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 |
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 ... Written by nufs68
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.