This is an early and primative example of the non-linear (film meaning, not the math/engineering meaning of non-linear) film. Non-linear films have come a long way of course.
I thought it was a good (not great) noir film.
Is "non-linear" a polite way of saying poorly crafted?
This film was a complete mess.
Its another way of saying this guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Don't listen to film dweebs.
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
"A complete mess" pretty much sums it up. I always enjoy watching Peter Lorre do his thing but this schlock of a movie couldn't make up for it.
This movie reminded me of the 1980's soap opera DALLAS where the writers wrote themselves into a corner, then decided that the whole season 'was just a dream'.
For what its worth, Woolrich's novel, The Black Path of Fear', used the same narrative method!
shareMore nonsensical than "non-linear".
No esoteric film class language can make this poorly-scripted, poorly edited movie into anything other than a waste of good talent and good nitrate film.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
Non-linear, indeed. In some movies, the director and producer have no idea how to end it, so they shoot alternative versions and wait to see which version is better received by preview audiences. In this case it would seem they spliced both versions together and released both. In one of the endings, a suicide cleans it up rather too neatly. I don't mind a few plot inconsistencies (the Big Sleep is full of them) but I consider this movie's about face to be dishonest.
sharemheckman-1:
"...I consider this movie's about face to be dishonest."
Good way of looking at it. Read my review.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
mmw-2
I support your comment about The Chase being "an early non-linear film". What is shown is disorienting and out of sequence so to portray the inner world of Chuck, a WWII Navy veteran and musician.
The protagonist's going off with his employer's wife or female partner has in common The Killers (1945) and Out of the Past (1947).
The exotic Cuba must have appealed to the'40's audience and its "South American craze".
The light and shadows of this film are in the true noir style.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
Replying to a five year old post may be silly, but here goes anyway.
It is odd the way the movie apparently changes course, but the plot is essentially the same even though Chuck Scott seems to have gone through some sort of mental breakdown.
What may not be obvious is that Chuck, as a veteran, is experiencing "shell shock" or what we would today call Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. At some point in the movie he awakens in a room after having apparently been shot and his body disposed of. It isn't immediately clear where in the story his dream and reality diverged. What is clear is that he has to take pills to maintain his sanity.
All the characters remain the same. The fantastic car is the same as is the crook, Eddie Roman, and his henchman, Gino. What isn't obvious, at first anyway, is that Chuck had a breakdown and simply walked away from the mobster before he and Lorna Roman, even went to Cuba. Clearly the tickets were already purchased and the trip was planned even if never actually made, until that is, Scott recovered his sanity and remembered the original plan.
Yes, the movie seems very disjointed until you realize that Chuck is a returning war veteran going through some sort of mental recovery.
Watta ya lookn here for?
That's what the film was about.
It was a strange dreamy noir, and kinda fun!