Renowned director Anthony Mann (whose best known film was the epic FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE) gives us this 1947 B movie classic, which is high on film noir and characterization, and low on storytelling and logic. This film is presented on DVD as part of the Roan Group’s Film Noir of Anthony Mann collection. The Roan Group is a specialty content provider of classic black & white films which they digitally remaster and release to DVD and laserdisc. They have a taste for films like this one which you would never even see on American Movie Classics (their loss). The result is like stepping into a time machine watching pristine prints of these black & white lost films. What makes this film really entertaining is that it is so untypical of the time period. The film is not bright and inviting like most Hollywood films of this era. In fact it is quite dark, and the characters themselves are corrupt and flawed. There really is no "hero" or any role models to be found in the entire film.

Actor Dennis O’Keefe plays Joe Sullivan, the closest thing to a good guy in the film. However, he is a prison escapee, a kidnapper, and has mob ties. Hardly what you would call a typical "leading man" role. O’Keefe’s craggy features give him some stage presence, like a forties version of Charles Bronson. Actress Claire Trevor portrays his faithful moll Pat Regan. It is through her character narration that we see much of the story unfold. Trevor gives a great performance here. Marsha Hunt is good girl Ann Martin who adds some friction to Joe and Pat’s relationship. A young nearly unrecognizable Raymond Burr plays mob kingpin Rick Coyle, the man who set Joe up to take a fall. Raymond has fun with this role, camping it up like a Batman villain. John Ireland plays Fantail. Young Whit Bissell cameos as a murderer who leads the cops to Joe.

As Pat Regan is about to visit her beau Joe at the penitentiary, she notices another woman Ann, come out of Joe’s visitor box. Pat enters the high security area and tells Joe that she is ready to assist him into breaking out of jail. Their plan is to break out Joe, head to California to retrieve $50,000 from Rick Coyle, and head south of the border. The crazy crime lord Rick Coyle stole the money that he and Joe collected from a vault somewhere. Furthermore, Coyle was responsible for setting up Joe to take the rap. That evening Pat pulls up her antique car outside the jail just in time for the getaway as Joe leaps over the wall followed by a hail of bullets and a screaming alarm. Pat had prepared everything and placed it into their automobile for the trip South. What she did not prepare for was the bullets that hit her vehicle and punctured the gas tank causing the car to leak gas. Soon, the vehicle was useless.

Joe and Pat hijack a taxicab and Joe heads for Ann’s nearby apartment, where he believes she will offer him a place to hide out. However, she calls the police on them and Joe is forced to kidnap Ann and use her automobile to get cross country. Ann tries to use psychology on Joe to get him to turn himself in. Pat angrily looks at Ann as a third wheel. Together, the three of them must escape the multi-state police dragnet, avoid the hit attempts by Rick Coyle’s enforcers, and make it to California to retrieve the loot.

Most of the tension in the film is created by the prison breakout which occurs in the first five minutes. The rest of the film, the unlikely trio try to stay one step ahead of the police dragnet and Rick Coyle’s goons. It’s basically an extended road picture where the reluctant characters learn about each other and themselves while trying stay alive (and not have to kill someone) along the way. There is also a lot of tension between Ann and Pat, and by the end we wonder who Joe will stay with.

The film is well scripted by writers Leopold Atlas, John Higgins, and Arnold Armstrong and perfectly creates the paranoia and suspense. Director Mann rises above the low budget to create a stylish atmosphere that big budget Hollywood films of today fail to capture. The look of the film is almost more suited to a horror film, with wispy clouds of billowing smoke and fog in the night scenes involving the city streets and the wharf areas, where the lowlifes abound. Special effects are minimal but realistic, and there are some decent stunt scenes and wild fighting among the criminals and low lifes.

SIGHT

This 1947 film was most likely shot in 1.33.1 or 1.37.1 ratio and that is what Roan presents here. This is well before Hollywood adopted widescreen. Little image, if any, is missing. Considering the age of the source elements, the image is quite good. Everything is either shades of pure black or shades of pure white which makes for an eye catching image. The picture is extremely crisp and is leagues above what you see on AMC. I noticed some nics and scratches in the transfer, but nowhere near as much as I expected. Film grain is visible, but what would you expect from a film of this vintage? The blacks and shadow detail are very good. In some areas of the film, the picture gets away from the balanced black & white look and appears grayish. But that is about the only negative thing I can say about the transfer. The detail level is excellent and you’ll notice some things in the exterior landscape shots that VHS could never capture. During these years of his career, Anthony Mann used cinematographer John Alton for his film noir pictures, and this one is no exception. The visual style is a pleasing one with strange shooting angles (for the time), and atmospheric night photography which punctuates the mood. Alton’s work is done justice by this DVD transfer. Especially good visuals involve the jailbreak scene, Raymond Burr’s headquarters, night on the docks, the night cameo by Whit Bissell, and the fiery climax. I’m giving the video quality rating a 3.0, which seems low, but for a film from of this vintage, a 3 is stellar!

SOUND

This soundtrack is an impressive mono mix. The mix has a better sound and range than that of other mono tracks I’ve heard. For instance, this mono mix sounds better than the mono mix of the LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES DVD (which is a seventies film but ended up sounding worse than this 1947 film!). There are no pops, or distortions of any kind normally associated with a film of this age. But I did detect some hiss during some quiet scenes, but it is minor. Composer Paul Sawtell’s score is typical of 40’s crime melodramas, but it adds to the noirish elements and is nicely rendered in the mix. The dialog sounds crisp and is easily understood. There is some narration by actress Claire Trevor (Pat) which slices though the mix adequately.

FEATURES

No Extras. Part of the Film Noir of Anthony Mann box set along with T-MEN and HE WALKED BY NIGHT.

CONCLUSION

For those of you who enjoy black and white movies and enjoy viewing films with nostalgia in mind then you should seek this film out. Yes it’s flawed, but in today’s world of over indulgent, plastic Hollywood films, watching this is a breath of fresh air. There is a lot of characterization which I barely touched upon in this review. The film not about a high body count, it is about these characters and about beating the odds. Sometimes in these films you don’t beat the odds. I noticed that if you strip away the noirish elements you are left with a blueprint for today’s modern action films. So even if you don’t like films of this era you may enjoy RAW DEAL as it is a precursor to today’s action films. Incidentally, Roan has plans to bring other lost classics to DVD. If they can maintain the quality shown here, then I say keep’em coming! However, I cannot stress enough the need for extras. Yes, most of the people from this era are Sr. Citizens now so I won’t ask for a director’s commentary, but I’m sure there are trailers and things in those old Hollywood vaults.

RAW DEAL is available at DVDEmpire

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