Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Trapped in the Maze of a Murderous Racket

Jigsaw
1949 / black and white / 77 minutes
Tagline: “Trapped in the Maze of a Murderous Racket”
[internet archive] [youtube]

In this movie from 1949, Franchot Tone plays an assistant district attorney in New York City. The mysterious death of a print shop owner prompts him and a newspaper columnist to investigate The Mohawk Political Club. It is ostensibly a patriotic league fueled by membership fees, drives, and sales of buttons, badges, and patriotic apparel. It looks like an old-school political machine that provides holiday turkeys, charity assistance, and consultations for navigating city government.

The club could also be a criminal enterprise that uses illegal methods to dispose of people who present problems. As Stalin used to say, “No man, no problem.” They shoot the printer because of a business dispute (I think – many points in this movie are obscure). They defenestrate the columnist. They shoot a good-time girl who is turning informer. They attempt to kill Franchot Tone and when that fails they try to frame him for the murder of the party girl.

The acting is persuasive and the dialogue is smart (if silly in spots) even though the unfolding of action seems inexplicable at times. Franchot Tone is just okay, in a rather subdued performance as a user with honest intentions. Jean Wallace of the luminous smile is delightfully over the top in the scene where she gets overwrought and knocks out Tone by the fireplace. Marc Lawrence as Mr. Angel, the club’s general manager, has picture-perfect the oily, furtive look of a crook. He seems to fill his clothes like Uncle Fester. Yuck. Winifred Lenihan mixes charm and menace as society matron Mrs. Grace Hartley. She also gets to wear some outlandish late Forties fashion too (sadly, clothes have to be unusual and startling for me to notice them).

Two visually striking aspects stand out. Filmed in late spring in New York City, the best thing about it is the location shooting. The noirish settings are desolate streets, a swanky night club, and a low-ceilinged warehouse. As the setting for the climax, the Brooklyn Museum has an open, spacious lobby, also featuring eerie light and shadows. If the huge statue of a brooding god notices the climactic shoot-out, he gives no indication divine intervention is in the offing.

Plus, in a cocktail party scene the camera shoots from Tone’s first-person position, just like in The Lady in the Lake with Robert Montgomery. From the subjective camera, as we survey hollow clowns spouting their reactionary nonsense, we also hear Tone’s voice-over as he gives his take on the subject: “A fool but dangerous.” 

The director Fletcher Markle worked with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater right after WWII. So Markle must have been a creative person, not just some hack. If he made missteps in this movie, his second directing job, so what? Short, undeveloped and uneven in spots, the movie provides entertainment for an hour and change on a Saturday night in winter.

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