JOHNNY O' CLOCK

US, 1947, 96 minutes, Black and white.
Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Lee J. Cobb, Ellen Drew, Nina Foch, Thomas Gomez.
Directed by Robert Rossen.

Johnny O’ Clock is a film noir from the strong period of these black and white dramas. Dick Powell had already appeared as Philip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet and was to appear in other noir films including Cornered and To the Ends of the Earth. While he had begun his career as a song-and-dance man, he moved very easily into the role of tough cop and detective. His later career was in directing. He has a good supporting cast including three character actresses, Evelyn Keyes, Ellen Drew and Nina Foch. Thomas Gomez is a sinister villain. Lee J. Cobb is the police.

The film is the first directed by Robert Rossen. During the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s he wrote a great number of films including Dust Be My Destiny, The Roaring Twenties, The Sea Wolf and A Walk in the Sun. However, from 1947 for the next thirty years he directed only ten films. Most of them are quite significant in their way: Body and Soul, All the King’s Men for which he won the Oscar for best film and best director, The Brave Bulls, Mambo, Alexander the Great, Island in the Sun, They Came to Cordura, The Hustler and Lilith.

While the film doesn’t have quite the spark of other film noir of the period, it is well done and is interesting to see its place in the work of Robert Rossen.

1. An interesting and enjoyable gangster film? The atmosphere of the gangster films of the 40s, characters, situations, social background, crisp and brisk plot and characterisation? Enjoyment then, now?

2. Dick Powell's reputation and style in this kind of film? Tough American hero, attitude towards the law, independent, tough, sentimental? An admirable hero? An image hero?

3. The contribution of black and white photography, the constant use of light and shadow?

4. The presence of the police and the contrast with the gangsters? The atmosphere of the hotel, Mar Clim apartment? The urban setting, sleazy atmosphere, crime? The contribution of the musical score? The indications of the title the personal and the symbolic? The opening with the clock, the clock gifts? Symbols and use?

5. Johnny O’ Clock as a type - his war experience yet twenty years of tough hard dealings his relationship with Marchettis, his running a gambling joint, his time table? His feelings? as manifested to Koch with surly independence?

6. Affection for Charlie as his bodyguard - and his misjudging him and the betrayal? His being a father confessor for Harriet and encouraging her? A friend and helper to Marchettis yet his threat to him? Nelle and her infatuation and using him and betraying him for wealth? Blaydon and his corrupt attitudes? Koch and hie pursuing the criminals and his alliance with Johnny? Audience's attitude to do him as hero?

7. What changed Johnny throughout the film? His experience of Blaydon going to Marchettis, the money, Harriet’s death? Well and her infatuation and wanting to betray him? Marchettis and his violence? Koch and the prods to conscience, Nancy and human feelings and love? How did his way of acting differ? A man of violence yet a man of conscience? The pressures at the end, his wanting to escape, his being persuaded to face up to realities and justify himself? The semi-tough American image? Blaydon and Marchettis as evil?

8. The corrupt policeman, the shooting of the policeman and the killer? His greed and Marquettis, violence and vengeance? Marchattis and his greed, money, his possession of Nelle, jealousy of jolinry? His cruelty towards Harriet?

9. His lies and bluff, the final evil and his inevitable death? Pigeon of evil? The irony of Charlie and his seeming devotion, his being hurt by Johnnie, attitudes, his willingness to betray him? violent end? The picture of the women he used to loved? Nancy as heroine, Harriet as innocent destroyed? Nelle as vamp and to be destroyed? The initial focus on Harriet, her talking to Johnnie and the personal relationship as well as revealing the plot? The suddenness of her death? and its meaning and the pursuit of justice?

10. The contrast with Nelle as the gold digger, bored with her existence and her wealth, wanting both worlds, her vengeance. her use of the clock and this as a means of Marchettis being jealous of Johnnie? Her changing sides and trying to save herself at the end? A typical selfish vamp?

11. Nancy as heroine? her grief, attractive, hard life, the breaks, her decision to stay, her puzzle over the ambiguous attitudes of Johnnie, their meal together, the airport, experiencing the violence against him, staying with him, persuading him to give up at the end?

12. The gangster touches especially in the final confrontations and shootouts, the background of the gambling casinos and the atmosphere? The police involved in this kind of work?

13. Themes of violence and death in the American city? A portrait of urban values and lack of values? valid in the 40s, now?