Crime of the Century (1946) User Reviews

Maybe The Second Crime Of The Evening In A Double Bill

[boblipton · 5/10 · 5 December 2019]

Ex-con Michael Browne blows into town and arranges to meet his brother, reporter Ray Walker. Walker doesn't show. He seems to have vanished. His editor isn't worried, certain Walker is pursuing a story. As Browne investigates, he winds up entranced by Stephanie Bachelor. He finds his brother's disappearance connected somehow with the father of Betty Shaw. He has an important shareholder's meeting coming up, but his daughter can't get in to see him.

It's not a particularly good film noir. Although the lighting by cinematographer Reggie Lanning is good, the story itself is handled too abruptly, and the clues are scattered too obviously. With decent but unexciting talent behind and in front of the camera -- except for the fur and slinky evening gown that Miss Bachelor wears at all times -- it turns high finance into a tawdry and foolish thing.

Routine, just routine

[searchanddestroy-1 · 22 January 2012]

As usual, Long Horn has already told the storyline just above. I watched it and forgot nearly the film as soon as it was finished. So I don't wait for commenting it. It is rare, OK, but also flat, boring, talkative, unlike most of Republic Pictures movies, where there are many action sequences. The topic presents no real imaginative ideas. Nothing special, but a acceptable time waster for those like me in search of rare items.

Philip Ford was a prolific film maker for Republic, as was George Blair and many other directors such likes of RG Springsteen for these tiny budget movies.

I'll continue looking for them, as I do since twenty five years now.

Not the noir of the century, though.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 13 August 2019]

A convoluted B thriller from Republic at the height of its popularity is a messy tale of a missing business executive, a ton of lies, and a corpse on the rocks. It's a great chance for Stephanie Bachelor and Martin Kosleck to be sinister, and for Mary Currier to be wacko. She's the aunt of pretty Betty Shaw who is searching for her missing father with the help of an ex-con (Michael Browne) who is searching for his newspaper brother. Together they end up on a journey of so many details that it takes a road map to figure out where the party is going, that is until the last real when everything is conveniently wrapped up. It's a handsome looking film, but the script is muddled and the characters vague. The sequence where they come across a corpse covered in ice brings on laughter, not shock. The sophisticated Bachelor, the wicked Kosleck and the bizarre Currier are fascinating, but when you root for the bad guys over the heroes, that makes for an awkward film to watch.