I'll Get You for This

James Hadley Chase was a British writer who surrounded himself with American maps, reference books and dictionaries of popular slang before he sat down to write American style pulp fiction. With titles like "You Find Him, I'll Fix Him", "You're Lonely When You're Dead" and "Lady, Here's Your Wreath" and always with lurid covers, he managed to fool most of the paperback buying public into thinking he was a Yank!!! But with expressions like "jolly good" and "let's go to the cinema" some readers may have been scratching their heads. By 1950 George Raft had lost a lot of his popularity because of a series of less than prestigious films. Movies like this one didn't help, although it probably looked good on the drawing board.

It started off great - professional gambler "Lucky" Nick Cain (Raft) has the red carpet rolled out for him when he visits Sao Paolo - and he's suspicious!!! When he sits down to play baccarat his notoriety brings patrons to his table, including Kay (Coleen Gray) who quickly finds herself in debt to the casino. As a way of repaying them, they suggest Kay be "nice" to Nick in order to keep him at the casino. Back at his apartment, Nick is drugged and awakes to find himself accused of murdering a U.S. Treasury Agent (who had desperately tried to see him earlier in the evening). So begins a cat and mouse adventure involving counterfeit plates from the Third Reich. Colour would have enhanced the beautiful Italian countryside but considering the action was mostly set in the early evening and at night, there was not a lot to see. All in all a very dreary, run of the mill movie.

One actress I thought I might see more of was Greta Gynt, probably Britain's first sex symbol (even though she was Norwegian), but unfortunately she had one scene which took place in a darkened room!! George Raft bought class and professionalism to a role he could have performed in his sleep. Coleen Gray was always good - she is remembered as the carnival girl in "Nightmare Alley" and Sterling Hayden's decent girlfriend in "The Killing". Peter Bull had a small scene as Hans. He was usually the villain and was Britain's answer to Sidney Greenstreet. The brightest scene is at the beginning of the movie and one that made the movie look more promising than it really was. It involved Enzo Staiola, the little boy from "The Bicycle Thieves" - he played Toni, a little street urchin and someone who proves invaluable to Nick during the movie.

American gambler Nick Cain arrives at the town of San Paola, and befriends shoe-shine boy Toni. He discovers he has been framed for the murder of an American Treasury agent.

He escapes with Kay Wonderly to an abandoned village, leaving her to hide out. Cain gets help from Massine, whom he does not trust. He uncovers an international counterfeiting ring, members of which are responsible for the murder.

Lucky Nick Cain is a fast-paced European noir-adventure which stars ole stone face George Raft, and in a standard plot he's framed for murder of a U. S treasured agent. What makes this thriller of interest is the visuals, which are submerged in lush noir images that augment the nocturnal claustrophobia of narrow, hillside European streets through jagged camera angles; plus there are several imaginative sequences, including Nick's drug-induced dream of a floating telephone and Kay's cacophonous nightmare of wolves and owls circling the ruins. Quite a creepy scene.

Definitely kept my attention with Raft and Gray getting drugged, then escape to the ruins, Raft returns to the town to investigate - the plot is boiling and I found it quite fun and not at all dull. The locales and atmosphere help, too. The mystery is slowly unraveled and doesn't let the cat out of the bag too soon. There are some odd elements like the kidnapping by florist, a dungeon holding female prisoners, a bar full of aggressive prostitutes. Nice action finale in the dungeon with a spiral staircase.

James Hadley Chase,among other writers, was well renowned for his ability to capture the readers attention from the beginning to end in all of his crime-thriller novels. That is where the difficulty sets in, can the director and crew capture the same in the movie? The story starts off with the arrival of an American gambler (Nick-George Raft) at a Mediterranean town of San Paola. Soon he gets acquainted with Kay (Coleen Gray) and finds himself framed for a murder, forcing him to go on the run with her. So far so good yet this is the turning point of the movie. Instead of going the edge of your seat 'why and who?' it turned into mediocrity. Overall, had the potential to be a great movie and could have rivaled movies like The Fugitive (1993) had a bit more suspense/tension been pumped into the screenplay and other movie making aspects.

Gambler George Raft on a leisurely holiday on the Italian Riviera arrives at a hotel/casino where the management is really pulling out all the hospitality stops for him. The casino manager Martin Benson has even forgiven the losses of fellow American tourist Coleen Gray at the gaming tables if she'll just be friendly to Raft.

Gray's friendly enough all right, but when a Mickey Finn is slipped in both their drinks, Raft and Gray wake up to find themselves wanted for the murder of a third American at the resort.

That particular American Donald Stewart as it turns out was a secret service agent on the trail of some gangsters who have grabbed some nearly perfect counterfeit plates developed by the Nazis and never put in use during the war to destroy the value of American currency.

I'll Get You For This also entitled Lucky Nick Cain is concerned with just how Raft and Gray get out of this jackpot. The only one they can trust for a while until they sort out the good guys from the bad guys is shoeshine boy Enzo Staiola who was prominently featured in Vittorio DeSica's The Bicycle Thief a few years earlier. By the way when you see Staiola meet Raft at the beginning of the film and offer him a shine, Raft's elevator shoes are plainly visible.

The film is a British production with American stars and an Italian setting and a cast of all three countries. Maybe color would have helped as it always does in Mediterranean settings, but the film never really takes off in the action department. Raft was clearly in the B film phase of his career and this one didn't help him get out of it.

The plot creaked and were I that bothered I might watch this film again (I've just seen it on YouTube) to see if I missed something.

I'm unclear why the gang went to so much trouble to set Nick Cain up with the body of the agent - why not just dump it in the sea or out in the country? And it was remarkable how townspeople identified Nick and Kay just from their names on a Wanted poster - and how on a couple of occasions someone conveniently turned up out of the blue.

The settings were nice enough, and Hugh French made an impression on me as the hotel manager, reminding me of David Niven - in fact he was even more suave, if that's possible. I'm surprised he didn't have a bigger film career.