Hideout (1949)
Just above a run-of-the-mill crime and romance film, officially a B-movie but with enough guts and flair to propel itself through its 60 minutes with conviction. Completely enjoyable, but with some seams showing now and then. Director Philip Ford was a distinctly small studio man, and his films (judging from their IMDb responses) are routine ones. His real success came a few years later, as the main director of televisions classic "Lassie" series. If you've seen any of those, you almost have a sense of how this movie works--the plot is clear, the twists surprise you at the end, but it's all on the surface.
The plot is straight forward--some fabulous jewels are stolen, and the chief thief has planned (with unusual elaborateness) his cooling off period in a small town where he owns a house on the hill. This town, with its usual innocence, is where most of the movie takes place, and it's decidedly an anti-drama in some ways. For example, the detective is the d.a. in town, and he's running for mayor, and they show one campaign speech that is the antithesis of Charles Foster Kane's great speech. Here people are on folding chairs and the speaker half mumbles a quote from Lincoln and people clap. It's quite believably bad, in a way, and on purpose. We are not to be impressed by anyone, but sucked in as an equal.
The one exception is the chief crook, who is bigger than life and also an actor of a much higher order--Ray Collins. And by coincidence (I assume), this is the actor who played Kane's rival in the Orson Welles classic, James W. Gettys. Collins steals every scene. He has confidence and depth in his role. Even the final speech he gives, with all the double meanings (and slightly comic flair, a surprise for this movie), is plump with drama.
The actors around him--the d.a. himself, and two women, the good and the bad--are reasonable enough to keep the film on its feet. In fact, I think a better director might have made this material really sing, because it is only thrown off course by a steady implausibility--a car crash where our hero hops out unscathed, the step in the house giving itself away by a little squeak, or the comic secretary referring to her mother in the fingerprint department. All of this is fine, but it throws us off course.
Meaning what? That it's a fun one, a quick and enjoyable little crime drama.
Just above a run-of-the-mill crime and romance film, officially a B-movie but with enough guts and flair to propel itself through its 60 minutes with conviction. Completely enjoyable, but with some seams showing now and then. Director Philip Ford was a distinctly small studio man, and his films (judging from their IMDb responses) are routine ones. His real success came a few years later, as the main director of televisions classic "Lassie" series. If you've seen any of those, you almost have a sense of how this movie works--the plot is clear, the twists surprise you at the end, but it's all on the surface.
The plot is straight forward--some fabulous jewels are stolen, and the chief thief has planned (with unusual elaborateness) his cooling off period in a small town where he owns a house on the hill. This town, with its usual innocence, is where most of the movie takes place, and it's decidedly an anti-drama in some ways. For example, the detective is the d.a. in town, and he's running for mayor, and they show one campaign speech that is the antithesis of Charles Foster Kane's great speech. Here people are on folding chairs and the speaker half mumbles a quote from Lincoln and people clap. It's quite believably bad, in a way, and on purpose. We are not to be impressed by anyone, but sucked in as an equal.
The one exception is the chief crook, who is bigger than life and also an actor of a much higher order--Ray Collins. And by coincidence (I assume), this is the actor who played Kane's rival in the Orson Welles classic, James W. Gettys. Collins steals every scene. He has confidence and depth in his role. Even the final speech he gives, with all the double meanings (and slightly comic flair, a surprise for this movie), is plump with drama.
The actors around him--the d.a. himself, and two women, the good and the bad--are reasonable enough to keep the film on its feet. In fact, I think a better director might have made this material really sing, because it is only thrown off course by a steady implausibility--a car crash where our hero hops out unscathed, the step in the house giving itself away by a little squeak, or the comic secretary referring to her mother in the fingerprint department. All of this is fine, but it throws us off course.
Meaning what? That it's a fun one, a quick and enjoyable little crime drama.
