Gig is a Cop

Johnny Kelly (Gig Young)  works as a cop in Chicago, the City That Never Sleeps (1953). His father Sgt. John Kelly, Sr. (Otto Hulett ) is a police officer as well, and Johnny joined the force at his father's urging. But Johnny is sick of it; he feels underpaid and over-worked. His mother-in-law demeans his low earnings - his wife, Kathy (Paula Raymond) earns more than he does. Johnny has also become enamored of Sally "Angel Face" Connors (Mala Powers), a nightclub performer who is willing to become his lover IF he leaves town with her. So, when Penrod Biddel (Edward Arnold) offers Johnny a large sum of money to set up Hayes Stewart (William Talman), Johnny is tempted, but declines, as Biddel expects him to do it while on duty. In spite of his unwillingness to become involved with Biddel and Stewart, circumstances force him back into the case.  

This was another Noir City DC offering with which I was unfamiliar. I'll deal with the one negative issue of the story first - the attitude that Kathy Kelly is somehow an unsupportive wife because she gets a decent salary is annoying in this day and age. When she tells her father-in-law that she's going to stay home and live on Johnny's salary, there were groans in the audience. Putting that aside, the film is engaging, and keeps you guessing throughout - there are a lot of twists to the intricate plot.

 

Eddie Muller has called this one of the top 25 noir films (TCM article); it's an unusual film in that it told in a documentary style, with a little bit of the supernatural thrown in. The narrative voice of Joe Chicago (Chill Wills), Johnny's partner for this one, fateful day, gives the film an eerie, out of this world effect. 

Edward Arnold is good as the wealthy man with a young wife he adores - Lydia, played with her usual air of disdain by the wonderful Marie Windsor. They are, not surprisingly, an unlikely couple, so it's no surprised when we discover that Lydia is having an affair with Hayes Steward.  With his rumbling voice and bigger-than-life demeanor, Mr. Arnold brings a touch of menace to Biddel.

Until he was cast as Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason, William Talman seemed to have a career in which he was always a psychotic villain. Hayes Stewart is no exception to this assumption. He's a despicable individual - he's been working for Biddel as a henchman, doing the dirty jobs that Biddel is unwilling to do himself. Now that Biddel has found Hayes to be too big for his britches and wants him taken down a peg, we get to watch the two men turn on one another. Mr. Talman makes his character frightening.

Mala Powers is an actress who never gets the respect she deserves. She's wonderful as Angel Face, a woman who's dissatisfied with her life, and is determined to change it. Her relationships with the two men in her life - Johnny and Gregg Warren (Wally Cassell) are complicated, and Ms. Powers is able to show the complex feelings she has for these two very different men. As her attitudes change, Ms.Powers creates a character who is not fickle, but torn between love and the need to live a better life.

This was Tom Poston's first billed appearance (AFI catalog) - he only appears for a few minutes, but it was fun to see this familiar face as a police officer working with John Kelly, Sr. Though Mr. Poston did do many films, it was television that saw his best work, most notably as George Utley on Newhart. 

Gig Young is the key player in this film, and he is powerful as the conflicted policeman. You have to sympathize with Johnny, and Mr. Young does a good job in making you understand that Johnny is basically a decent man. The scenes in which he listens to the carping voice of his mother-in-law, followed by an offer from Biddel to do some work while on the job, set up the discords within this man who wants to do his job, but is tired of being considered second-rate because of it.

Some of the background shots were filmed in Chicago; the lighting and the cinematography by John L. Russell is properly atmospheric; the action of the film is set in one night. The director, John H. Auer, had an extensive career, primarily in low-budget movies, and accentuates the seedy nature of the City and of Johnny's job.

The New York Times review was lackluster when it was released, but the film's reputation has grown through the years. Martin Scorcese has called it one of his favorite films, (WBEZ radio) and assisted in efforts to get it restored and re-released.

I'll leave you with a clip from the film: