Violence (1947)

Undercover reporter Ann Mason infiltrates a neo-facist group that recruits disgruntled veterans but amnesia prevents her from exposing them.

Director:

Jack Bernhard

Writers:

Lewis Lantz (original story) (as Louis Lantz), Lewis Lantz (screenplay) (as Louis Lantz)

Stars:

Nancy Coleman, Michael O'Shea, Sheldon Leonard

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Nancy Coleman	...	Ann Dwire alias Ann Mason
Michael O'Shea	...	Steve Fuller
Sheldon Leonard	...	Fred Stalk
Peter Whitney	...	Joker Robinson
Emory Parnell	...	True Dawson
Pierre Watkin	...	Ralph Borden
Frank Reicher	...	Pop
Cay Forester	...	Sally Donahue
John Hamilton	...	Doctor Chalmers
Richard Irving	...	Latimer
Carole Donne	...	Beth Taffel
Jimmy Clark	...	Joe Donahue
William Gould	...	Mr. X

Storyline

Undersover magazine reporter Ann Mason is able to infiltrate a neo-facist organization that recruits disgruntled war veterans with a paranoiac populist message that views both labor and management as enemies. She becomes secretary to the organization's leader, True Dawson, a smooth-talking con artist who uses the member's dues and the organisation's manpower for his own nefarious ends. Fred Stalk, one of Dawson's enforcers, suspects her motives but lack of evidence and his attraction to her keeps him from acting against her. While en route to break her exposé, Ann's taxi is pursued by government agent Steve Fuller, and the resultant crash leaves her with a concussion and loss of memory. Fuller uses the opportunity to convince her he's her fiancé and gains access to the racketeers.

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Plot Keywords:

racketeer | amnesia | expose | undercover | government agent | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 May 1947 (USA)

Also Known As:

La era del terror

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bernhard-Brandt Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Frank Cady's film debut.

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Quotes

Steve Fuller: Don't worry, honey. You'll remember your friends when you see them.

User Reviews

Monogram cheapie about crypto-Fascist scam organization is, alas, no Decoy

Much of the team that made Monogram's Decoy of the year before such a startling little thriller re-upped for the same studio's Violence: Director Jack Bernhard, co-scripter Stanley Rubin, composer Edward J. Kay, heavy Sheldon Leonard (the second-string Raymond Burr, who, like Burr, would find his fortune in television). Lightning, alas, failed to strike twice, so Violence remains a typically flawed Poverty-Row production.

In the basement of the Los Angeles headquarters of the United Defenders – a pseudo-populist scam organization to fleece angry veterans – a young recruit who stumbled onto the truth meets his unpleasant end. (This crypto-Fascist group has affinities with The Black Legion of a decade earlier.) Upstairs, however, the forced cheeriness prevails, with the head of this personality cult (`True' Dawson, played by Emory Parnell) bidding his loyal secretary (Nancy Coleman) goodbye as she leaves for a vacation to Chicago. Little does he suspect that Coleman is an investigative reporter working undercover on an exposé of the racket, which will hit the streets as soon as she's safe in the Windy City. Leonard, one of his lieutenants, does have his suspicions about, as well as unresolved feelings for, Coleman, but can't find the evidence, so off she goes.

In Chicago en route to her magazine's offices, Coleman's cab crashes trying to elude a mysterious pursuer (Milo O'Shea). Hospitalized, Coleman wakes to find herself in a state of amnesia (of the trickiest sort: She remembers things that are convenient to advancing the story but forgets everything else). Back on the coast, she has no memory of her journalistic scoop and so thinks herself a loyal soldier for the United Defenders; she also believes she's engaged to O'Shea, because he told her so. And the plot lumbers on, with the murdered man's widow showing up to find him, and an all-powerful `Mr. X' looming darkly behind the whole operation....

Violence is riddled with holes and implausibilities (of the type that, in today's Hollywood, would all but guarantee a blockbuster). Rather transparently, it draws on themes and issues that sparked the early years of the noir cycle: The dissatisfaction of returning veterans and post-war labor strife (and might the demagogue's name `True' be an echo of then-president Harry S Truman's?). But the topical references prove no more than gimmicks for a quick-and-dirty production that has little coherence or resonance.