Johnny Eager (1941)

Such a frustrating disappointment

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.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

. . . can melt the basest Beast, and JOHNNY EAGER proves to be no exception to this rule. As Johnny fades from view at the end of his namesake movie, you can almost hear him echoing the last whine of Dorothy Gale's nemesis (the Wicked Witch of the West), with something along the lines of, "I'm melting, melting - - who would think a pretty young thing like Lana Turner could destroy all my wonderful wickedness?!" Who indeed. Unlike, say, Ted Bundy, Johnny is not hung up on women. He's an equal opportunity sociopath, who never got kissed by a grandmother of his he wouldn't sell out for the least little advantage. He's akin to a sadistic rich kid playing with six dozen Ken and Barbie dolls, blowing up one or eight with firecrackers just for "the fun of it." Johnny's Eager to add Lana to his endless trail of discarded pawns, from force of habit. But, unlike all his past victims, she doesn't have the decency to stifle her tears. Johnny goes soft, and it ain't a pretty sight!

The above Headline is a quote from the Movie to dispel any doubts about the Homosexual elements that are more explicit than sub-textual.MGM couldn't make a true Film-Noir if they tried, and only late in the Genre did they even do that. It never was their Forte. They thought themselves above all that Proletarian, street-level stuff. Once in awhile when they ventured into the Gangster or Crime Movies they made a passable and Entertaining Film. This is one of them.Robert Taylor gives everything He's got trying to change His image and be taken as not just another pretty face, but is quite out of his depth here, although he does manage to tread water amongst a Sea of other Thespians with a young Lana Turner in a small but impressive Role.The Dialog is showy and pretentious and is a bit corny, but Van Heflin's AA is deserving because he is really the one who outdoes all and squeezes every tear drop out of this juicy part. It is the only thing in the Movie that seems molded, and from the Heart. Everything else is too stagy and polished existing only in an Artificial sense.

Robert Taylor doesn't ace every scene but he gives a more than credible performance as Johnny Eager, an inventive pragmatic and violent when called for gangster trying to open a legit dog track from behind the scenes. In order to avoid being a parole violator Eager pretends to drive a cab while he masterminds the track deal paying off cops and officials to smooth things. Some officials can't be bought however and a judge (Edward Arnold) with a deep seeded resentment of Eager whom he refers to as "Thief" and humiliates blocks his license. The coldly practical Eager circumvents the problem by compromising the judge's daughter (Lana Turner) but loses his balance on the tightrope he's walking when he falls hard for her dame.Eager has a crisper look than most noirs and director Mervyn LeRoy deftly handles the storyline and avoids run of the mill by injecting minor but telling incidentals that indicate Johnny's slow transformation. Suspense scenes are well edited and mise en scene is busy and filled with pertinent detail.While Bogart might seem an apt choice to play Eager I doubt he could have played it with the same nervous authoritative energy or insecurity Taylor does here. Most of all he lacks Taylor's good looks which are crucial to romancing Lana Turner. The glamorous Ms. Turner is at first a little hard to believe as a student studying social work but she does acquit herself well in some powerfully dramatic scenes with Taylor. Paul Stewart, Glenda Farrell and Edward Arnold chip in fine supporting performances while Van Heflin delivers a magnificent one. Heflin as Eager's alcoholic sidekick and pickled conscience is not only effectively moving but also lends a droll sense of wit to the film with his sardonic observations.

I love the film noir genre and thoroughly enjoyed this fast paced if far removed from reality morality tale on the life and times of reformed (or is he?) gangster Johnny Eager, played at a fair lick by Robert Taylor. The plot fairly flies along, revolving around blackmail, gambling, alcoholism and even strong suggestions of homo - eroticism in Van Heflin's turn as Horatio to Taylor's Hamlet (or is that Iago to Othello?). Anyhow, Lana Turner sizzles on the screen in one of her first starring roles while Edward Arnold does his stock authority figure, this time on the side of good, unlike his role in "Mr Smith goes to Washington". Heflin deserved his Oscar for his booze - soaked portrayal of Eager's side-kick and conscience Jeff Hartnett, but Taylor and Turner deserve top - marks too. Taylor stays in character brilliantly the whole way through and Turner would tempt any crook back to the straight and narrow. The director eschews camera flourishes a la Hitchcock or Lang but keeps the pace up and captures excellently the mobster neighbourhood of cheap clip joints and gambling dens. Recommended.