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IMDbPro

Pushover

  • 1954
  • Approved
  • 1h 28m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
4.6K
YOUR RATING
Pushover (1954)
Watch Trailer
Play trailer1:50
1 Video
99+ Photos
Film NoirCrimeDramaThriller

An undercover police officer falls for the beautiful moll of a bank robber on the run and together they plan to double-cross both the hood and the cops.An undercover police officer falls for the beautiful moll of a bank robber on the run and together they plan to double-cross both the hood and the cops.An undercover police officer falls for the beautiful moll of a bank robber on the run and together they plan to double-cross both the hood and the cops.

  • Director
    • Richard Quine
  • Writers
    • Roy Huggins
    • Thomas Walsh
    • Bill S. Ballinger
  • Stars
    • Fred MacMurray
    • Kim Novak
    • Philip Carey
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.1/10
    4.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Richard Quine
    • Writers
      • Roy Huggins
      • Thomas Walsh
      • Bill S. Ballinger
    • Stars
      • Fred MacMurray
      • Kim Novak
      • Philip Carey
    • 72User reviews
    • 32Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:50
    Trailer

    Photos101

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    Top cast30

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    Fred MacMurray
    Fred MacMurray
    • Paul Sheridan
    Kim Novak
    Kim Novak
    • Lona McLane
    Philip Carey
    Philip Carey
    • Rick McAllister
    • (as Phil Carey)
    Dorothy Malone
    Dorothy Malone
    • Ann Stewart
    E.G. Marshall
    E.G. Marshall
    • Carl Eckstrom
    Allen Nourse
    • Paddy Dolan
    James Anderson
    James Anderson
    • Beery
    • (uncredited)
    Joe Bailey
    • Hobbs
    • (uncredited)
    Tony Barrett
    Tony Barrett
    • Pickup Artist in Bar
    • (uncredited)
    Walter Beaver
    • Detective Schaeffer
    • (uncredited)
    Richard Bryan
    • Detective Harris
    • (uncredited)
    Robert Carson
    Robert Carson
    • First Bartender
    • (uncredited)
    Phil Chambers
    Phil Chambers
    • Detective Briggs
    • (uncredited)
    Dick Crockett
    Dick Crockett
    • Mr. Crockett
    • (uncredited)
    John De Simone
    • Assistant Bank Manager
    • (uncredited)
    Alan Dexter
    Alan Dexter
    • Detective Fine
    • (uncredited)
    Don C. Harvey
    Don C. Harvey
    • Detective Peters
    • (uncredited)
    Anne Loos
    Anne Loos
    • Bank Teller
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Richard Quine
    • Writers
      • Roy Huggins
      • Thomas Walsh
      • Bill S. Ballinger
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews72

    7.14.5K
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    Featured reviews

    6Doylenf

    Noteworthy for the film debut of Kim Novak...tight suspense...

    PUSHOVER is an underrated, little known crime melodrama from the mid-'50s that introduced the blonde beauty of KIM NOVAK to audiences and gave FRED MacMURRAY another chance to play an authority figure seduced by the charms of a femme fatale. When the story begins, it turns out his accidental meeting with Novak was really a set-up, he being a cop assigned to keep track of her whereabouts after a bank hold-up results in the death of a police officer.

    He suspects that her mobster boyfriend pulled the job and at first resists when she tries to convince him they can use the bank money for themselves. But eventually, he weakens and before you know it he's informing her that her phone is wire tapped and the two of them are just one step ahead of the police for the rest of the film.

    PHIL CAREY, as a fellow officer and E.G. MARSHALL as the lead detective are excellent in supporting roles, as is DOROTHY MALONE in a pivotal role as a girl occupying the apartment next to Novak in a U-shaped building that enables MacMurray and Carey to keep an eye on both gals through binoculars (shades of REAR WINDOW).

    Conveniently, no one ever draws the blinds in these sort of thrillers and spying is made so easy for the sake of plotting, as the 24-hour surveillance occupies much of the story. The noir elements are present throughout, the dark rainy streets, the shadowy photography during car chases, the clipped delivery of lines, the murder scheme gone awry, the femme fatale angelic on the outside, bad within.

    But somehow it never becomes a major film noir, relegated to its place in obscurity over the years and not really a title that pops up when one speaks of film noir--but it does qualify as noir, on a minor scale, and it's given some taut direction and tight suspense by director Richard Quine.

    Kim is as easy as ever on the eyes although a bit robotic in her acting technique and never quite convincing as a mobster's moll. MacMurray has a less interesting, more one-dimensional role as a cop corrupted by beauty.

    All in all, definitely worth watching.
    7funkyfry

    Tight, one locale film noir

    Tight, driven little peice of "film noir" with MacMurray as a good cop driven to distraction (and murder) by the gangester moll (Novak, in her film debut, somewhat more effective than usual) he's been assigned to spy on. Malone fills in for a charming bit as the girl-next-door who MacMurray's sidekick falls for. Typically, a mistake is made by the criminals, and they will pay for it, but they're having fun along the way. Some confusion in the script seems to have resulted in Novak's character turning somewhat sympathetic towards the ending, sounding a disingenuous note. Still, good solid bit of film.
    8hitchcockthelegend

    Money isn't dirty. Just people.

    Pushover is directed by Richard Quine and adapted to screenplay by Roy Huggins from stories written by Bill S. Ballinger and Thomas Walsh. It stars Fred MacMurray, Phillip Carey, Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone and E. G. Marshall. Music is scored by Arthur Morton and cinematography by Lester White.

    Straight cop Paul Sheridan (MacMurray) is on the trail of the loot stolen in a bank robbery where a guard was shot and killed. He is tasked with getting to know Lona McLane (Novak), the girlfriend of the chief suspect in the robbery. But once contact is made, and surveillance set up over the road from her apartment complex, Sheridan begins to fall in love and lust with the sultry femme.

    Comparisons with the superior Double Indemnity are fair enough, but really there is enough here, and considerable differences too, for the film to rightfully be judged on its own merits. Also of note to point out is that one or two critics have questioned if Pushover is actually a film noir piece? Bizarre! Given that character motives, destinies and thematics of plot are quintessential film noir.

    A good but weary guy is emotionally vulnerable and finds his life spun into a vortex of lust, greed and murder. Yet the femme fatale responsible, is not a rank and file manipulator, she too has big issues to deal with, a trophy girlfriend to a crook, she coarsely resents this fact. The cop who never smiles and the girl who has forgotten how too, is there hope there? Do they need the money that has weaved them together? What does that old devil called fate have in store for them? Classic noir traits do pulse from the plot. True, the trajectory the pic takes had been a well trodden formula in noir by the mid fifties, where noir as a strong force was on the wane, but this holds up very well.

    It isn't just a piece solely relying on two characters either, there's the concurrent tale of Sheridan's voyeuristic partner Rik McAllister (Carey), who has caught the eye of Lona's next door neighbour, Ann Stewart (Malone). Both these characters operate in a different world to the other two, yet the question remains if a relationship can be born out from such shady beginnings? The presentation of relationships here is delightfully perverse. The visual style wrung out by Quine (Drive a Crooked Road) and White (5 Against the House) is most assuredly noir, with 99% of the film set at night, with prominent shadows, damp streets lit by bulbous lamps and roof top scenes decorated sparsely by jutting aerials. The L.A. backdrop a moody observer to the unwrapping of damaged human goods.

    Cast are very good, all working well for their reliable director. Novak sizzles in what was her first credited starring role, she perfectly embodies a gal that someone like Paul Sheridan could lose his soul for. MacMurray is suitably weary, his lived in face telling of a life lacking in genuine moments of pleasure. Carey, square jawed, tall and handsome, he is the perfect foil to MacMurray's woe. Malone offers the potential ray of light trying to break out in this dark part of America, while Marshall as tough Lieutenant Eckstrom and Allen Nourse as a copper riding the noir train to sadness, score favourably too.

    It opens with a daylight bank robbery and closes in true noir style on a cold and wet night time street. Pushover, deserving to be viewed as one of the more interesting 1950s film noirs. 8/10
    flordebob

    A poor man's version of Double Indemnity

    It's Fred MacMurray again, as a virtuous agent for the causes of good. Instead of playing an insurance salesman with an eye for the fast buck, here he's playing a cop assigned to shadow Novak, the mobster's moll. Kim Novak is as beautiful as she's ever appeared on the screen. The lighting in her early scenes is as dramatic and sensual as it can be. Who wouldn't fall in love with her? Comparisons with Double Indemnity just can't be ignored. She is the vamp that Barbara Stanwyck could never be. She's softer and more feminine in that 50's style, and less hard-edged than Stanwyck, which makes her much more dangerous. Novak's generally wooden acting style & "flat affect" gives way to a softer sex-kitten demeanor. MacMurray's character is a more active participant in the events that unfold than in "DD", where he seemed to get his courage and strength from Stanwyck's cold & calculating personna. Billy Wilder could have made this a masterpiece, but even without the guidance of the master's hand, this one is definitely well-worth watching.
    7WarnersBrother

    Watch it, don't compare it.

    Don't read the reviews comparing it to other films before watching it on it's own merits, which are many. A damn fine Noir which isn't beholding to any other.

    IMDb requires ten lines of text, but instead of impressing you with my opinions, I'll do this:

    Kim Novak is stunning physically and memorable performance wise.

    Fred Mc Murray is excellent on the northern-edge of his leading man days.

    The first 3 minutes are perfect.

    Really, the first 3 minutes make it worth watching.

    LA at night, the land that built noir.

    See it. Trust me.

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    Related interests

    Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946)
    Film Noir
    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      One of the sources for the film was the novel "The Night Watch" by Thomas Walsh, which was serialized under the title "The Killer Wore a Badge", in the Saturday Evening Post from November 10 to December 15, 1951. The other is the novel "Rafferty" by Bill S. Ballinger.
    • Goofs
      As in Double Indemnity (1944), although Fred MacMurray's character is not married, he wears a wedding ring throughout the film.
    • Quotes

      Lona McLane: Well, it's been weird knowing you.

    • Connections
      Featured in Hollywood and the Stars: In Search of Kim Novak (1964)
    • Soundtracks
      There Goes That Song Again
      (uncredited)

      Music by Jule Styne

      [Played by duo pianists at the cocktail lounge]

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 6, 1954 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • 322 French Street
    • Filming locations
      • Magnolia Theatre - 4403 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, California, USA(closed)
    • Production company
      • Columbia Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $400,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 28m(88 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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