The Web (1947)

What could have been an intriguing film noir of a set-up for murder gone wring becomes an overly complex and problematic plot that wraps up faster than it took to set it up. Bodyguard Edmund O'Brien is set up to supposedly kill someone, but it's very apparent that there's more going on than even the audience can see. Ella Raines who works for the calculating Vincent Price (whom O'Brien has been hired to protect), falls in love with O'Brien but there's a plot thickening behind the scenes that makes this confusing and frustrating. Some great symbolic moments add to the noir feeling of the plot line, but it's just all a messy set-up both plot wise and scam wise. William Bendix is a tough detective, with John Abbott as Price's right hand man. There's a sub genre of film noir which tried to be artistic and draw the audience into its own web, but what happens here is that the spider who builds the web ends up tangled as well, making what is caught pointless prey. As usual, Price is riveting, and everybody does their best, aided by a few interesting twists and turns. However, a messy script is the real problem, going too far out of its own way to get properly to its final destination.

Vincent Price is the phlegmatic murderous, thieving millionaire. He has a live-in secretary, Ella Raines, just like every other phlegmatic murderous, thieving millionaire. He contacts small-time lawyer Edmond O'Brien and hires him as a kind of bodyguard, claiming that his life was threatened by a former business partner, recently released from the slams. Price stages a situation in which O'Brien must shoot and kill the former partner in the belief that it is self defense. The police lieutenant, William Bendix, is skeptical of the entire affair -- and he should be. But he spends the entire movie trying to pin the murders -- there's a later pragmatic murder too -- on O'Brien instead of the smooth Vincent Price.It's essentially a B movie plot with some elements, especially in the dialog, that are not exactly witty but at least clever. Some thought went into the writing. The direction of Michael Gordon is pedestrian. There are a few night-time scenes with odd shadows and wet streets but this is not a film noir by any normal definition. It's just a story of murder, theft, intrigue, and romance, with a bit of comic brashness thrown in.Edmond O'Brien began his career as a handsome young leading man in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in 1939, opposite the exquisite Maureen O'Hara. Then, immediately afterward it seems, he became flabby without ever becoming genuinely fat. He turned in some nice performances as a dying but still vital man in "DOA" and as the somewhat dim-witted Casca in MGM's "Julius Caesar." He was even better as the washed out, blurry, Southern senator in "Seven Days in May." Here, he gets the job done in a professional way.Ella Raines was really beautiful in an entirely conventional way. It was principally her hair that did the job, a cascade of dark and shiny tresses ending with a margin of curls. Any normal man would love to run his toes through it. She seems to have taken some acting lessons from Lauren Bacall's early performances because she's languid and sultry and makes the most of her sex appeal.Vincent Price was an aesthete and a genuinely nice guy, with whom everyone seemed to enjoy working. His role here is liminal -- somewhere between his earnest performances of the mid-40s and the tongue-in-cheek villainy of the 60s. He seems sincerely regretful about the need to kill his loyal and gorgeous secretary.Overall, it's a success, though a minor one. We pretty much know what the ending will look like, with the snooty Price in chains, and O'Brien and Raines in a final clinch. Bendix mainly abets the romance.

The Web is one of dozens of forties thrillers featuring private detectives and the rich men who hire them, the beautiful women who love them, and the police, who invariably hamper their efforts to unravel the clues to intricate mysteries, the details of which are explained with astonishing clarity in the end, despite the fact that most viewers can scarcely be expected to keep track of all the evidence. This one is more elegant than most, with plush settings and striking photography. There's a touch of Laura here, thanks to the casting of Vincent Price and the character he plays, as well as a bit of the Chandler private eye cycle in the character of Edmond O'Brien's detective. Ella Raines makes a beautiful heroine, and Bill Bendix is on hand as the no-nonsense cop. Michael Gordon directs smoothly, and everything comes together in the end. There's nothing remarkable in The Web, which is just a cut above the generic, but it works like a Swiss watch.

Ella Raines was one of the best and most under-utilized actresses of the 40's. She was great in Phantom Lady and Tall In The Saddle, and is even better in the Web. And Bendix, O'Brien, and Price all equal her in excellence. But, the writing is the single most above-average thing about this all-but-forgotten little gem. It is exceedingly well[plotted, suspenseful, and surprising without ever seeming the least bit contrived. Mystery fans should track AMC carefully to be sure to catch this one next time around.