User Comments:
From the school of Raymond Chandler, an obscure film noir that packs a punch, 10 October 2003
Author:
bmacv from Western New York
Don't be put off by the frisky title: I Love Trouble isn't one of those
dismal crime-cum-comedy hybrids so inexplicably popular in the '40s (true,
a
bantering element tries to creep in from time to time but it's held
mercifully at bay; one routine, however, starring a hash-slinger named
Miss
Phipps, deserves to be bronzed).
It's a pretty hard-boiled private-eye yarn, very much in the Raymond
Chandler tradition - maybe a bit too much. More specifically, I Love
Trouble follows the footsteps tramped out by Murder, My Sweet and The Lady
in the Lake, and follows them doggedly. And its subsidiary roles are
filled
with actors who make up a Who's Who of film noir: Janice Carter, Adele
Jergens, John Ireland, Raymond Burr (barely visible, alas), Tom Powers,
Eduardo Ciannelli, Steven Geray, Sid Tomack. Parts even smaller (it's a
big
cast) are filled to the brim with apt characterization.
The principal role of the gumshoe, however, goes to Franchot Tone, who
plays
it very much in the Powell-and-Mongomery-as-Marlowe style. He's hired by
a
tough businessman (Powers) to keep tabs on his elusive wife (Lynn
Merrick).
Tone traces the obligatory route from low dives to high places in his
quest,
from back alleys in Portland and fish dumps near the oil derricks of Santa
Monica (Chandler's corrupt `Bay City') to gated mansions where swimming
pools sparkle amid manicured lawns. All Tone knows is that, back in '46
(or
was it '41?), Merrick came down from Oregon, where he learns that she was
a
bubble dancer in a mobbed-up nightclub, who absconded to Southern
California
with a cheesy comic (Tomack).
Or did she? When another woman claiming to be Merrick's sister (Janet
Blair) fails to recognize her picture, Tone finds himself with a lot of
pieces none of which seem to fit together. And the heavies from up north
are joined by powerful folks in Los Angeles who firmly discourage him from
looking any further (when he's not being eyed fetchingly by expensive
wives
and mistresses, he's conked on the head or drugged up at every turn).
Getting warmer, he tries to coax more information from Tomack, only to
find
the funny fishmonger dead and himself a suspect. But when Merrick's body
washes up under a pier, her death opens more questions than it
answers....
The director, S. Sylvan Simon, shows considerable promise which was not to
be redeemed (he died, at age 41, three years after making this movie).
But
most of the credit, however derivative, should probably accrue to its
writer, and author of the novel on which it's based, Roy Huggins; he also
penned Too Late For Tears, Woman in Hiding and Pushover, and, moving to
television, would create 77 Sunset Strip, The Fugitive, and The Rockford
Files. It goes to show how cracking the books at the school of Raymond
Chandler can pay off in the future. So what if I Love Trouble is knockoff
Chandler, a cocktail shaken up from two films made from his novels?
Chandler neat is a potent shot - even watered down it holds its deep,
smoky
flavor.
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