Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

kidboots Calling this movie a noir is drawing a long bow in my opinion but it is a terrific little movie whose compact length keeps it tight and exciting. Gig Young, one of the few "name" stars in this movie, was excellent as a young public attorney, Bennett, who, along with his father, a retired policeman, proceeds to hunt the man (or woman) down as he tries to unravel an eight year old murder mystery.Bill Jackson (James Anderson) a dishwasher at a local bar thwarts a robbery and reluctantly finds himself a hero with his picture in the papers. He has good reason to be reluctant - eight years before, as Richard Kincaid, he escaped from police custody where he was being held for murder. When he is re-arrested he still maintains his innocence and his story of a chance meeting with a group of friends at a bar has a ring of truth. Bennett believes him and attempts to track down the 7 people with varying results. Mr. Popularity (John Kellogg) has turned into a hopeless alcoholic, his adoring wife (Mary Anderson) is still adoring but finds it safer to lead a new life under a different name. The college athlete (Willard Parker) has returned from the war a blinded veteran and is now a book binder and his girl (Cleo Moore) has died - or so he has been told!!! The last couple, the quiet ones - she has moved away and Walter (Gerald Mohr) is now wealthy and his present wife was the young wife of the murdered man. Kincaid was accused by the man of having an affair with his wife and he then hastily left the party before the murder took place.I admit there was a bit of a problem keeping track of who was who. For a start they all actually looked as though they had aged 8 years and because none of the actors and actresses ever became household names it was hard to tell them apart. There were exceptions - Gerald Mohr's resemblance to Humphrey Bogart helped him become a familiar face in 1950s movies and TV, he always played the slick shyster. Cleo Moore started her career as a blonde bombshell in several of the Joe MacDoakes shorts and for a while, in the 50s, had the dubious honour of being Hugo Haas' muse in movies like "Bait", "One Girl's Confession" etc. And if that is not the notorious Lila Leeds as one of the prison visitors, I'll eat my hat!!!

max von meyerling Hunt The Man Down is a routine little noir of slightly more than an hour in length but rich in its characterizations so not a total waste of time. It's a strange combination of Call Northside 777 and Chandler's Farewell My Lovely which was filmed as Murder My Sweet. A short order cook in a one arm joint thwarts an armed robber and his photo in the paper reveals him to be an escaped murderer who escaped his trial 12 years previously just before the verdict was to be read. Now if you ignore the plot hole that a man wanted and nearly convicted of murder and facing the gas chamber would stick around Los Angeles you can watch him as he passively is rearrested. He draws Gig Young as his public defender who, though initially skeptical of his client's innocence, goes about proving it. The writer was a hack who slid into TV series easily as did the veteran hack director, George Archainbaud who had been making "B" pictures and western programmers as long ago as 1917. The cinematographer was a genius, Nick Musuraca, and the playing by a phalanx of character actors, most of whom I believe were radio regulars, including the estimable Iris Adrian, make this a very enjoyable little picture. Veteran oh-I-know-him villain Gerald Mohr, who had been in hundreds of radio plays and series and who was the stentorian voice over at the beginning of TV's The Lone Ranger, many of which were also directed by Archainbaud, makes a rare benign appearance.It doesn't hurt that there is a lot of filming done on the 1950 streets of Los Angeles. And not just the usual recognizable landmarks but places with a breathtaking ordinariness that are somehow even more interesting than seeing an exterior of the Brown Derby. The film can't pretend that its anything other than a piece of work. By 1949 20 % of films were independently produced. By 1957 it was up to 57%. Pushed by the Paramount consent agreement and headed for TV, cut price films were being churned out. It's merely a coincidence that Hunt the Man Down was made in the middle of the noir era. A few years later and it would have been a cheap western or sci fi horror picture. Hunt The Man Down shares many of the budgetary virtues of other noirs: concise storytelling, brisk pacing, location shooting, lack of distracting sub-plots and themes, no nonsense acting. The cinematography is wonderful which is consistent with classic noirs and the direction is uninspired but competent which is all that's needed for a decent noir. The writing is passable because, as they say, the writer stole from the best. There is one superb line, however. A witness is in a bar drinking and Gig Young's father is trying to get him away by promising him better liqueur and the man agrees, saying "You're right, I've drunk better alcohol out of compasses". A jewel in a dung heap. Hunt the Man Down was also made during the black list era and what better a match-up than an outlaw writer and a cheap producer. I don't know if the writer was a front or if the script was subjected to a polish job by a blacklisted writer. Only time will tell.The courtroom denouement is more than just a little over the top but its all wrapped up so neatly and so quickly so where's the complaint? And Gig Young's father, a retired one armed police detective, is played by Harry Shannon who also played the father of Charles Foster Kane. If you love noirs you will enjoy this film but if you expect profound cinematic art you will be disappointed.

dougdoepke This RKO release is typical of the routine second-feature fare that TV would soon replace. It's a pretty pedestrian account of an innocent man (Anderson) being cleared of a murder charge by his Public Defender. There's quite a number of suspects, at the same time, the script muddles them in confusing fashion that takes away the guessing game. Young more or less walks through the undemanding role of attorney-defender, while the usually villainous Anderson gets a rare shot at a sympathetic role. Anderson is a familiar face from that era, especially from the popular Dragnet series. He's one of those unheralded actors with a strong presence that could spice up the dullest screenplay. Catch the early bar scene where he shows his trademark moody snarl, otherwise he's pretty much wasted. There's one scene, the "moment of truth" in the courtroom, where director Archainbaud rises above the script with a dollying shot of the unhinged Rolene (Balenda). It's a sudden, chilling camera move, and Balenda does well with the histrionics. Otherwise, this is the sort law and order melodrama that would soon be done on, say, Mr. District Attorney (1954).

frankfob Low-budget murder mystery about a Public Defender trying to clear his client of a murder the man had been convicted of 12 years previously. Complicating things is the fact that he escaped custody after his conviction, but the PD believes the man to be innocent of the murder and works to find the real killer. Gig Young as the PD is okay, and James Anderson as the convicted killer is actually pretty good, but the picture as a whole just rambles along with little suspense, and despite some good character actors in the cast, the performances are generally below par. Director George Archainbaud was apparently more at home making westerns--he was churning out Gene Autry's TV series at Columbia at around this time--but even if he had tried to inject any liveliness into this picture, the hack script would have defeated his attempts. Average at best, the film climaxes with a courtroom scene that's straight out of an episode of "Perry Mason" and is just as predictable.