A Bullet for Joey (1955)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Lewis Allen

Writers:

James Benson Nablo (story)
Daniel Mainwaring (writer) ...

Release Date:

13 January 1956 (Finland)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

THE SCREEN'S TOP "TOUGH GUYS" MEET FACE TO FACE! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Montreal: the former well-known gangster Joey Victor is fetched from Europe, where he was deported to from USA...

Plot Keywords:

Sergeant | Cold War | Communism | Spy | Kidnapping

Cast

Edward G. Robinson	...	Insp. Raoul Leduc
George Raft	...	Joe Victor aka Steiner
Audrey Totter	...	Joyce Geary
George Dolenz	...	Dr. Carl Macklin
Peter van Eyck	...	Eric Hartman
Toni Gerry	...	Yvonne Temblay (Macklin's secretary)
William Bryant	...	Jack Allen (from L.A.) (as Bill Bryant)
John Cliff	...	Morrie in Chicago
Steven Geray	...	Raphael Garcia
Joseph Vitale	...	Nick Johonus
Sally Blane	...	Marie Temblay
Peter Hansen	...	Fred (RCMP officer)
Kaaren Verne	...	Mrs. Eric Hartman (as Karen Verne)
Henri Letondal	...	Dubois - Maple Leaf Farms
Stan Malotte	...	Paul (RCMP lab man)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated | Sweden:15

Company:

Bischoff-Diamond Corporation

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: As the sedan carrying Nick and Morrie prepares to pass the telephone repair truck that the police are using for undercover purposes, the camera and several members of the crew are visibly reflected in the door of the truck.

Commies, Gangsters, and Mounties

Edward G. Robinson and George Raft team up for the second and last time in A Bullet for Joey, a cold war noir espionage thriller set in Montreal.

Their first teaming as a memorable one. They co-starred in Manpower 14 years earlier and had a fistfight on the set over the affections of co-star Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich was involved with Raft at the time and Raft got jealous of Robinson who was a very cultured man and could talk to Dietrich about things that Raft knew little about.

A whole lot of water went under the bridge in the interim and there was no reported friction between the co-stars. Marlene had gone out of Raft's life and she was never in Robinson's at all.

Robinson's a Canadian R.C.M.P. inspector and he gets drawn into an investigation that involves the kidnapping of an atomic scientist George Dolenz and the device he's working on. A whole lot of dead bodies start turning up around Dolenz including a suspicious Mountie that starts the ball rolling.

Raft is a deported American gangster, living in Lisbon, who is recruited by Communist spy Peter Van Eyck to pull off the kidnapping. Raft sneaks into Canada, gets some of his old gang back together and proceeds on the job.

A Bullet for Joey proceeds on a parallel plot track with Raft putting together the kidnapping and Robinson working on a multiple homicide investigation.

Both Robinson and Raft were now B picture players. Robinson would make a big comeback the following year in The Ten Commandments. There was not to be a comeback for George Raft however.

Look for another good performance by Audrey Totter as the gang moll who Raft recruits to entice Dolenz. Totter graced many a B film back in the day competing with Veda Ann Borg for brassiest moll.

A Bullet for Joey is good noir film with a cast headed by two guys who knew their way around the genre. It's a cold war relic of a film, but I think can still be enjoyed by today's audience.