★ 7 / 10
Case History of Chet Chester. Hell's Half Acre
John Chard
Case History of Chet Chester. Hell's Half Acre is directed by John H. Auer and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester…
Case History of Chet Chester.
Hell's Half Acre is directed by John H. Auer and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Marie Windsor, Nancy Gates and Leonard Strong. Music is by R. Dale Butts and cinematography by John L. Russell.
Filmed and set in Hawaii, one could be forgiven for thinking this couldn't possibly work as a piece of film noir. In fact, the opening credit sequences lends one to think this could well be a frothy Elvis Presley type of movie - but it most assuredly isn't.
Cash or Cave in?
Story has Corey up to his neck in femme fatales, shifty criminal acquaintances and coppers. Which is not bad for a guy who was apparently killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor! The Hell's Half Acre of the tile is what is termed in the film as a shabby tenement district, this is the seedy underbelly of what we know as the paradise island. The location makes for some excellent atmospheric noir touches, with the production line abodes and the ream of wooden stairs and banisters making for a moody backdrop. At night the shadows come in to play, hanging nicely off of the alleyways and tawdry bars.
Dirty Rat!
Though a little too contrived for its own good, the many characterisations on show make the annoying itches easily scratched. From two-timing dames and thugs in need of anger management - to alcoholic slobs and batty taxi drivers, this has a roll call of colourful people drifting in and out of Hell's Half Acre. There's even some censor baiting going on, though the whiff of violent misogyny could have been less pungent.
Some serious noir credentials are found with the makers, Auer (City That Never Sleeps), Fisher (I Wake Up Screaming), Corey (The Big Knife), Keyes (The Prowler), Windsor (The Narrow Margin), Gates (Suddenly), Lanchester (The Big Clock) and Russell (Moonrise), and that's only really scratching the surface. With its distinctive setting and well controlled unfurling of noir conventions, this is well worth a look by the noir faithful. 7/10
★ 6 / 10
An enjoyable B
planktonrules
I guy was supposedly killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, his wife of only a week insists that he might still be alive and cannot get on with her…
I guy was supposedly killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, his wife of only a week insists that he might still be alive and cannot get on with her life (a pretty dumb cliché). So, she goes to the island to investigate and finds that the man who MIGHT be her husband is in police custody--held on a murder rap. Can this all get sorted out by the end and niceness once again be restored to pretty Oahu?
I noticed that some of the other reviews saw some plot holes in this one. I would agree--several times the plot SHOULD have been worked out better in order to make logical sense. However, despite these shortcomings, the film is pretty good--a nice example of a B noir film with a strange locale. I say strange because it's set in Hawaii--and it gives some lesser actors and Asian-Americans a chance to act. For example, Philip Ahn played mostly one-dimensional Japanese soldiers in WWII-era films. Here, he's a wonderful villain--with some personality. The same goes for Keye Luke. Here he's no longer #1 Son (from the Charlie Chan movies) but plays a cop in his own right. As for the rest, Wendell Corey (a dependable supporting actor) is in lead along with support from the likes of Evelyn Keyes, Marie Windsor and Jesse White. Together, this ensemble case does a very nice job. Not a great film but an enjoyable time-passer.
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· 250 ratings
6.3/10
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