Desperate (1947) User Reviews

Brodie vs. Burr in Anthony Mann's brusque, bare-bones noir

[bmacv · 8/10 · 30 October 2002]

Hot on the heels of RKO's beeping radio tower astride the globe, `Desperate' flashes on the screen, ragged letters smeared along a rising diagonal. In 1947, that was all audiences needed to alert them that one of the short, swift and stylish products of a new division of the film industry (not yet termed film noir) was about to unspool.

Teamster Steve Brodie takes a call to do a night hauling job; since it's his four-month anniversary, he demurs at first, but the pay is too good to pass up. He should have, for the indispensably creepy Raymond Burr and his gang are using him and his truck in a warehouse heist. When Brodie catches on, his attempts to thwart the burglary result in the capture of Burr's kid brother, who has just shot a policeman. Roughed up by Burr, Brodie must convince the police that he's the killer – or his bride (Audrey Long) will suffer Burr's wrath; Burr brandishes a jagged bottle to cinch the threat. But Brodie makes a break for it.

What follows is a protracted cat-and-mouse game played out from Chicago to Minnesota farm country, with Burr in pursuit of the newlyweds. It's the classic story of just plain folks caught up in a sinister web of circumstances, and its director is Anthony Mann, working up to his legendary collaboration with John Alton (his able cinematographer here is George Diskant).

In the basement where Burr works Brodie over, a wildly swinging ceiling lamp floods the action with a harsh glare then plunges it into darkness, adding immeasurably to the dread. Near the end, when Burr plans to kill Brodie at the stroke of midnight – the precise moment when his own brother will die in the electric chair – a montage of faces and eyes ratchets up the tension as the seconds tick by. Mann shows his native talent for the film medium in every frame, and he's abetted by Brodie, Burr and that old pro Jason Robards (Sr.) as a police detective. There are flashier and more resonant films in the noir cycle, but for rough, bare-bones entertainment, Desperate is hard to beat.

A good film-noir, dominated by Raymond Burr

[pzanardo · 7/10 · 23 December 2002]

"Desperate" is a low-budget but fairly good film-noir. The director Anthony Mann, at the beginning of his career, shows his talent, soon to be consecrated in a sequence of splendid western movies.

The story is simple, but has a steady pace and a good suspense. At times the troubles of the cruelly chased hero and heroine are straightforward, not to say boring, but the movie considerably improves whenever the gangsters are on the screen. All along the film we find an excellent, stylish black and white photography. The waving lamp spreading a dire light on the impassive faces of the criminals, while we hear the off-screen noise of an horrible beating, should be a cult-scene in a more celebrated movie. Another remarkable moment is the brutal intrusion of the gangsters into the rural peace of an amiable old couple. A feeling of violation and fear is created, with no use of visual violence. The final scene, though a bit unrealistic, is masterly filmed and provides a satisfactory ending.

Steve Brodie and Aubrey Long make an adequate job as the couple of the good ones. However, the film is physically dominated by Raymond Burr, with his immense shoulders and his scaring poise. What a great villain he is! Of course, we are also delighted by Burr's side-kicks, with their wonderful gangster-faces.

"Desperate" is recommended for film-noir fans and can be a nice view for anyone fond of good, old-style, accurately-made cinema.

Pursue and Death Wish

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 25 June 2013]

The trucker Steve Randall (Steve Brodie) is an ex-GI that has fought in the war and has been married with Anne Randall (Audrey Long) for four months. Steve has a trunking business, but he arrives home with the intention of celebrating his wedding anniversary with Anne. He receives a phone call from a client that offers a small fortune to him to transport some goods that night and he does not have how to refuse.

When he arrives at the spot, he finds that he was lured by the mobster Walt Radak (Raymond Burr) that wants to use Steve's truck to transport stolen furs. Steve does not accept the deal but is forced by Walt's gangsters to drive his truck. When he sees a police officer on the street, he blinks the headlights to call his attention. There is a shooting and the police officer is murdered and Walt's young brother Al is left behind and arrested by the police.

Walt tries to force Steve to assume the murder to save his brother but Steve flees from the gangsters and travels with Anne, who is pregnant, to the countryside, pursued by Walt and his gangsters and by the police. When Steve finds a safe place for Anne in the farm of her Aunt Klara (Ilka Gruning) and Uncle Jan (Paul E. Burns), he goes to the police department and tells his story to Det. Lt. Louie Ferrari (Jason Robards) that does not believe in his words but let him go. Steve returns to the farm without knowing that Ferrari released him to be a bait to catch Walt and his men.

"Desperate" is a film-noir by Anthony Mann with a good story of pursue and death wish, with sordid characters, like for example the mobster, the car dealer, the detective lieutenant among others and good duel between Steve Brodie and Raymond Burr. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Desesperado" ("Desperate")

Burr- Menace Personified

[rsyung · 18 May 2001]

This film, and others like it from that era, has something which has long been missing from suspense/crime movies of today: a slow-to-build menace. Things develop almost leisurely, and then--Burr, that menace personified, pounces like a rabid dog hounding Steve Brodie. The pay-off is so much more effective when a director takes the time to build the foundation of suspense. The characters are well-developed, Detective Ferrari in particular. He starts out as an antagonist and ends up, reluctantly, on the side of truth and justice. Brodie's backstory hints at a checkered past. The ending, as Steve faces death at midnight, the clock ticking away, is played out in what seems to be real-time. It was truly a nail-biter. Satisfying and captivating all the way.

for a better ending

[RanchoTuVu · 7/10 · 19 July 2004]

Raymond Burr is the main feature as the crime boss desperately trying to save his younger brother from a date with the electric chair. Directed by Anthony Mann, the pace picks up as the hour approaches for the execution, and the final minutes of the film are quite exciting, with Burr, the clock ticking down to midnight, and the police closing in. The implausible ending may have given the film more appeal but watered down the impact it was building up. Before Burr went into television, he made a believable impression as a criminal, as here, and the film loses momentum whenever he's not in it. Steve Brodie, as an unwitting small time trucker with a new wife, doesn't really convey the dramatic impact to counter Burr.

Burr's performance and Mann's direction make it worth watching

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 12 May 2008]

This 40s noir B-movie has quite a solid reputation, but its plot is strictly second-rate. Steve Brodie plays an average joe, a truck driver not long out of the army and recently married to a lush wife who bakes cakes to celebrate the fact that she is pregnant. Sadly, hubby never gets to taste her culinary skills because he accepts a last minute lucrative driving job that turns out to be crooked. Raymond Burr's gang of crooks haven't got their own vehicle so, bizarrely, they decide to hire one to carry out a warehouse theft and, one dead cop later, Brodie finds himself on the run as a cop-killer.

Mann's direction is better than the plot. He wasn't scared to try something different every now and then. At one point we're even given a blurry POV close-up of Burr's retreating fist after it has connected with Brodie's face. Burr plays the heavy here, as he usually did in his early career. He was a big man even before he put a few pounds on, but looks swarthy here as well, almost Mediterranean. He's certainly the most interesting character in the film, a gangster out to save his brother from the electric chair and endeavouring to have our relatively bland hero take his place.

The main weakness in the storyline is the hero's poor decision-making. He practically panics each time danger is at hand, and yet delays contacting the police for an inordinate length of time so that the villains can more or less pursue him at their leisure.

This is undoubtedly better than its modest production values would suggest, but it isn't a classic by any measure.

Classic B Film

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 19 March 2005]

This Black and White film from the late 40's had a great deal of class and great acting. Steve Brodie,(Steve Randall),"Frankenstein Island",'81, played a guy who had all the bad breaks and never seemed to be able to settle down with the gal or off spring and have a nice home in a small country town. Audrey Lang,(Anne Randall),"Born to Kill",'47, was the wife of Steve Randall who did her best to help him make the right decisions and even got him to marry her. Steve and Ann Randall kept running away from a terrible threat made by Raymond Burr,(Walt Radak),"San Quentin",'46, who was seeking revenge for the loss of a close family member. Jason Robards Sr., (Detective Lt., Louie Ferrari),"Impact",'49, played the detective who was very interested in Steve Randall and hounded him where ever he traveled. There are some very tense scenes in which Walt Radak uses a clock to drive Steve Randall to a complete breaking point in his life. Great classic B film with a very young looking Raymond Burr and Jason Robards Sr. giving a great supporting role.

A series of unfortunate events...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 30 December 2022]

... in this "B" crime drama from RKO and director Anthony Mann. A hapless truck driver named Steve (Steve Brodie) gets unwittingly caught up in a robbery that leads to a cop's death and the arrest of the little brother of chief crook Walt Radak (Raymond Burr). Radak wants revenge on Steve for his brother's situation, and the gangster threatens Steve's pregnant wife Anne (Audrey Long). Steve and Anne hit the road to try and escape, and their circumstances continue to get worse.

There are a lot of rough edges on this crime picture, but I liked it anyway. The first half of the story could have been subtitled "A series of increasingly poor decision making" on the part of Steve. Things settle down for the second half, where things become a bit more brooding and almost nihilistic before snapping out of it.

Brodie and Long are both likable leads, even if they aren't the most gifted actors. Burr is terrific as the menacing brute Radak, even before he packed on the pounds as Perry Mason. And this may be the best role that I've seen Jason Robards Sr in. After a career stretching way back into the silents. He plays the cold-blooded, cynical police detective on the case with just the right angle to his smirk. There are a lot of reprehensible characters filling out the background, from Douglas Fowley as an oily P. I., to Cy Kendall as a loathsome used car salesman.

Short, sweet, and sure-fire

[imogensara_smith · 7/10 · 1 September 2006]

Film noir is generally rich in moral ambiguity: flawed heroes are doomed by their own greed, lust, or past mistakes. DESPERATE, however, is a black-and-white film in more ways than one, a strict clash between innocent goodness and senseless evil. Don't look for nuance or complexity in the story. This is a simple, beautifully made B movie, and if it doesn't leave you much to think about, it certainly fills 75 minutes with enjoyable suspense.

From the beginning the film presents a stark contrast between the wholesome and sordid sides of life. We see Steve Randall (Steve Brodie), a fresh-faced young truck-driver, celebrating his four-month wedding anniversary with his beautiful blonde wife Anne, who has baked her first cake for the occasion and plans to tell her husband she's pregnant. Meanwhile, a gang of thugs led by Walt Radak (Raymond Burr) have picked Randall to be their unwitting getaway driver for a heist. Forced to participate against his will, Randall alerts the cops by blinking his lights while they're loading the stolen goods, and in the ensuing melee Radak's kid brother is captured and a cop is killed. The gang still has Randall, and they threaten to disfigure his wife unless he confesses to the crime to save the kid brother. Pretending to comply, Randall escapes ("You must have studied to get that stupid!" Radak berates the henchman who let him get away.) The rest of the film is a game of cat and mouse, as Randall and his wife flee both the police and the gangsters: on a train, on a bus, in a succession of "borrowed" cars and in the back of a truck, hidden among some eerie, over-sized carnival masks.

They make it to a farm belonging to Anne's aunt and uncle, a warm-hearted immigrant couple. Horrified to hear that Steve and Anne were married by a judge, they give them a traditional Czech wedding, at which the women wear lacy caps and everyone dances the schottische. Meanwhile a sleazy private detective hired by Radak is tracking them down. So it goes. The story becomes increasingly implausible as Radak's plan to save his brother from the electric chair gives way to pointless, obsessive revenge against the innocent Randall. (If he's so upset about his kid brother, why doesn't he turn himself or one of his goons in?) But if you're willing to suspend disbelief, I promise you won't be bored. The movie succeeds in making you care very much about the virtuous couple, and want very much to see the sadistic Radak get his comeuppance. There was never a creepier heavy than Raymond Burr, with his looming bulk, oily dark face, and solemn, maniacal eyes.

I always associated Steve Brodie with shifty, shady little weasels like the characters he plays in OUT OF THE PAST and CROSSFIRE. But he's extremely likable as the hapless hero devoted to saving his wife and child. She is a typical forties Perfect Wife, who is constantly told by her husband to do as he says and not ask any questions, and who wants nothing but to wear an apron and keep his dinner warm. Nonetheless, you can't help but root for her. This is a rare noir that inspires no sympathy whatsoever for criminals: these guys are vile brutes devoid of any redeeming value.

Like all of Anthony Mann's B noirs, DESPERATE has great visual flair, using such stylish effects as a single swinging lamp in a dark room and a pursuit up a shadowy spiral staircase. These noirish touches adorn what is essentially a suspense melodrama as D.W. Griffith invented it: a race against the clock to save innocents from harm, milked for all it's worth. It worked in 1917 and it worked in 1947, and it still works as long as you're in the mood for some unpretentious entertainment.

Mann makes great B films.

[DM-19 · 8/10 · 2 September 1999]

This is a TOUGH film, incredibly stylised. This is the essence of the 40's film noir (just take a look at the scene where a beating takes place in a basement, lit by a single swinging overhead light, fantastic). Burr is great as the gangleader.

Light and shadows

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 2 July 2010]

Anthony Mann's neat noir "Desperate" is a 1947 film starring Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, and Jason Robards Sr. Brodie plays Steve Randall, a newly married young man who takes a last-minute trucking job for good money, only to find out that he'll be carrying stolen goods. He refuses. However, he is forced into the job with threats against his wife (Audrey Long). While en route with the cargo, he signals the cops with his headlights; one of his captors, the younger brother of the head man, Radak (Burr) kills a cop. Randall and his wife go on the run while Radak, wanting to avenge his brother's death row sentence, goes after them.

A very exciting and absorbing film with fast-paced direction by Anthony Mann. Mann had great style - he used lights and shadows wonderfully - the light swinging in the room, alternately hiding and showing Burr's face, and the stunning denouement on a winding staircase - first rate.

Until he played Perry Mason, Raymond Burr usually played characters who were as mean as dirt, and this is no exception. Brodie and Long make a likable couple in whom the audience becomes invested. Long is lovely -I guess being married to Leslie Charteris, the man who wrote "The Saint," she didn't need to work, though, so her career seems to have ended shortly after they married in 1952. Jason Robards Sr. is effective as Ferrari, the investigator Steve attempts to convince of his innocence.

Highly recommended.

An early Anthony Mann noir

[XhcnoirX · 8/10 · 6 April 2016]

Freelance trucker driver Steve Brodie accepts an evening job, despite also celebrating a 4-month engagement with his girl Audrey Long, because it pays so well and they can use the money. What Brodie doesn't realize until it's too late is that the job is for moving a load of stolen furs and is paid for by an old friend, now crook, Raymond Burr. Before he can refuse, a police officer is shot, and in the chaos Brodie drives off in a panic, while Burr's kid brother is arrested. Brodie doesn't get far however and Burr has him roughed up, wanting him to be the fall guy, clearing his kid brother. But when Brodie's name and photo ends up in the newspapers, he decides to run away with Long. They head out west to Long's aunt. Burr hires shady private dick Douglas Fowley to track down Brodie. Brodie eventually tries to turn himself in and give his side of the story, but police inspector Jason Robards Sr. lets him go, using him as bait to get to the rest of the gang. And sure enough, Fowley has no problem finding Brodie...

A tense noir/thriller that wastes little time from start to finish. It was the last noir of director Anthony Mann ('T-Men', 'Raw Deal') before starting a partnership with DoP John Alton. However, the cinematographer on this movie, George E. Diskant ('The Narrow Margin', 'On Dangerous Ground') is no slouch either. The movie is beautiful to watch with some great noir photography.

Brodie ('Out of The Past', 'Armored Car Robbery') is quite good as an innocent man on the run, but Long ('Born To Kill') is a bit too wholesome here for my taste. Burr ('Raw Deal', 'Pitfall') was born to play noir heavies, he is as menacing here as ever. Fowley ('Behind Locked Doors', 'Edge Of Doom') is his usual slimy self, I feel even as a character actor he never really escaped the B's, which is a shame, he had the necessary talent in my opinion.

There is very little noir ambiguity in this movie, the good guys are great and friendly and the bad guys are mean and conniving. It's a minor complaint however, for an otherwise highly entertaining movie that keeps the suspense level pretty high throughout, with a great build-up to an exciting climax inside a 4-story stairwell. Highly recommended! 8/10

Heist Gone Bad, Wrong Blame Assigned

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 6 March 2011]

Raymond Burr shines in Desperate an early film in his career. You could tell this man was going to be films for the long haul. Although it would have been a shame if he only was cast as thuggish gangsters for the rest of his life.

But in that part he steals the film from leads Steve Brodie and Audrey Long. Brodie is a friend of Burr's since childhood and Brodie's recently returned from the war, married his sweetheart Long, and is now settling into a career as a truck-driver. Burr conceives a brilliant scheme in which he hires Brodie for his truck as part of a heist only he doesn't tell Brodie about it. When the heist is a bust and Burr's younger brother is captured and a cop killed in foiling the robbery, Burr's conceives a nasty hatred for Brodie and Brodie and Long have to flee. Suspicion is also on Brodie so the police are after him as well.

It's really quite preposterous when you think about it. Burr takes the eager kid brother along on the job because the brother wants to emulate his sibling. Then when he's caught it isn't his fault, it's the fault of the guy who was tricked into it and who foiled Burr's plans. But I saw a situation like that in my own life.

I knew this man who was in fact quite a lowlife himself. But he did rise to a position of some authority and insisted on bringing his equally raised lowlife son into his business. The kid was also a prize specimen with a serious drug problem and was busy in his supervisory position extorting the other employees for monies to feed his habit. The father was completely blind to his kid's problem, it was everyone else who was conspiring against his precious son. In the end the kid both lost the job and ended dying of cocaine contributed heart problems. To this day the father won't recognize his own culpability. In a nutshell that's Raymond Burr's character here.

Steve Brodie had a good career as a secondary lead, this was one of his few starring roles. He was a good actor, but his height prevented him from gaining stardom and he didn't have the charisma of a James Cagney who could have really done something with this character. So could Alan Ladd over at Paramount. Audrey Long is probably best remembered for playing opposite John Wayne in Tall In The Saddle where she is in competition with Ella Raines for the Duke.

Brodie and Long are fine, but this is really Raymond Burr's film.

Help!

[AaronCapenBanner · 5/10 · 13 November 2013]

Anthony Mann directed this early film noir that stars Steve Brodie as an independent trucker who is tricked into helping thieves drive the getaway truck for stolen furs. He thwarts this plan by alerting police, but is held captive by them as the leader Walter Radack(played by Raymond Burr) wants him to confess for the crime because his younger brother was captured. Brodie escapes however and takes his pregnant wife(played by Audrey Long) on the run, with a vengeful Radack in pursuit... Mediocre film has a menacing performance by Burr but feels longer than it is, and loses steam before the violent climax. Mann would do better in the genre quite soon though!

Not as consistent as I would have liked but still tough and tense at turns

[bob the moo · 20 June 2005]

Steve Randall is a truck driver looking forward to a romantic night in with his new wife after four months of marriage. However when he gets a call for a last minute transit job for the fee of $50 he can't say no. When he gets to the job he finds that he is working for Walt Radak and the cargo is actually goods being stolen from a warehouse. Alerting a passing police officer sees the officer get shot and Radak's younger brother caught by the cops; to get him out Radak tells Steve to go to the police and confess that he forced the kid to do the job for him, either that or Radak's boys will pay a visit to Steve's wife. Instead of going to the cops though, Randall alerts his wife and flees the city with both the criminals (helped by ex-PI Lavitch) and the police (in the shape of Det Lt Ferrari).

This film opens with a light tone that does little to prepare you for how quickly it all goes wrong for Steve and it is not long before he is fleeing the mob and the police. However, although it never settles back into that light tone, it does take the foot off the gas several times and produces a film that is a series of good moments rather than being a constantly taut thriller. Having said that though, the strong moments more than make up for the dips where the film develops the story and plays on the emotions of the characters – when this is tough, it is excellent and very much captures what made the "more is less" spirit of 40's/50's crime noirs so enjoyable. Steve's initial beating is played out in a dark room with a swinging lampshade; the final standoff takes place in a stairwell that is all shadows and banister; while the ambivalence of the cops and criminals make for an interesting set up.

Although the characters are not taken as deep as noir would normally require (Steve is too clean cut and not enough is made of the police using Steve as bait) the characters are still tough. Brodie is not great but does well enough despite being rather too nice for the lead role. Long is OK and luckily the film gives her limited time and concentrates on the dark rather than the dame. Burr is tremendously menacing – not a crime lord but a tough hood who remains sane throughout and is all the more menacing for being out of the picture until the end. Robards is a bit too whimsical where I would have preferred him to be cynical and uncaring, but he was still good. Support is also good from Fowley, Challee and others.

Overall this would have been a bit better if it had been a bit darker in terms of action and character as well as being more consistent in its tension but, despite what could have been, it is still enjoyably tense and tough and features good performances and some typically noir use of darkness and light in the cinematography.

Desperate Times calls for Desperate Measures

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 26 November 2007]

**SPOILERS** The film "Desperate" is well worth watching only for the fact that it has the very underrated Steve Brodie, as independent trucker Steve Randell,in one of his few leading roles. The film itself has a number of inconsistencies that almost sink it before it ever takes off. There's the head hoodlum Walt Radak, Raymond Burr, at one point getting shot and and on the brink of death, as he's being attended in his hideout by a quack doctor, and then in what seems like days is back in charge and fit as a fiddle. Radak walks and drives around giving orders without the slightest hint of him ever being badly wounded or even wounded at all!

There's also Radak's eager to make it big as a gangster kid brother Al, Larry Nunn, who insists, against his big brothers timely advice, to take part in a warehouse robbery, where Steve is tricked into being the wheel-man, and ends up shooting and killing a policeman that lands him on death row. Steve who tried to warn the cop by blinking his headlights ends up in hot water with the Radak Mob in holding him responsible for the predicament that the very foolish and hot-headed Al got himself into.

Radak spends almost the entire movie trying to track down the one the run Steve not to kill him but to get Steve to falsely confess to killing the cop that Little Al knocked off. Radak also holds Steve responsible for Al's capture by the police by stepping on the gas and leaving Al behind where he was soon captured. With a wife Anne, Audrey Long, about to give birth Steve takes off to her parents farm in far off Minnesota to lay low until the heats off; Not from the cops who are out looking for him but from Radak and his gang.

The local police headed by Det. Ferrie, Jason Robards Sr, seem to be the only cops around chasing Steve, and later Radak, for hundreds if not over a thousand miles with Steve feeling that he'll be charged as an accessory to murder of the policeman back at the warehouse. Steve later gets the surprise of his life when Let. Ferrie tells him that one of Radak's hoods Shorty Abbott, Freddie Steele, gave a deathbed confession saying that he had nothing to do with the policeman's death! How Convenient!

As the day for Little Al's execution, that's to take places almost a thousand miles away, nears we see in the headline of the local Mountain City newspaper, covering the entire front page as if it was reporting the bombing of Pearl Harbor or V-J Day, that he's to be executed at midnight. Little Al's big brother Walt Radak, who's also in town, then comes up with this plan that only his totally sick and disturbed mind can dream up.

Always having a flair for the dramatic Radak want's to do in Steve at the very moment, when the clock strikes midnight, that his little brother Al is to get the juice, electricity, turned on him. Radak is so obsessed with having Steve get it the same way that Al will that he also forces Steve to eat his last meal, a stale turkey sandwich with a glass of milk, like a waiting to be executed prisoner on death row before he's, in Steve's case with a fuselage of bullets, himself to be executed!

This insane act on Radak's part is so badly mishandled with everything going wrong as not only the people in the apartment building catch on to what's going on but also the police, headed by Let. Ferrie. All that leads to Radak ending up as the man in the cross-hairs not Steve. This whole wild crazy and unbelievable conclusion of the movie ends up at precisely the time that Radak planned it, midnight, with the results, or victim, being somewhat if not totally different then what he planned.

Best when cold

[johnedit-2 · 6/10 · 17 May 2001]

Conventional film noir melodrama is notable for ice black visuals and Raymond Burr's soft-spoken, hulking bad guy.

Film hurt by too-simple story, without the existential undertones that marked film noir at its best. But look of the film -- those rich shadows; creamy, sometimes violent whites; sharp camera angles and moving camera -- help a lot. Burr is a scary, almost psycho, but frighteningly low-keyed, bully boy.

Turner's print of RKO original looked great on TMC. Note how much it crams into about 75 minutes. I give it 6 out of 10.

Yet another menacing role played by Raymond Burr

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 28 October 2010]

People only familiar with Raymond Burr from his "Perry Mason" shows might be very surprised to see him in his many films before hitting it big as Mason. That's because instead of the nice-guy defender of the helpless, his earlier roles very, very often including preying upon the helpless and being a very, very menacing thug. Again and again, Burr would kill, beat or rob--and in a manner so cold and brutal that you have to admire the guy! Heck, to fans of film noir, Burr is like a god--up there with great noir actors like Edmund O'Brien, John Ireland and Paul Stewart--reliable and tough. Here in "Desperate", one again Burr plays a sociopathic thug--and I enjoyed every minute he was on the screen.

Mr. & Mrs. Steve Randall (Steve Brody and Audry Long) have only been married a short time and are struggling to make ends meet. So, when Steve is offered a lot of money to do a late night trucking job, he jumps for it--only to find it's actually a job working with some thugs. He inadvertently gets mixed up in the middle of a robbery and shooting--and the crooks slug him and force him to drive the getaway vehicle. Randall tries to warn the cops--and the gang decides to make him pay. They beat him demand that HE turn himself in and take credit for the crime--or they'll make sure his wife "ain't so pretty any more"! Instead of going to the police (which any sane person would have done), Randall manages to escape from his captors. He then arranges for his wife to meet him at the station and they set off on a cross-country trek to get her to safety. By this time, the police are looking for him--and still Randall does NOT stop and ask for their help or explain himself. In fact, this is a major shortcoming of the movie--we are to expect the leading man to behave in a way 98% of us would not in the same situation. Then, when he DOES decide to go to the police, he says he needs to drive 200 miles there! Why not pick ANY police station between here and there--why drive all the way back home? Regardless, when he turns himself in, they don't believe him--probably because he'd been running for so long! But they decide to release him--assuming he'd be bait to attract the rest of the gang. Eventually, Burr and the rest of the gang catch up to where the Randalls have been hiding. See the movie to find out what happens next.

Despite its plot problems which I pointed out already (as well as a baby that seems to arrive awfully fast!), it IS a good example of film noir. While it lacks some of the great cinematography some of the best noir has (except in the excellent staircase scene), the dialog is snappy, the plot pretty good and the villains truly villainous. A very good and enjoyable example of the genre.

Desperate: Mediocre Noir, Incredible Lighting

[regular14 · 7/10 · 24 November 2007]

Desperate is a film about a wrongfully accused man running to keep his life, his wife safe, and at the same time trying to clear his name.

The storyline itself has a few too many holes to really make it to the top of any Best noir list. Certain sequences just don't add up logically. One scene of the police showing up at the gangster's hideout, i can't quite figure out how they knew where it was.

The film's lighting though, is classic, classic noir. In the beginning of the film there's a scene where our hero is captured and beaten by the gangsters and overhead light is hit and sways back and forth, words can't well describe the lighting's beauty in the film, but my god there is beauty.

It seems to be on TCM, which is where i just watched it, so i'd say check it out if you love noir. Not to mention a short runtime of 75 minutes.

Midnight is the time for sychnronicity of death.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 9 November 2012]

Desperate is directed by Anthony Mann who also collectively writes the story and screenplay with Harry Essex, Martin Rackin and Dorothy Atlas. It stars Steve Brodie, Raymond Burr, Audrey Long, Douglas Fowley, William Challee and Jason Robards Senior. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by George E. Diskant.

After innocently being roped into a robbery that goes wrong, Steve Randall (Brodie) and his lover, Anne (Long), are forced to go on the run when a vengeful gangster seeks an eye for a eye retribution.

One of Anthony Mann's first forays into film noir, Desperate is a lovers on the run drama instilled with impressive noir touches. Short sharp shock in running time parlance, film takes the form of innocents thrust into a perilous fight to survive. The middle section is a bit too airy and draggy, with a wedding sequence still further pushing the picture away from the brilliant dark tone set up earlier, and for sure the Randall couple are a bit too precious at times, but when it's trawling the alleyways of film noir it's a classy piece of film.

The first third features a quite excellent "beating" sequence that showcases the skills of Messrs Mann and Diskant. Filmed in a darkly lit room, the scene plays out in the fluctuating shadows of a swinging overhead light. This is menacing enough but Mann also introduces some potent close up shots of a fist and a broken bottle to really emphasise grim tones. Then the final third comes back into noir territory where we are indulged in a ticking clock countdown that leads to a finale played out on four stories of shadowy stair wells. With Burr offering up a considerable turn of hulking villainy, there's much to recommend here, where were it not for the middle section then this would be up with the best of Mann's noirs. Still, it's very much one for Mann and film noir fans to seek out. 7/10

Despair

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 14 June 2006]

Imagine the plight of Steve, a good man, who gets tangled in a web of intrigue; he is suspected of having killed a policeman during a robbery gone bad. This young man has been hired by the criminals to drive his truck without knowing what he was getting into. Steve, who has been married for a short time to the beautiful Anne, has no choice but to hide, not only from the law, but also from the real bandits who pointed him out to the cops as the one responsible for the crime. Walter Radak, the head of the gang, blames Steve for botching the heist, where his younger brother was caught by the police and soon will die.

Everything is against Steve. When he tries to buy a used car, he is cheated by the unscrupulous owner of the lot. He is a good man who can't get anyone to believe in him. Finally, Steve and Anne find a quiet life with her relatives in a secluded farm, where he reasons, is too far from where Radak and his men will look for him. Steve finds the kind detective Ferrari who believes in him and wants to use him to get to the real bad guys.

Anthony Mann staged this film with an eye to detail. The magnificent fight scene where the naked light bulb goes over all of the gang, illuminating their faces as it keeps swinging above their heads, has to be one of the best effects in the film. The last sequence in the staircase of Steve's apartment house was another touch by Mr. Mann to take the viewer to witness the action.

Steve Brodie is the man being pursued until the end by Radak and his gang. Raymond Burr's Walter Radak points out to the range of this actor, who made a lot of films as the heavy, as he does in this film. Audrey Long plays Anne, Steve's wife. Jason Robards Sr. has a couple of effective scenes as the Lt. Ferrari, the man who knows about Steve's innocence.

Mr. Mann was lucky in working with George Diskant as his cinematographer. The camera placings and shooting angles both men created in this film is what made the film noir genre so immensely appealing to audiences.

nice crime noir

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 15 October 2019]

Steve Randall is a simple independent truck driver. An old friend hires him to do a haul for the high payment of $50. It turns out to be a warehouse robbery led by Walt Radak (Raymond Burr). Steve is forced to drive. He warns a passing cop and that cop is shot. Walt's younger brother Al is caught. Steve is taken prisoner by the gang. Walt tries to force Steve to confess and take the place of his brother Al. Steve escapes and goes on the run with his wife away from both the crooks and the coppers.

This is a nice crime noir. Burr is a good threatening presence. It would be nice to have a better lead than Steve Brodie. He seems to be a good journeyman actor but he doesn't have charisma to lead. It's fitting since director Anthony Mann seems to be cut from similar cloth. He is a workmanlike director who really pumped out a lot work during the 40's and 50's. He has some good visuals for the climax. It's nice.

"You Must've Studied To Get That Stupid!"

[davidcarniglia · 8/10 · 9 September 2018]

A cool premise: Walt Radak (Raymond Burr) will kill Steve (Steve Brodie) at his brother's midnight execution time. The gang leader Walt blames Steve for a bungled heist that resulted in Walt's brother's arrest as a cop killer. Steve and his angelic wife Anne (Audrey Long) spend almost all of the movie fleeing Walt's grasp. They're always within his reach. since Steve is mistakenly implicated in the heist, the police are after him too. So, to keep moving, Steve ends up stealing two cars, one of which belongs to the local sheriff.

The tension between the gang and Steve is compounded by his run-ins with the jaded police lieutenant Ferrari (Jason Robards). Walter and Ferrari drive the plot and action in Desperate, with Steve and Anne caught in between. This is one noir in which there's definite good and bad guys. Steve and Anne are mostly reacting to what the gangsters or cops are up to; they're not very interesting on their own. I suppose the lighter moments fit their characters best: the beginning anniversary scene, the wedding scene in the middle, and Anne's safe escape near the end.

It's ok to touch base with the everyday world and its fun moments in noir films, but the characters should be able to show more than disbelief when their ordinary life is interrupted. Anne in particular is often reduced to incredulous babbling when she ought to stop and think . The relentless pace of their escape scenes masks these tone lapses with action.

There's some memorable scenes in Desperate. What's got a lot of attention on this forum is the great backroom scene with the swinging lamp as Steve's being worked over by Walt's muscle guys. Their monster-like faces loom out of the darkness; sort of a precursor to the macabre carnival costumes that Steve and Anne use to hide in the back of a truck. Another notable scene shows the looping stair case at the end where the climactic shoot-out takes place.

That scene, however, points to a couple of issues with the plot. Since Ferrari lies unhurt outside the building, having been shoved out of the line-of-fire by Steve, why did the other officer wait so long to enter the building and help get Walt? Instead Steve is on his own.

Steve is cleared by Ferrari, as one of the captured gangsters admits that Steve hadn't willingly participated in the heist. Also, the first car 'theft' is justifiable, as Steve actually paid for the car. But would the sheriff really not bring charges against Steve for stealing his car, and leaving him injured at the side of the road? Another odd thing happens near the beginning. Since Steve successfully overwhelms the gangster the second time he's 'escorted', why didn't he even try to mess with the guy sticking to him right after the heist scene?

The simple plot leaves enough room for lingering on the most creepy noir scenes; the small cast also helps to keep the focus on Steve and Anne's escape. Without Robards and Burr, however, this wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining. Worth watching for the expressionist scenes and a couple of strong performances. 8/10.

Beware, Burr is here

[andy-345 · 7/10 · 8 September 1999]

A good film noir of its period is given extra merit by the outstanding performance of Raymond Burr exuding menace in every look and gesture.He takes control of the screen in every scene that he appears in.In a small part,Cy Kendall gives a scene stealing display of petty evil.

otherwise forgettable Film Noir

[JoeB131 · 4/10 · 23 May 2011]

The plot of this film is simple enough.

An honest vet truck driver is tricked into being involved in a heist, where as a result of coincidences, a policeman is killed. The ringleader's brother is caught and sentenced to die for the crime, as the ringleader himself tries to get the truck driver to take the rap.

In short, all the flavor of Film Noir, none of the filling character development.

Basic Plot Logic fails here. The Truck Driver eventually goes to the cops, but instead of doing what cops always do, get a plea bargain as long as you are willing to testify against the bad guys, they use this guy and his pregnant wife as bait. In short, cops in 1946 were completely incompetent, and couldn't even do rudimentary investigations.

Again, if you want the ambiance of the genre, it's an okay film but it lacks substance.