The Price of Fear

Merle Oberon stars as a beautiful, glamorous business woman who is motivated by fear to do some despicable things. Guilty of a hit-and-run car accident, she must frame the man she loves in order to get away with murder! Along the way, she becomes involved with gangsters and detectives, and becomes ever more deeply mired in a chain of incriminating events. This is the type of role we are used to seeing Barbara Stanwyck fill, and Oberon does a beautiful job, but plays it her own way -- not as a tough dame, but as gracefully refined and secretly cunning. Sadly, this would be one of Oberon's last starring films. Clearly, Hollywood stopped offering her work too soon, but those were the days when glamorous female stars were phased out after 40.

This film is now available on DVD as part of the TCM Vault Collection's "Women in Danger: 1950s Thrillers" Collection (all Universal films). The quality is very good and this is a set worth adding to your collection.

It's the Plot that Propels this Good Looking but Dull Unfolding of this Crime Flick with Film-Noir Elements.

The Noir is the Doomed Femme-Fatale and Her Down-Beat Relationship with Lex Baxter, the Framed Protagonist.

Baxter is Miscast as is the Aging and Far From Glamorous Romantic Lead, Merle Osbourne.

That Captures Baxter in Her Web as She Falls-From-Grace and Spirals Ever Downward Toward Destruction.

The Voice-Over Narration from Copper Charles Drake Surprisingly just Vanishes After the First-Act, almost as if They had Second-Thoughts.

Overall, Watchable but Unremarkable Acting, Warren Stevens is Unconvincing as a Crime-Boss Forever in Threatening Mode.

The Movie Doesn't have much of an Edge, but the Talky Plot can Keep Viewers On-Their-Toes while Not Offering much of a Suspenseful or Edgy Tone.

Businesswoman Merle Oberon runs over an old man and speeds off. She has second thoughts and stops at a phone booth. After she gets the police, Lex Barker, on the run from gangsters who are about to kill his partner, spots it, hops in and zooms off. Miss Oberon reports the car stolen. Buddy/police Lieutenant Charles Drake thinks there's something wrong with the set-up.

There's something about this sort of 1950s drama that strikes me as not impossible, but brittle. So many of the lines are delivered without any emotional weight to them, as if the character is thinking about his words, then considering why he has chosen those words, until all feeling has been rendered out out them. Perhaps it's the pace of the dialogue that I find so unappealing. In the late 1930s, the pace of dialogue in the movies sped up, and the audience was given the impression of a stream of consciousness. Certainly Joseph Gershenson's two bars of theme that rise up majestically from a large orchestra overwhelm the performances instead of accentuating them.

After being framed for the murder of an ex-partner in a dog racing track, Dave Barrett (Lex Barker) steals a car from a woman named Jessica Warren (Merle Oberon), who is in a phonebooth. He doesn't know that she is about to call the police to tell them that a man has been the victim of a hit-and-run...by her car, which she was driving at the time. She sees Barrett steal her car, then suddenly decides to let him take the fall for the accident. Now it's a double frame-up for Barrett!

This movie explores a lot of different themes, most of all fear; fear of getting caught, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, etc... It's a good title, as it covers many of the motivations for the characters. I liked how it keeps you guessing as to how Barrett and Warren will deal with ever-changing situations, which not only keep the movie rolling along, but makes it fairly deep. On top of all that, you have the criminal and police element making things difficult for all of them.

I found that the story wandered a bit, but is pretty tight overall. The performances were understated and natural. It was compelling and had a lot of nice surprises in it. A good noir-ish crime drama. Wouldn't have minded seeing more of Gia Scala in it, but despite that, I'd see it again someday.

The Price of Fear is directed by Abner Biberman and adapted to screenplay by Robert Tallman from a story by Dick Irving Hyland. It stars Merle Oberon, Lex barker, Charles Drake and Warren Stevens. Music is by Heinz Roemheld and cinematography by Irving Glassberg.

Little seen or just forgotten these days, The Price of Fear is actually a rather tight and entertaining piece of film noir film making. Rising above some production limitations, pic is strong on characterisations and it looks just splendid. Story essentially finds Barker as an innocent man out to prove he didn't kill two people in two separate incidents!, while Oberon slips into femme fatale clothes as a love interest who's trying to avoid being found out for one of the killings Barker is under scrutiny for.

Narrative is deliciously twisty in how characters react and perform during the play. Into the mix is an intrepid detective, smooth talking villain, a blackmailing wife, a witness under duress and even a train sick canine! Old noir faithfuls coincidence and fate play their big hands, as does some narration drive. The look is minus chiaroscuro but the nighttime scenes are impressive enough, shiny streets and bulbous lights excellently photographed by Glassberg, while Biberman plays with frame tilts and interesting framing of the lady characters.

There's been some complaints about cast performances, but all are fine here. OK, so it lacks in viper femininity and laconic masculine as per noir classics previously, but nothing here hurts the piece. Solid as a rock is this, it even has the courage of its convictions to provide a genuine surprise ending. Where the main players catch a train to noirville, the termination point worth waiting for. 7/10