Inside Job

Eddie Norton has a job in a department store as a living mechanical man, attracting customers in the store window. His wife Claire (Ann Rutherford) is a store model. Eddie has a record, unknown to his employer. One day his old partner in crime, Bart Madden (Preston Foster) recognizes Eddie and tells him if he doesn't help him rob the store he'll tell his employer about his prison record and that he'll probably be fired. Eddie has been fired once before because of his record, so he's sure this will happen.

Eddie goes home and tells his wife both about his criminal past and the threat from his old associate. And then he says that he intends to rob the store himself - along with his wife's help - and keep the money for himself. That way both his employer and his old criminal partner will no longer be a problem.

After the heist, the two hide out in their apartment waiting for the heat to blow over as they are identified as the thieves immediately. This is where the film bogs down. The whiny annoying little boy across the hall befriends the couple, and the boy's father turns out to be a policeman! Suddenly this is a human interest film set at Christmas complete with the policeman's housekeeper telling Christmas stories to the little boy. Complications ensue, but they lead to a grim and unforgiving ending.

This film is a B film for sure, but it is incomprehensible at points as well as losing its way. For one, why did the store cashier, when he is trying to flirt with Claire, give her the one picture in his wallet with all of the store safe combinations on the back? Why didn't he say something to the police when he realized what happened? Did he realize what he'd done or was he that forgetful and incompetent?

The film elements are not good at all in this one. It is so very dark at points where it might as well be called "imagination theater" because it's impossible to see anything on the screen. You have to use your imagination. With Milburn Stone (Doc Adams on Gunsmoke) in a rare feature role as the DA.

"Inside Job" is an enjoyable B-movie, a second feature film that is quickly and cheaply made. This is not an insult...just the style movie that it was intended to be. But despite what some thing, Bs weren't necessarily bad films...and this one definitely shows that.

When the story begins, Eddie Norton (Alan Curtis) is working as a demonstrator for a department store. However, when he's spotted by Bart Madden (Preston Foster), he's recognized as a former member of Madden's criminal gang...and Bart insists Eddie join them in their next caper. But Eddie decides to instead rob the department store himself...cutting Madden out completely. Now Eddie has the police AND an angry mobster out gunning for him.

The reason this film was enjoyable was seeing Eddie's wife (Ann Rutherford) and the plot involving the neighbor kid. It gave the film greater depth and was quite enjoyable. Not a must see but certainly a nice little time passer.

This is a B-feature trifle which could have been turned into something great and ineteresting, because there are many twists to this tale. The main character (Alan Curtis) has been in jail and makes an effort to go straight, when an old criminal colleague turns up and offers him a job and actually forces him to accept it by blackmail. This is the tragedy. His wife (Ann Rutherford) sees no other choice than to accept supporting him, while he intends to take his revenge on the partner (Preston Foster) by taking all the loot himself. The caper almost succeeds, it seems to good to be true, but then there are some human factors turning up, like a kite getting stuck in a window, a boy that will not be disposed of, a dog is involved, the boy proves to have lost his mother while his father turns out to be a policeman... It's an interesting moral tale, and you might not be in complete agreement with the judge's final verdict, but the law is the law. It's allright for an interesting entertainment.

This is the third version of a film written by Tod Browning, this one produced by Universal in 1946 and directed by Jean Yarbrough. The print I saw looked like it was from Poverty Row.

Ann Rutherford and Alan Curtis play Claire and Eddie, a married couple. He has a criminal history and is attempting to go straight. A gangster acquaintance, Bart Madden (Preston Foster) sees Eddie in a department store window as a moving mannequin. Madden threatens to expose Eddie's criminal background unless he helps him rob the store of the Christmas receipts.

Eddie confesses his past to Claire, and she insists on helping him, with the idea of cutting Madden out entirely. Working as a model in the store, she flirts with the boss, and manages to get a photo with the safe combination written on the back. She also flirts with Madden, but he has someone watching Eddie and knows what she's up to.

Claire and Eddie steal the money and hide out until Eddie can make arrangements to get them out of town. Claire gets chummy with the neighbors over Eddie's objections.

I saw Preston Foster in a later film where he played someone down and out. Here he's smooth and attractive, obviously a very fine actor. Curtis as Eddie is rough around the edges; one wonders if Claire, who seems to want a family, doesn't see him in a new light.

The film has a very strong ending, but the intrusion of an awful child actor is an annoyance. His dog Slugger, however, gives an excellent performance.

Part of the film is pitch black so one isn't sure what's happening.

When Preston Foster spots Alan Curtis as a mannequin in a store window, he threatens him with exposure as an ex-con unless he steals the Christmas receipts and turns them over to him. Instead, Curtis takes the money and hides out with wife Ann Rutherford, with the cops and Foster after him ... and police captain Joe Sawyer's son, Jimmy Moss, barging into the apartment every minute.

It's the second sound remake of Tod Browning's OUTSIDE THE LAW, with all the Browning insanity stripped away to reveal a straightforward crime drama with a gooey center around obnoxious kid actor Moss. Without the Browning insanity, all the dangling sexuality and yearning just leads nowhere, with the story stripped to its bare minimum as motivations become obscure and people make life-changing decisions rather easily. Definitely not a story that fits the strictures of the Production Code and a director like Jean Yarborough.