The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)

Best movie of this year hands down!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

A restrained Lee J. Cobb stars in this noir where he plays a cop protecting the woman he's having an affair with after she kills her estranged husband. Cobb's brother, who has been promoted to detective, keeps questioning the clues & suspects as Cobb tries to overlook them w/disastrous results. Nicely shot in San Francisco, this may not be the best noir made but it'll do.

A superb noir thriller. Lee J. Cobb and John Dall square off as brothers and fellow policemen in this breathlessly paced, well-written and well-acted film. Normally I can't stand Dall's jack-o-lantern grin, but it's bearable here as part of his counterpoint to Cobb's brute intensity. The two women are as different as the men; Dall's Lisa Howard is sweetness and sunshine, Jane Wyatt's Lois a selfish, manipulative schemer.It's ironic that Dall's Andy, the younger, and presumably naive brother, has by far the better private and public life. Cobb's character, on the other hand, junks everything to cover up for Lois's murder of her husband. She's frantic and seemingly delusional in her first scene with Cobb. Even though she's right that her husband intends to kill her, she immediately declaims responsibility for killing him. As Cobb chooses to play a double game 'investigating' the murder, we sense the tension he undergoes, as well as his brother's growing skepticism.The young guy who Cobb tries to frame for the murder convincingly portrays a somewhat stereotypical down-on-his-luck type. He's also complicates the plot, as he has committed a murder, just not the one in question. So, in the middle of the movie, Cobb looks like he just might get out from under the murder after all. Cobb's menacing demeanor, which winds up tighter as the plot ensnares him, makes us forget that he's an accomplice, not the actual murderer.The last scene at Fort Point is great. Claustrophobic and desolate, it captures hauntingly the iconic noir atmosphere. The corridors and passageways lead Cobb and Wyatt ultimately into handcuffs. The title points in a few directions: Cobb has cheated himself by going along with the cover-up, he's also the man whose lover 'cheats' her husband for. The only quibble with The Man Who Cheated Himself involves disposing of the husband's body. It is a nice recycling of the husband's alibi to use the airport, but who would be dumb enough to drop a body in plain view of witnesses? Especially if you're a detective. Use the Bay, so the body can 'sleep with the fishes.' Anyway, if you can stand this miscue, along with John Dall's rubber-band grin, this is a fine noir movie.

Fairly good noir movie is mainly carried on Lee J. Cobb's ample shoulders. His physique and gruff attitude are tailor-made for the genre. Unfortunately Jane Wyatt doesn't quite cut it as the requisite femme fatale for which he sacrifices his career. Since this is a dramatically vital plot point it weakens the entire movie. Mary Astor would have played this to perfection. It also contains too many sluggish scenes that either slow down the pace or lead nowhere. And the end is anticlimactic to say the least. On the plus side the movie has the right noir feel, although it lacks the necessary suspense and mental anguish to be truly gripping. Also both Cobb and Dall are fine as the two cop brothers. Noir fans should certainly check this one out, flawed as it is.

This film noir flick begins with a simply horrible acting performance by Jane Wyatt--perhaps some of this might be the result of how the part was written. While she could do fine work, this was NOT her shining moment. In a wildly histrionic scene, she shoots her husband and her cop lover (Lee J. Cobb) is a witness to the killing. She claims it was in self-defense but the scene was just handled poorly. Could the rest of the film make up for this goofy scene? And, will her lover get away with making it look like he was killed elsewhere by someone else? And, what happens after Cobb throws the gun in the harbor AND someone is soon killed with this very gun? Well, fortunately it DID get better. While it's not among the best film of the genre, it was interesting and reasonably well made. Aside from Miss Wyatt's occasionally histrionic acting, the story was good and there is little to dislike. And, although I disliked Wyatt in the beginning, the way the film ended was great--and her character really worked well in this dandy finale in the courthouse. Well worth seeing.