From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Richard Quine
Starring
Fred MacMurray
Kim Novak
Dorothy Malone
Phil Carey
E. G. Marshall
Paul Richards
You know I don't like to admit that Fred MacMurray was in a good film and/or that he was good in it. But here we go again. He nails it as a bad cop who falls hard for a femme fatale which ends, of course, in the only way a fifties film can end. Reviews of the past have mainly said that this is a lesser version of his role in Double Indemnity, his best film, and I must agree. Here is a tidy, delicious little film noir that has largely been missed by the public and that's too bad.
Most of its enduring fame seems to stem from the fact that it is Kim Novak's first major role and boy oh boy what a ravishing femme fatale she is, too. Grrrrrr. For those who like Novak and especially her early films, this one's for you.
MacMurray is a detective who's likely always been a model of propriety on the force and in private life. He and Phil Carey are paired up to find a vicious thug who robbed a bank of $200,000 and killed a security guard. MacMurray is tailing Novak because he knows she's the girlfriend of the killer. He finally cozies up to her after he tries to get her car started. (She doesn't know he's fixed the car so it won't start.)
It doesn't take but an hour or so for him to fall madly for her although at the time she has been playing him as he had been doing with her. And then she, too, falls for him. She knows his job is to capture her boyfriend but she decides they should themselves steal the money from him when he finally shows his face. It doesn't take him long for MacMurray to agree when she coos to him that they should run off together.
In the meantime, MacMurray and Carey are staking out her apartment from a building across the way. They watch her through binoculars and tap her phone. MacMurray has to be especially crafty with Carey ever-present. And it is this craftiness that gives the film its tension as we observe the inner-workings of all the cops working on the case while simultaneously watching a new crime come alive. Of course, more and more goes wrong rather than right.
Part of the voyeurism (the second film in a row with this at its center... hmmm) comes from the fact that the cops can also see clearly into the apartment of Novak's nextdoor neighbor, Dorothy Malone, a nurse. She is, in fact, the one who opens the floodgates to the dirty cop angle when she spots MacMurray coming out of Novak's apartment and tells Carey of whom she is becoming enamored. Neither she nor the cops know at this point that MacMurray has not only killed the bank robber but also a fellow cop who became suspicious. All the principals, including E. G. Marshall as the police chief, wind up in a shootout on the dark streets.
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| MacMurray & Novak |
There's no denying the story isn't fresh. The good cop led down the path of destruction by a wicked woman has been done often. Pushover is not better than the good ones but certainly is much better than some others. What I especially liked is the claustrophobic feel from shots in the front seats of cars, small apartments, the limited look through binoculars and the few sets (standard for stakeout flicks). It seems to produce a fidgety, unsettling turn for audiences.
Once again MacMurray proves he's a far more watchable actor when he plays against type. I found this title role to be a most compelling one for him.
Novak isn't as treacherous as some bad girls, certainly there's no comparison to Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. She's like a moll-in-training, a bit naive and compliant. But she brought it home for an acting debut and from the blonde bombshell aspect. She would soon have problems with various leading men but MacMurray was not one of them.
One could never be sure if Malone was going to be a brunette or a blonde but it was an easy call here. It was necessary for her to look as different from Novak as possible and Novak is the blonde. MacMurray would go on to have leading lady approval in a number of his later 50's films and he picked Malone for two lackluster
westerns, At Gunpoint and Quantez. Also in 1954 she would appear in another good bad cop noir, Private Hell 36.
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| Carey & Malone |
I always liked Phil Carey but he never made it as a leading man in the movies. Arguably his best role was the year before this one, another second male lead in Calamity Jane. The 6'4" actor became far more famous for his turn as oil tycoon Asa Buchanan in the soap One Life to Live.
Richard Quine was primarily a director of comedies. He only helmed two film noirs... the other one was Drive a Crooked Road, which he did just before Pushover. There was a rawness to his two noirs and he certainly had a way for manipulating our sympathies in this one. Too bad he didn't do more noirs instead of some of the silly stuff for which he's more well-known. Quine, who would work with Novak three more times, was also involved in a troublesome romantic relationship with her for years.
The screenplay was written by Roy Huggins, noted primarily for his television work, particularly the long-running The Fugitive. Pushover is based on two novels, The Night Watch and Rafferty.
There's something here for noir fans, Novak and MacMurray fans, and if that sounds like you, I highly recommend.
Here's a scene:
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A 40's child star still alive
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