Tales of the Easily Distracted: Ella Raines

As seen in THE DARK PAGES!

“Impact, the force with which two lives come together. Sometimes for good, sometimes for evil.”

Brian Donlevy in a film noir? I’m there! Brian Donlevy in a film noir directed by Arthur Lubin, the gent who brought us the Francis the Talking Mule movies and TV’s Mr. Ed?! Um, oh my, look at the time, gotta go! Normally that would have been my reaction, but you see, I actually came across United Artists’ Impact on TCM early one Saturday morning, and I was hooked. I sincerely apologize for my skepticism, and I assure my fellow film noir/suspense film fans that you’ll be on the edge of your seat watching this twisty yet surprisingly poignant film noir.

I first saw Brian Donlevy’s movies when I was a kid, watching Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass science fiction thrillers with my older brother: The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass II: Enemy From Space, a.k.a The Creeping Unknown (1957). We of Team Bartilucci, especially my husband Vinnie, first got to know and love Donlevy in the movie versions of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass science-fiction novels, directed in England by Val Guest. Admittedly, Donlevy’s portrayal of scholarly British scientist Dr. Bernard Quatermass goes through considerable changes, probably to attract us excitable Yanks. Vinnie gets a kick out of these particular flicks; he feels that half the fun of Donlevy’s portrayal is that viewers half-expect Quatermass to just punch the evil aliens’ lights out, saving the world in no time!

Impact's opening scene! All this, and proper spelling, too!

Over the course of Donlevy’s 46-year career, the two-fisted star’s 101 films and TV appearances included the 1942 version of The Glass Key; Preston Sturges’ The Great McGinty (1940); and Beau Geste (1939), for which Donlevy earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor as sadistic Sergeant Markoff. Impact shows us a more vulnerable side of Donlevy, and I, for one, like it! His career and colorful life could fill a blog, a book, or even a movie of its own, including Donlevy’s war record and valor in battle (14-year-old Donlevy lied about his age to join the Army). He performed in stage plays, and then acted in both silent and sound films. His career continued to soar with such box-office hits as The Remarkable Andrew; In Old Chicago; Wake Island; I Wanted Wings; and Nightmare (which I’ve never seen, and want to. Paging TCM! The versatile Donlevy was even a model for illustrator J.C. Leyendecker!

You’ve heard of sister acts? Well, Impact was a brother act! Meet the Popkin Brothers:

Leo C. Popkin (1914—2011) produced D.O.A. (1950); The Well (1951); And Then There Were None (1945). In fact, the Popkin brothers actually produced two movie versions of that beloved Agatha Christie thriller, first published in the UK in 1939 under the now-decidedly un-PC title Ten Little Niggers—swiftly retitled to And Then There Were None for the 1945 movie. It was also remade in 1965 as Ten Little Indians. Heck, we could write a whole article about both of those movies, but we’ll save that for some other time!
Harry M. Popkin (1906—1991) co-produced both D.O.A; The Second Woman (1950); and The Thief (1952), the latter being especially memorable because its stars, including Ray Milland and Rita Gam, never say a word throughout this entire thriller! But that, too, is an article for some another time!

Impact seems to be one of those movies people either love or hate — at least if you were New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther. Crowther often seemed to run hot and cold; either he loved a film with every fiber of his being, or utterly despised any film he deemed unworthy for one reason or another. Then again, some movies have a few flaws, yet they’re nevertheless riveting and entertaining because the story and its characters just find a good home in your gut and stay there. Well, that’s how it is with me and Impact!

Life is a circus at Walt and Irene Williams' home,
the way she puts Walt through hoops!

The Shadow knows — not! The tragicomedy of deadly errors begins with the unsuspecting Su Lin!

When we say Impact, we don’t mean aching molars! Screenwriters Dorothy Reid (a.k.a. Dorothy Davenport, from the renowned Davenport acting family) and Jay Dratler (Laura; The Dark Corner), working from Dratler’s original story, have crafted a twisty tale of illicit love, greed, duplicity, misunderstandings, and murder. Our hero, Walter Williams (Donlevy) is a San Francisco executive and self-made man. Walt sure seems to have it all: a big, thriving company, a gorgeous apartment with a posh sunken living room at the swanky Brocklebank Apartments (where Kim Novak’s Madeleine Elster lived in Vertigo) and a beautiful wife he adores, Irene (the multitalented Helen Walker from Nightmare Alley; Murder, He Says; The Big Combo; the 1945 version of Brewster’s Millions; Call Northside 777. She's had a dramatic life, too, but that's for another blog post). He dotes on Irene, who nicknames Walt “Softy.” Proud of his latest business coup, he describes it to Irene word for word from his recent business meeting, declaring, “Either I get what I want, or you get another boy!” Uh-oh! All aboard for a tragicomedy of grievous errors that plunge our man into peril, starting with the Williams’ housekeeper, Su Lin Chung (the fabulous Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, from Shanghai Express; The Thief of Bagdad; Dangerous to Know). Poor Su Lin overheard Walt’s loud voice (this is Brian Donlevy, after all!), followed immediately by a large glass vase accidentally knocked over violently in the wrong place at the wrong time! How was Su Lin supposed to know that Walt was simply explaining his business triumph to Irene, having the bad luck to drop the vase and the tea service? If only they’d used paper or plastic cups!

The lovely Irene is suitable for framing—or
killing the unsuspecting Walt!

Clumsy and expensive accidents aside, Irene sure seems to have it made, with a rich, loving husband who spoils her rotten! Alas, “rotten” is the operative word: the ungrateful Irene has a sweetie on the sly, Jim Torrance (Tony Barrett from Born to Kill; the 1940s Dick Tracy movies; and many TV appearances, including Peter Gunn and 77 Sunset Strip). Irene and Jim have cooked up an evil plot in which Irene stays home with an alleged toothache while her “Cousin Jim” (kissing cousins indeed!) furtively slits the tires and takes over the driving to kill Walt in a car crash, leaving the wicked lovebirds living wealthily ever after. If you ask me, I’d say Irene’s got the nomination for Ingrate of the Year all sewn up!

Aimless chitchat about cousins from Irene’s side of the family gradually gets Walt’s Spidey-Sense tingling a bit, with Jim’s little white lies about being in Italy during the war, and family info that “Cousin Jim” should have known. Alas, Walt gets wise too late; as soon as they’re alone in the dark fixing that flat on that lonely highway cliff, “Cousin Jim” snaps, “This is from Irene and me, sucker!” He klongs Walt on the head and rolls our poor unconscious-and-assumed-dead hero down the steep incline. But oops! What’s the matter Jimbo, can’t find your keys after all that hard work? See, you should always make sure you have your keys on you before you flee a crime scene! Now Jim’s the “sucker”— a charbroiled sucker after he smashes into a huge high-octane gas truck! *Tsk* *tsk,* what amateurs! It galls me to say it, but where are Phyllis Dietrichson and Walter Neff from Double Indemnity when you need them?

"This is from Irene and me, sucker!"
(Actual dialogue from the film! Poor Walt!)

I sympathize with Walt for being shocked and heartbroken, after being set up and almost murdered, and yet it’s kind of refreshing to see Walt’s more vulnerable side. Poor Walt; it’s not often you see a strong man like Brian Donlevy cry! After the fatal-to-Jim truck accident, (good riddance, homicidal creep!), Walt can’t help but be shell-shocked and humiliated for a while, kinda like Dan McGinty in his hobo days. To borrow a line from Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, it’s kind of painful for a man to discover he’s been a chump. Eventually, he finds himself in the town of Larkspur (it’s a real town in Idaho, filmed on location). There, Walt meets Marsha Peters (Ella Raines of Phantom Lady; Tall in the Saddle; Hail the Conquering Hero), a pretty young war widow with cat-like green eyes and a warm personality. Mars may not need women, but Marsha and the town of Larkspur sure need assistants for her garage in these post-war days! Walt introduces himself as Bill Walker, and shows Marsha he’s got the right stuff, car-wise. She hires him forthwith, and soon they're playfully calling each other “Boss.” Over time, the chip on Walt's shoulder erodes, and he and Marsha grow close, albeit in a chaste, wholesome way (hey, our Marsha’s a nice gal, not an evil lying femme fatale like Irene!). Even Marsha’s mom (veteran actress May Marsh from Three Godfathers; Birth of a Nation; the Michael Shayne mystery Blue, White, and Perfect) accepts Walt like one of the family. Walt still keeps newspaper clippings of his near-fatal accident and further news on the case (announced on the radio by columnist Sheilah Graham, no less!). Can Walt be big enough to work past the agony Irene has put him through? I’m a gentle soul, but if I were Walt, I’d sure be itching to punch Irene’s lights out! Where’s Donlevy’s two-fisted Professor Quatermass when you need him?

Jim Torrance has monogrammed cuffs, thanks to Irene.
Guess he’s too chicken to get tattoos!

As time passes and Walt gradually feels more like his can-do self (though I bet Walt will never use “Softy” as a pet name again, not even to a puppy!), the tables get turned on Irene. The car crash and Walt’s apparent death was front-page news, and Lt. Quincy (no, not Jack Klugman, but Charles Coburn of The More The Merrier; The Lady Eve; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) takes charge of the investigation. Quincy’s sleuthing uncovers the fancy monogrammed handkerchiefs and cuffs Irene had made for Jim, as well as the moving van where the injured Walt hid with his briefcase.

Oh, how tables can turn! Three months have passed, and Irene is charged with conspiring to kill Walt, with Jim Torrence still missing! After all the agita Walt’s been through, he decides to simply let evil Irene take the rap; who’d blame him? Eye for an eye, and all that! Ah, but Walt’s conscience starts needling him, with some gentle help from Marsha. He fesses up to his past and is ready to leave in order to keep Marsha out of it. Instead, Marsha convinces Walt to return to San Francisco together to substantiate Walt’s account of murder and woe. Well, they say no good deed goes unpunished: the police confront Irene with Walt, and being a poor sport, Irene immediately accuses Walt of killing Jim, claiming that she and Walt had argued after he refused to give her a divorce, and Su Lin could back her up! Poor Marsha is devastated at this turn of events for the man she loves, but Walt assures her he’s gained so much from her, and he wants to believe in the same values Marsha does.

"What a nightmare! I dreamed Irene & her cuz
were gonna kill me! It's real?! Calgon, take me away!"

Luckily, in the great tradition of Phantom Lady, The Dark Corner, and other classic Women Who Save Their Man’s Bacon, Marsha and Lt. Quincy search for Su Lin on the streets of San Francisco (where are Karl Malden, Michael Douglas, and Quinn Martin when you need them?). Will Su Lin work up her courage and talk? Watch and enjoy this San Francisco treat for yourself!

*Snif* thanks for finding my monogrammed hanky, Lt. Quincy. These
hankies look ridiculous, but they're all I have to remember Walt by, along with a zillion bucks."