George Raft, Coleen Gray, Enzo Staiola, Charles Goldner, Martin Benson, Greta Gynt, Constance Smith
A strange, awkward concoction of unlikely elements, Joseph M. Newman’s I’ll Get You for This (US: Lucky Nick Cain) nevertheless entertains and fascinates as a European noir adventure in which George Raft, long past his Hollywood prime, plays the titular American gambler framed for the murder of a U.S. Treasury agent. Coleen Gray plays Kay Wonderly, a casino patron who catches Cain’s eye and becomes embroiled in the scheme, fleeing with Cain to hide in ancient Roman ruins in the mountains. (Also featured in a supporting role is Enzo Staiola, the child star of the Italian neorealist masterpiece, 1948’s Bicycle Thieves.) Even before the opening credits, we’re submerged in lush noir visuals that maximize the nocturnal claustrophobia of narrow, hillside European streets through jagged camera angles; cinematographer Otto Heller goes on to create several imaginative sequences, including Nick’s drug-induced dream of a floating telephone and Kay’s cacophonous nightmare of wolves and owls circling the ruins. And the odd situations keep piling up: kidnapping by florist, a dungeon holding female prisoners, a bar full of aggressive prostitutes. It’s all wonderfully weird.