The Chase

In film noir, American soldiers are rarely welcomed home from the war with open arms and bright smiles; in fact, their sacrifices often go unappreciated, or even unnoticed, and civilian society often represents just another type of battle. For example, in Arthur Ripley’s The Chase, war veteran and unemployed drifter Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings) is compelled to accept a job as driver to vicious gangster Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran) whose wife Lorna (Michèle Morgan), desperate to break free from Roman’s abuse, asks Chuck to take her to Cuba, and this is where the plot becomes disorienting and dream-like (“It happened again,” says Chuck mysteriously to his doctor later over the phone). Once in Havana, Ripley and cinematographer Planer intensify the visuals with inventive camera angles, deep focus, framing in shadows, and a particularly impressive nightclub setting (in an extended sequence, the camera floats through the club, above the crowd, across the bar, and into the gazes of Chuck and Lorna right before a fatal stabbing). While he’s not given much to do, Peter Lorre plays the cold, asexual Gino, right hand man to Roman, while Lloyd Corrigan plays Roman associate Emmerich Johnson who spends the final moments of his life trapped with a ferocious dog. Based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich, The Chase won’t satisfy every noir fan but deserves praise and appreciation for taking more risks than most.