Guilty Bystander

Everything is in it: the dark shades, the twists in the plot and the troubles policeman and some ravishing ladies. Totally restored in 2019. A long story, but some gripping scenes in the end.

'Guilty Bystander' is the sort of film that appeals a lot to me, being someone who has loved the genre it fits under for a long time (drama/thriller with a noir-ish edge) and who really liked the idea. Not a novel idea, but it had real potential to be intriguing and suspenseful with the right execution. Have liked Zachary Scott in other roles, and was interested in seeing him in the anti-hero sort of role rather than the cads and villains he usually played and as a lead rather than support.

While not a bad film and its good things are great, 'Guilty Bystander' doesn't really live up to its potential and could have improved significantly in many major areas. It is a good representation of Scott, was surprised actually at how much so and has a couple of good set pieces. But 'Guilty Bystander' should have been a lot more compelling, tauter and suspenseful than it turned out, and the wildly inconsistent storytelling (which about three of the flaws fit under) is where it most falls down.

There are good things here. Scott is very good here, subdued but also suitably hard boiled and with the right amount of intensity and edge needed for an anti-hero sort of character. The rest of the cast are also fine, if not quite on his level. Even though low budget, the film looks good. Especially in the suitably moody and quite stylish photography and the lighting has effective use of darkness and shadows.

Furthermore, there are a couple of effective scenes, most notably the subway and staircase ones that are particularly well shot and where the most tension and intrigue comes from.

A lot could have been done better on the other hand. The story manages to be both flimsy and convoluted, a story that tries to have too many plot elements and strands and does far too little with all of them so there is no substance. We never get to know the characters either, they are very sketchy and there are too many. The film is also far too talky, and quite a lot of it is extraneous and could easily have been trimmed.

Despite liking Dmitri Tiomkin's music usually, for me his score here is overwrought and more suited to melodrama (one of the few scores of his where it felt like he had scored for the wrong film or didn't know what it was). The ending is another one of all the films seen recently that is too mawkish and too much like it belonged in another film. The direction is pretty routine and uninspired, apart from occasional flashes of greatness.

Concluding, underwhelming but watchable. See it for Scott. 5/10.

Max Thursday (Zachary Scott) is an alcoholic former cop living in a rundown hotel owned by his friend Smitty. He gets a visit from his ex-wife Georgia. Her brother Fred Mace and their son Jeff are missing. Apparently, Jeff has been kidnapped and Fred is somehow involved.

This is a harsh pulpy noir. Zachary Scott is acting with all his chops. It has the brutality and hard-talk for the standard noir B-movie. The story isn't much but it functions well enough. I like many of the New York City exteriors. They're low rent and outside the normal glamor locations. I would like better for the action but it's still the old style. It's an old noir crime B-movie.

Zachary Scott stars in "Guilty Bystander" as Max Thursday, an alcoholic ex-cop who's practically lived in a bottle since he was hounded off the force. He barely gets by, his marriage is gone and he's a crappy house detective in an even crappier motel.

Thursday's ex-wife contacts him. It seems that their young son has been kidnapped and she wants Max to somehow find the boy. But Max is clearly an alcoholic and the only way he can function is to keep drinking....enough to keep him functioning but to enough to get him drunk. The trail leads to the seedy underworld and a lot of very dangerous characters.

While I didn't adore this film (it had too many names and some backstory seemed to be missing), it is amazing when it comes to atmosphere. Plus, Scott is really good as this terrific anti-hero. Well worth seeing if you love film noir...and still worth seeing if you don't!

Zachary Scott is an ex-cop with a bad case of alcoholism. He's a house detective at a sleazy hotel, sleeping one off, when his ex-wife, Faye Emerson wakes him to tell him their son has been kidnapped, his ex-colleagues are sympathetic, but it's up to Scott to track the abductors through the Skid Row world and rescue his son.... and himself.

This movie benefits from a strong, sympathetic story, and location shooting on the low-rent streets of downtown New York. There's a lot of talking, though, for such a usually visual genre, and the performances, while appropriate, are not terribly interesting. Scott and Miss Emerson start out with low-affect performances. Miss Emerson mumbles her lines in a tired and hopeless manner, and Scott spends the first half with subdued reactions. It's how a lot of depressives act, but it's not terribly interesting to watch.

The cast is eked out with some good performers, Mary Boland plays the sort of down-on-heels ex-floozie that Esther Howard usually did for Paramount Noirs, Sam Levene is the police captain who can't help because of the rule book, and J. Edward Bromberg, Kay Medford, and Jed Prouty have memorable roles. The result is a film noir that is highly watchable.