TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
arfdawg-1 When the owner of a printing shop is found dead, the District Attorney assumes that it was a suicide. But the Assistant D.A., Howard Malloy, suspects that there is a connection with an extremist political group called the 'Crusaders'. When a journalist whose articles had attacked the Crusaders is also killed, Malloy is convinced. With help from the widow of a prominent judge, he conducts an investigation. As he does so, he meets a peculiar political boss and also an attractive night club singer, each of whom could become either a source of help or a source of danger.The print I saw this on was OK. Not great but OK. The transfer seems to drag, speed up, drag, speed up as if it was taken off a TV. It made it hard to watch.That said, it's a decent foray into Film Noir.
Corr28 A different and at times dark and disturbing noir/crime/political drama starring Franchot Tone. Tone plays Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy who is investigating a couple of strange murders, including that of his friend and newspaper columnist Charles Riggs, that seem to have ties to an underground hate group called The Crusaders. Though it is not ever mentioned by name, the film seems to point towards the emerging dangers of communism. The film is well acted by Tone and his supporting cast including Jean Wallace, Marc Lawrence, Myron McCormick, Winifred Lenihan and Betty Harper. Though only competently directed by Fletcher Markle, there are some interesting camera angles and the finale in a dark, shadowy museum is the real highlight of the film. The movie appears to be filmed on location in New York City and the keen eye will spot quick walk-on and cameo appearances from stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Henry Fonda and Burgess Meredith. A unique, dark, if at times slow film that makes for a real interesting watch.
edgeplayer Many purists will find this film not a noir. A great deal of the cinematography,lighting and camera angles, however, is textbook noir and this alone makes the film worth watching. Jean Wallace plays herself but it's a great play. The main character is sufficiently morally ambiguous--he knows his promotion comes from dubious sources and when he defeats these sources we don't see him disavowing the new job. The political angle doesn't work today in the way it might have at the time; watching this 1949 film today it's worth recalling that this was a period, just before McCarthy and Korea, when everything seemed up for grabs in the U.S. Prosperity was still, for a lot of folks, 'just around the corner' and the film in some ways portrays the fear that Nazis, communists, whoever, had infiltrated social and political elites. The director and others involved were part of the Mercury Theater grouping, associated in various ways with Orson Welles. There's a remarkable sequence in the party scene in the middle of the film where the camera assumes first person position...a bit like the earlier Lady in the Lake by Robert Montgomery, for a few minutes. I found the use of voice-over and first person camera an interesting wrinkle on noir's interrogation if the 'inner subject.' Markle would go on to head the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and had earlier worked as an uncredited screenwriter for Orson Welles.
bkoganbing Jigsaw was an independently produced film based out of New York City that would have us believe there was an American Fascist movement operating out of New York. A kind of Ku Klux Klan for the northeast.With New York City's polyglot population it does not exactly lend itself to being a good base for such organizations either now or back in 1949. The American public knew it and for that reason it did not buy what Jigsaw was trying to sell.One of the gimmicks was to have a few big names in some small one or two line roles. Henry Fonda, on Broadway at the time with Mister Roberts is a nightclub waiter, Marlene Dietrich was an entertainer, and John Garfield as a local tough. Sort of like The List of Adrian Messenger later on, but without the makeup.Jigsaw needed all the help it could get. The plot is muddled beyond belief and the premise is preposterous to begin with. Franchot Tone and the rest of the talented cast are sadly wasted here.
