A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.
Glen Vernon
- Ed
- (as Glenn Vernon)
Linda Leighton
- Telephone Operator
- (as Linda Johnson)
Jason Robards Sr.
- Judge
- (as Jason Robards)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe building that served as the exterior of Sue Lin's apartment is 834 Washington St., San Francisco, CA. It still stands as of this writing (04/2019) almost completely intact. There is a business on the ground floor, but the three floors above it remain, and nearly all the adornments remain. (It can be viewed on Google maps, street view.)
- GoofsThe end credits list the name of the character played by Mae Marsh as "Mrs. Peters"; Marsh played the mother of the gas station owner. The only time the mother's name is mentioned in the film is when Walter Williams first comes to the house for supper, and he calls her "Mrs. King". Marsha Peters (the gas station owner) and her mother would not have had the same last name, since Marsha explains when she first meets Walter that her husband was killed in World War II.
When this movie was made, and in the small town where this character lived, a woman would not have kept her maiden name when marrying or returned to it after being widowed. She would have remained Mrs. Peters unless she remarried.
- Quotes
Lt. Tom Quincy: Are you Ah Sing? Understand? You understandee English?
Ah Sing: [nodding and speaking in perfect English] Also French, Italian, and Hebrew.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Green Fog (2017)
Featured review
Impact (1949)
An underrated, understated, nicely stylized, and tightly constructed film noir. The director, Arthur Lubin, is a B-movie figure (with a lot of films to his name), and I'm going to guess just from this one that there are others in the history that are very good. This has been running the noir circuits for a long time, and is especially noteworthy. The photography by Ernst Laszlo is especially helpful, and with some smart editing it makes for a visually terrific movie.
But the acting is great, too. Yes, everyone fills some familiar roles for this kind of upper crust murder and cover up, but it's tightly done, convincing throughout. Brian Donlevy is a fabulous (and typically Donlevy) industrialist who has to take on a second identity for part of the film, and it's a great surprise. The two lead women, both the same age (29), and both with short careers, play two very different types of women that the industrialist bounces between. The first, Helen Walker, is the clever, rich wife. The second, Ella Rains, is the homespun girl who wants only for everything to turn out okay. (Rains was a Howard Hawks discovery, and with her classic clean cut looks, even made it on the cover of Life Magazine twice, on February 28, 1944 and August 11, 1947.)
One other character whose performance is sterling is Charles Coburn, playing the aging detective. A lesser role, but from a remarkable actress, is the maid, played by Anna May Wong (who got stereotyped in the movies but who is now increasingly appreciated as the first major Chinese-American actress).
Yes, this is a great film for film buffs, and a really good story for everyone. Make sure you have a clean DVD transfer to appreciate the photography (see http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare10/impact_.htm for some info on that kind of thing).
An underrated, understated, nicely stylized, and tightly constructed film noir. The director, Arthur Lubin, is a B-movie figure (with a lot of films to his name), and I'm going to guess just from this one that there are others in the history that are very good. This has been running the noir circuits for a long time, and is especially noteworthy. The photography by Ernst Laszlo is especially helpful, and with some smart editing it makes for a visually terrific movie.
But the acting is great, too. Yes, everyone fills some familiar roles for this kind of upper crust murder and cover up, but it's tightly done, convincing throughout. Brian Donlevy is a fabulous (and typically Donlevy) industrialist who has to take on a second identity for part of the film, and it's a great surprise. The two lead women, both the same age (29), and both with short careers, play two very different types of women that the industrialist bounces between. The first, Helen Walker, is the clever, rich wife. The second, Ella Rains, is the homespun girl who wants only for everything to turn out okay. (Rains was a Howard Hawks discovery, and with her classic clean cut looks, even made it on the cover of Life Magazine twice, on February 28, 1944 and August 11, 1947.)
One other character whose performance is sterling is Charles Coburn, playing the aging detective. A lesser role, but from a remarkable actress, is the maid, played by Anna May Wong (who got stereotyped in the movies but who is now increasingly appreciated as the first major Chinese-American actress).
Yes, this is a great film for film buffs, and a really good story for everyone. Make sure you have a clean DVD transfer to appreciate the photography (see http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare10/impact_.htm for some info on that kind of thing).
- secondtake
- Mar 12, 2010
- Permalink
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $900,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 51 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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