Desperate: Anthony Mann

Though Desperate was Anthony Mann's first film noir, it features one of the most disturbing and artistically mature moments of his entire oeuvre within the genre. After an attempted robbery goes sour, a group of gangsters corner Steve Randall, their unsuspecting getaway driver who genuinely didn't know that he was participating in a crime. Because Randall alerted a nearby policeman after discovering that he was being played for a sucker, their leader, Walt Radak, blames him for the actions of his stupid younger brother who impulsively shot and killed the officer on the scene before getting captured. Now Radak's brother is going to be sentenced to death...unless of course Randall steps up, confesses to a murder he didn't commit, and takes the fall. Naturally, Steve is less than enthusiastic with this proposition and refuses. So Radak tells his men to "persuade" him. As they begin to beat Steve within an inch of his life, the camera moves in closer on Radak as the overhead light sways back and forth, throwing his stony face in and out of opaque shadow. It's a scene that would make German Expressionists drool. Everything after that is standard noir material concerning the Couple on the Run trope: Steve and his wife retreat to the country, they meet unscrupulous characters who cheat them of what little money they have (like a deliciously evil used car salesman), they run from the law (including a good-natured, laughing sheriff who changes his composure from friendly to threatening in less than the blink of an eye), and for some ridiculous, inexplicable reason, Steve refuses to tell his wife, family, and the police the truth about the crime. It gets to the point where you want to grab Steve by the throat and knock some sense into him. But despite the protagonist's idiocy, the film is competently shot, decently acted, and thoroughly suspenseful.

7/10