Prime Time: The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)

NOTE - please be wary of the horrible colourised version on Prime Video. I am reviewing the film, but went out of my way to find the original B&W presentation after quickly realising how awful the Prime Video version looked.

Written by Seton I. Miller and Philip MacDonald, The Man Who Cheated Himself is one of many typical noir films you can stumble across once you've made you way through most of the more well-known titles. It has a director (Felix E. Feist) who seems to be a safe and competent pair of hands, there's at least one star name (Lee J. Cobb) to help hold your attention, and the thrills and tension are couched in a feeling of familiarity and cosy expectation that things will somehow work out alright in the end . . . for someone.

Cobb plays Lt. Ed Cullen, a man who is about to work more closely with his newly-promoted brother, Andy (John Call). Andy is doubly happy, having done well at work just before his wedding to Janet (Lisa Howard). Ed has his own looming happiness whenever Lois Frazer (Jane Wyatt) separates from her husband, Howard (Harlan Wade), but things abruptly change when Howard returns home to catch his wife being unfaithful to him. Some bullets fly and Ed has to take charge, getting rid of the body and ensuring that everything looks good enough for when the main investigating officer turns up. And wouldn't you know it . . . Andy ends up on the case.

I'm not sure if I'll remember this a year from now. I'm not even sure if I'll remember it next month. I had fun with it while it was on though. It's all about the situation, watching Ed alternate between relaxing and tensing up as he tries to stay one step ahead of the investigation, and there are particularly enjoyable scenes featuring Charles Arnt and Marjorie Bennett as two people who may have inadvertently witnessed some corpse disposal. It's just a shame that things never get more intense, and the third act feels a bit padded out, making the 81-minute runtime feel surprisingly overlong. Feist does well enough with the material, but he undermines everything slightly by refusing to add any edge to any scenes.

Cobb is a great choice for the main role, a man forced to make one bad choice after another, yet also doing his best to protect everyone he cares about. Call has to play his part with a bit more sappiness and innocence throughout the first half, especially in scenes that allow him to be loved up and happy alongside the lovely Howard, but he's easy enough to keep rooting for as he skirts closer and closer to a danger he is often oblivious to. Wyatt is just fine, but it's a shame that there are only two quick moments that allow her to show any sharp edges.

Like so many others of this ilk, there are obvious reasons why this isn't included alongside the classics of the era. It's still worth a watch though, especially when you have worked your way through many of the more obvious noir titles from the '40s and '50s. 

7/10

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Dead By Dawn 2016: Decay (2015)

The more I think about Decay, the more I realise that I actually quite enjoyed it. That's mainly due to the central performance by Rob Zabrecky, but it's also thanks to writer-director Joseph Wartnerchaney's ability to deftly blend the more potentially repulsive moments with strangely uplifting imagery (perhaps best exemplified in a scene which has the main character lovingly bathing a young woman who isn't quite as pretty as he views her, to put it mildly).

Zabrecky plays Jonathan, a man plagued by some severe OCD and other mental health issues. As some flashbacks show, this all stems from some poor treatment at the hands of his unstable mother (Lisa Howard). When Jonathan walks in on two young girls trespassing in his home this starts off a chain of events that takes him on a journey that may just leave him feeling quite a bit better while some other people start to feel worse and worse.

Wartnerchaney has taken some dark subject matter here (death and decay, obviously, but there are also wince-inducing moments of child cruelty) and made something surprisingly amusing and, at times, affecting. It's far from perfect, with the 98 minute runtime feeling much longer and a few tediously obvious "revelations" during the third act, but what's on display is impressive enough to make this talent, in terms of both the director and his leading man, worth keeping an eye out for in future.

Zabrecky is quiet throughout most of the film. He's also suitably twitchy when he needs to be, which is fairly often. Although he's not the only person onscreen, and not in every scene, this feels very muc like a one man show at times. Which makes his performance one that I don't mind heaping some praise on. Whether you end up liking the film or hating it, it's hard to deny how the performance from Zabrecky keeps you onside long after you should be sticking around.

Although it seems to have enough substance to it, the biggest problem with Decay may be that it just feels a bit too flimsy for a full feature. There are certainly one or two sequences that you can't help feeling would have made great subject matter for short films. But I don't think that should stop people from checking it out. Even if you may end up clockwatching before the end credits roll.

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6/10