Blackmail (1947)

Nice effects though.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This exotic looking B film noir is a superb example of poverty row movie making at its best. Fast moving action, tough sounding dialog and more set decoration than normal for one of Republic's second string features makes this a nice surprise. It starts off with the blackmail of movie big shot Ricardo Cortez by the nasty Stephanie Bachelor who is then quickly found dead, which leads to another blackmail attempt on Cortez and that extortionist quickly ending up face down in a swimming pool. It's up to hard boiled detective William Marshall to put all the pieces together, involving him with Cortez's "friend" Adele Mara, and bringing on a ton of more intrigue."It's alright, pal. You're among enemies" Marshall tells Cortez's seemingly sinister chauffeur (Richard Fraser), having just beaten him to a pulp after being attacked by him while trying to find evidence for or against his boss. Earlier, Fraser pushed Marshall into the same pool that the corpse disappeared from, so that explains Marshall's sharp remark. Obviously, Republic was trying to glamorize their B products as the 1940's rolled to an end, and this is really an impressive one. Veteran Cortez, as dashing as ever, gives a commanding performance as the victim/possible culprit, and Marshall has a touch of the street hidden inside his clean cut looks. I would have liked more of Adele Mara who makes an intriguing femme fatale. But it's a better than average script and the great art direction that help this rise above predictability.

Private detective William Marshall is hired by wealthy playboy Ricardo Cortez to look into who's blackmailing him. During their talks, someone is snooping around. After a brawl and Marshall knocked out on the floor the intruder runs off but is shot, with Cortez holding the smoking gun. But once Marshall calls in the cops, the corpse has disappeared and Cortez and his girl Adele Mara claim there never was a corpse. Reluctantly Marshall continues working for Cortez and starts digging at his favorite casino, run by Roy Barcroft. There he finds out torch singer Stephanie Bachelor was blackmailing Cortez, for not giving her a shot on the radio as he had promised. She has snapshots of Cortez and her in compromising positions. But before they can pay her off to get the photos back, she ends up dead. The blackmailing doesn't stop however, and Marshall has to dig deep to help Cortez. Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, was a character created by prolific pulp author Robert Leslie Bellem (with an estimated 3000 stories to his name/pseudonyms!). He was a true pulp author, mostly known/remembered for his creative use of hard-boiled language. I highly recommend checking out some of his short stories, they're true pulp but a lot of fun to read in an almost camp-y way. I don't know if Republic meant for this movie to test the waters for a Dan Turner series of movies, but that never happened. Which is unfortunate, despite the many flaws, the movie's a lot of fun. The fistfights are fun and exciting (and make use of/destroy every piece of furniture in sight), the one-liners are hilarious, and there is even a true femme fatale. Marshall wasn't exactly the most talented actor, his private life's much more interesting (his wives include Michele Morgan and Ginger Rogers!), but he does okay enough here. He comes off a bit like Ralph Meeker in 'Kiss Me Deadly', shooting one-liners left and right from the hip, but without Meeker's bravado and swagger. He's also the first detective who can handle himself in a fistfight, but passes out when he's pushed into a pool. Cortez ('The Maltese Falcon' #1) is perfectly cast in the suave playboy role, and Mara ('Exposed') is also quite good but role is too small given the importance of her femme fatale character. Director Lesley Selander ('Passkey To Danger') and Reggie Lanning ('Strangers In The Night') have tons of B-features to their name, and their professionalism shows. For a low-budget B-feature this movie looks pretty good. It's in the plot department that it really falls apart. Too much happens and too much relies on coincidence, with some parts not making much sense, making the movie not too memorable. But I don't care, I had fun with this movie. Heck, I'll give this one a rewatch just for the one-liners... 'Take your mitt of your mutt'. Extra point(s) for the fun factor. 7/10

Whew!!!!...what is this film about? Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, was a staple in the pulps for years and was a tough talking, kick ass kind of guy, like all detectives who graced the pages of those long ago, beloved cheapo publications. Well, somebody got the idea that William Marshall, whoever he was, would be just the guy to fill Dan's shoes on film. Boy, were they wrong. Not only was he as animated as the Venus de Milo, he can't fight his way out of a paper bag. Couple this with some of the most ridiculous dialogue since some of Ed Wood's treasured films and you have got a real stinker of a movie.Ricardo Cortez, who must have been in almost every film ever made, is being blackmailed for something about incriminating pictures (naughty, naughty) by at least two people. So he makes the mistake of hiring Marshall to put a stop to the nonsense. Murder ensues, people fight, shoot each other, fall into swimming pools and cause general mayhem. All's well that ends well and the film ends. You may want to jump in the pool after enduring this mess but frankly,it's worth the laugh to watch it.........maybe even a couple of times. A true misfire, if there ever was one.

I could not stop laughing with the horrendous dialog, campy acting, and the never ending fist fight scenes. This will have to go down as the "Plan Nine from Outer Space" of film noir. Some of memorable lines include "Thats not marshmallows coming out of that gun" and "Take that mitt off your mutt" and "I hope you get your hope." In the very long fight scenes, the good guy always keeps his hat on. In what must be a first, a man passes out by simply being pushed into a swimming pool. As expected, the plot is nearly impossible to follow, but it won't matter as the film is a total gas from start to finish. The first and last of the Daniel J. Turner Detective film series.