The most interesting thing about "The Man Who Cheated Himself: is in the casting of the leads. Lee J. Cobb gets to play a romantic lead for what I believe was the only time in his lengthy movie career. And as the femme fatale of the piece Jane Wyatt who usually played good girls (She wound up playing straight laced Margaret Anderson on the long running TV series "Father Knows Best")
The story centers around self centered rich girl Lois Frazer (Wyatt) who is about to divorce her second husband Howard (Harlan Warde). Unbeknownst to Lois, Howard has bought a gun. He tries to burn all of the packaging but drops the inspection certificate on the floor. Guess who finds it?
Lois who has been carrying on with Detective Lt. Ed Cullen (Cobb), thinks that Howard plans to kill her. She calls Cullen in a panic. He rushes to her side. Howard, meanwhile, has faked a business trip and sneaks back into their home but Lois has found the gun. When Howard is discovered, Lois shoots and kills him in front of Cullen. This forces Cullen to try and cover up Lois' crime.
The case is assigned to Cullen whose younger brother Andy (John Dall) has just joined the force and is assigned to Ed. Ed had earlier taken Howard's body to the airport and placed it there to make his demise look like a robbery. An elderly couple Ernest and Muriel Quimby (Charles Arnt, Marjorie Bennett) see Ed's car at the scene.
Andy is about to be married to Janet (Lisa Howard) with Ed as best man. Andy begins to investigate the murder. He questions the Quimbys and eventually learns that Ernest is color blind and has mistakenly identified Ed's car as green rather than blue. This convinces Andy that Ed is involved with the murder.
Andy confronts Ed with his suspicions forcing Ed's hand. Ed gathers up Lois and they attempt to escape but....................................
In the conclusion, Ed finds out how devious Lois really iswhen.................
A rarely seen little film noir that had hoped to change the on screen images of both Cobb and Wyatt. This experiment failed when the film was not a great success, Both actors went on to long and prosperous careers.
By the way that was Jack L. Warner's son who produced the film. Hmmmmm, I wonder what became of him?
The story centers around self centered rich girl Lois Frazer (Wyatt) who is about to divorce her second husband Howard (Harlan Warde). Unbeknownst to Lois, Howard has bought a gun. He tries to burn all of the packaging but drops the inspection certificate on the floor. Guess who finds it?
Lois who has been carrying on with Detective Lt. Ed Cullen (Cobb), thinks that Howard plans to kill her. She calls Cullen in a panic. He rushes to her side. Howard, meanwhile, has faked a business trip and sneaks back into their home but Lois has found the gun. When Howard is discovered, Lois shoots and kills him in front of Cullen. This forces Cullen to try and cover up Lois' crime.
The case is assigned to Cullen whose younger brother Andy (John Dall) has just joined the force and is assigned to Ed. Ed had earlier taken Howard's body to the airport and placed it there to make his demise look like a robbery. An elderly couple Ernest and Muriel Quimby (Charles Arnt, Marjorie Bennett) see Ed's car at the scene.
Andy is about to be married to Janet (Lisa Howard) with Ed as best man. Andy begins to investigate the murder. He questions the Quimbys and eventually learns that Ernest is color blind and has mistakenly identified Ed's car as green rather than blue. This convinces Andy that Ed is involved with the murder.
Andy confronts Ed with his suspicions forcing Ed's hand. Ed gathers up Lois and they attempt to escape but....................................
In the conclusion, Ed finds out how devious Lois really iswhen.................
A rarely seen little film noir that had hoped to change the on screen images of both Cobb and Wyatt. This experiment failed when the film was not a great success, Both actors went on to long and prosperous careers.
By the way that was Jack L. Warner's son who produced the film. Hmmmmm, I wonder what became of him?