Road House (1948)

Widmark plays the smiling, genial owner of the eponymous establishment, and best pal to nice guy Wilde. But there are signs of lurking psychosis behind Widmark's hail-fellow exterior. Celeste Holm (marvelous) plays the club's bookkeeper who's secretly in love with her boss. Widmark, however, can't see her as anything more than a friend. Into their lives comes cynical chanteuse Ida Lupino who Widmark hires as club entertainer. She hasn't much of a voice, but she sells her numbers anyway, in her own smoky fashion, and the crowd falls hard. So does Wilde. And it's mutual. Problem is, Widmark loves her too - a lot - and, wracked by jealousy, he's not about to let the smitten young couple go running off into the sunset.This is one fantastic noir, with superlative acting, inspired direction, good dialogue, and a first-rate story... for about an hour. The last 30 minutes go right off the rails. Or rather, off the "road." Like a lot of thrillers produced since movies began, this one doesn't know how to end. It's hard to imagine a less satisfying finale to a movie that held such promise. 10 out of 10 for the first 60 minutes - 2 out of 10 for the rest.My score: 7

How fantastic is noir style,another fine one,this time Richard Widmark on third role in your career portrait one more time a similar Tommy Udo's character when he bring the beauty singer (Lupino)from Chicago for act in your night club, the manager your lifetime friend (Wilde)adviced him about too expensive woman,but Jefty insist that it will be increase the profits,but Pete fail in love with her,but Jefty has another plans for Lily,the last part of the picture burning strong when Jefty has a time revenge,fantastic ending of this amazing noir directed by Jean Negulesco

***SPOILERS***It's when sultry Chicago night club singer Lily Stevens, Ida Lupino, showed at at the Jefty Robbins, Eichard Widmark, roadhouse on the US/Canadian border sparks started flying in all directions. Not only between Jefty Robbins and his friend, who manages the roadhouse, Pete Morgan, Cornel Wild, but also the customers there as well. In one scene as Lily was doing her act a drunken and uncouth Mister Bacigalupi tried to manhandle her with Pete rushing to her rescue. It was the very over-matched Pete, whom Bacigalupi outweighed by at least 50 pounds, who was about to finish him off that a squad of police came to arrest and apprehend the helpless drunk. That was just one of many violent incidents that Lily, just by her presence, cause in the film with many more to follow.What really got things rolling was when Jefty was out hunting moose and deer that his friend & partner Pete began a hot and heavy romantic affair with Lily behind Jefty's, who considered her to be his personal property,back. With Pete who was soon to marry Lily trying to square himself with Jefty who unknown to Pete had, in order to surprise Lily, already taken out a marriage licenses to marry her that the at first normal and joke cracking Jefty turned completely psycho! So psycho that he not only went so far as to frame his good friend Pete in stealing the roadhouse weekly receipts, $2,600.00, but blackmail his cashier and behind the scene squeeze Susie Smith, Celeste Holm, for participating in the robbery. In what was to be the trial of the century, in that part of the woods, Pete got the book thrown at him for robbery, the charges against Susie were eventually dropped, by Judge Grandon Rhodes. With him handing down a stiff 2 to year jail sentence on the totally shocked down to his socks Pete who didn't quite what hit him! That in him seeing just how far his "good friend" Pete would go to frame him. ***SPOILERS*** Just when you, as well as Pete Lily & Susie, thought things couldn't get any worse they in fact did. With a now feeling invincible Jefty making a deal with Judge Rhodes to release Pete on parole just to show what a nice guy he really is and then keeping him as well as his lover Lily under this thumb which in fact, as were all soon to see, is even worse then spending the next 2 to 10 years behind bars! It's here when Jefty overplayed his hand and in the end got exactly all that was coming to him. And it was non other then the woman that he loved and wanted to keep all to himself, like the trophies of antlers he had in his roadhouse, Lily Stevens that finally and reluctantly put an end to his total insanity! P.S There's also the added treat of seeing and hearing Ida Lupion, Lily Stevens, belting out two great songs in the movie "Quater to Three" and what came to be its theme song "Again".

Richard Widmark gives a superior performance in this film as an unstable owner of a road house that's located in a small community close to the Canadian border. He inherited the business from his father. His lifelong friend, played by Cornel Wilde, works for him managing the business. The two are equals until Ida Lupino shows up as an out of town singer and pianist who's hired by Widmark to provide entertainment. Her presence is what causes the extreme strain that breaks Widmark's and Wilde's friendship for good. The settings are unique, with a taut finale out in the woods, and as well a courtroom scene. Widmark gets best actor honors (in my opinion). He slips so easily into his character's unpredictability, and goes from cool and cunning to sadistic, which is even more than he did in Kiss Of Death, where the character was entirely crazy and sadistic. Lupino, who apparently had zero vocal range, is great as the sultry singer from Chicago with a troubled past. For such an idyllic setting as the Road House is in, miles of forests and lots of lakes, the film noir characters provide a great contrast. Directed by Jean Negulesco and shot by Joseph LaShelle, the film looks and moves quite crisply. While the finale is really well done, it's not as if the viewer suffers through lapses before that point, as the tension between Wilde and Widmark, and Wilde's romance with Lupino are well enough placed to keep the punches coming.