THE CHASE
US, 1946, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Robert Cummings, Michele Morgan, Steve Cochran, Lloyd Corrigan, Jack Holt.
Directed by Arthur D. Ripley.
Film is based on the novels by Cornell Wooldridge were very popular in the mid 1940s. Black Angel was also filmed from one of his novels that year – and this one and Black Angel also starred Peter Laurie. The title of the original novel was The Black Path to Fear.
The setting is Florida after World War II with Robert Cummings as a former Navy man down on his luck, finding of wallet, deciding to return the wallet to its owner who turns out to be a racketeer, an early role for Steve Cochran. Peter Lorre is his cynical associate.
The gangster is impressed by the Navy man, employs him as a chauffeur – in a car which he can control from the back seat, testing his nerve by trying to beat a train across a level crossing. His wife, Michele Morgan, is virtually imprisoned in the house, goes for drives with the chauffeur and persuades him to take her to Cuba.
There is an unexpected psychological twist in the trip to Cuba, the couple in Havana, being refused transport to the wharf, the sudden death of the wife, the police investigation, Peter Lorre and crooked connections with people in Havana – only to find that this is a kind of dream and the sailor goes to a doctor friend – and the trip to Havana takes place again, with the melodramatic ending with the gangster’s car racing against a train.
1. The work of the novelist? His crime dramas? Psychological dimensions?
2. Florida, black-and-white photography, the streets, the mansion, the open road, the trains? Havana, nightlife? The musical score?
3. Scott, in the Navy, hungry in the street, finding the wallet, his breakfast, going to the house, encountering Gino and his cynicism, meeting Eddie, being hired as the chauffeur, in the car, Eddie with his controls from the back, the sudden braking for the train? His work, the encounters with Lorna, taking her for drives, the discussions, her wanting to be free, his arranging the tickets for Cuba?
4. Eddie, tough, his attitudes, control of the car, working with Gino, the encounter with the businessman, pressurising him, trapping him in the basement with the brandy, the fight and his death? Treatment of Lorna, harsh? At the club, encountering the doctor? The information about the ship, the crash of the car?
5. Gino, sinister, cruel, the Havana sequence and his threats to the woman?
6. Lorna, poor, imprisoned in the house, relying on Scott, the tickets?
7. The surprise of the two scenarios, going to Havana on the ship, the carriage, the refusal of the driver, the bar, in the street, love, her
being stabbed, the police, the investigation about the knife, the testimony of the owner of the shop – and the scenes with Gino?
8. Scott’s mental state, the discussions with the doctor, remembering, the second version of the trip to Havana?
