Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Hollywoodshack Brian Donlevy and Helen Walker do quite well in Impact, which I recently saw in a longer version on Retro TV network. But some of the characters in the second half seem unrealistic. Ella Raines plays a female auto mechanic, not a likely occupation in the forties, even when Rosie the Riveter was popular. It just seemed to be a plot device to help Walter Williams recover from his amnesia.Charles Coburn plays a police detective, certainly a change from the chubby character parts in Frank Capra comedies. The musical score has flaws. I'm not sure it was in the original film, but it cues to the most sweetest and romantic tone while Irene Williams plots to murder her husband so she can elope with another man, and continues to do so after her scheme is revealed and she tries to cover it up.

Cristi_Ciopron This timeless masterpiece is a sweeping epic drama, played by Donlevy (here resembling Gabin or Lancaster) and Ella Raines. The supporting players are exquisite: especially Ch. Coburn as the shrewd Quincy, and Anna May Wong as the witness who went into hiding and is unwilling to testify. Ph. Ahn has a bit part. The movie shows its audiences bourgeois life, small town life, and courtroom drama, even some tasteful Chinatown atmosphere, and everything with a sovereign neutrality and impartiality; and it has enough of everything. The occasional humor is suitable and authentically funny. And the scene of the crash looks awesome. In movies such as this, you can see that the late '40s style was indeed the '30s style come of age. Also, this one has no fistfights, no gun-play, nothing coarse, raw or bizarre.Ch. Coburn's role delights endlessly, and his stylish performance made me eager to see him show up again.As the runaway victim of a murder attempt, then as the mechanic, Donlevy finds that breathtaking style that Gabin mastered. He resembles Gabin, and also Lancaster.Ella Raines has the highest class.The players honored a movie that in its turn honored them. This one has been made in a spirit of magnanimity.

messages-lc This is absolutely NOT film noir. It's filled with romance and monologues on hope and doing the right thing, not the gritty, pessimistic ambiance of the urban jungle. In fact, it's almost after- school-special-like. Just because a movie has a crime as its major plot point does not make it film noir!That said, I was at first mildly impressed with this film. The poetic justice initially visited upon Mrs. Williams was genuinely clever. The venomous defense attorney was a nice touch. The trickery used by the protagonist to outwit his cheating, murderous wife was interesting.Then, all of a sudden, the film (like others in this faux-film-noir genre - see Kansas City Confidential) was ruined by a needless romantic sub-plot. Instead of darkly, cynically punishing his murderous wife, Walter Williams listens to his new belle and has a change of heart. Her speech wasn't even that convincing: "But that doesn't give you the right to take justice into your own hands."In fact, his wife's attempted murder DOES give him the right to mete poetic justice. That denouement would have made this film interesting. It would have made it dark. It would have made it film noir. Instead, the film's creative potential was sacrificed for a dopey romantic subplot. I'm not impressed.

Alex da Silva Brian Donlevy (Walter) is duped into taking his wife Helen Walker's (Irene) 'cousin' to another town. They never make it. In the only scene of any kind of impact, a car crash determines the course of this film.The acting in this film is slightly sub-par from everyone except Helen Walker who steals the show in all her scenes. The character of Brian Donlevy hasn't been written very well. We see him as a man totally in control at work who is confident, determined and bullying. For him to be involved in a marriage where he revels in the name "Softy" is a complete nonsense, unless it was a sarcastic nickname. Experience shows that he would either be a controlling monster in his home life as well, or prone to episodes of sexual humiliation where he can relinquish control. A permanent label of "Softy" is just ridiculous. His character is slightly limp and frustrating during this film. He is NOT a softy so why does he act like one? Mechanic Ella Raines has been given absolutely no character whatsoever to explore so she comes across as rather dull. Considering that we spend over half the film in the company of these two, not surprisingly, the film drags. Charles Coburn (Lt Tom Quincy) is usually good value in any film, but he falls short by putting on an Irish accent. He can't do it convincingly and he can't maintain it. Why did he bother? Aside from the characters, we have a very unconvincing love story between Donlevy and Raines. Not only does short, chubby Donlevy not have the looks required for a young woman like Ella, but he is from her dad's generation and would not get a look in. We also get a nice piece of Chinese racism with the characters of maid Anna May Wong (Su Lin) and her uncle Philip Ahn (Ah Sing). His name might as well be "Ah So" and both these characters spout Chinese wisdom at every opportune moment because that's what Chinese people do! The story scores points for an interesting beginning, albeit with an annoying Donlevy leading us through the proceedings, but it then falls flat and I'm afraid we are left with not much of an impact at all. It's watchable but not recommended.