Pushover

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.

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.

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.

Very few would regard this as a classic Noir but thanks to Richard Quine's taut direction it does what it has to do in the space of a little less than ninety minutes and pretty well fulfils the promise of its excellent opening scene.

The voyeuristic element anticipates 'Rear Window' whilst comparisons, albeit rather tiresome, have inevitably been made with 'Double Indemnity', solely because Fred MacMurray again plays a sap. This minor opus cannot of course hold a candle to Wilder's masterpiece and here the femme fatale of Kim Novak is an unwitting one whose blonde hair is her own.

Mr. MacMurray has been unfairly disparaged by some IMDb members who evidently cannot recognise a good actor when they see one. Although appearing to be the acme of affability he was at his most effective when playing against type, which is certainly the case here.

There is excellent support from stalwart E. G. Marshall, mucho macho Philip Carey and appealing Dorothy Malone. This marks the first speaking role for Kim Novak and already she has that elusive air which the camera adores. If you are as much of a pushover for Miss Novak as I, then this film is a must.

This film is especially notable as being the first film of Kim Novak. She is already a sizzler, from her very first scenes. The camera loves her, and her career from this point on was inevitable. It was only the next year that she set all the men of America afire by her sensuous role in Bill Inge's 'Picnic', opposite William Holden. High cheekbones never hurt a gal in films, and as Kim Novak must be of Czech descent judging from her name, we have here the classic Slav look. It wasn't long before 'Vertigo' and by then, Kim Novak had become an icon, which she remains to this day. Fred MacMurray is the leading man in this film, excellent as usual but really too old for someone like Novak to fall in love with at first sight as called for in this story. Oh well, that's casting for you. Dorothy Malone appears in this as a sweetie. The film is gripping, at the tail end of noir, a mixture of crime, cops, and mystery. The post-War mood of sombre brooding is ending, things are lightening up a bit, and crime and corruption are no longer seen as an intrusive Dark Hand of Doom but as eruptions into daily life of natural human impulses of greed, lust, and evil, which are as spontaneous as barbecues are in summer in Texas. These things 'just happen', and an end of the world scenario of being engulfed by wickedness is now seen more prosaically as 'oh no, not another crook and another crime!' As crime keeps on happening, you kind of get used to it, and films like this take on an air of 'here we go again'. So it is no longer brooding atmosphere but gripping intrigue which makes the movies work by the mid-1950s.