The Invisible Wall

Don Castle gets out of prison and goes back to work for boss gambler Edward Keane. He's sent to Las Vegas to pay off a high roller, but gets taken by a con man, kills the con man, imitates the con man and hooks up with the con man's widow, Virginia Christine. At that point, earlier plot lines are abandoned by fiat.

Eugene Forde's last movie is a ramshackle affair that has some nice performances, but little in the way of a plot that makes much sense. Jeff Chandler and Mary Gordon are in it, although they don't have any scenes together. It's one of those movies where the protagonists identify a problem, prepare to fight it, take a hearty swing at it, only to find there's is no problem. In the end, it's a bore.

IMO, a noir is a dark tale of desperate character with a tragic ending and a moral. I gave it a 7 as it was good, but, it had a major flaw.

From 1947, the Invisible Wall is a B movie starring Don Castle, Virginia Christine, and Richard Gaines.

Don Castle plays Harry Lane, fresh from the service, who goes back to work for Marty Floyd (Edward Keane), a gambler. He has a job for Harry, but he warns him that this time, if he wants to gamble, he has to use his own money, and not payoff money. Harry promises he will stick to that, and is given $20,000 to deliver to a woman flying into Las Vegas shortly. I mean, why not give Dracula the keys to a blood bank while you're at it.

In Vegas, Harry meets Richard Ellsworth (Richard Gaines) who is gambling at roulette using a system. He keeps winning, and Harry joins him, winning as well. The next day, Harry starts losing. It's time for him to tap into the $20,000 - which he does.

At Ellsworth's house, Harry finds a telegram about a copper mine getting ready to strike and wants in on it. Ellsworth hesitates, but brings him in for $5,000.

Later on, an associate of his boss Floyd (Jeff Chandler) happens to be in Vegas and mentions that Ellsworth is a well-known con man. Desperate to get the $5,000 back. Ellsworth doesn't have it - he's sent it to himself via registered mail to a hotel in Colorado. During a fight with Harry, Ellsworth hits his head on brick and is dead.

Impersonating Ellsworth, Harry heads to Colorado. There he meets a woman, Mildred (Virginia Christine), an associate of Ellsworth's. When Harry talks to Ellsworth's partner on the phone, the partner knows he isn't talking to Ellsworth. Harry and Mildred wind up on the run.

The story is told in flashback by Harry himself as he sits in a police station.

There's a twist at the end, and it's not very believable.

Nothing special, but Virginia Christine was the Folger's coffee lady and did a lot of TV when we boomers were growing up. Don Castle was new to me - he apparently was contracted by a studio because of his resemblance to Clark Gable. Stardom eluded him, however, and he wound up producing for Jack Wrather of the "Lassie" TV show. He overdosed on pills at the age of 47, suffering from depression.

Promising premise: Soldier Harry Lane (Don Castle) returns from WW II seeking his old job working for gangster Marty Floyd (Edward Keane). This disgruntles Floyd's lieutenant Al Conway (early Jeff Chandler), a plot theme that fizzles out. Floyd doesn't trust Lane because of the latter's gambling problem but rashly sends him to Las Vegas to make a $20,000 payout. Lane loses $5G at a casino and another $5G to a con man, then goes on the lam trying to recoup the dough and clear his name, on the way picking up a girl friend (Virginia Christine) as so often happens in such situations, at least in the movies.

The early scenes, shot on location in Las Vegas are of historical value, Bugsy Siegel's new Flamingo Hotel sitting all by itself in the middle of the desert in what's now some of the world's highest-priced real estate, looking as majestic as a mid-priced motel.

After that the film reverts to the low-budget B movie it was meant to be, reflected not only in the no-name cast and dull settings, but in a script full of implausible actions and people tracking other people down with no explanation of how or why.

Still an enjoyable little time killer. The cast all do a good job even if most are forgotten today and the plot's resolution is almost convincing. Just too bad the rest doesn't live up to the first twenty minutes or so.

Don Castle, one of those slightly decent people earning his money in a slightly shady racket, comes up against an INVISIBLE WALL keeping him from happiness and success because he can't conquer a gambling problem. Can ingénue Virginia Christine, with the slightly shady past and the prior unfortunate marriage, save him from the dark fate that awaits most noir heroes?

This one is one a watcher really would like to like better -- given the location shooting at the Flamingo in Las Vegas -- but this one really starts off dull and predictable -- and only starts dishing out the wacky plot twists in the second half. Some of the twists are good ones -- but the ones at the very end suggest the lesser Cornell Woolrich stories with happy endings. You just don't buy the elaborate way the movie gets its lead out of the mess he's in.

Leads are OK. Direction is straightforward. It's a decent B, no worse than many similar movies with better reputations. But, unless you want to see film of Bugsy Siegel's famous casino just after its opening, there is no reason to seek this one out.