Framed

Richard Wallace’s Framed is a small film but one that makes the most of its story and setting and star, Glenn Ford, just off his smash hit Gilda (1946) with Rita Hayworth. Ford plays an alcoholic mining engineer turned drifter named Mike Lambert whose reckless driving earns the attention of waitress Paula Craig (Janis Carter) who has plans to use him as a body double for her married boyfriend, banker Steve Price (Barry Sullivan), who needs to “die” so they can run off together. (“I found him,” she says to Price when they meet up.) Lambert is a sad guy in a sad town, trying hard to hold on to his self-respect, but the duplicitous, sadistic Paula is determined to destroy him for her own gain. There’s a dramatic shot from below the cliff where she plans to push Lambert to a fiery death and a scene of masterfully wrought tension in a country cabin involving a monogrammed bathrobe. The cinematography is well-done, if not notable, and Marlin Skiles’ score is thrilling in parts. Perhaps the darkest aspect of the film is Paula’s use of Lambert’s alcoholism to her advantage (“Liquor blanks me out,” Lambert tells her early on), which alters her plans all over again.