I haven’t watched Black Widow or Storm Warning yet (both featuring Ginger Rogers). After seeing her performance in Tight Spot, I look forward to seeing her in those. She may seem a little over the top at the beginning, but then it all make sense, that’s her character’s act.
Brian Keith and Edward G. Robinson are a joy to watch as well.
The plot is simple, but with enough twist and turns to make it a good film noir, even though most of the scenes happen in broad daylight.
The mixture of documentary style outdoor photography with the indoor stage is a good balance.
Tight Spot is not a perfect film. I wish I could give it 4.5 stars, but it has plenty of thrills. It’s definitely worth a rewatch.
Furnished with an excellent script by William Bowers based on Lenard Kantor’s play, which in turn was inspired by true events, Phil Karlson directs Tight Spot with his customary confidence and instinct for tension, but in this case character development supersedes action since the story largely takes place in a single setting. Story-wise, a female prison inmate is relocated to a New York City hotel in the hopes that a U.S. attorney can convince her to testify against a former gangster boyfriend. Edward G. Robinson (as attorney Hallett), Brian Keith (as police lieutenant Vince Striker in charge of her safety), Lorne Greene (as mobster Costain who’s plotting to have her killed), and Katherine Anderson (as friendly prison matron Willoughby, serving as her escort and caretaker) are all outstanding and understated in their roles. Then there’s Ginger Rogers. Some noir fans may find the film frustrating specifically because of her central performance as wise-cracking (and very strangely coiffed) former mob moll Sherry Conley: it’s anything but understated. Over-the-top, scenery-chewing, and occasionally silly, she gives us a comical caricature for the first two acts, but, to her credit, by the third act she comes down to earth, the attempts on her character’s life having brought out a more realistic humanity. (Of course, devoted Rogers fans may find the entire performance thrilling). Guffey’s cinematography shines throughout, especially when illuminating the underworld universe outside the hotel at night, while the criminal sequences and one plot twist in particular place the film squarely in noir territory despite the Ginger Rogers show.
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