HotToastyRag
The beginning of Deadline at Dawn is pretty creepy. Marvin Miller comes to Lola Lane's apartment in the middle of the night, and they have a tense argument about him wanting moneys he owes him. Then, Lola is dead, Marvin is nowhere to be found, and Bill Williams has a wad of cash in his pocket he doesn't remember taking. Bill is a sailor, and his orders give him a dawn deadline before he ships out to find out who killed Lola so he doesn't get framed for it.Bill's character is written to be incredibly stupid and naïve, almost making the audience wonder if there's something wrong with him. He bumps into Susan Hayward, an older, hardened dance hall girl, and she decides to help him in his search. At first, the movie keeps harping on their age difference and that she sees her kid brother when she looks at him, but with no explanation, the script veers to the right and starts cooking up a romance. Where does Paul Lukas come in, you might wonder, since he got second billing? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.This isn't the best film noir or murder mystery to come out of the 1940s, but it is entertaining if you really like the genre and are looking for a rainy afternoon movie. Her beauty clearly stands out, but it's hard to believe the very next year, Susan Hayward would receive her first Oscar nomination!
imdb2-548-335649
This was something of a misguided, knuckle-headed murder-mystery featuring an endless collection of characters strolling in and out solely to deliver their red-herring lines. It was more of a Depression-era stage play, I thought. What I most objected to, though, was those who compared it to "Naked City" and claimed it was an excellent tale portraying New York City of the late 1940's. Really? There was NOTHING that even sniffed of NYC here. Could have just as easily been Cleveland or Milwaukee. All shots were of deserted noir-ish street corners (where cabs were conveniently hanging out for some reason) or of interior apartments. We can't be insulting "Naked City" for this second-draft of a script. Too many inexplicable characters trying to nudge this too-convoluted-for-its-own-good story forward. Worst of all was the premise itself: Why couldn't this sailor simply get on his battleship and sail away? I mean, was anyone from the NYPD chasing him? No stakes here. All mood. On the other hand, Susan Hayward was absolutely radiant. Worth the price of admission alone. And the opening line was great: "You're not dead yet?"
jjnxn-1
Terrifically gritty noir. Susan, still a B actress at the time took a big step forward with this little gem, one of the great overlooked noirs. She's tough and no nonsense but caring. She also looks phenomenal considering she had given birth to twin boys just before making this. Bill Williams is just right as the naive gob and Paul Lukas adds great support as a cabbie who lends a helping hand. The film is also full of wonderful touches, Susan's snappy no-nonsense talk, the incidental characters the leads come across and the sets and set-ups of the shots with intriguing little details just randomly placed in the background. Well worth seeking out.
evanston_dad
This modest film noir is flat-out crazy and a tremendous amount of fun.Bill Williams plays a sailor on leave who follows a floozy back to her room, passes out and then finds upon waking that the floozy is dead and can't remember what if anything he had to do with it. He's got to catch a boat (or is it train?) at dawn, and is afraid he'll be implicated in the murder if he doesn't find the true killer before then. He teams up with a dance hall hostess (Susan Hayward) and, before the evening's out, a cab driver (Paul Lukas) and sets out into the New York midnight to solve the crime.The screenplay doesn't make a lick of sense, and my wife and I found ourselves actually laughing at the preposterous developments and turns in the story. It's hilarious how committed these three people are to solving this crime despite the fact that there's absolutely nothing attaching the sailor to it, and how easy a time they have following up on clues in as huge a city as NY despite the fact that the clues are things like "he was wearing a tuxedo" and "she had blonde hair." A plot twist at the movie's end, when the real killer is revealed, is right up there with the best of them. Oscar winner Paul Lukas brings much more acting ability to his performance than his role requires, and Susan Hayward is absolutely riveting. This was my first and so far only exposure to this acclaimed actress, and I look forward to many more.What a blast this movie is! Grade: A-
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