Der schwarze Vorhang

Paramount's "Street of Chance" is an early, and certainly not full-fledged, entry in the film noir canon. It qualifies mainly for being based on a work by that master of paranoia and cruel fate, Cornell Woolrich -- using the familiar amnesia premise to trigger the protagonist's alienation -- and by its oppressively moody low-key lighting. The first few reels offer a true noir milieu of urban angst and displacement -- the hero, injured by falling construction material, discovers a year-long lapse in his life -- and worse, he's suspected of murder and has a completely unremembered lover in addition to his puzzled wife. As the film progresses and he narrows in on the truth, it resolves itself into something closer to Gothic melodrama, with a more traditional view of human transgression and frailty. The blending of the two genres is reminiscent of the studio's "Among the Living" from the previous year rather than the out-and-out noirs "This Gun For Hire" and "The Glass Key" of its own release year.

Paramount's B-picture unit offered a higher degree of professionalism than most, reflected by the fine level of performance and technical achievement here. Burgess Meredith's lead character is far too benign to be a true Woolrichian anti-hero, but Claire Trevor shows underlying tinges of femme-fatalité which would serve her well later in her career. Lower-rank director Jack Hively contributes a few visual cachets, particularly the unexpected discovery of a pivotal character lurking in the background, and an over-the-transom tracking shot to end the picture that is almost Antonioniesque. Unfortunately, he doesn't milk the character conflict for much intensity, and the denouement is disappointingly soft.

This film begins with a man named "Frank Thompson" (Burgess Meredith) walking on the street and being hit on the head with some falling objects from a construction site. Although he isn't seriously hurt he suddenly realizes that he has no memory of why he was on that particular street. Neither does he know why his hat and cigarette case have the initials of "D.N." on them. In any case, he eventually goes home only to find that his wife "Virginia Thompson" (Louise Platt) hasn't lived there for several months-even though he supposedly left her there early that morning. When he does finally find her he discovers that he has been gone for about a year and then realizes that he suffers from amnesia and can't remember anything during that time. To make matters even worse, he soon discovers that men with guns are chasing him and he doesn't know why. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting film noir which captured the time period rather well and had a decent twist at the very end. Admittedly, the plot was somewhat clichéd and the actors weren't exactly top-notch but it was still worth the time spent to watch it and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

"Street of Chance" is an old movie that was meant as a B-movie. In other words, a shorter and cheaper film to accompany the main feature. So, even though the story is filled with some silly cliches, I could look past this because the movie wasn't intended to be perfect...or anything close to it!

Frank (Burgess Meredith) is walking down a city street when debris from a building falls on him. He's mostly okay...mostly. Although he hasn't broken any bones, he has broken his brain. In other words, he has amnesia and can't remember who he is and has trouble remembering recent details of his life. Eventually, he learns that he's wanted for murder....and he's determined to prove his innocence. To help him with this is a woman (Claire Trevor) who tells Frank she's his girlfriend. But can he trust her or anyone else??

The notion of getting bonked on the head and developing an all new personality is popular--particularly in 1950s and 60s TV shows. In reality, such accidents and reactions are rare. Again, I wasn't trying to say it was believable...just mildly interesting and mildly entertaining.

This movie hits all the buttons for Film Noir, and I'm willing to call it so. There are lots of earlier movies with elements that finally fused together to make Film Noir, and many movies that almost hit it around this time (like THE MALTESE FALCON), but Noir was a movement, and it's not leaders that make movements, it's followers, like Jack Hively, the B director of this one.

Burgess Meredith is walking down the street when he is knocked down by some rubble from a demolition job. When he gets up, he finds a cigarette case and hat with the wrong initials, and when he goes home, wife Louise Platt tells him he has been missing for more than a year. He goes to the office to get his job back, only to find Sheldon Leonard in hot pursuit. When he goes back to the part of town where he regained his memory, there Claire Trevor is, telling him to get off the street. He's her man and he's wanted for murder.

It's based on one of Cornell Woolrich's overwrought crime novels and, as usual, Burgess Meredith plays a nice, amiable fellow, rather wasted. Claire Trevor has all the good lines, and Sheldon Leonard is fine in a straight role. Despite that voice, meant for Runyonesque hoods, he was a good actor.

If the answer to the mystery is milked a bit to make the movie last a few minutes longer, the answer still came as a surprise to me. I expect you'll enjoy it, not only for its early, pure Noir, but for a fairly played, if mildly hysterical, mystery.

Frank Thompson (Burgess Meredith) is hit on the head and knocked unconscious by some debris that falls from a building under construction. He comes to and doesn't realize where he is and why he is there, but he is across from town from where he lives. When he gets back to his apartment he discovers it is no longer his apartment and that his wife moved away a year ago. He finds her and discovers that he went to work one day about a year ago and never returned until just now. So she moved and got a job in order to pay the bills. In spite of this she doesn't seem the least bit upset, which is strange. What is also strange is that Frank strolls into the company that he used to work at and gets his old job back. Even stranger is that on his way home from work on his first day back, he is pursued on foot by an angry man he does not recognize until he gets in a taxi and loses him. At this point Frank is not only thinking he had such luck to get his job and wife back with only the sparsest of explanations, but he is wondering what HAS he been up to this past year to cause this guy to chase him. Complications ensue.

This film treads some familiar ground - The guy who forgets who he is because of one head injury, leads some alternate life, then gets hit on the head again and remembers who he was originally but nothing about what went on in between head injuries. And what happened in between is never boring and even involves some danger.

This is a rare chance to see Burgess Meredith in a leading role, and he carries it off admirably. The one thing I wonder about is the title. In 1930 Paramount made a film with the exact same title that had a completely different plot - it was a vehicle for William Powell that was loosely patterned after the life of gambler Arnold Rothstein. If you go in realizing there is no relationship and that this film is more of a mystery, even a precursor to noir, you should enjoy it.