Johnny Allegro (1949)

Treasury Department officials recruit a florist (Raft) to lead them to a wanted criminal (Macready); but once he gets too close, he finds he's the hunted.

Director:

Ted Tetzlaff

Writers:

Karen DeWolf (screenplay), Guy Endore (screenplay)

Stars:

George Raft, Nina Foch, George Macready

Cast

Cast overview:
George Raft	...	Johnny Allegro
Nina Foch	...	Glenda Chapman
George Macready	...	Morgan Vallin
Will Geer	...	Schultzy
Gloria Henry	...	Addie
Ivan Triesault	...	Pelham Vetch
Harry Antrim	...	Pudgy
William 'Bill' Phillips	...	Roy

Storyline

Los Angeles hotel lobby florist Johnny Allegro is a man with a secret: he's a former criminal who escaped from the Sing Sing prison.However, Johnny went straight and became a legitimate businessman. One day, a high-class, well dressed attractive blonde runs into his arms, in the hotel lobby, and pretends she's his date for the evening. She whispers in his ear that she is followed, in danger and needs Johnny's help to escape. Intrigued, Johnny accepts to play along and help the stunning blonde beauty. They sit in the hotel bar and talk. Her name is Glenda Chapman and she wants to escape the police detective who sits in the lobby shadowing her. Over the following days, Johnny falls for Glenda who lives in the hotel. Unfortunatelly, Johnny is visited, in his flower shop, by Treasury Agent Schultzy who tels Johnny that he knows about Johnny's real identity and that Johnny is an escaped criminal. However, Johnny is not arrested. Instead, the Treasury Agent asks him to assist the government...

---

Plot Keywords:

marriage | getaway | horse track | island | counterfeit | 

---

Taglines:

Johnny's on the spot ... with treasury agents and international mobsters on his trail !

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 May 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hounded

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - 301 N. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

George Macready's name in "Gilda" (1946) was BALLIN Mundson who used a walking stick with a bayonet inside. In the movie "Johnny Allegro" (1949) his name was Morgan VALLIN who hunted with a bow and arrow.

---

Quotes

Morgan Vallin: What's the matter, Glenda?
Glenda Chapman: What about him?
Morgan Vallin: Your anxiety betrays you.
Glenda Chapman: Be yourself, Morgan. The audience is gone. All I say is he's quick and he's clever. He's a good man for us.
Morgan Vallin: I make the decisions here.
Glenda Chapman: Well, what are you going to do?
Morgan Vallin: I'm going to hear the rest of my symphony.
Glenda Chapman: I'm going to bed.
Morgan Vallin: I must enjoy my favorite music alone?
Glenda Chapman: What better company could you have, Morgan? Good night.

---

Soundtracks

Symphony no. 3 in E-flat: Finale
(uncredited)
Written by Ludwig van Beethoven
Played on Morgan Vallin's phonograph

User Reviews

Too much to handle

Johnny Allegro has George Raft in the title role as an ex-con trying to go straight. Under an alias he's living life as a hotel florist, but manages to get himself involved with the beautiful Nina Foch and get himself framed for a cop killing.

Foch is slightly married to the epicene George MacReady whom the Feds want to nab real bad. It's not just his elaborate counterfeiting operation that they want to shut down. MacReady is being financed by the Soviet Union and he's got quite a setup in distributing counterfeit and raking off a big bundle from his Soviet handler Ivan Triesault. MacReady and Foch live in fine style on an unknown Caribbean island that the Feds would like to know the location of to bust MacReady and his operation. In the end MacReady proves too much for his Soviet bosses.

Not so with Raft and his contact Will Geer who plays a Treasury agent. Geer in many spots steals the film from the leads with a nice laconic performance, not unlike his Wyatt Earp in Winchester 73.

Johnny Allegro is typical of the action/noir type films that Raft was doing at this point in his career. Soon he'd be working for Poverty Row Lippert films and Johnny Allegro from Columbia's B picture unit looked like Citizen Kane next to their stuff.

Fans of George Raft will be pleased. Especially with that ending borrowed from The Most Dangerous Game.