Chicago Deadline

I have been checking on when I first saw this interesting film. The UK release date must have been earlier than those detailed here. I saw it in the early autumn eg Sept/Oct 1949 at the Granada Cinema, Walthamstow, London E.17. It struck an immediate chord with me, probably because it was one of the first of its type I had seen. I was 15 at the time and beginning to take an interest in adult-orientated films. I saw it again on TV in 1964-65 by which time I was able to classify it under the general heading of film noir, whatever that may mean. I have recently seen it again on CD and it still holds my interest. Unusually for Hollywood films of the period, the leading character is a loser - and a female one at that. The tone and mood of the story is set from the opening sequence with the 'heroine' being discovered dead. Ladd, playing the investigative journalist with a professional conscience, attempts to track down the reasons for her death in such squalid surroundings. She turns out to be in no way deserving of her fate and there is a tragic inevitablility about her whole existence. Things happen to her. She hardly seeks evil or lives dangerously. I cannot recall any real parallels for Rosita in film. She's a small town girl with a unhappy marriage behind her, no real career, way out of her depth. This is not a story of retribution for a life of dissipation or loose living. No matter how morally or personally estimable a loser may be, the loser has been, and remains, a figure of contempt to most Americans. The studio and director were risking a great deal here. It is easy to see why this film was not a box office success. It is not a typical vehicle for a star of the Ladd magnitude.

A less contentious theme is the way the popular press sensationalises and distorts a story for news value to the detriment of the facts. Ladd, the journalist, is determined to find about Rosita while his editor seizes upon her as the femme fatale of a routine scandal.

All the elements are here that one associates with the film noir, pessimism, stark monochrome photography, the background of sordid hotels, criminal types, cynical officials. Not a major work in the genre but well worth watching.