Now here's something I just saw tonight, and don't at all regret the time spent.
A lawyer (Edmond O'Brien) shows tenacity in a case against a wealthy businessman (Vincent Price.) The businessman, impressed, hires the lawyer. But not as a lawyer, as a bodyguard. Apparently there's a man out there who just got out of prison for stealing from the company and he blames poor widdle Vincent for ruining his life? Can you believe such a silly thing? Anyway, the lawyer finds himself killing this man in a shootout, which rouses the suspicion of his detective friend. (William Bendix). And he needs to pump the businessman's among-other-things secretary (Ella Raines) to get to the bottom of the case.
This is the basic plot of The Web, a 1947 Universal Pictures thriller. Price had already mastered the balancing act of being charming and nasty. The rest of the cast is quite good too. O'Brien is obviously pulling Bogart mannerisms, but it works for the part. It unfolds in a very tight, stylish way as well. Free on Archive.org.
2 comments:
Well, that was fun. You posted a review of the movie and we watched it this evening. For our money it was William Bendix who had the best role and made the best of it too. It was good to see him playing a straight character and he made me imagine him as a very good Insepector Cramer (Greenstreet was always my first choice for Nero Wolfe). You're right that Vincent was already in charge of the character he played ever after - charming and nasty (and, boy, was he nasty in this one). Since neither of us had ever heard of Ella Raines before seeing this movie we were expecting the mystery/romance would be between Edmund O'Brien and Fritz Lieber's daughter. It soon became apparent who it really was. Edmund O'Brien's performance was acceptable but he seemed a little too chubby to be playing the lean and hungry lawyer/detective.
The music was especially good.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, as there's a lot to enjoy. For the lead Edmond O'Brien is callow, aiming for Bogey, getting something more like Moonlighting-era Bruce Willis. But that's about right for the part, a guy with a certain foolish cockiness. William Bendix as Inspector Cramer? I hadn't thought of it, but it could work. What's cool about his character in this movie is that he knows how to play it close to the vest. Very self-possessed performance too. I didn't know Ella Raines either before I saw this movie. Just recently I saw her in another very good movie I hope to tell you guys about.. While it would have been a completely different movie I'd have been interested in Martha as the lead. Maria Palmer was quite stunning. Not sure if you knew this, but the Fritz Leiber who played her father was the real-life father of science fiction writer Fritz Leiber (Jr.)
The music added a lot to the atmosphere, didn't it?
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