Street of Chance

Moviecut—Street of Chance

source: Street of Chance

Yet another mystery/crime movie based on an amnesia premise. One recognizes the appeal of such an hook. The protagonist, who doesn't know what's going on, has to do intensive detective work in order to fill in the gaps ; and the viewer accompanies him on his quest, discovering the various facts at the same time as he does. Meanwhile the premise also delivers an allegorical comment on life in a big city, where anonymity, change and reinvention prevail over identity. Of course the viewer may need to indulge in some generous suspension of disbelief, given that the human brain is a vulnerable organ. Serious bumps on the head tend to cause serious damage, rather than function as a simple "memory on/memory off" switch. "Street of Chance" is a bona fide representative of the genre, deftly providing clues and red herrings while telling a suspenseful tale about an amnesiac learning he's a suspect in a murder case. The movie is based on a novel by the indefatigable Cornell Woolrich, who was no stranger to the penning of thrilling tales. Still, the plot does raise some objections. For instance, it is never properly explained why the wife of the protagonist failed to notify authorities about his disappearance. Such an omission might make sense in the context of an unhappy and volatile relationship where one of the partners likes to go AWOL for months at a time ; it makes far less sense in the context of a loving marriage. Here, husband and wife seem to be as tenderly devoted to each other as a pair of Mandarin ducks. So why didn't she go to the police, as any sensible citizen would ?

Burgess Meredith is hit in the head with some falling debris and when he comes to, he realizes he doesn't know why he's in that part of town. He also notices that his hat and cigarette case have the wrong monogram. He goes home only to be told that he wife moved a year ago. Something happened to him and he's been suffering from amnesia. The blow to the head has restored his memory, but he doesn't know where he's been for a year. One thing he does know ... Sheldon Leonard is chasing him. Meredith goes back to the part of town where the accident happened, and he runs into Claire Trevor who is his amnesiac self's girlfriend ... and who points out that he's wanted for murder. This really early film noir has an intriguing set up, a nice mystery with a couple of interesting twists, and a fairly underwhelming conclusion. Still ... the mystery hinges on a paralyzed woman blinking while Meredith shouts out the alphabet. That's pure entertainment. I can also never get enough Sheldon Leonard.

Frank Thompson (Burgess Meredith) is hit on the head and knocked unconscious by some debris that falls from a building under construction. He comes to and doesn't realize where he is and why he is there, but he is across from town from where he lives. When he gets back to his apartment he discovers it is no longer his apartment and that his wife moved away a year ago. He finds her and discovers that he went to work one day about a year ago and never returned until just now. So she moved and got a job in order to pay the bills. In spite of this she doesn't seem the least bit upset, which is strange. What is also strange is that Frank strolls into the company that he used to work at and gets his old job back. Even stranger is that on his way home from work on his first day back, he is pursued on foot by an angry man he does not recognize until he gets in a taxi and loses him. At this point Frank is not only thinking he had such luck to get his job and wife back with only the sparsest of explanations, but he is wondering what HAS he been up to this past year to cause this guy to chase him. Complications ensue. This film treads some familiar ground - The guy who forgets who he is because of one head injury, leads some alternate life, then gets hit on the head again and remembers who he was originally but nothing about what went on in between head injuries. And what happened in between is never boring and even involves some danger. This is a rare chance to see Burgess Meredith in a leading role, and he carries it off admirably. The one thing I wonder about is the title. In 1930 Paramount made a film with the exact same title that had a completely different plot - it was a vehicle for William Powell that was loosely patterned after the life of gambler Arnold Rothstein. If you go in realizing there is no relationship and that this film is more of a mystery, even a precursor to noir, you should enjoy it.

Burgess Meredith makes probably his greatest performance and is completely convincing as the man in the awkward position of having lost all memory of the latest year of his life and finds himself hounded by hoodlums and eventually wanted for murder. Claire Trevor is less convincing as the lady involved, who wants to get away with him and help him abscond whatever it is, while the character stirring the tale and bringing it up to excitement is lame old grandma (Adeline De Walt Reynolds), who can only communicate with her eyes but does so the more. As the thriller develops, it grows more exciting and gripping all the way, and as usual the truth is a shocker - everyone is innocent except the least suspected. Burgess Meredith's experience of this nightmare situation of a lifetime, like being locked up blind in a cage of wolves or worse, that is killers or the electric chair, couldn't be made more realistic by his acting, as this outrageous strain forces him to extreme rationalism, which is exactly the normal human reaction in such circumstances - you set in a higher gear, and thus he manages to make his way out of the death trap of innocent ignorance caught in hopeless darkness of hopelessness. It's a small great film with plenty of stuff for afterthought.

This early film noir starts off intriguing, bogs down into the slow processing of information, and turns the tables in a surprising way. Back when he was a leading man and not a grumpy old one, Burgess Meredith was quite unique. Here, he is both a quiet accountant and a mystery man being sought for murder. It appears that he had amnesia once before, snapping into his alleged real identity when a construction site briefly knocks him unconscious. A forgotten wife and career interrupts his determination to find out if he's guilty of this murder or not. The sudden return to his old neighborhood reunites him with old girlfriend Claire Trevor and brings him to the scene of the murder where the only one willing to help is a bedridden mute old woman (Adeline De Witt Reynolds) who blinks in certain ways to answer his questions. Intriguing but perplexing, this is unrelated to the 1930 Paramount drama with William Powell and Kay Francis. Meredith is of course excellent, and Trevor also very good, playing several sides to her mysterious femme fatale. Sheldon Leonard is the obsessive detective on Meredith's case, with Jerome Cowan and Frieda Inescort as De Witt's greedy son and daughter-in- law. This is the type of film to try to remain patient with because the denouncement is pretty surprising. While Manhattan seems to be the setting, obviously fictional cross streets off of the main drag adds to the conclusion. Technically superior as well, this starts off high, sags briefly, but concludes way up in outer space with twists that add a true wallop and leave you with a sense of pity for the guilty party.

This film begins with a man named "Frank Thompson" (Burgess Meredith) walking on the street and being hit on the head with some falling objects from a construction site. Although he isn't seriously hurt he suddenly realizes that he has no memory of why he was on that particular street. Neither does he know why his hat and cigarette case have the initials of "D.N." on them. In any case, he eventually goes home only to find that his wife "Virginia Thompson" (Louise Platt) hasn't lived there for several months-even though he supposedly left her there early that morning. When he does finally find her he discovers that he has been gone for about a year and then realizes that he suffers from amnesia and can't remember anything during that time. To make matters even worse, he soon discovers that men with guns are chasing him and he doesn't know why. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting film noir which captured the time period rather well and had a decent twist at the very end. Admittedly, the plot was somewhat clichéd and the actors weren't exactly top-notch but it was still worth the time spent to watch it and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Burgess Meredith does well in this straightforward Noir. It's short sweet and to a good point. Not the greatest example of the genre but (did I say short). A couple of good twists and at times eerie and suspenseful. It's also interesting to see Sheldon Leonard as a hard boiled cop. So, if you are Noir-addicted it is worth the time to watch. It could have been longer, there were some gaps to fill but... I liked it. Especially Burgess.

This movie hits all the buttons for Film Noir, and I'm willing to call it so. there are lots of earlier movies with elements that finally fused together to make Film Noir, and many movies that almost hit it around this time (like THE MALTESE FALCON), but Noir was a movement, and it's not leaders that make movements, it's followers, like Jack Hively, the B director of this one. Burgess Meredith is walking down the street when he is knocked down by some rubble from a demolition job. When he gets up, he finds a cigarette case and hat with the wrong initials, and when he goes home, wife Louise Platt tells him he has been missing for more than a year. He goes to the office to get his job back, only to find Sheldon Leonard in hot pursuit. When he goes back to the part of town where he regained his memory, there Claire Trevor is, telling him to get off the street. He's her man and he's wanted for murder. It's based on one of Cornell Woolrich's overwrought crime novels and, as usual, Burgess Meredith plays a nice, amiable fellow, rather wasted. Claire Trevor has all the good lines, and Sheldon Leonard is fine in a straight role. Despite that voice, meant for Runyonesque hoods, he was a good actor. If the answer to the mystery is milked a bit to make the movie last a few minutes longer, the answer still came as a surprise to me. I expect you'll enjoy it, not only for its early, pure Noir, but for a fairly played, if mildly hysterical, mystery.