Leofwine_draca FALLGUY is a cheap and dreadful indie drama that feels like it was made by somebody trying to be the next Hitchcock. It's a classic wronged man premise in which a teenager stumbles upon a car accident one night and is soon involved in a plot in which he gets accused of murder and must fight to clear his name. It's a gloomy story with very little in the way of life or effort, mainly consisting of shady characters hanging around in shady locations. The dialogue sounds very creaky to the modern ear.

Richard Chatten This extremely low budget thriller combines elements of 'M' and the Famous Five as the combined forces of a criminal syndicate aided by a corrupt chief of detectives squabble among each other and prove incapable of eliminating one kid who stumbles across a bungled attempt to eliminate a hood who looks remarkably like William Bendix.The only names in the credits I recognised were cameraman Vilis Lapenieks, responsible for the slick location photography, and composer Jaime Mendoza-Nava (who provides an extremely noisy jazz score), both of whom remained busy in films for a good many more years.

melvelvit-1 A teenager becomes the FALLGUY when he speeds away from a malt shop in his hot rod and sees an accident happen on the road ahead. He stops to help but the car wreck was actually a syndicate hit and because the police chief, a prominent doctor, and the city editor are all crooked, they plan to smear the kid in the papers, have him arrested for murder, then shoot him when he tries to "escape". No good deed goes unpunished, indeed. Like FEAR NO MORE (another film in SWV's "Weird Noir" DVD six-pack), the break-neck speed of FALLGUY precludes any pondering of possible plot holes and it's kind of exciting in a cheap-jack way, from the PSYCHO-esque opening credits to the corny conclusion. The body count's high with almost everyone either dead or wounded at the end and as another IMDb reviewer so succinctly puts it, I "couldn't take my eyes off it".

tom-horse This film was being shown on a specialty TV channel named "Drive-In" that plays obscure B movies. Right away, the low "production values", i.e. the money spent on sets and location, became apparent, so much so it reminded me of a 1940s era episode of a serial like Space Gordon.True to it's B movie stature, there are obvious flaws, primarily the "wooden" performances. Occasionally, the actors' dialog would hesitate as if the next line of the script was forgotten. Some of the acting was altogether unbelievable, bordering on the ridiculous. For example, in a scene toward the end of the movie, the lead actor was slapped across the face with a left hand, but his head spun to the right so that he would fall through a doorway and down a flight of stairs! Was a director on the set?I suppose this movie with it's dim lighting was attempting to be a "film noir" of some variety. But no matter what the genre, the film seemed too dark and shadowy, at least as it appeared on my TV. After awhile, a daylight scene came as a relief! Finally I found the abrupt and otherwise amateurish scene transitions and loud jazzy score intrusive. So much so they were not only distracting, they competed with the plot for interest. As the film skipped along, it became fascinating to see what laughable scene the movie would stumble into next. The movie suddenly ends with no credits, just the film title!As much as I thought I could make an amateur movie that would compare favorably, the movie had enough merits to hold my interest. And even seem likable. The plot, such as it is, does move quickly, the culture of the late '50s and early '60s was fascinating and you couldn't predict how the next plot twist, or yet another incongruous exchange of dialog, would unfold. So in the end, I found I couldn't take my eyes off it!