conscious decision to play ethical central characters--tough on his pocketbook, perhaps, but doing what was necessary. He turned down parts that others made successful in the popular sense; but "Johnny Allegro" was worth making, as "High Sierra" was not, not as "fiction". And this was a man who had scene first hand the negative influence gangsters could have on lives. In this case, Raft agreed to play a character well within his somewhat-limited range. Johnny Allegro is no saint, no genius. But he is a man willing to do the right thing to square himself with the law, and help the police investigate an "untouchable", a Mr. Big brilliant played by George Macready. Ted Tetzlaff directed this interesting mission film, with his usual skill, from a script by Karen de Wolf, Gene Endore and James Edward Grant. The idea is that Macready smuggles men to a remote Caribbean island, men who need to escape the law, and they then serve his criminal organization loyally because they must. Johnny's police pals set him up as a man on the lam for having killed a policeman to make his escape, all faked; then he is able to join another escapee and find his way to the island through the villain's usual channels. Then he falls in love with someone Macready, the usual Renaissance man and intellectual villainized in US films--holds as his prize possession--lovely Nina Foch, his wife. Investigating the island to which he has been spirited, he finds a way to call in the cops and cover his actions. But then he and Foch must escape Macready and his bow and arrow--with which he kills the disloyal in his empire...The film is attractive in B/W but not stylish; yet the cast is above average. other players include Will Geer as Raft's boss who believes in him,, Thomas Browne Henry as his boss who does not, Gloria Henry, Ivan Triesault, Harry Antrim, Bill Phillips, and many others. George Duning wrote the fine music and Frank Tuttle did the elaborate set decorations. The other element in the film is the noir mission sense of being beyond help, and the growing romance between Raft and the brilliant Nina Foch, who for once is given a sympathetic part in a film. This is a well- paced, interesting and well-mounted "B" effort; and one that bears repeated watching for its mystery, its situation-derived characters and the under-theme of loyalty which is interestingly examined. Above average.

Of the countless tough guy melodramas that featured George Raft in the late '40s and early '50s, this slick Columbia production ranks a notch or two above most. Raft plays a gangster escaped from prison who is recruited by the Treasury Department to help them land a gang of counterfeiters.

It's not so much the plot that demands attention here as it is Columbia's effort to superficially remind its audience of one of its biggest hits of a few years before, Gilda. This is to the extent of casting George Macready as the cultured head of the counterfeiters. (You know he's cultured because he listens to classical music). He also prefers the use of a bow and arrow (a man's weapon) over that of a gun. Ballin in Gilda is now called Vallin.

His wife, whom Allegro desires, of course, is played by a sophisticated Nina Foch. Her character's name? Glenda. Not quite Gilda, but close enough. And then, of course, there are the leading men in the two films, both named Johnny.

With that bow and arrow fetish of Macready the audiences knows, too, that it probably won't be long before another variation of The Most Dangerous Game gets played out. Macready is fun to watch, even if there is a feeling of having seen much of this same act before. Raft is Raft. Did ever a block of wood dress better? And Nina Foch, well, she'll never replace the memory of Hayworth's vamp.