I Love Trouble (1948)

Director:

S. Sylvan Simon

Writers:

Roy Huggins (novel)
Roy Huggins (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 January 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Mystery

Plot:

A wealthy man hires a detective to investigate his wife's past. The detective (Franchot Tone) discovers...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Robbery | Private Detective | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Cast

Franchot Tone	...	Stuart Bailey
Janet Blair	...	Norma Shannon
Janis Carter	...	Mrs. Caprillo aka Jane Breeger aka Janie Joy
Adele Jergens	...	Boots Nestor
Glenda Farrell	...	Hazel Bixby
Steven Geray	...	Keller
Tom Powers	...	Ralph Johnston
Lynn Merrick	...	Mrs. Johnston
John Ireland	...	Reno
Donald Curtis	...	Martin
Eduardo Ciannelli	...	John Vega Caprillo
Robert Barrat	...	Lt. Quint
Raymond Burr	...	Herb
Eddie Marr	...	Sharpy
Arthur Space	...	Sgt. Muller

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #12482) | Sweden:15

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Based on a magazine story by Roy Huggins, this movie provided the round-about genesis of the TV series "77 Sunset Strip" (1958) (also created by Huggins). In this movie, 'Franchot Tone' plays LA detective Stuart Bailey, which is same name of detective played ten years later by 'Ephrem Zimbalist Jr.' in the 1958 movie Girl on the Run (1958), which, in turn, was spun off into the 77 Sunset Strip TV series that same year. Oddly, this movie was produced by Columbia Pictures, while subsequent movie and TV series were made by Warner Bros.

From the school of Raymond Chandler, an obscure film noir that packs a punch

Don't be put off by the frisky title: I Love Trouble isn't one of those dismal crime-cum-comedy hybrids so inexplicably popular in the '40s (true, a bantering element tries to creep in from time to time but it's held mercifully at bay; one routine, however, starring a hash-slinger named Miss Phipps, deserves to be bronzed).

It's a pretty hard-boiled private-eye yarn, very much in the Raymond Chandler tradition - maybe a bit too much. More specifically, I Love Trouble follows the footsteps tramped out by Murder, My Sweet and The Lady in the Lake, and follows them doggedly. And its subsidiary roles are filled with actors who make up a Who's Who of film noir: Janice Carter, Adele Jergens, John Ireland, Raymond Burr (barely visible, alas), Tom Powers, Eduardo Ciannelli, Steven Geray, Sid Tomack. Parts even smaller (it's a big cast) are filled to the brim with apt characterization.

The principal role of the gumshoe, however, goes to Franchot Tone, who plays it very much in the Powell-and-Mongomery-as-Marlowe style. He's hired by a tough businessman (Powers) to keep tabs on his elusive wife (Lynn Merrick). Tone traces the obligatory route from low dives to high places in his quest, from back alleys in Portland and fish dumps near the oil derricks of Santa Monica (Chandler's corrupt `Bay City') to gated mansions where swimming pools sparkle amid manicured lawns. All Tone knows is that, back in '46 (or was it '41?), Merrick came down from Oregon, where he learns that she was a bubble dancer in a mobbed-up nightclub, who absconded to Southern California with a cheesy comic (Tomack).

Or did she? When another woman claiming to be Merrick's sister (Janet Blair) fails to recognize her picture, Tone finds himself with a lot of pieces none of which seem to fit together. And the heavies from up north are joined by powerful folks in Los Angeles who firmly discourage him from looking any further (when he's not being eyed fetchingly by expensive wives and mistresses, he's conked on the head or drugged up at every turn). Getting warmer, he tries to coax more information from Tomack, only to find the funny fishmonger dead and himself a suspect. But when Merrick's body washes up under a pier, her death opens more questions than it answers....

The director, S. Sylvan Simon, shows considerable promise which was not to be redeemed (he died, at age 41, three years after making this movie). But most of the credit, however derivative, should probably accrue to its writer, and author of the novel on which it's based, Roy Huggins; he also penned Too Late For Tears, Woman in Hiding and Pushover, and, moving to television, would create 77 Sunset Strip, The Fugitive, and The Rockford Files. It goes to show how cracking the books at the school of Raymond Chandler can pay off in the future. So what if I Love Trouble is knockoff Chandler, a cocktail shaken up from two films made from his novels? Chandler neat is a potent shot - even watered down it holds its deep, smoky flavor.