Tarnished (1950)

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

After fighting in the Pacific during WWII, Arthur Franz returns to the town he grew up in. But due to his past as a troublemaker, rumors had spread he went to jail, and they are not happy to see him return. At first only the free-spirited Barbra Fuller is happy to see him again, ditching her date and suitor Jimmy Lydon. Franz finds a job working at a local cannery, and strikes up a relationship with Dorothy Patrick, against the wishes of her father, Don Beddoe, and her boss, Byron Barr. But then there's a burglary, and everybody thinks Franz did it, especially when he can't provide a good alibi.More of a noir-ish melodrama than anything else, this movie feels longer than its running time of just under an hour. Even a big fire at the end can't trigger a spark. The story, about smalltown gossip and reputations, had potential but it's mostly wasted here. It's a shame as Franz ('The Sniper') and Patrick ('Violent Saturday') do a decent job, and Beddoe ('The Night of The Hunter') is always above- average. But this is far from Republic's best movie unfortunately.Maybe director Harry Keller, in his second movie, didn't know yet how to make these quickies work? After this one he moved on to westerns and then TV. DoP John MacBurnie ('Federal Agent At Large', Post Office Investigator') does a better job, providing some nice atmospheric scenes. But nothing that can save this movie. Maybe I am being overly critical, but this was a boring movie. 5/10

Once more, our faithful friend Long Horn gave us the summary of this little film, lines he got from a library dictionary. Well, so that I don't need to tell it to you. Easy for me, isn't it?This film hesitates between noir and drama. A young man return home after the WW2, serving in the Marine Corp, and of course everything seems to collapse when he arrives; except perhaps with his long time girl friend. Jealousy make some other folks trying everything to put him down. Nothing really new here. It remains classical, predictable. From the start to the end.But this rare and early Harry Keller films remains interesting to any one who is curious of the very gifted and maybe not enough known director of QUANTEZ, DAY OF THE BAD MAN and SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDOWN. His first films were westerns for the most, and for Republic pictures, such RG Springsteen or Thomas Carr's ones.