Impact (1949)

This timeless masterpiece is a sweeping epic drama, played by Donlevy (here resembling Gabin or Lancaster) and Ella Raines. The supporting players are exquisite: especially Ch. Coburn as the shrewd Quincy, and Anna May Wong as the witness who went into hiding and is unwilling to testify. Ph. Ahn has a bit part. The movie shows its audiences bourgeois life, small town life, and courtroom drama, even some tasteful Chinatown atmosphere, and everything with a sovereign neutrality and impartiality; and it has enough of everything. The occasional humor is suitable and authentically funny. And the scene of the crash looks awesome. In movies such as this, you can see that the late '40s style was indeed the '30s style come of age. Also, this one has no fistfights, no gun-play, nothing coarse, raw or bizarre.Ch. Coburn's role delights endlessly, and his stylish performance made me eager to see him show up again.As the runaway victim of a murder attempt, then as the mechanic, Donlevy finds that breathtaking style that Gabin mastered. He resembles Gabin, and also Lancaster.Ella Raines has the highest class.The players honored a movie that in its turn honored them. This one has been made in a spirit of magnanimity.

Successful businessman Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) loves his pretty wife Irene (Helen Walker) more than anything. Little does he know she's plotting with her lover to kill him. During the murder attempt, Walter is hit hard on the head but lives. The other guy, however, is killed in a car crash and burned beyond recognition. Believed to have been the man killed in the crash, Walter decides not to come forward. Instead he goes to work as a mechanic in the garage of Marsha Peters (Ella Raines). When Irene is tried for his murder, Walter must decide whether or not to reveal he's still alive.Brian Donlevy is pretty good. He's at his best when his character is angry or edgy. The sappy romantic stuff doesn't fit him well. Helen Walker is a particularly hissable villainess. Lovely Ella Raines is the good girl. There's no meat to the part but she does well with what she's given. Charles Coburn plays the detective out to get to the bottom of things. He's always fun. Arthur Lubin's direction in the first half is great film noir. I loved the scene where the lover tries to kill the husband. The whole thing was brilliantly executed. Then something happens and it's like a separate movie. The second half is much less like noir and more like a standard crime melodrama where a girl has to prove her guy is innocent of murder. If the entire picture had been like the first half, I'd say it was one of film noir's best. But it isn't. It's still an enjoyable movie with some good twists and turns.

This wonderfully twisted tale of the events that take place before and after an attempted murder is both highly entertaining and full of surprises. It was written by Jay Dratler who also co-wrote the screenplays for other film noirs such as "Call Northside 777", "The Dark Corner" and "Laura" and his skills as a storyteller and a writer of snappy dialogue are both in strong evidence in this movie.Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) is a wealthy industrialist whose wife Irene (Helen Walker) colludes with her lover, Jim Torrence (Tony Barrett) to murder him. She arranges for the two men to share a car journey to Denver during which they have to stop on a mountain road to change a wheel after a tyre (which Jim had previously damaged) suddenly blows. Jim uses the opportunity to hit Walter over the head with a wrench and leaves him for dead. As Jim prepares to continue his journey, a large van pulls up and the driver offers him assistance which he refuses, but this incident spooks him so much that he drives off in the car at high speed and accidentally crashes head-on into a tanker full of fuel. Walter regains consciousness in time to jump into the back of the van but soon passes out again.When the wreckage of Walter's car is later discovered and the occupant is so badly burned that he's unrecognisable, the presumption is made that Walter is the dead man and further evidence found by the police soon leads them to believe that Irene is culpable.Walter eventually arrives at the small town of Larkspur, Idaho where he's offered a job as a mechanic at a gas station run by an attractive young widow called Marsha Peters (Ella Raines). From a remark that Jim had made when he attacked him, Walter knows that his wife was behind the attempt on his life and so, when he reads in a newspaper about her arrest on suspicion of his murder, the opportunity to take revenge by doing nothing to help, becomes very attractive.Walter and Marsha fall in love and when she learns about what happened to him she persuades Walter to do the honourable thing and return to San Francisco to tell the police his story. Unfortunately, when he does this, further unexpected developments follow and he finds himself charged with the murder of Jim Torrence."Impact" is a film in which certain sharp contrasts are made. The city is compared unfavourably with the small town where people are much more friendly and supportive, the difference between the evil Irene and the kind and decent Marsha couldn't be more stark and Walter's conduct in his professional and personal lives are also incredibly different.When Walter first appears , he's seen as an extremely dynamic and forceful businessman but is then later shown as a very caring husband who Irene calls "Softy". He's also normally confident and direct in his manner but during his time in Larkspur, he goes through a period of confusion and self-doubt. The fact that Brian Donlevy is able to bring all these aspects of Walter's personality together in a believable way is very commendable and enjoyable to watch.Helen Walker and Ella Raines are both excellent in their roles and Charles Coburn provides the pick of the supporting performances as the veteran detective who's assigned to investigate the case.

Yes, I know my review contrasts the majority of the other reviews. However, I love noirs and am used to the high octane, twists and turns of a Hitchcock thriller. Charles Coburn is always a delight to watch on the screen. And Donlevy is acceptable as the lead character but the rest of the characters are stiff, unimaginable, without depth and awfully predictable. The music is too sappy when the protagonist male and female characters are together. It's simply painful to watch. Imagine how fabulous this movie could have been if Hitch had decided to create a real movie out of this!