(Review originally written at 8 April 2008)

It's hard to imaging these days but there was a time when Humphrey Bogart was nothing more than an actor who always played secondary character roles, in the shadow of the movie its main character. For instance behind George Raft, who was a much bigger star at the time but also female leads such as Ida Lupino, who also stars in this movie. But Raft then turned down roles for movies such as this movie "High Sierra", "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca". All roles that were then past on to Bogart instead. Roles that truly launched his career to an amazing height, surpassing George Raft by far. Still, he didn't received top-billing for this movie yet. That honor once more went to Ida Lupino, even though Bogart's role is much bigger and is unquestionably the main character of the movie. Ida Lupino was just a better selling name, which says something of the time period and point of Bogart's career this movie got made in. This movie really marked his big breakthrough and after this he would mostly only land roles as a top-billing actor, in movies such as "Casablanca", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Maltese Falcon".

But what makes this movie so great is not just Bogart but also really the movie its story and directing from Raoul Walsh.

The story is written by John Huston, who is better known as an actor and director than a writer, even though he wrote the screenplay for many fine movies. This is also truly one of those movies. It's really no formulaic story and truly highly original and therefor also compelling. The main character is in love with a girl who isn't in love with him, while there is another girl who is in love with him, though his heart is still with this other girl. Sounds melodramatic and perhaps confusing but it's something really refreshing to see and makes the story and character developments progress in a way you wouldn't always expect it to. On top of that there is a main plot-line involving a robbery but really the movie is mostly about its central character. This movie just has basically everything in its story that is needed to make a great movie with. Add to that the performance from Bogart and the fantastic directing from Raoul Walsh and you have a great, tense, entertaining, fast going and original classic movie.

It's not really fully a film-noir, since that genre was still pretty much non-existent at that time and was still a work in progress. This movie does show some noir tendencies, mostly with its lead character, female roles and the main plot line involving a robbery but it's not quite noir enough in its style to fully consider this a pure film-noir. It's the other Humphrey Bogart from later in the same year, "The Maltese Falcon" that is widely considered to be one of the first real film-noir's. Ironicly it was a movie directed by John Huston, the man who wrote the screenplay for this movie.

The movie also features some surprising good action sequences. You have to remember that this is an 1941, when the action genre was still something non-existent but director Raoul Walsh knows to create a couple of good looking action sequences with camera-positions and editing you would expect from an action movie that is being made this present day. Especially the car chases within this movie are memorable.

Interestingly enough director Raoul Walsh himself remade this movie 8 years later into a western movie "Colorado Territory", that might not be as good as this original but it's just as good, intriguing and entertaining on its own and remains an under-appreciated movie.

A real perfect classic and still an unique movie to watch.

10/10

(Review originally written at 1 March 2008)

This is a rather good Columbo TV movie, that only has one problem; the character of that of the murderer.

The movie has a great constantly present '70's style, that is mostly notable in its fast editing style but also really in its overall visual style, camera handling and general way of directing and storytelling. It's really great and provides the movie with a true great style, that also really helps to make this movie a good and enjoyable one to watch. Quite hard to believe that this was Edward M. Abroms' directorial debut. He also directed one more Columbo movie after this in 1973; "Columbo: The Most Dangerous Match". Too bad he always stayed stuck to TV work, though he did some big work as an editor, on movies such as "The Sugarland Express", "Blue Thunder" and "Street Fighter", as well as 4 Columbo movies (but not this one), of which 3 got made before this movie.

The movie has a fine solid cast with also some well known names in it, such as Roddy McDowall as the movie its killer. McDowall is perhaps still best known for his various roles in the Planet of the Apes movies, as yes an ape. But yes also Anne Francis is quite a name from the old days and so is Ida Lupino, a star mostly known from the '40's. McDowall is perhaps not the most likable one, which forms a bit of a problem for the movie. Of course murderers are never among the most sympathetic characters but in Columbo movies you still still need to have a certain sympathy and somewhat have to like them to create an interest in the character, not in the least because, next to Columbo, they are the main character of the movie and have more screen time than anyone else.

The movie its story differs from most other Columbo movies because the movie at first isn't about a murder when Columbo is first brought in to investigate the case but about the missing of a person. Columbo however of course soon starts to expect more is going on, due to Roger Stanford's suspicious behavior. Like always, the Lieutenant tries to capture him in his own web of lies, by playing dumber than he of course in fact really is.

It's a real fast going movie and it's over again before you know it. Perhaps the movie is so fast because it basically all of the time features both Lt. Columbo and the murderer Roger Stanford together in a scene, which assures that the story never strays away and the movie does not feature any distracting plot-lines or too overly present different characters. The ending is also really good and actually among one of the better Columbo endings.

A good Columbo movie that could had been great with a better McDowall character.

7/10

(Review originally written at 25 May 2006)

This movie is a quite peculiar and unique one. The movie its story can be divided into several parts. It makes the movie an inconsistent and perhaps even confusing one to watch.

The first and main part of the movie focuses on freelance truck drivers Paul and Joe Fabrini, played by George Raft and Humphrey Bogart. The second part focuses on the love triangle and the movie begins to show some light-'film-noir' elements. At the end the movie even turns into a court-drama. Overall the movie feels over-melodramatic at times and not all the elements in the movie really connect or are consistent and fitting with the rest of the movie its story and style. Some events that occur in the movie seem to be irrelevant for the movie its later story. The more and more the movie progresses toward the ending, the more and more irrelevant the first halve of the movie begins to look. The Bogart character plays a big and significant part in the first halve but his character is almost totally abandoned in the second halve of the movie.

Not everything that happens in the movie is likely, mainly due to the inconsistency of the story. It's hard to connect all the different elements and moments of the movie and look upon this movie is a successful and complete whole. The movie is certainly watchable and it does has its good moments in it but it is unfortunately not enough to make this movie a terribly interesting or likable one to watch.

It's hard to say what it is that makes this movie a good or a bad one to watch, since the movie itself is hard to qualify.

It by no means is an horrible movie to watch and there certainly ain't much wrong with the acting and directing and it also certainly ain't no boring one to watch but its inconsistency made the movie peculiar and not always as enjoyable to watch, especially when the movie is getting filled with some unlikely events and strange character treatment's.

But still the movie is filled with more than enough reasons why this movie is still a watchable one. The directing and acting are just two of those things. Historicaly this movie is also a pretty interesting one to watch. It provides a good view at how truck drivers lived and worked in the '40's. It was funny to see how completely different truck drivers were back then, compared to the truck drivers now days. Truck drivers back in the '40's seemed to be slick, quick boys instead of the fat, bearded, tattooed, stereotypical truck drivers now days. Also the way of working seemed to be completely different back then.

Raoul Walsh, George Raft and Humphrey Bogart have all done far better movies in their careers.

6/10

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