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 (screen play), Guy Endore (screen play)

Stars:

George Raft, Nina Foch, George Macready

Cast

Complete credited cast:
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 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 being followed, in danger and needs Johnny's help to escape. Intrigued, Johnny agrees 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. Unfortunately, Johnny is visited in his flower shop by Treasury Agent Schultzy, who tells 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 ...

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Plot Keywords:

marriage | getaway | horse track | island | counterfeit | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

George Macready's character's name in Gilda (1946) is Ballin Mundson who used a walking stick with a bayonet inside. In this movie, his character's name is Morgan Vallin who hunted with a bow and arrow.

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Quotes

Morgan Vallin: Hello, Glenda.
Glenda Chapman: Morgan.
Morgan Vallin: Welcome home.
[For the first time, he sees there's another man in the room]
Glenda Chapman: Morgan, this is...
Morgan Vallin: How chummy! You brought a friend with you. How hospitable.
Glenda Chapman: I was just going to explain that.
Morgan Vallin: Why trouble to explain? It's so touchingly natural.
Glenda Chapman: This is Johnny Allegro.
Morgan Vallin: You actually know his name! I'm Morgan Vallin. Always glad to meet any of Glenda's friends, though she doesn't usually bring them with her.
[...]

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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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 May 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Big Jump

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1