A Dangerous Profession

“I wanna be a rich man or a hero.  I don’t care which.  I like to be rich and I know a girl who likes heroes.  So make up your minds.”

Former cop Vince Kane (George Raft) is now in a bail bonds business with partner Joe Farley (Pat O’Brien).  Vince gets hired by his old flame Lucy (Ella Raines) to bail out her husband Claude (Bill Williams) on a cop killing charge.  She doesn’t have nearly enough money, but a mysterious source comes up with more.  Vince vouches for the rest of the balance, which may prove to be a big mistake.

I had a hard time pulling a quote for this review.  There were a lot that were pretty good, but none of them really stood out.  That kind of describes the film as a whole.  It walks like a noir, it talks like a noir, but it doesn’t sing like a noir.  Raft and Raines in the cast should help, but neither of them is putting much into it.  There’s no excitement, no heart.  The script is peppered with lines that seem like they should be snappy, but they’ve got no snap.

It’s also really hard to follow.  I’ve said it before: I’ll forgive a convoluted plot, but only if the movie shines in the details.  This one doesn’t, at least not enough.  I got lost many times and by the end had given up on trying to figure out who had done what to whom.  And given up trying to care.  And everything about the movie says that no one involved cared much either.  Tetzlaff has done better than this.  Rating: Poor (51)

IMDb