AVALANCHE

1946, 70 minutes, Black-and-white.
Bruce Cabot, Roscoe Karns, Helen Mowery, Vida Ann Borg, Regina Wallace, John Good, Philip Van Zandt, Eddie Parks.
Directed by Irving Allen.

Avalanche is a curiosity item in the history of cinema rather than an entertaining action and detection film in itself. It is a story of two Inland Revenue agents who track down a debtor in the snowfields of Idaho. Eventually, they are snowed in and find the debtor dead, murdered, as if he had been killed in an avalanche.

There is a variety of suspects at the resort. Standing out his tough actress played by Vida And Borg, with her husband, an older woman who is infatuated with the dead man, but also to offended by her meek husband. And a young woman with the skiing of the resort.

Bruce Cabot, memories of King Kong, rather stolid as the main investigator. But there is some comedy by Roscoe Karns as his associate, not liking the cold and the snow, finding that the crow ever-present who works at the bar actually talks to him. At one stage, there is a marionette puppet performance, with touches of the sinister.

In fact, there are mistaken identities, ski scenes, an elaborate escape sequence through the snow, and a number of people trying to recover the cash brought by the alleged dead man.

The main interest is in the fact that it is the first feature film directed by Irving Allen, who won Academy Awards for short films in 1946 and 1947. His work as a director is rather undistinguished. However, he has an excellent catalogue of films produced between the 40s and the 70s. And, the production manager of this film is someone he went to college with, Albert Broccoli – who, of course, was a producer of the James Bond films.