DVD Raw Deal
After the success of T-Men, ambitious poverty-row studio Eagle-Lion reunited director Anthony Mann with cinematographer John Alton and beefy star Dennis O'Keefe for this change of pace, a haunting revenge noir about an escaped criminal, his loyal girlfriend (Claire Trevor), and a lovely legal aide (Marsha Hunt) he drags along as a hostage... or perhaps something more. Raymond Burr is the sleazy, sadistic gangster who double-crossed O'Keefe; in the film's most memorable scene he lashes out at a clumsy party girl by tossing a tureen of flaming cherries jubilee on the hapless woman (the scene may well have inspired Fritz Lang in The Big Heat). Trevor narrates in a cold, deliberate, yet hauntingly effective tone, which matches the foggy mist that envelopes the characters from the initial escape (a brilliant exercise in minimalism), through the getaway down a wooded coastal highway, to the finale on the San Francisco docks. Mann provides his usual undercurrent of brutal violence (a fight in a taxidermy showroom in which the antlers of a mounted buck become a lethal weapon), but the film is pervaded by a sense of doomed romanticism not seen in Mann's films before or since, and the volatile romantic triangle adds a further edge to the moody tension. Rife with B movie dialogue, the film may come off stilted and campy to some viewers, but taken on its own stylized conventions it's a minor masterpiece of low-budget film noir. --Sean Axmaker |
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Review(s): DVD Raw Deal | |
| FORGOTTEN NOIR GEM NEW ON DVD |
Originally released in 1948, "Raw Deal" is the story of a bitter, tough gangster (Dennis O'Keefe again) who seeks revenge after being framed and sent to the big house. With the help of an innocent woman he seduces, the ex con carries out his murderous scheme of vengeance, eventually coming face to face with the psychopathic pyromaniacal creep (Raymond Burr) responsible for his jail time. John Ireland, Marsha Hunt, Chili Williams and Claire Trevor co-star -- with Trevor responsible for the terrific, fatalistic voice over narration. Mann's direction is as tight and stylized as the screenplay. The often low angle black and white photography by John Alton, who also did "T Men," is a perfect match for this tale of dark justice. A very young, surprisingly trim, Raymond Burr is a standout as the bad guy. In the scene that introduces him, he gleefully burns the ear of one of his flunkies with a cigarette lighter. It's a cruel joke and Burr obviously relishes the role of the sadistic heavy. The quality of the full frame print is pretty good. The sound could be a tad cleaner. The extras are limited to some great noir trailers and "video liner notes" by mystery writer Max Collins. Definitely entertaining and better than might be expected.
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I am honored to be the first reviewer of this film! This is definitely a "B" noir flick in terms of the look and feel, but the script is taut and the acting is tough as nails.Some of the visuals (shot by John Alton) are as dark and as well-composed as any in Noirville--great low angle shots especially! See a pre-Perry Mason/Ironside Raymond Burr as a power-mad pyromaniac, and John Ireland as his hapless flunkie. And of course Claire Trevor as the co-dependent floozie following her man all the way to the gutter. Her laconic, downbeat voice-overs are superb, and set the emotional tone for the movie throughout. I had never seen the lead actors before--Dennis O'Keefe and Marsha Hunt, but found their portrayals quite compelling. The love story was a bit soapy but tolerable. The quality of the disc by VCI was very good in terms of the picture quality, though sound was a bit muffled. Some fun extras, including trailers from several other unrelated noir films, like Impact, and a really cool behind the scenes interview with Sinatra, Preminger, Kim Novack on the set of Man With the Golden Arm--what these are doing on this disc is beyond me, but it is a nice non sequitor nonetheless. Also, a film critic does a little analysis of Anthony Mann's style, and it is pretty darn interesting. See the companion DVD, T-Men, also an A. Mann film, but Raw Deal is the Real Deal!!
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| Brilliantly Redefines Noire -- Mann at his best |
Anthony Mann's films -- whether they are Noire, War Film, Western, or Costume Epic -- are all about one thing: characters doomed to self-destruction. In that light "Raw Deal" is probably his best, because here *everyone* is going down.O'Keefe escapes from prison, bent on collecting his dough from Crime Boss Raymond Burr, and leaving the country. But on the way he becomes trapped between the woman who broke him out, and the beautiful parole officer they kidnapped. Meanwhile the sadistic pyromaniac Burr has sent killer John Ireland to make sure O'Keefe meets a sticky end. "Raw Deal" starts as an exercise in classic film-noire style: tough-guy dialogue, gun-play, and simple low-key sets. Forunately (and unlike most directors), Mann is aware that these are just *noire motifs*. So rather than produce a cliche by playing *to* them, Mann (and his collaborators Alton and Sawtell) produces a masterpiece by playing *against* them. What would normally be a conventional revenge flick, becomes a complicated emotional journey, in the guise of an equally meandering -- occaisionally surreal -- road trip across post-war middle-America. John Alton photographs it beautifully (the Greg Toland of B-Movies): a fight in a bait-shop takes place under a grid of black fishing nets; a woman's face reflected in the face of a ships' clock (also under a net... hmmmm); a forest at night; an alleyway choked with fog -- all of it exquisitely illuminated (or NOT illuminated, depending on your lighting philosophy). And instead of the standard -- Dum-Da-Dum-Dum Dragnet score, composer Paul Sawtel (the Bernard Herrman of B-Movies) gives it a quivering, supernatural flavour -- with a Theramin. The cast is perfect, particularly Ireland whose moral ambivalence can't conceal his distain for Burr and respect for O'Keefe. And Whit Bissel does a run throught in one of the films more surreal moments. As i said before, the characters in a Mann film are always trapped by their own weaknesses. This is a standard B-movie/noir device, usually explained to the audience by a cynical Private-I with words like lust, betrayal, murder, etc. etc. What sets "Raw Deal" apart from the ordinary Noire fodder is that we don't just observe, we sympathise. In "Raw Deal" the trap isn't "greed" or "lust" -- it's loyalty, devotion, duty, and self sacrifice. Anthony Mann's characters are doomed by their virtues, not their vices. And they take us with them.
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