★ 7 / 10
You play very cute, and nasty! Johnny O'Clock
John Chard
You play very cute, and nasty! Johnny O'Clock has everything under control. He has a partnership in a thriving casino and all his little peccadilloes are at…
You play very cute, and nasty!
Johnny O'Clock has everything under control. He has a partnership in a thriving casino and all his little peccadilloes are at ease in his world. Then things start to go awry, his partnership with Marchettis comes under severe pressure on account of Mrs Marchettis' dalliances, and worst of all, the hat check girl he had a soft spot for has turned up dead. Johnny is feeling the heat, from every corner of his world it seems.
At the time of writing this, Johnny O' Clock has under ten reviews written on IMDb and barely 200 votes cast, one can only assume that Johnny is badly under seen! Without knowing the issues of accessibility on TV and DVD, it may just be that this little noir treasure has slipped through the net of many a genre observer. Without pushing the boundaries of noir and its devilish off shoots, it's a film with all the necessary noir components in place, a tightly accomplished film that definitely deserves a bigger audience.
The plot, though very basic in the context of the genre/style it sits in (thus making it easy enough for the casual viewer to enjoy), is a series of double (triple) crosses smothered in a delicate hint of aromatic femme fatale. Throw in crooked and grizzly bear like coppers, get Robert Rossen to make it his directorial debut, and ask Burnett Guffey to photograph it, and you got a lovely helping of noirish stew. All you then ask for is your cast to come up trumps, and thankfully they do.
Dick Powell plays Johnny O'Clock with the right blend of dapper charm and cool calm toughness, Lee J Cobb (grizzly bear copper), Thomas Gomez (Pete Marchettis) and John Kellogg (the muscle) all play it tough without over egging the pudding. The girls are nicely played by Evelyn Keyes ("99 River Street" & "The Seven Year Itch"), Ellen Drew ("The Man from Colorado") and the delicious Nina Foch ("The Ten Commandments") - with Drew showing definite shades of Hayworth at times - though only shades mind!
It's not a dark picture and those hoping for a head scratcher will be sorely disappointed, and I would be a liar if I said that I didn't think the ending needed a more dramatic punch. But I'll be damned if this wasn't a most enjoyable experience, twisty and turny without making the head spin for sake's sake, "Johnny O'clock" is well worth your time. Time! Get it? Groan. 7/10
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★ 6 / 10
I have to say I was quite disappointed
CinemaSerf
I have to say I was quite disappointed with this. Dick Powell is the eponymous character, a casino manager who on the face of it is as hard as nails, but a…
I have to say I was quite disappointed with this. Dick Powell is the eponymous character, a casino manager who on the face of it is as hard as nails, but a little scratching under the surface reveals that he's actually quite a soft old chap. He's had an affair with the much younger wife (Ellen Drew) of his partner (Thomas Gomez) and she is determined to get him back. Just what is she prepared to do, though? Meantime, Lee J. Cobb is a detective trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious suicide of a woman that brings her sister (Evelyn Keyes) into town, and onto Powell's radar. The crime mystery elements are all too often subsumed in the half-baked romantic intrigues that really drag down the pace to little better than a melodrama with ever so slightly menacing undertones. Powell is quite good in the role, as is Cobb as the moody, but effective policeman - but it was all just a bit dull for me, sorry.
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★ 6 / 10
Minor noir has all the right elements and yet...
Doylenf
One gets the impression from watching JOHNNY O'CLOCK that the whole idea of the film is to give DICK POWELL a tough screen presence--the kind that suited Alan…
One gets the impression from watching JOHNNY O'CLOCK that the whole idea of the film is to give DICK POWELL a tough screen presence--the kind that suited Alan Ladd in his early films. He's a cool man surrounded by a bunch of surly characters out to get him. He's good with a punch and a punch line, but all the while he leaves you feeling this story is too slow-paced and a bit rambling to become a tight thriller such as MURDER, MY SWEET.Everyone in the cast does their job nimbly, with LEE J. COBB chewing away at this cigar to make sure he steals every other scene, and ELLEN DREW and EVELYN KEYES doing well in contrasting femme leads. The sets have a noir look with excellent B&W photography, but the trouble is the script which is not compelling enough to draw a viewer into the story about a murdered hatcheck girl (NINA FOCH) and the search for her killer.All the elements of film noir are there but Robert Rossen's direction cannot tie them together with a tight enough grip. Nevertheless, worth a watch if you're a fan of this genre.
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