I wanted to but couldn't!

best movie i've ever seen.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It's interesting how none of the three lead characters in this picture are redeemable. This is about as noir as a person can get! And I think it's interesting how the sexual dynamics between Dennis O'Keefe and both women (played by Claire Trevor and Marsha Hunt) are continued throughout the story. His character is definitely not a one-woman man, and both gals seem to know it. Usually, if there is cheating in a movie of this era, regardless of the genre, one of the participants does not know, and does not find out about the unfaithfulness of their partner until two-thirds of the way into the story. But with RAW DEAL, all the cards are on the table right up front, and yet both women want to have an on-going relationship with him, and he clearly enjoys being able to be satisfied by each one at the same time, in different ways. It's a shocking revelation, and one wonders if a major studio would have attempted such material with an A-picture. Perhaps it's just as well, and all the more reason to appreciate a more independent film releasing corporation like Eagle-Lion and director Anthony Mann, who is willing to push the boundaries.

Raw Deal (1948) is simply a great noir. The plot is nothing extraordinary, but interesting nonetheless. Jailbreak, love triangle, not-so happy ending. (As usual, my reviews are full of spoilers, be warned…) Raw Deal does not bother with details that would make it unnecessarily long. It does not specify what kind of crime got Joe (O'Keefe) in jail, and how exactly he makes his escape. It is just implied that his escape was somehow assisted by fellow gangster Rick Coyle (Burr) who owes him 50 grand for taking sole responsibility for whatever the felony was they committed together. We are briefly introduced to Rick and his henchman Fantail (Ireland) and Spider (Conway). Rick struts around in his lair in a robe that seems to have "gay, gay, gay" written all over it, and he has a disturbing interest in fire. His favorite toy is a cigarette lighter, and there's many candles burning in his headquarters on Corkscrew Alley, which is also the street where both Joe and his moll Pat (Trevor, also the narrator) grew up. Rick is convinced that Joe will be killed during his escape, so he can keep the 50.000 bucks for himself. But Joe and Pat do make it. However, the prison snipers punctured the getaway car's gas tank, so first hijack a taxi and later pay a nightly visit to Ann (Hunt), the young woman who had been visiting Joe in prison, and who seems to believe that underneath the hardened criminal there's a good soul in hiding. Joe kisses her awake, and hours later the three of them squeeze into Ann's car and continue their escape. Pat notices that Joe is attracted to Ann, and she gets very jealous of her. On Corkscrew Alley, it is Rick's birthday, and his mood is neither improved by his bad luck at card games, nor by the news that Joe made it through the police dragnet and seems to be in the clear. When a girl who fancies him (Chili "polka dot girl" Williams) accidentally spills her drink on his threads, he throws a fiery desert into her face. Rick sends out Fantail (I love that name, by the way) to a scheduled meeting with Joe in a taxidermist's shop near the ocean…to finish him off. Joe goes with Ann, leaving Pat, who sprained her ankle (probably deliberately, so Joe will carry her in his arms) back. And he walks straight into the trap. The crooked taxidermist, aptly named Grimshaw, disarms Joe, but Joe does not give up easily. He struggles with both Grimshaw and Fantail, and they use the the taxidermist's props: knives, metal rods, even a deer's antlers, in their fight. When it looks like Joe is going to be killed, Ann picks up Joe's gun and shoots Fantail. Then she runs down the beach, sobbing. Joe tries to console her, first by telling her that Fantail survived, and when it that doesn't really work, he tells her she did it to save him. Ann passionately declares her love for Joe. Joe, however, looks glum. Joe does not believe in a common future with Ann, and he sends her home…but near a gas station she is captured by Fantail, who actually did survive. Meanwhile, Joe and Pat are at a hotel, packing their suitcases, they plan to flee to South America. The phone rings, Pat picks it up, and Spider tells her that Rick has Ann, and that he will do some very bad things to her if Joe doesn't show up. Pat lies to Joe, telling him it was the desk clerk. Joe and Pat are aboard a steamer, and Joe tells a steward he wants to get married at sea. Pat is initially happy, but she soon realizes that Joe does not love her, he loves Ann, and she will only be a proxy for her. And then she blurts out the truth about the phone call. Joe does not hesitate a minute. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS, STOP READING NOW!!!Joe turns up on Corkscrew Alley, he does away with Spider and Fantail and confronts Rick at the dinner table. Joe really seems to have mellowed out, he hesitates when Rick, tells him: "You know I never carry a gun." Except he does…he shoots Joe without retrieving the gun from his pocket, through the folds of the clothes. Joe, shoots back, the two engage in a nasty fight that causes the curtains to catch on fire. Joe pushes Rick into the flames and out of the window. Rick gives two nice screams before hitting the ground. Joe manages to get out of the burning building with Ann, but he is mortally wounded. He dies in Ann's arms, while Pat watches, handcuffed. There's no happy ending for anybody in this movie, which only adds to its appeal. It has both soft (but never sappy) and violent moments, and great acting by everybody. I liked especially Burr and Ireland, who play really vicious thugs, but O'Keefe and the two ladies are also great. Great camera work, too.

Joe Sullivan is in jail having taken the rap for criminal Rick, who owes him $50,000 for it. Knowing he is looking to escape, Rick greases some wheels to help Joe's girlfriend Pat to organize an escape – all with the knowledge that once he is out he will be certainly caught in the resulting police dragnet and either killed or sent back to prison for even longer; either way he'll be out of Rick's hair.I have watched a few noirs recently and the last couple in particular were a lot slower than I would have liked, so part of the appeal of Raw Deal was the short running time, which suggested that it wouldn't be taking too long over anything. This didn't mean it would be good of course, but it was a sign I wouldn't have the problems I'd had with the last few. As it turned out, although not as engaging as I had hoped, this is a solidly enjoyable crime thriller with a tough edge and a good pace to it that means the toughness has an urgency to it. The plot does have love interest within it but rather than be the distraction it can be, it provides a duality to the character of Joe since the two women he is traveling with sort of represent either side of his character and the battle between them.O'Keefe does a good job in the lead, tough but not inhuman and is likable. Burr is not quite as good as the villain but I think this is more to do with me than him since I always struggle to see him outside of the Perry Mason roles. Both Hunt and Trevor play their roles well and there is a nice tension between them throughout the film. Direction is good – it is fluid and makes the most of each scene, never once being stagey or stiff as some of the recent films from the period I have seen have been.Overall Raw Deal is not a brilliant film but it is a very effective one. It is short, punchy and has an enjoyably tough edge to all of it. The duality of the lead character is well played out and the violence is nicely stated.

"Raw Deal" is primarily a low budget crime drama but thanks to the inclusion of some interesting characters, excellent performances and sensational cinematography has also become recognised as a very memorable high quality film noir thriller. The whole movie is heavily steeped in an atmosphere which is bleak and fatalistic and the action takes place in an environment which looks perpetually dark and threatening.The look of the movie is attributable to the fine work of cinematographer John Alton whose single source lighting and heavily shadowed interiors create a claustrophobic ambiance which is symbolic of the extremely limited amount of freedom which can be enjoyed by the story's central character and his two travelling companions as they try to evade a massive police dragnet. The use of interesting camera angles, deep focus photography and swirling areas of fog also contribute strongly to the generally unsettling and rather ominous mood of the piece.Whilst serving a prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit, Joe Sullivan (Dennis O'Keefe) is visited by two women. Ann Martin (Marsha Hunt) is a legal assistant who tells him that with good behaviour he could possibly get released in 2 or 3 years time and his girlfriend Pat Regan (Claire Trevor) informs him that arrangements have been made for him to escape. The escape plan had been devised by gang boss Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr) who owes Joe $50,000 from a crime that they'd previously carried out together. Rick has calculated that Joe's chances of surviving an attempted breakout are minute and so confidently expects to be able to avoid having to part with Joe's money.Joe escapes and Pat drives the getaway car but they soon have to abandon the vehicle because of a large number of bullet holes in the fuel tank. They then go on to Ann's apartment where they kidnap her and use her car to continue their journey to meet Rick and collect Joe's money before heading for freedom in South America. This unusual threesome successfully evades the police and an attack by one of Rick's henchmen before Joe and Rick finally meet and a violent confrontation follows.Joe's resourcefulness enabled him to successfully negotiate the perils of being on the run but he was also preoccupied by the complications which developed in relation to his feelings for Pat and Ann. Pat was loyal and totally supportive but was also very much a part of the difficult lifestyle that he'd always known. When Ann and he became attracted to each other, she seemed to embody the possibility of a different and better life in the future. This situation led to some tensions as Pat became jealous and eventually resigned to Joe ending up in Ann's arms.Dennis O'Keefe and Marsha Hunt are both very good in their roles and Claire Trevor poignantly portrays the profound emotional pain suffered by Pat as she realises that Joe has never told her that he loves her and then also sees him steadily becoming more and more attracted to Ann. Raymond Burr is outstanding as Rick who is a vile and sadistic psychopath with a penchant for pyromania.The score by Paul Sawtell features the spooky sound of a theremin and this together with the tone of Claire Trevor's narration brilliantly reinforces the grim atmosphere of this film which doesn't end well for any of the main characters. Appropriately, from the visual standpoint, this movie is probably one of the blackest ever made.