UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

utgard14 Remake of Two in the Dark from RKO starring the unlikely duo of Tom Conway and Ann Rutherford. Conway plays a guy with a head wound and amnesia who searches for the truth about who he is and whether or not he committed murder. Rutherford is the spunky female cabbie who helps him. This is an entertaining enough picture. Nothing exceptional but a good time-passer. Conway, debonair as ever, is the kind of actor they just don't make anymore. Adorable Ann Rutherford is a little miscast as a street-smart cabbie. This is a part more suited for a Farrell, Blondell, or Sothern. Rutherford's just too sweet. Still she's always a treat to watch, even if it does feel a bit like she's trying on her big sister's clothes. Conway/Rutherford chemistry isn't exactly sizzling, either. Also featuring noir great Jane Greer in a small part and RKO favorite Jean Brooks, who was in quite a few Tom Conway films during the 40s. Directed by Anthony Mann but you would never know it as it's a pretty routine B movie with no discernible style or craft to brag about.

kidboots Ann Rutherford spent most of her MGM years being Polly Benedict, Andy Hardy's biggest fan. In most of the Andy Hardy movies she usually had to take a back seat to up and coming actresses such as Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Esther Williams etc, but by the end the humbled Andy would always be back in her arms. Obviously, she tired of these and couldn't wait to leave MGM. She hoped free lancing would give her more adult roles but it wasn't to be. She just had a very bubbly personality and her part as Patty, the perky taxi driver who helps amnesia victim Tom Conway was exactly the type of role she did best. Directed by Anthony Mann and with a screenplay by Gelett Burgess, noted American humorist and inventor of the "blurb", "Two O'Clock Courage" starred Tom Conway, in between his Falcon assignments, as a nameless amnesia victim who may just be mixed up in the murder of a Broadway producer. He is encouraged to find out the truth by Patty, the bubbly taxi driver, who almost runs him over. There are more laughs than drama with Richard Lane as a bumbling newspaper reporter. Conway finds out he is really Theodore Allison, who has been hired by the mother of Laurence Kenny, author of the play "Two O'Clock Courage" to find out what happened to it. The play has been plaguerized by the producer and retitled "Menace" where said producer has been pocketing all the royalties.This movie was also the debut of Bettejane Greer, soon to be known as Jane Greer - she had the role of Helen a sulky nightclub girl and she certainly made a splash with her limited screen time. Jean Brooks proved again that she was an attractive actress who should have been more well known. She certainly was more stunning as a brunette ("The Seventh Victim"). Unfortunately she was almost at the end of her brief career as RKO's "resident neurotic of the Bs" according to Doug McClelland.

MARIO GAUCI Incongruously lighthearted early noir from Mann, involving a familiar premise (the film is actually a remake of the obscure TWO IN THE DARK [1936]) – an amnesiac finds himself the chief suspect in a murder case and, while attempting to trace his identity, he also contrives to expose the guilty party. The lead role is played by Tom Conway, not the most likely noir hero perhaps – his overall stilted performance suffers most when striving for comedy; much more natural (and appealing) is Ann Rutherford as the spirited female cabbie helping him out, even if she's just as much at odds with established genre conventions! The plot is fairly convoluted: also involved, among others, are Lester Matthews (from THE RAVEN and WEREWOLF OF London {both 1935}), Jean Brooks (from the Val Lewton-produced THE LEOPARD MAN and THE SEVENTH VICTIM {both 1943}) and Jane Greer (soon to graduate to full-fledged femme fatale with OUT OF THE PAST [1947]); just as prominent, however, albeit merely for comic-relief purposes are a Police Inspector and a nosy reporter (who gets on his boss' nerves when he keeps changing the scoop i.e. the identity of the murderer). All in all, this emerged a pleasant and trim 66 minutes – but, clearly, a very minor footnote in the genre and the career of one of its most notable exponents.

bmacv Basically a light-hearted mystery programmer in the style of the 1940s, Two O'Clock Courage claims attention by virtue of having been directed by Anthony Mann, before his legendary collaboration in film noir with cinematographer John Alton. It also happens to be a pretty good movie, of its limited type, in its own right.It opens at the fog-shrouded intersection of Ocean View Drive and Arch Street where Tom Conway, looking and sounding eerily like his more successful brother George Sanders, bleeds from a head wound and can't remember who he is. Skidding to his rescue in a taxi comes game hack Ann Rutherford (a sister under the visor to On The Town's Brunnhilde Esterhazy), who becomes his sidekick even though it turns out he may be mixed up in a high-profile murder. Trying to establish his identity and what he might have done (or not done), the pair travel through a theatrical/nightlife milieu; the mystery concerns a plagiarized play written by a dead man, which shares its title with this movie.There are the staple characters of the sub-genre: the befuddled butler, the snoopy landlady, the apoplectic editor. There's also, as a society floozy, young Jane Greer (billed here as `Bettejane'). Two O'Clock Courage doesn't show much of the flair Mann would later bring to suspense, even, the following year, to Strange Impersonation. But he keeps his eye on the ball, and never lets the unraveling of the mystery take a back seat too long to the farcical episodes (which mercifully he keeps from growing too extended or too broad). All in all, it's a more satisfying effort than similar and better-known efforts from around the same time, like A Night to Remember or Lady on a Train.