The Age of Commercialism

Simply Perfect

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A bank robbery ends with the killing of a security guard. Sexy Lona McLane (Kim Novak) in a crippled car is saved by Paul Sheridan (Fred MacMurray) and they have a fling. He's a cop assigned to stakeout a known robber's girlfriend who turns out to be Lona. She sets out to corrupt the pushover cop in her own scheme. Police Lieutenant Karl Eckstrom (E.G. Marshall) is his boss.Fred MacMurray continues his noir leading man and Kim Novak is the breakout star. She definitely has all the star qualities. She is sexy, alluring, superior, innocent, and devious. It's an all-around performance. MacMurray is doing compelling work. It does need more tension especially in the first half. Maybe make Paul the lead investigator in the case and start with him at the bank investigating. There is too much waiting for the situation to develop although I'm not sure how to speed it up.

I enjoyed the good performances from all the cast, though no surprises here from Fred MacMurray, in this late noir however the actors were all severely let down by the very flat direction of Richard Quine in what could have been a taut thriller instead of what we have here, than is a Double Indemnity wannabe. The film's atmosphere though is greatly helped with a redeeming feature - the weather and in particular the rain, the wet streets.I wonder if Hitchcock had seen this movie before casting Kim Novak in Vertigo? She moves through the movie like a somnambulist. It's worth pointing out the sweater she wears in early scenes which looks forward to the sweater girls that followed.

Pushover is directed by Richard Quine and adapted to screenplay by Roy Huggins from stories written by Bill S. Ballinger and Thomas Walsh. It stars Fred MacMurray, Phillip Carey, Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone and E. G. Marshall. Music is scored by Arthur Morton and cinematography by Lester White.Straight cop Paul Sheridan (MacMurray) is on the trail of the loot stolen in a bank robbery where a guard was shot and killed. He is tasked with getting to know Lona McLane (Novak), the girlfriend of the chief suspect in the robbery. But once contact is made, and surveillance set up over the road from her apartment complex, Sheridan begins to fall in love and lust with the sultry femme.Comparisons with the superior Double Indemnity are fair enough, but really there is enough here, and considerable differences too, for the film to rightfully be judged on its own merits. Also of note to point out is that one or two critics have questioned if Pushover is actually a film noir piece? Bizarre! Given that character motives, destinies and thematics of plot are quintessential film noir.A good but weary guy is emotionally vulnerable and finds his life spun into a vortex of lust, greed and murder. Yet the femme fatale responsible, is not a rank and file manipulator, she too has big issues to deal with, a trophy girlfriend to a crook, she coarsely resents this fact. The cop who never smiles and the girl who has forgotten how too, is there hope there? Do they need the money that has weaved them together? What does that old devil called fate have in store for them? Classic noir traits do pulse from the plot. True, the trajectory the pic takes had been a well trodden formula in noir by the mid fifties, where noir as a strong force was on the wane, but this holds up very well.It isn't just a piece solely relying on two characters either, there's the concurrent tale of Sheridan's voyeuristic partner Rik McAllister (Carey), who has caught the eye of Lona's next door neighbour, Ann Stewart (Malone). Both these characters operate in a different world to the other two, yet the question remains if a relationship can be born out from such shady beginnings? The presentation of relationships here is delightfully perverse. The visual style wrung out by Quine (Drive a Crooked Road) and White (5 Against the House) is most assuredly noir, with 99% of the film set at night, with prominent shadows, damp streets lit by bulbous lamps and roof top scenes decorated sparsely by jutting aerials. The L.A. backdrop a moody observer to the unwrapping of damaged human goods.Cast are very good, all working well for their reliable director. Novak sizzles in what was her first credited starring role, she perfectly embodies a gal that someone like Paul Sheridan could lose his soul for. MacMurray is suitably weary, his lived in face telling of a life lacking in genuine moments of pleasure. Carey, square jawed, tall and handsome, he is the perfect foil to MacMurray's woe. Malone offers the potential ray of light trying to break out in this dark part of America, while Marshall as tough Lieutenant Eckstrom and Allen Nourse as a copper riding the noir train to sadness, score favourably too.It opens with a daylight bank robbery and closes in true noir style on a cold and wet night time street. Pushover, deserving to be viewed as one of the more interesting 1950s film noirs. 8/10

I couldn't help but think that this movie was an attempt to cash in on Fred MacMurray's earlier success in DOUBLE INDEMNITY, as PUSHOVER is in so many ways a reworking of this story. Instead of Fred being an insurance investigator who falls for a hot dame and agrees to turn his back on the law, this time he's an FBI agent--but once again there's a hot dame (Kim Novak) and she wants him to kill her boyfriend who has a fortune in stolen bank money. Hmmm...sure sounds familiar, huh?! Well, despite being a completely unoriginal acting role for Fred, it is still a pretty good film but I can't help thinking that I wouldn't have seen the many, many parallels to the other film had it starred someone else. For decent dialog, excitement and pacing, it should merit at least a 7 but I've got to deduct a point for the lack of originality.PS--While Ms. Novak was lovely, Fred was a decade older than he was in DOUBLE INDEMNITY, so I felt his "loverboy" role was awfully hard to believe.