Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

PodBill Just what I expected

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

vert001 TIGHT SPOT features an A-list cast, however none were A-list at the time, with Brian Keith about to rise to solid star status while Ginger Rogers and Edward G. Robinson were on the downhill side of heights that Keith would never approach. Which is not to say that anyone's abilities had seriously flagged. TIGHT SPOT remains a B-picture, but the performances elevate it to a strong 'B', and that's a lot better than some dreary high budget production. Is it a noir? Columbia likes to think so, and the Brian Keith character makes this a reasonable claim, but the movie centers around Ginger Rogers' Sheri Conley, and Sheri isn't a femme fatale, not by a long shot.Ginger's performance is rather controversial. Sheri is an over-the-hill model who appears to have taken as her own role models the kinds of brassy dames common in the films of her adolescence and played by actresses such as Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell and...well, Ginger Rogers. It would be a natural thing for someone like Sheri to do, and it must be said that director Phil Karlson must have agreed with Rogers in this interpretation even if it didn't exactly fit into the typical noir milieu (near the end of her film career, Rogers certainly didn't have the power to overrule her directors in such matters of interpretation). She'd played a character in a similar situation in a polar opposite fashion in STORM WARNING only a few years earlier, tight and withdrawn rather than outgoing and wordy as here. I'll go so far as to say that you'll like TIGHT SPOT to the degree that you like Ginger's interpretation of her role. In any event, she provides energy to a film otherwise lacking in it.Edward G. Robinson was one of the finest actors that the screen has ever seen, and he's letter perfect here even if he's somewhat wasted. Brian Keith is as solid as always, as is the rest of the cast, with special kudos for Lorne Greene in a small role as the heavy. Phil Karlson was generally a better director than his material (KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL being his one real masterpiece), but he seems caught between a rock and a hard place here, either dissipating the claustrophobic atmosphere by opening it up too much or staying in that hotel room until tedium ensued (many scenes undeniably go on too long, with way too many words).TIGHT SPOT is a decent film, and with two of the genuine greats of cinematic history in its cast, it's one that shouldn't be missed.

TheExpatriate700 Tight Spot is an odd attempt at film noir featuring Ginger Rodgers as a tough dame whom District Attorney Edward G. Robinson is trying to persuade to testify against a mob boss. She vacillates over whether to testify while falling in love with the police officer assigned to protect her. Although the film keeps your attention, it suffers from a serious case of mood whiplash.Simply put, the film cannot decide until late in the game whether it is a comedy or a film noir. It alternates frequently between witty repartee by Ginger Rodgers and tense scenes of violence and conflict. For example, a shoot out in which an innocent character is killed is followed immediately by the cop teasing some witnesses. Similarly, the film opens with a shooting, but rapidly shifts to Ginger Rodgers making jokes while in prison. This indecision undermines the film's tension.Robinson and Rodgers do well with the characters they're given, and the film manages one clever twist towards the end that I didn't see coming. Nevertheless, this is a sub-standard, B-level programmer.

whpratt1 Never viewed this film and greatly enjoyed the acting of Ginger Rogers, (Sherry Conley) who played a rough and tough gal who was serving a prison term and she was involved with a big named mobster in New York City. Edward G. Robinson, (Lloyd Hallett) plays a law enforcement officer and his sidekick is Vince Striker, (Brian Keith). Lloyd is trying to find a witness he can use against the mobster, Ben Costain, (Lorne Greene) in order to send him to prison for life. Lloyd discovers that Sherry was his girl friend, so he arranges to get her out of prison in order to testify. However, many witnesses have been killed already, so they hide her in a hotel room and try to protect her. The entire story is about protecting Sherry and Ginger Rogers gives an outstanding performance. Good Film.

Bucs1960 Phil Karlson, that auteur of the tight little b/w crime film, misses the boat with this one. I am probably going against many of the reviewers on these boards but I just didn't see much to like here.Ginger Rogers who could act (and obviously dance)was usually an asset to any film in which she appeared. She is so damn annoying in this role as the tough-talking jailbird and former girlfriend of a famous crime boss, that I hoped they would succeed in killing her off before she got to testify at the trial. She talks and talks and talks, ad infinitum and is just a little too "tough" to be believed. The claustrophobic setting in a single hotel room didn't help. You just couldn't escape that voice. However, I'll admit she looked great and she was coming up on 50 years of age Edward G Robinson, who never gave a bad performance, again wove his magic as the DA determined to get Ginger to the stand. Brian Keith, gets a passing grade for his appropriately named cop.....Vince Striker. Lorne Greene, as the mob boss, is surprisingly menacing and is a long way from Pa Cartwright.This isn't a bad film but it's not a good film. If it weren't for the stars, it would fall into the "B" category. That's not always bad since there are some fantastic movies in that category. This would not have been one of them.