Appointment with a Shadow

I had no idea actor Richard Carlson had also directed APPOINTMENT WITH A SHADOW - and a competent job he does, too! Mind you, he is not overly helped by Alec Coppell's and Norman Jolley's screenplay, which focuses for too long on the booziness of character Paul Baxter, fitfully played by George Nader (nadir more like!) as a newspaper reporter lushing up every drop of alcohol he can imbibe.

Thankfully, highly organized and stunningly beautiful girlfriend Joanna Moore (what does she see in Nader?!) manages to convince her cop brother Brian Keith to give Nader another chance and let him witness the capture of rotten criminal Dutch Hayden. Whether that would have been approved by police leadership even back in 1957 is highly debatable. Incidentally, Hayden is believably played by Frank deKova, who is rumored to have undergone cosmetic surgery, and might now look completely different. Still, that is the only extant photographic record of the wanted criminal, and all Nader can guide himself by when he spies from the rooftop with the Lawson whiskey advertisement.

In order to get that job-saving breaking news, Nader must follow a very specific time table drawn up by his meticulous sister, who demands that he scuttle the bottle for good.

Feeble Nader kinda promises her that he will try, but neither Moore nor Keith are convinced... and rightly so, for a while, with repeated shots of Lawson's whiskey (that must have paid for production) shining in neon to emphasize the point.

But!... when Nader begins to beat the libation habit by the hour, resulting in rising self-confidence, you can tell that he will meet Moore's demand.

APPOINTMENT WITH A SHADOW is not particularly memorable, but not bad either - certainly worth watching and my 7 stars.