Film Review
Ill-received by some critics on its initial release and unjustly
underrated ever since,
Pushover
is one of the more enjoyable of the late film noir thrillers,
distinguishing itself with its taut screenplay, superbly atmospheric
noir photography and a gripping central performance from Fred
MacMurray. Richard Quine directs the film with considerably more
flair and enthusiasm than is apparent in some of his subsequent, better
known cinematic offerings, although at times you cannot help feeling he
is sticking a little too slavishly to the rules of the genre. The
film has been criticised for being a shallow imitation of earlier noir
crime thrillers and it certainly treads some very familiar
ground. It is perhaps fairer to regard
Pushover not as a bland copy but
rather a slightly tongue-in-cheek but respectful homage to the noir
classics of the past, in much the same vein as François
Truffaut's
Vivement Dimanche (1983).
Most of the fun of this film lies in the fact that the familiar noir
archetypes are instantly recognisable and we know exactly how things
are going to pan out. After all, what is the point of a film noir
that doesn't deliver what we expect, the nervewracking spectacle of
a decent man being savagely corrupted and driven
to a grisly death by the fatal lure of sex and loot?
Glamming it up for all it's worth in her first film role, Kim Novak has
no difficult stealing the focus as the smoulderingly sensual femme
fatale, the platinum blonde siren who lures poor Fred MacMurray to his
doom (you'd have thought he would know better after that nasty business
with Barbara Stanwyck in
Double Indemnity).
In contrast to Novak's cryogenically cold aloofness
(it isn't blood that flows in her veins, but liquid helium), MacMurray portrays a
creature of raging passions, a man caught in the maelstrom of desire and paranoia.
It is MacMurray's knock-out performance which makes the
film so excruciatingly tense as it careers towards
its thrilling (albeit totally and utterly predictable) climax. The impression
of a world gradually closing in on the main protagonist, slowly
crushing his hopes and ultimately squashing the life out of him) is
amplified by the confined space in which the drama takes place and by
the brutally harsh noir lighting (which is particularly effective in
the exterior sequences). There are one or two obvious
shortcomings - the pace is a little uneven in the first half, some of
the supporting actors could have benefited from a few more years at
drama school and the score occasionally sounds as if it was written for
a romantic comedy - but these are fairly minor blemishes.
Overall,
Pushover is a slick
and stylish production, not the most original film noir you will ever
see, but a dizzyingly entertaining one.
© James Travers 2011
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Film Synopsis
When hoodlum Harry Wheeler pulls off a bank robbery, detective Paul
Sheridan is tasked with maintaining a 24 hour surveillance on his
girlfriend, Lona McLane. The police expect that sooner or later
Wheeler will collect his floozy and lead them to where he has
hidden the stolen money. Despite his so far unblemished
reputation, Sheridan cannot help being drawn to the stunningly
beautiful Lona and in the end he makes her a proposal she cannot refuse
- when Wheeler shows up, they will do the dirty on him and abscond with the
loot. Sheridan gets in far deeper than he intended when he
is driven to kill not only Wheeler but also one of his fellow
officers. His scheme might have worked, if a neighbour had not
seen him entering Lona's apartment...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.