I Walk Alone (1947)

Film: I Walk Alone (1947)
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey
Director: Byron Haskin
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2019 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress of Hollywood's Golden Age.  This month, our focus is on Lizabeth Scott-click here to learn more about Ms. Scott (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

In our third week with Lizabeth Scott, we also welcome back two stars that seem to be popping up at TMROJ a lot in the past few weeks, Kirk Douglas & Burt Lancaster.  Lancaster & Douglas would make seven films together over the next four decades (ending their long-running tenure as a cinematic pair with 1986's Tough Guys)-this is the only film where they don't have equal billing, though, as Douglas (who, like Scott, was having a big few years as an actor) was not yet an established star like Lancaster.  That such a film set off such a long film partnership is odd, because while I Walk Alone is fine, it's also relatively forgettable, the sort of late-night television you watch and wonder the next day what it was called.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is about Frankie (Lancaster), a man freshly out of prison and trying to find the money he is due from his former partner Noll (Douglas).  Noll & Frankie had been bootleggers in 1933 (which, considering their ages would have made Lancaster & Douglas teenage bootleggers, but let's not get bogged down by facts just yet), and made a promise they'd split any money they made 50/50, even if one of them got caught and sent to prison.  Year later, Noll, now a legitimate businessman with a thriving nightclub, is visited by Frankie asking for half of what he has, and Noll refuses, but first tries to have his girlfriend Kay (Scott) seduce Frankie to figure out what his angle is, and the two fall in love (Noll is also stepping out with Kay with a wealthy socialite and has no intention of marrying Kay, which is why she doesn't come across as a harlot for the 1940's crowd).  The movie has multiple standoffs between Noll & Frankie, one of which ends with their mutual friend Dave (Corey) dead at Noll's hand, and eventually Noll gets his comeuppance when he's gunned down by police, after it's clear he was the one who killed Dave.

It's strange to watch Lancaster become the hero here, and possibly we watch the film violate the Hays Code by having him be a criminal who gets away pretty much scot-free at the end, simply by making the argument that he's a better person than Douglas's Noll.  This is odd because Douglas's character, at least until Frankie shows up, is working within the law (even though he hadn't always), trying to make his business profitable and respectable.  The movie therefore feels more like one that would be released in the 1950's or 60's, where establishment, moneyed villains, rather than the type of hoods that Lancaster is playing here, would become en vogue.

This juxtaposition is probably the most interesting part of I Walk Alone.  Lancaster, whom I've been warming to this month, goes completely bombastic and overacts throughout the movie, every mood swing needing to be underlined.  This is what has always kept me from being a fan of his work in the past, and while I'm now someone who is going to be less shy of his filmography, I don't know that I'll ever be an ardent fan.  Douglas is also growing on me, and is considerably better as Noll, giving him a creepy supporting sheen that works for the picture.  But the movie is repetitive, and its politics are complicated.  It's honestly a pretty socialist film, with Lancaster demanding to be paid for his initial investment in the partnerships despite doing little of the tangible work, and I'm quite surprised that it was Martha Ivers, and not a picture like I Walk Alone that has been associated with the Black List in a major way.

Scott gets a relatively thankless role as Kay, basically a beautiful woman for the two men to spar with and spar over, but I honestly think this is the movie where I kind of become obsessed with Scott.  I have two more pictures of hers to see before the end of the month, including the film that is generally considered to house her finest performance, but while I'm not entirely sure she's a good actress, she's utterly compelling onscreen.  Her stilted delivery, broad-shouldered stance, and baritone voice shouldn't work, but they do.  You instantly get why someone would fall for Kay, becoming enamored after a decadent French dinner, and why these two men want to make sure she's on their side before the end of the battle.  Scott's work here is impossible to ignore, and by-far the thing you best remember as you contemplate the film.  A stiff, but never lifeless, personage on the screen is so rare in movies of this era that it feels almost like method acting coming from Scott.  Like I said, I don't know if it's a great performance, but it left me entranced.