Raw Deal (USA, 1948) 79 min B&W DIR: Anthony Mann. PROD: Edward Small. SCR: Leopold Atlas, John C. Higgins. STY: Arnold B. Armstrong, Audrey Ashley. MUSIC: Paul Sawtell. DOP: John Alton. CAST: Dennis O’Keefe, Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt, John Ireland, Raymond Burr, Curt Conway, Chili Williams, Richard Fraser, Whit Bissell. (Eagle-Lion Films)
Although perhaps director Anthony Mann is best known today for the tough 1950s Universal westerns with Jimmy Stewart, he is also well remembered for his string of late 40s noir, which remain intense, visually impressive films made on low budgets. Raw Deal may be the best of these, and certainly one of Mann’s finest achievements over all. The story is not only suspenseful, but with John Alton as the cinematographer, the visuals are often breathtaking, with his expressive lighting. One’s memories of Mann’s best noirs are visual: the dreamlike canvases of John Alton, or the sudden bursts of violence.
In this revenge drama, Joe Sullivan (Dennis O’Keefe) breaks out of prison with the help of his girlfriend Pat (Claire Trevor, who made a career in playing dames who fall in love with the wrong man). A woman named Ann (Marsha Hunt), who corresponded with Joe in jail, is used by his ex-gang leader Coyle (Raymond Burr) to get to Joe, but in a twist of events, she shoots henchman Fantail (John Ireland) in the back. Joe goes gunning for Coyle, and this bizarre love triangle culminates in a fiery finale.
Coyle has a fascination with fire that borders on fetishistic, as seen when he uses a flame to disfigure a waitress who perturbs him (foreshadowing the infamous coffee-hurling scene in The Big Heat, with Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame). There is a perverse symbolism when just before Sullivan shows up at his door, Coyle puts his hand over a flame. As the film ends with with Coyle’s apartment in flames; one could say, the gangster has achieved the ultimate climax. As sadistic as Coyle may be, he is upstaged by John Ireland in a great supporting role, whose henchman seems to be more on the ball than Coyle!
The most spellbinding scene features Pat, who knows that Ann is in danger. Out of jealously, she refuses to tell Sullivan, because she is desperate to keep him away from the woman. However, in a half-lit scene, the clock in the background figures heavily into her conscience, and finally, she breaks down to tell Sullivan the truth about Ann, and thereby seals her fate to have lost him.