Paula

Mining engineer Glenn Ford (Mike) trucks into town and is befriended by barmaid Janis Carter (Paula). She's a bit too friendly isn't she? The clue to this film is in the title.

You know Janis Carter is up to something from early on. Always be suspicious of people who are too friendly. Carter is plotting with bank vice-president Barry Sullivan (Steve) and they are looking for a scapegoat. There are twists along the way and Glenn Ford is a sympathetic character to identify with as he begins to suspect and unravel what has been happening. Who gets all that money? Someone starts the film with nothing….and ends the film with nothing.

Janis Carter boasted a largely undistinguished filmography from the 1940s but she deserved (as so many of her female peers from this era did) better parts and greater exposure. As the scheming and duplicitous Paula Craig, she personifies the cool blonde bombshell (while her line readings are a wee bit stilted, her body language is instinctive and sensational). She's the spider into whose web drifts Glenn Ford, an out-of-work mining engineer with a bit of an alcohol problem who's looking for a break. Meanwhile, Carter's on the lookout for her embezzling boyfriend's lookalike, to furnish a warm body to provide a charred corpse. This is James M. Cain territory, and, though we've been through it with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray and with Lana Turner and John Garfield, this effort by Carter and Ford deserves more prominence; its writing, direction and cinematography are all well above average. One unique moment: a banner head in the local newspaper lets us know that one of the characters has been charged with murder, but just below it, in the mock-up, is the smaller headline "Meteorite lands near baby." I think they made that movie, too, about 10 years later.

Ford was a natural for film noir, and "Framed" illustrates this. He is a more vulnerable character than we're used to seeing him play in his other films, and he seems to be easily duped by a beautiful blonde(Janis Carter).

Carter puts in a solid performance and should have been in more films of this type. She is perfect as the scheming and seductive Paula.

Barry Sullivan is a bad guy here, the co-schemer with Paula. While the plot is somewhat predictable, it does include enough surprises to make it a good film noir.

It puzzles me that Framed has apparently not been released on any format in video in either Region 1 or Region 2.

Perhaps Sony will produce a Volume 4 of Columbia film noir and include Framed.

Glenn Ford plays a stranger who drifts into town one day. However, he soon finds himself in a tiny bit of trouble and a beautiful lady (Janis Carter) comes to his rescue. However, this is NOT a kind lady but a femme fatale with an evil plan. Her and her married lover (Barry Sullivan) plan on murdering him in order to cover up some embezzlement. However, two huge monkey wrenches are tossed in--Carter's character is evil more evil than you might expect and Ford's is not nearly as stupid as she hoped. While the plot is decent (not great), the film is ultra-stylish, smoking hot and full of femme fatale badness--exactly what I like in a film! Not quite as hot and exciting as Ford's later film, "Gilda" but still quite good. It makes you wonder why Carter never really took off as an actress--she was exquisitely nasty and hot.

This little film, made by Columbia Studios, is very enjoyable!! All about a woman who is greedy and wants to get hold of a quarter of a million dollars and plans to rob a bank with the bank president himself, but then something goes awry and well........ you will just have to watch this great B-movie to find out the rest, but I assure you that it is a film that is very good!! Nice work by Glenn Ford and Janis Carter. This film is a bit like "Double Indemnity", only with a twist ending, and a lower budget. Oh, to have this released on DVD--I would be so happy. I just love these old black and white film noir type films from the 1940's and 1950's.