Raw Deal (1948)

Film: Raw Deal (1948)

Stars: Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt, Raymond Burr, John Ireland

Director: Anthony Mann

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Throughout the month of June we will be doing a Film Noir Movie Marathon, featuring fifteen film noir classics that I'll be seeing for the first time.  Reviews of other film noir classics are at the bottom of this article.

Noir in the late 1940's was a big business.  The movies could be made for cheap, and while they typically had stars, they didn't have to be super expensive performers like Ginger Rogers or Bette Davis in order to be successful.  The "cheap" aspect of it also meant that the major studios weren't the only ones playing in the noir pond.  Today's film, Raw Deal, is one of the few films that we are going to talk about this month that (despite having some well-known names, including Claire Trevor in the year she'd win an Oscar for Warner Bros' Key Largo) wasn't distributed by a major Hollywood studio, but instead by Eagle Lion Films, an independent studio that was part of the famed "Poverty Row" that made very cheap movies (mostly noir & westerns) that largely have disappeared from public consciousness in the years since.  Whether it's because of the notable stars or because of the quality of the film, Raw Deal is one of the few films that has stayed relevant in the years since from this studio, and so I was excited to see exactly what it entailed.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is told in a weird sort of narration but not by the main character.  Joe Sullivan (O'Keefe) is a career criminal who has taken the fall for crime boss Rick Coyle (Burr) who is convinced Sullivan will die or be arrested permanently while trying to escape jail (and thus he won't have to pay the $50k he owes him for taking the rap).  The narrator, though, is Joe's girlfriend Pat (Trevor), a madly jealous woman who is obsessed with Joe, and takes none-too-kindly when sweet Ann (Hunt), a caseworker assigned to Joe, ends up on the lam with them when Joe successfully escapes from prison, in search of his $50k.  The three of them go on the run, and not all of them make it.  Joe & Ann start to fall in love, despite Pat trying to break them apart by any means necessarily (increasingly willing to put Ann's life in danger if necessary) and Rick trying anything he can to stop Joe from getting to him, and forcing him to pay the money.

This gives us a unique perspective.  The femme fatale is one of the building blocks of film noir, but it's rare that the character is so forthcoming in her motives.  Thanks to narration, we see the growing jealousy coming off of Pat as she understands that Joe no longer loves her as much as he does Ann, and perhaps he never did.  Trevor does this part a great justice.  One of the best character actresses of the Classical Hollywood era, she doesn't play Pat as sympathetic at all, but nor does she play as a harpy like you could easily see this part going.  Instead, she's cool, calculated, and intent on finding Joe.  The Hays Code mandated that Joe die (and with Ann holding him) in the finale after Pat tells him that Ann is in danger, but it's worth noting something rare here-despite her misdeeds, Pat lives, a rarity in a film noir of this nature, and will likely go unpunished for her deeds in the film.

The same cannot be said for Raymond Burr's Rick, who steals the other half of the movie (Hunt & O'Keefe are window dressing here).  Burr, most famous for his roles in the Perry Mason TV series and subsequent TV movies, is worlds away from that honorable lawyer in Raw Deal, playing a brutal crime boss who is willing to do anything to get his way.  There's a scene about midway through the film that encapsulates how sadistic he is, when a woman accidentally spills a drunk on him while dancing, and as punishment, he flings a plate of fire (it's hard to tell exactly what it is, but I think it's meant to be something like cherries jubilee), at her, maiming her permanently.  Burr's twisted villain and Trevor's complicated femme fatale cause this to rise above, and along with some solid camerawork in the second half, makes this a deep cut film noir to add to the watchlist.

1940's: The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia, Blues in the Night, Brighton Rock, Criss Cross, Crossfire, Daisy Kenyon, Dead Reckoning, Detour, Fallen Angel, Gilda, High Sierra, I Walk Alone, I Wake Up Screaming, The Killers, The Lady from Shanghai, Leave Her to Heaven, Ministry of Fear, Moonrise, Murder My Sweet, Nightmare Alley, Out of the Past, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Ride the Pink Horse, Scarlet Street, Sorry, Wrong Number, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, They Won't Believe Me, Too Late for Tears, The Woman in the Window, The Woman on the Beach

1950's: Affair in Trinidad, The Asphalt Jungle, Beat the Devil, The Big Combo, The Big Heat, The Blue Gardenia, The Burglar, Cast a Dark Shadow, The Crimson Kimono, Gun Crazy, The Hitch-Hiker, House of Bamboo, In a Lonely Place, The Killing, Kiss Me Deadly, Murder by Contract, Night and the City, On Dangerous Ground, Pickup on South Street, Slightly Scarlet, Sudden Fear, Sweet Smell of Success, They Live By Night, While the City Sleeps

Neo-Noir: Blade Runner, Body Heat, Farewell My Lovely, Fargo, From Afar, The Long Goodbye, Night Moves, Nightcrawler