SHORT CUT TO HELL (1957)

In Oakland, California, a young totsy walks into a hotel room occupied by young tough Kyle (Robert Ivers, pictured) and his cat. She has flirting on her mind, but he shoos her away and eventually heads downtown to the city engineering building where he calmly shoots a building inspector and his secretary who were about to expose some shoddy engineering problems in city buildings. He steals incriminating documents, then visits a man named Bahrwell who takes the documents and pays Kyle for the killings. But then Bahrwell double crosses Kyle by paying him in bills which have serial numbers which he has reported as stolen to the police. When he tries to pay his hotel bill with the bad money, he is reported but gets away before the cops can catch him. Looking for revenge, he hops a train to Los Angeles where Bahrwell's company is located. Also on the train is Glory (Georgann Johnson), a nightclub singer who happens to be dating Stan (William Bishop), an Oakland cop. Kyle tries to steal a five from Glory's purse; she catches him but takes pity on him and they start to bond. Bahrwell is also on the train and reports Kyle's presence to the police. They stop the train, but Kyle and Glory get away. In Los Angeles, A.T., Bharwell's boss, gets involved, as does Stan. After a series of captures and escapes and chases, Kyle and Glory end up trapped in an aluminum factory, finding refuge in an unused bomb shelter, leading to a climax that satisfies both the audience and the Production Code.

This is based on the 1942 noir film This Gun for Hire, itself based on a novel by Graham Greene. It’s a B-film adaptation, directed by James Cagney, who gives a brief on-screen introduction praising the two stars, both newcomers, neither of whom would go on to great heights. Indeed, Ivers seems to be sleepwalking through his part, but I realized eventually that this was a legitimate interpretation of the character—he unemotionally tells Glory about his various hit jobs but gets emotional when he has to kill a cat in the bomb shelter that could give away their location. Johnson is OK but has little charisma, though she does develop a believable chemistry with Ivers. Bishop gets top billing as Stan the cop and he's fine, but we don't really get to know him. Jacques Aubuchon, channeling the better Sydney Greenstreet, plays Bahrwell with some gay subtext (at one point, he claims to be a show tune fan), and Richard Hale plays A.T. as an evil Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life. Cagney's direction is a bit slack until the end when the climax works nicely. No classic but interesting in fits and starts, and it's a legit film noir. [Blu-ray]