Blackmail

This is a neat piece of entertainment if you are pressed for time, it will not last for much more than an hour, but that hour will provide you with everything of the crime genre, blackmail, drug poisoning, murder, deceits, fisticuffs galore, car chasing, without any cars breaking down, so they go on forever, a false dame and all in a luxury villa with a swimming pool - you will find the first corpse swimming there. This was the time of the crossfire dialog script writers, William Marshall keeps constantly firing hard shots and getting answers enough, when they don't have to change tunes occasionally to do some hard fighting, no knuckles are busted here, so they just go on fighting forever, keeping their hats on. Beware of the dame. There is only one here, but she also occasionally holds a gun. The ultimate gun fight is saved for the finale.

I could not stop laughing with the horrendous dialog, campy acting, and the never ending fist fight scenes. This will have to go down as the "Plan Nine from Outer Space" of film noir. Some of memorable lines include "Thats not marshmallows coming out of that gun" and "Take that mitt off your mutt" and "I hope you get your hope." In the very long fight scenes, the good guy always keeps his hat on. In what must be a first, a man passes out by simply being pushed into a swimming pool. As expected, the plot is nearly impossible to follow, but it won't matter as the film is a total gas from start to finish. The first and last of the Daniel J. Turner Detective film series.

"Blackmail" is an inexpensively made film. Its leading man, William Marshall, was hardly a household name and the only real star in the film, Ricardo Cortez, was years after his prime...well after he was no longer a big draw. These and it having a B-movie runtime of only 67 minutes, you might assume it's not much of a picture...and you'd be wrong. It's simply terrific...well worth seeing.

The story is about the latest case being handled by a private detective, Daniel Turner (Marshall). A rich guy was drugged and incriminating photos were made with the unconscious man....and he wants Turner to get those photos. However, during their initial meeting, another man appears and attacks both Turner and his client. Soon, the attacker runs from the house...and is shot to death! Turner thinks his client did it....but he's not sure. What he is sure of is that the police need to be contacted. But when the police arrive, the body has disappeared and his client behaves as if nothing has happened!! What actually did happen and who's behind all this?

Despite Marshall not being a big-time actor, he was quite good in this one. He was hard-boiled and up to a LOT of action....with one fight scene after another in this one. All in all, a very exciting and well written picture...one that might seem too good to be a B.

This review will probably be longer than the film, which clocked in at just over an hour. It is not a bad movie, but there is very little to recommend it. The production values are very cheesy, the director seemed like he was in a hurry to get home for supper, and the actors were definitely in the C level of film. The story was fairly mundane; a Hollywood big shot is getting blackmailed; so who cares? There really is no protagonist in the film. The private investigator is every cliche you have ever heard from a 40s PI. And the "hot number" who is featured on the poster was the ugliest woman I ever saw featured as a starlet. Other than that, the film is watchable, if you have nothing to do for an hour.

William Marshall stars with Adele Mara and Ricardo Cortez in "Blackmail," a B movie from 1947.

Marshall plays Daniel Turner, who has been hired by a wealthy man, Ziggy Cranston(Cortez) to obain some photos for him - he's being blackmailed. Things are strange from the beginning. While he is meeting with Cranston, both men are attacked.

The man runs from Cranston's house and winds up dead. Turner believes that Cranston killed him. He calls the police and, when they arrive, guess what, the body has disappeared.

I have to say, William Marshall's private life was much more exciting than his one-note acting. However, that was the style of the detectives in these B movies - a tough, no nonsense voice and attitude.

This film had a couple of fight scenes that were doozies! Big ones that never seemed to end, and quite exciting. Enjoyable film.