Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 2, 2020 19:32:51 GMT -8
Pushover is a noir from 1954 that isn’t half-bad.
Fred MacMurray seems to be searching for My Three Felonies rather than anything else. He’s on a case to track down a couple bank robbers and recover the $200,000 of unmarked bills that they got away with.
He first goes undercover trying to pry some information out of Kim Novak who is in her first official film. My life goal is to see her naked. (Did I say that out loud?) Novak plays the girlfriend of one of the bank robbers. The police think that he will be back to pick her up. And it’s not a bad guess. Would you leave Kim Novak behind?
You can’t really blame Fred for getting involved with her to the point that he plans to run off with her and the money. But things get complicated because he’s also part of the crew staking out her house from an apartment across the courtyard. In effect, you get a replay of Rear Window to some extent.
Minor plot holes here and there. Slopping editing. Mediocre acting. Fred MacMurray is absolutely brilliant in his My Three Felonies role in Double Indemnity with Barbara Stanwyck. But in this one, he’s not particularly a good fit for the role of good-cop-turned-bad. We’re never really sold it well.
By the way, Double Indemnity is brilliant and stop everything you’re doing right now and go see it if you haven’t already. But Pushover is one of those movies that is somewhat artlessly done but still interesting enough to keep you watching. All the little details don’t seem to matter to the film makers. For instance, if you’re a cop in 1954 and you’re moving a criminal's car in order to hide your own guilt, you might want to wear gloves instead of gripping the steering wheel with your bare hands. Wouldn’t a cop know this?
Novak and E.G. Marshall (MacMurray’s lieutenant) are the best of the crop. And, really, the only ones doing any quality acting.
Forget it, Fred. She’s out of your league.
Fred MacMurray seems to be searching for My Three Felonies rather than anything else. He’s on a case to track down a couple bank robbers and recover the $200,000 of unmarked bills that they got away with.
He first goes undercover trying to pry some information out of Kim Novak who is in her first official film. My life goal is to see her naked. (Did I say that out loud?) Novak plays the girlfriend of one of the bank robbers. The police think that he will be back to pick her up. And it’s not a bad guess. Would you leave Kim Novak behind?
You can’t really blame Fred for getting involved with her to the point that he plans to run off with her and the money. But things get complicated because he’s also part of the crew staking out her house from an apartment across the courtyard. In effect, you get a replay of Rear Window to some extent.
Minor plot holes here and there. Slopping editing. Mediocre acting. Fred MacMurray is absolutely brilliant in his My Three Felonies role in Double Indemnity with Barbara Stanwyck. But in this one, he’s not particularly a good fit for the role of good-cop-turned-bad. We’re never really sold it well.
By the way, Double Indemnity is brilliant and stop everything you’re doing right now and go see it if you haven’t already. But Pushover is one of those movies that is somewhat artlessly done but still interesting enough to keep you watching. All the little details don’t seem to matter to the film makers. For instance, if you’re a cop in 1954 and you’re moving a criminal's car in order to hide your own guilt, you might want to wear gloves instead of gripping the steering wheel with your bare hands. Wouldn’t a cop know this?
Novak and E.G. Marshall (MacMurray’s lieutenant) are the best of the crop. And, really, the only ones doing any quality acting.
Forget it, Fred. She’s out of your league.