DEADLINE AT DAWN
US, 1946, 83 minutes, Black and white.
Susan Hayward, Paul Lucas, Bill Williams, Joseph Calleia, Osa Massen, Lola Lane, Jerome Cowan, Steven Geray.
Directed by Harold Clurman.
Deadline at Dawn has a very good reputation as a film noir. It appeared at the end of World War Two when film noir was a popular genre. Murder My Sweet and Cornered with Dick Powell as did Gilda with Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth. Other film noir include Out of the Past. These were films with shady characters, filmed in black and white, focusing on a harassed hero, mysterious crime background, a femme fatale, complicated clues and a mystery.
This film was directed by theatre director Harold Clurman, the only film that he directed. It is a star vehicle for Bill Williams who succeeded more in small-budget films and has Oscar-winner Paul Lucas (Watch on the Rhine, 1943) as a cabbie who helps in solving the mystery. Susan Hayward appears as a dance saloon girl who also helps the sailor who worries whether he has committed a murder or not.
The film takes the audience into a rather seedy world of sailors on leave, bars and dance saloons, prostitutes (euphemistically named) and gangsters.
The film is an interesting portrait of characters, the seedier side of New York City which comes very much alive, a night city. The musical score was by the German Hanns Eisler who was to go back to Germany and became a composer for East Germany.
1. An interesting and enjoyable thriller? Credible, contrived?
2. The reputation of Clifford Odets and his social preoccupations, his tendency to social preaching? The symbolic significance and preaching of Gus, June, Alex? Was it evident from the film that Odets was a playwright?
3. The direction by Harold Clurman - a stage director, skilled with staging, actors and actresses? His transition to the cinema and his use of staging techniques, diction and acting, close-ups, use of light and darkness?
4. The use of light and dark, shadow and atmosphere, boat, night in New York and its sleazy background, the use of the time from late night to dawn? The visual impact of this, thematic?
5. The plausibility of the plot, the characters, the situations, the dialogue? How well did they blend together? Critics commented on the pretentiousness. Is the film pretentious? A film of its time, style and impact now?
6. The credits sequence and the light and darkness, the staircase, the sinister man. his being blind? The situation with Edna, the build-up to murder? The audience curiosity, horror? The realization that this man was Edna’s, husband? The presumption of his guilt throughout the film? With the confrontation in the nightclub and his death? The irony of the audience jumping to judgment on circumstantial evidence?
7. The transition to Alex - a naive and genial young man, a victim of the war? His yearning for home, his sense of duty and honesty, his training at home and attitude to truth? June's commenting frequently that he was a baby? Waking up at the coffee stand and finding the money? The dance hall and the encounter with June, telling her the truth? The growing bond between the two especially with the same home town? His returning to the scene of the crime and the compulsion to investigate as well as return the money? The moral stances that he took? His lack of judgment on people? The bond with June, the friendship with Gus and talking with him? The confrontation with the producer, the producer's mistress, the brother of the dead woman and the violent attitude - and the revenge punch at the end? Arrested, his directness with the police especially in the contrived interrogation? What did he represent in terms of human nature, manliness, virtues?
8. June as heroine - her burst dreams, her working in the dance hall, the man who was proposing to her and his persistence, later following her and the incident with the taxi? Attractive? Tired, dancing with Alex and somehow or other finding a bond with him? The sequence at her home, her hearing of the story, her taking charge and investigating? Her asking the plans, her detective work especially in following Mrs Robinson and the relevance of this discovery at the end? Her strength, toughness, defence and protectiveness of Alex? The bond with Gus and sitting at the side of the taxi discussing the significance of life? A discovery of love? Strength of character as heroine? What did she represent?
9. Gus as a New York taxi driver of European origin with street wisdom and statements and statistics? A likable character? His involvement in the investigation, the nature of his help, driving them round? His story of his life, his wife leaving him and his loving her? His presence with the police investigation, the sudden confession of guilt and its impact on the audience? The truth about his daughter and son-in-law? Edna’s hold over his son-in-law, the daughter going to see her, the motivation for Gus's killing her and his explanation of the fact and his activities?
10. The sub-plot of the producer and his being the victim of blackmail, his relationship with the mistress, liaison with the dead woman’s brother, his fear and cowardice?
11. The dead woman’s brother, his evil with his sister, his attitude towards violence, the visit to the nightclub and the death of Edna’s husband? An ugly portrait of an evil man?
12. The build-up to the confrontation with the blind man playing the piano, the trick with the scent, his death?
13. Edna and the type of woman she was, control, a symbol of the evil of the time?
14. The happy ending - the achievement for each of the characters? An appropriate happy ending?
15. The contrived nature of the screen play, characterizations and situations, dialogue - audience accepting this and its symbolic nature for insight into human nature?
