Desperate

Steve Randall is a truck driver looking forward to a romantic night in with his new wife after four months of marriage. However when he gets a call for a last minute transit job for the fee of $50 he can't say no. When he gets to the job he finds that he is working for Walt Radak and the cargo is actually goods being stolen from a warehouse. Alerting a passing police officer sees the officer get shot and Radak's younger brother caught by the cops; to get him out Radak tells Steve to go to the police and confess that he forced the kid to do the job for him, either that or Radak's boys will pay a visit to Steve's wife. Instead of going to the cops though, Randall alerts his wife and flees the city with both the criminals (helped by ex-PI Lavitch) and the police (in the shape of Det Lt Ferrari).

This film opens with a light tone that does little to prepare you for how quickly it all goes wrong for Steve and it is not long before he is fleeing the mob and the police. However, although it never settles back into that light tone, it does take the foot off the gas several times and produces a film that is a series of good moments rather than being a constantly taut thriller. Having said that though, the strong moments more than make up for the dips where the film develops the story and plays on the emotions of the characters – when this is tough, it is excellent and very much captures what made the "more is less" spirit of 40's/50's crime noirs so enjoyable. Steve's initial beating is played out in a dark room with a swinging lampshade; the final standoff takes place in a stairwell that is all shadows and banister; while the ambivalence of the cops and criminals make for an interesting set up.

Although the characters are not taken as deep as noir would normally require (Steve is too clean cut and not enough is made of the police using Steve as bait) the characters are still tough. Brodie is not great but does well enough despite being rather too nice for the lead role. Long is OK and luckily the film gives her limited time and concentrates on the dark rather than the dame. Burr is tremendously menacing – not a crime lord but a tough hood who remains sane throughout and is all the more menacing for being out of the picture until the end. Robards is a bit too whimsical where I would have preferred him to be cynical and uncaring, but he was still good. Support is also good from Fowley, Challee and others.

Overall this would have been a bit better if it had been a bit darker in terms of action and character as well as being more consistent in its tension but, despite what could have been, it is still enjoyably tense and tough and features good performances and some typically noir use of darkness and light in the cinematography.

"Desperate" is a low-budget but fairly good film-noir. The director Anthony Mann, at the beginning of his career, shows his talent, soon to be consecrated in a sequence of splendid western movies.

The story is simple, but has a steady pace and a good suspense. At times the troubles of the cruelly chased hero and heroine are straightforward, not to say boring, but the movie considerably improves whenever the gangsters are on the screen. All along the film we find an excellent, stylish black and white photography. The waving lamp spreading a dire light on the impassive faces of the criminals, while we hear the off-screen noise of an horrible beating, should be a cult-scene in a more celebrated movie. Another remarkable moment is the brutal intrusion of the gangsters into the rural peace of an amiable old couple. A feeling of violation and fear is created, with no use of visual violence. The final scene, though a bit unrealistic, is masterly filmed and provides a satisfactory ending.

Steve Brodie and Aubrey Long make an adequate job as the couple of the good ones. However, the film is physically dominated by Raymond Burr, with his immense shoulders and his scaring poise. What a great villain he is! Of course, we are also delighted by Burr's side-kicks, with their wonderful gangster-faces.

"Desperate" is recommended for film-noir fans and can be a nice view for anyone fond of good, old-style, accurately-made cinema.

... in this "B" crime drama from RKO and director Anthony Mann. A hapless truck driver named Steve (Steve Brodie) gets unwittingly caught up in a robbery that leads to a cop's death and the arrest of the little brother of chief crook Walt Radak (Raymond Burr). Radak wants revenge on Steve for his brother's situation, and the gangster threatens Steve's pregnant wife Anne (Audrey Long). Steve and Anne hit the road to try and escape, and their circumstances continue to get worse.

There are a lot of rough edges on this crime picture, but I liked it anyway. The first half of the story could have been subtitled "A series of increasingly poor decision making" on the part of Steve. Things settle down for the second half, where things become a bit more brooding and almost nihilistic before snapping out of it.

Brodie and Long are both likable leads, even if they aren't the most gifted actors. Burr is terrific as the menacing brute Radak, even before he packed on the pounds as Perry Mason. And this may be the best role that I've seen Jason Robards Sr in. After a career stretching way back into the silents. He plays the cold-blooded, cynical police detective on the case with just the right angle to his smirk. There are a lot of reprehensible characters filling out the background, from Douglas Fowley as an oily P. I., to Cy Kendall as a loathsome used car salesman.

This 40s noir B-movie has quite a solid reputation, but its plot is strictly second-rate. Steve Brodie plays an average joe, a truck driver not long out of the army and recently married to a lush wife who bakes cakes to celebrate the fact that she is pregnant. Sadly, hubby never gets to taste her culinary skills because he accepts a last minute lucrative driving job that turns out to be crooked. Raymond Burr's gang of crooks haven't got their own vehicle so, bizarrely, they decide to hire one to carry out a warehouse theft and, one dead cop later, Brodie finds himself on the run as a cop-killer.

Mann's direction is better than the plot. He wasn't scared to try something different every now and then. At one point we're even given a blurry POV close-up of Burr's retreating fist after it has connected with Brodie's face. Burr plays the heavy here, as he usually did in his early career. He was a big man even before he put a few pounds on, but looks swarthy here as well, almost Mediterranean. He's certainly the most interesting character in the film, a gangster out to save his brother from the electric chair and endeavouring to have our relatively bland hero take his place.

The main weakness in the storyline is the hero's poor decision-making. He practically panics each time danger is at hand, and yet delays contacting the police for an inordinate length of time so that the villains can more or less pursue him at their leisure.

This is undoubtedly better than its modest production values would suggest, but it isn't a classic by any measure.

The trucker Steve Randall (Steve Brodie) is an ex-GI that has fought in the war and has been married with Anne Randall (Audrey Long) for four months. Steve has a trunking business, but he arrives home with the intention of celebrating his wedding anniversary with Anne. He receives a phone call from a client that offers a small fortune to him to transport some goods that night and he does not have how to refuse.

When he arrives at the spot, he finds that he was lured by the mobster Walt Radak (Raymond Burr) that wants to use Steve's truck to transport stolen furs. Steve does not accept the deal but is forced by Walt's gangsters to drive his truck. When he sees a police officer on the street, he blinks the headlights to call his attention. There is a shooting and the police officer is murdered and Walt's young brother Al is left behind and arrested by the police.

Walt tries to force Steve to assume the murder to save his brother but Steve flees from the gangsters and travels with Anne, who is pregnant, to the countryside, pursued by Walt and his gangsters and by the police. When Steve finds a safe place for Anne in the farm of her Aunt Klara (Ilka Gruning) and Uncle Jan (Paul E. Burns), he goes to the police department and tells his story to Det. Lt. Louie Ferrari (Jason Robards) that does not believe in his words but let him go. Steve returns to the farm without knowing that Ferrari released him to be a bait to catch Walt and his men.

"Desperate" is a film-noir by Anthony Mann with a good story of pursue and death wish, with sordid characters, like for example the mobster, the car dealer, the detective lieutenant among others and good duel between Steve Brodie and Raymond Burr. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Desesperado" ("Desperate")