Shield for Murder

“For 16 years I’ve been a cop, Patty.  For 16 years I’ve been living in dirt, and take it from me, some of it’s bound to rub off on you.  You get to hate people.  Everyone you meet.  I’m sick of them. The racket boys, the strongarms, the stoolies, the hooligans.  I’m through with them all.”

Detective Barney Nolan (Edmund O’Brien) is a dirty cop.  In a dark alleyway, he murders a bookie in cold blood, lifts $25,000 off him and claims the killing was an accident.  But Nolan seems to have a history of unfortunate “accidents” like this.  The suspicions of his friend and colleague Mark (John Agar) are raised, his boss (Emile Meyer) is investigating, a reporter is being nosy, the underworld boss Packy Reed (Hugh Sanders) wants to know where his money is and to top it all off, a deaf-mute witness (David Hughes) emerges.  The heat is on, and only his gal Patty (Marla English) seems to be standing by him.

This was O’Brien’s first attempt at directing a picture.  His second and last, Man-Trap, is a decent flick.  This one is a lot better.  It’s a little rough around some of the edges.  Although there are some nice shots, the cinematography could be more consistent (there’s also an amateur mistake when a boom mike’s shadow is clearly visible).  The editing feels choppy in spots.  English is a lovely gal but a lousy actress.

But man, does O’Brien imbue this movie with some noir attitude.  Nolan is a bad, bad man but O’Brien gives him a few moments of humanity to add a little depth to the character.  The film is lean and mean, with a lot of cynicism and brutality.  There’s a particularly ugly beating scene, and a shootout in a setting I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a noir.  Carolyn Jones has a small but awesome role as a boozy bar blonde that more than makes up for English’s relatively weak performance.  And I always get a kick out of Emile Meyer.  There’s a pretty good car chase and even a couple of good jokes.  The dialogue is really tight in this movie.

There are other corrupt cop noirs — Pushover, Private Hell 36, et cetera — and I don’t know if O’Brien is doing anything that radical with the motif.  But he crafted a very compelling film here, one that gives me that little charge I get from good noir.  Every scene seems to add something, or has some aspect that makes it satisfying.  Tasty stuff.  Rating: Very Good (86)

IMDb