Gunman in the Streets

Based on other reviews I was looking forward to seeing this "lost" film. It was disappointing. The plot was simplistic even by B movie standards. The main protagonist Eddy Roback is in no way romanticized, there is not much character development or background or back-story which means he is just a vicious thug. The director built tension well; there were some interesting scenes such as the scene in the dept store where he temporarily abducts a kid for cover, adding sociopath to this thugs character. Dane Clark added little more than brooding and visceral reaction with minimal dialogue, he brought little to this role, definitely not a leading Man. This is a unique film noir in that its set in Paris in English but that's about the only reason to watch this movie.

American expatriates actor Dane Clark and director Frank Tuttle shot this gripping noir film which does not for one split second let up in the tension department. From the second American criminal Clark escapes police custody and becomes a fugitive you're held to your seats be it the theater or your living room couch.

Unlike films where the man on the run is romanticized, not so in Gunman In The Streets. Clark is one dangerous man, at one point when he's trapped in a department store in Paris, he grabs up a small boy and uses him to shield his identity, the gendarmes not thinking that their quarry would have a child. The tension is pretty rough there as you wonder if someone will recognize Clark and bullets start flying.

Simone Signoret plays the gangster's moll as tough in France as they are in America. She's moved on to another American, newspaper reporter Robert Duke. Duke loves Simone, but loves a story more as he agrees to help Clark escape. In the end Simone can't stay away from Clark.

Two more roles of note, Fernand Gravey plays the determined police inspector pulling out all the stops to get Clark and Michel Andre who plays a part Peter Lorre would have had here on this side of the pond, the man looking to sell out all.

Gunman In The Streets is a gripping noir thriller and the climax very much similar to White Heat.

Dane Clark (Roback) escapes from a police escort van in France and needs to get across the Belgian border to secure his freedom. He enlists the help of ex-girlfriend Simone Signoret (Denise). Can he make it?

Ok. So, what was this film all about! The main springboard for the whole film is the relationship between our escaped prisoner Dane Clark (Roback) and his ex-girlfriend Simone Signoret (Denise). But this makes no sense at all. They are no longer an item. Signoret has even started to date a new boyfriend Robert Duke (Frank) who she is happy with. I'm not sure why as he looks like Andrew Marr, an annoying political journalist who currently haunts Sunday morning TV in the UK. This relationship also makes no sense but we can swallow it if we have to - she could really do much better. He is wealthy, though. What is difficult to believe is why she would want to go so out of her way to help Clark, an ex-lover that she has finished with. And why was she ever with him as he is a horrible person and he is never kind to her. In fact, quite the opposite despite the help that she offers. So, the whole film is just unbelievable. Nothing rings true. We certainly can't sympathize with Clark as the main character as he is an asshole. I found no-one to relate to. It is one of those rare films where I want the bad guy caught and found myself rooting for the police.

Simone Signoret single-handedly pulls this film into the "ok" category. Nothing more, I'm afraid.

In post-war America, audiences were eager to see crime in a whole new light--both literally and figuratively. Instead of the old gangster films of the 1930s with their rather conventional characters, the film noir films of the post-war era featured darker characters, heightened realism, unusual and dark camera work as well as a certain fatalism that set them apart from previous gangster films. Not surprisingly, these noir sensibilities soon made their way abroad. The French, in particular, made some dandy noir pictures....and "Gunman in the Streets" is a sort of hybrid. It's a film with an American star and and international cast...set in France.

While Dane Clark was never a top-tier star in the States, he was excellent at playing cold-hearted characters...and here he's about as cold and vicious as they come. While his character is awaiting trial for other crimes, he makes a daring but failed attack on an armored car with his gang....and he alone escapes. The film is about this thug's attempt to escape with the aid of his girlfriend (Simon Signoret) and some unexpected help from a dumb sap who is also in love with the girl!

The bottom line is that although the camera-work is not classic noir, the nastiness of the leading character certainly is...as is the very downbeat ending. Remember...noir films are NOT intended to follow formulae nor are they intended to leave the audience happy...and this film succeeds on both accounts! Well worth seeing...particularly just to watch Clark do what he does best...play nasty and vicious thugs.

Director Frank Tuttle, to me better known for spilling the beans on Jules Dassin and other fellow Americans to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), masterminded by Senator McCarthy, directs rather inconsistently this 1950 movie set in France, and with an obviously French atmosphere.

Inevitably, as happened to most baddies in French flicks of the time, Dane Clark pays the ultimate price for breaking from jail and committing all manner of crime - but, before then, he meets up with former lover Denise, superbly played by Simone Signoret, one of the truly greatest actresses ever to grace any screen and at the peak of her unique beauty in 1950, and he is selfish enough to want her to accompany him in his flight to another country.

The chiaroscuro photography renders the film obsessively dark, giving it a pessimistic mood, and the fact that the main leads believe in the stars and their tragic omens, does not portend well.

Neither does film's 90 minutes, which seem far longer.

Signoret and Clark save GUNMAN to some extent, but I doubt I will ever sit through it again.