The Gentleman from Nowhere

Years ago, Robert Ashton disappeared...and so did $100,000. The insurance company, not just the police, are looking for the guy. An insurance investigator thinks perhaps they found the guy...but he's going by the name Earl Donovan and is working as a security guard. However, after further investigation, it appears as if Earl is that special something found only in films...an identical stranger. So the investigator decides to clean up Donovan and have him pose as the missing man...and he promises Donovan a big payoff if he can carry it off.

This is a good B-movie but it suffers from a problem...it's confusing keeping track of all the false leads and folks who are hiding something. Still, it is enjoyable and I enjoy seeing Warner Baxter in pretty much anything.

This complex script based on impersonation is written by Edward Anhalt, a twice Oscar winner for original stories ("Panic in the streets" and "the Sniper"), was also nominated twice again, and also wrote the scripts of "the Boston stranger" and "Jeremiah Johnson". In this short William Castle mystery movie, there are a considerable number of events that go crescendo from a simple heist to a major scientific project. This movie is nervously directed by William Castle who found pleasure in directing insurance characters with their usual big mouth speaking. There are some good expressionist night scenes. Very entertaining.

Warner Baxter plays a security guard who was shot during a heist. The police believe he may be involved in the robbery, prompting the insurance company to investigate him. The insurance man, Luis Van Rooten, notices Baxter resembles Robert Ashton, a chemist who stole $100,000 from his company and went into hiding. Van Rooten contacts the chemical company and explains to the management he has found Ashton. Soon a lawyer (Charles Lane) contacts Van Rooten with a plan to keep a certain chemical company executive out of the story. It seems that Ashton may have had a co-conspirator working at the firm.

Things get interesting when Van Rooten learns that Baxter is in fact a man named Donovan and not Ashton. But this doesn't stop Van Rooten, who concocts an elaborate scheme where, for $165,000, he will deliver Baxter to the police. Baxter agrees to help fulfill Van Rooten's plan for $25,000. He turns himself over to the police and takes on Ashton's identity while awaiting trial. Ashton's wife is in on the scam, but she tells Baxter her husband was framed. Was Ashton's wife faithful or was she having an affair with one of Ashton's associates. And how does racketeer Vincent Sawyer (Noel Madison) fit into the story?

All the characters seem self serving and are holding back the truth. They all treat Baxter as a sap. But Baxter is wise to the ways of men and has a secret of his own. He plays along and tries to unveil the company executive who is responsible for all the dirty deals. It's pulled off in typical Columbia Pictures fashion. There are no expressionistic camera angles or under lit scenes. But there is plenty of double dealing and lies to keep noir film fans interested.

Taking a break from his CRIME DOCTOR series, Warner Baxter stars in this Columbia "B" as a man hired to impersonate a missing embezzler. There are multiple plot twists in this William Castle drama and an excellent cast of supporting characters. Luis Van Rooten, a fixture on radio during the late 40's and 50's, adds a nice off-the-beaten path quality to his role of an insurance investigator. Charles Lane has an unusually meaty role as the attorney for a chemical corporation. The main problem with the film is that the denouement occurs in the blink of an eye and you're not really sure how the mystery was solved. Also, Warner Baxter seems genuinely tired as an actor rather than as the character he is portraying. But overall it's worth a look.

For seven years an insurance company has been pursuing the man whom they believe stole $80,000 from a chemical company. They had to pay out on the claim. They think they have located the guilty man, Warner Baxter. However, a thorough identity check proves he's not the man. Meanwhile, insurance investigator Luis van Rooten has gone to the company, informed them he has the man... and Charles Lane offers to pay for the money, plus money for van Rooten, plus more for Baxter for going to prison, for some one else, of course. Baxter agrees. So it's off to Los Angeles, and the missing man's wife, Fay Baker, who, Baxter is told, was carrying on an affair with an officer of the company when the money was stolen. She denies it. As Baxter waits, out on bail, other officers of the company step forward, with inconsistent stories and the lies multiply. Who is telling the truth? Did the missing man steal the money? Who is killing company officers?

It's a fine noir from director William Castle, with some nice noir lighting by cinematographer Vincent J. Farrar, and tearing at the edges of femme fatale vs. good girl, mob lawyer vs. honest lawyer and.... well, many of the archetypes of film noir. We may remember Castle as the gimmicky producer-director of hokey horror movies of the early 1960s, but he was also a man who could work seriously with a small budget, and brought ROSEMARY'S BABY to Paramount.... and then got politicked out of making it himself. Maybe he couldn't have made the classic that Polanski did, even with big money, but we'll never find out. He died in 1977, aged 63.