Save the Tiger (1973): Jack Lemmon Gets Lost in a B Movie Universe

Jack Lemmon is great in his dramatic role of Harry Stoner, aka Cuban Pete, in Save the Tiger, a low-budget neo-noir with a script that Lemmon liked so much he agreed to work for scale so that he could be part of it. It is the story of a little more than twenty-four consequential hours in the life of Stoner, president of a garment company called Capri Casuals, Inc., and his business partner and accountant Phil Greene. The title comes from Stoner’s chance meeting on a street in Los Angeles (L.A.) with a conservation activist, who is trying to collect signatures for a petition to save the tiger. The implication is that, in the early 1970s, middle-class U.S. businessmen who served in World War II needed help—and badly—like tigers facing extinction.

Stoner definitely needs help. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of his service in the war, which is revealed in his flashbacks, nightmares, and ability to lose himself in daydreams about the past and about baseball that worry his wife and, occasionally, his business partner. He is becoming increasingly desperate to keep his company afloat. Even though his clothing line is snapped up by store buyers, he is still having trouble raising enough money to put the clothing line into production for another season, and he worries about paying his many employees. A lot is at stake.

Harry Stoner has his faults. He spends too much money on himself (and on others, so he is generous, too), and he is willing to commit criminal activity like fraud and arson to solve his financial worries. And yet he is still sympathetic. Who doesn’t want to make family and friends happy? Who hasn’t had financial worries? Who hasn’t reminisced about a past that seems more appealing with every passing day that troubles mount?

Stoner isn’t just a nice guy with troubles, however; he makes bad choices that he justifies to himself easily. He deserves to succeed and have his slice of the American dream because he has sacrificed so much for his country. His business partner and friend Phil Greene presents some opposing arguments. Viewers get to see how easily Stoner’s life turns into a noir narrative that could have been filmed in black and white in the immediate postwar period of the late 1940s and 1950s.

The film starts quietly with a solo trumpeter playing soft jazz (“I Can’t Get Started”) on the soundtrack. When the opening credits and the song end, the film cuts to a shot of flowers in a field (on Mulholland Drive, according to the DVD commentary), then it pans up to a shot of the L.A. skyline. Then it cuts to a shot of a large suburban home with a built-in pool and morning fog rising lazily over the scene. Now viewers hear birds chirping and a dog barking two or three times in the distance.

Everything is flowers and peace (note the period references!) until the film cuts to Harry Stoner, who is in bed groaning and yelling in his sleep until he awakens, clutching his pillow and gasping for air. He has just suffered another nightmare. His alarm goes off, and for a few seconds, he has trouble adjusting to his surroundings. As he starts his day, his wife Janet tells him that he screamed in his sleep for the second time that week. She wants him to see a doctor.

In the bathroom, they talk about their daughter Audrey, who is attending school in Switzerland. Harry wants to visit her, but Janet doesn’t even answer his proposal. She keeps insisting that Audrey is better off in Switzerland because teenagers take drugs in the high school bathrooms in L.A. She wants to protect her daughter from city violence and drugs generally. She tells her husband that Europe is more civilized. She doesn’t even notice the irony of her comment: her husband fought in Europe during World War II trying to bring it back from total destruction.

On his way to work driving a large Lincoln Continental (the tank-like version from the 1970s, of course), Harry picks up a hitchhiker, Myra, who states that she rides back and forth on Sunset Strip all day. She compliments Harry’s suit, then asks him if he would like to have sex with her. Harry declines Myra’s offer, although he does chuckle about it.

Myra’s compliment about Harry’s suit seems to be a running gag in a film that is not a comedy by any means. In the DVD audio commentary by the director John G. Avildsen and screenwriter Steve Shagan, I learned that the suit was tailor-made for Jack Lemmon. They mention that it was a good investment because Lemmon wears it in the role of Harry Stoner for almost the entire film.

Harry Stoner arrives at a garment factory that is already in full work mode, with seamstresses at sewing machines and models getting ready for the annual fashion show later that same day. Harry is greeted by an argument between Rico, a young designer, and Meyer, an old man who is the best cutter in the business (a relationship that illustrates the generation gap, a popular phrase in the 1970s). Neither appreciates the other, and Harry needs to smooth things between them because he needs them both. (When Harry arrives at the management offices, the receptionist greets him with a compliment about his suit, as does an employee that he passes in the hallway on the way to his office. Harry’s response to both: “Passatti, Italian silk.”)

(This article about Save the Tiger contains spoilers.)

When Harry arrives in his own office, Phil Greene is on the phone talking about a bank note he cannot meet. When Phil gets off the phone, he and Harry discuss their money problems. Harry asks about the Long Beach factory and whether the insurance policies are all paid up. Then he gives Phil a piece of paper with Charlie Robbins’s phone number on it. Phil is appalled. He already knows from the name that Harry is thinking of torching the Long Beach factory to collect on the insurance. They argue because arson is a line that Phil won’t cross. They have cut what Phil calls “sharp corners” before with creative accounting, but arson he won’t condone. Harry calls Charlie Robbins himself.

Fred Mirrell, one of the buyers in town for the fashion show and the new clothing line, arrives in Harry’s office. He doesn’t go to the hotel where the fashion show will take place because he wants Harry to arrange another “date” with Margo, whom he remembers from the previous year. He and Harry argue because Fred makes this request at the last minute, at a time when all the buyers are in town and Margo is already booked. Harry has to call her himself to beg her to accommodate Fred, even though Margo remembers him, too, from last year and calls him a freak. Thus, Harry is involved in prostitution in addition to fraud and possibly arson. It may involve prosperous businessmen, but it’s prostitution all the same. Phil is quick to point out the moral shortcomings of this illegal activity, too.

With all their differences, especially when it comes to ethics, it is still obvious that Harry and Phil have been good friends for a long time. In fact, Phil’s loyalty may be his own undoing. On their way to lunch in Chinatown, Phil asks for eye drops because his eyes are burning from the L.A. smog. Harry doesn’t have any, but he offers an old joke:

• Harry: “I tell ya, Phil, there’s one wonderful thing about Los Angeles.”

• Phil: “What’s that?”

• Harry: “It’s not Buffalo.”

• Phil: (laughs) “You son of a bitch. You know how many times that I’ve fallen for that?”

Over lunch, Harry tells Phil about his trip the previous year to see the cotton mills in Milan, Italy. From Milan, he flew to Rome and then drove to Anzio to revisit the site where he was wounded and where so many of his friends died in World War II. The beach that he saw soaked with blood during the war is now a resort covered with bikinis, cute little buckets as he puts it. Phil is sympathetic, but he acknowledges that the events from World War II were a long time ago now (almost thirty years in 1973). He uses the occasion to remind Harry about the present and his opinion of using arson to solve their problems.

After lunch, Phil and Harry go to the Belgrave Hotel where the fashion show is about to start and where Fred Mirrell is meeting Margo. Harry gets a call while he and Phil are at the bar: Fred is suffering a heart attack. Harry arrives in the hotel room, panicky and angry that Margo let things go too far, as he puts it. Phil has to remind Harry that they are responsible, and both he and Harry are shaken by the possibility that Fred Mirrell might die because of what they (really Harry) arranged for him.

Harry next has to speak at the fashion show in the hotel. As he starts to introduce the fashion line, he experiences a serious of short flashbacks, which are most likely prompted by seeing Fred Mirrell close to death so recently. In his flashbacks, he sees the dead soldiers he knew as friends sitting in the audience instead of the clothes buyers. The flashbacks appear one after the other, and Harry is overcome with emotion. It’s obvious to everyone in the audience and to his employees behind the scenes that he is troubled. To them, it seems to come out of the blue, but to viewers, it makes more sense because the story is told from Harry’s perspective. Jackie, who introduced Harry Stoner to the fashion show audience, saves him from talking on and on about his war experiences.

Sid Fivush, a mobster, offers to help Capri Casuals with money, that is, a loan with ever-increasing interest rates. He proposes this idea to Phil Greene first, but Harry Stoner intervenes to say that he’ll pass. He doesn’t want anything to do with Sid or his mob tactics. For once the roles are reversed: Harry refuses to get involved with the mob, for obvious reasons of personal danger, but Phil Greene is open to the idea because they would have the money they need without resorting to arson. (Sid compliments Harry’s suit and guesses correctly that it is Passatti, Italian made. He knows his fashion!)

Phil and Harry have to leave the fashion show for their appointment with Charlie Robbins in an adult movie theater. Charlie Robbins will investigate the Long Beach factory, and he asks that Harry and Phil meet him again at 10 a.m. the following morning. (Robbins also compliments Harry’s suit during their brief negotiation.)

Harry returns to the office at Capri Casuals later that night, and Phil Greene tells him that the fashion show was a success. They argue about the arson. They are two small businessmen trying to make payroll and keep their employees working, something both can agree on. But Phil is very upset about the arson and Harry’s ability to rationalize it away. Harry doesn’t want to hear Phil selling America to him because he, too, believed in America, but World War II and postwar life changed all that.

On his way home late at night, Harry sees Myra again hitchhiking and picks her up. She invites him to spend the night at the beach house that she is house-sitting, and he accepts this time. She notices the scars on his back after they sleep together. When he tells her that he got them in Italy, she assumes that he got them in a fistfight. She doesn’t know that the United States fought a war with Italy because she is so young and because history has been revised to make Italy a victim and a U.S. ally, which leaves Harry feeling alone and isolated again. This sequence with Myra shows once again how hard it is for Harry to feel connected to people generally and especially to Myra, who is barely older than his own daughter, a fact he pointed out to Phil Greene earlier in the day when he told him about meeting her.

At the follow-up meeting with Charlie Robbins, Robbins insists that he will not set fire to the Long Beach factory because of the many fire code violations: The insurance company will never pay out because of them. Harry is discouraged and Phil is relieved, but Robbins has an alternate plan to set fire to Siegel’s shirt factory on the first floor. Robbins and Harry complete the deal in the theater lobby, but Harry insists that Robbins keep Phil Greene’s name out of it. (Charlie Robbins doesn’t compliment the suit this time, but he does notice that it is the same one that Harry wore to their meeting the day before.) Harry is still generous: He will protect his friend and business partner.

The DVD audio commentary by director John G. Avildsen and writer Steve Shagan is definitely worth a listen. The two provide a lot of information about the film. Avildsen and Shagan go off topic here and there, but they are good friends it seems, so it is probably inevitable that they would talk about other things besides the film. The following list of some of their points shows that their audio commentary is packed with information:

◊ Lemmon was in Steve Shagan’s mind as he wrote the script, and they were lucky to get him. Lemmon was up for something different from his usual comedic roles. He and Jack Gilford acted in roles that were very different from their previous work.

◊ The film was shot entirely on location. Nothing was shot on a studio lot because it would have been too expensive. The factory scenes were filmed in a real factory, but the offices were built for the film.

◊ The film is a snapshot of America in the 1970s.

◊ The cinematographer made do with the natural lighting that was available as they were shooting.

◊ Jack Lemmon knew how to take his time with the tasks of everyday life. One good example is when he calls Margo to convince her to see the buyer Fred Mirrell.

◊ Steve Shagan wrote the script from anger. He was a World War II veteran, and all the men who fought in the war were now in the middle class getting the short shrift. The president [Richard Nixon] could have been a mob collector.

◊ In the name game scene between Harry Stoner and Myra, Steve Shagan tried to fit everything in about World War II; the Vietnam War; the assassinations of Jack Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and others; and other contemporary topics.

◊ Harry Stoner’s audio flashback on the beach at the beach house is from the winter of 1944 at Anzio, Italy.

◊ Baseball represents the theme of lost innocence in America, especially for Harry Stoner.

◊ The film clip on the television in the bar at the Belgrave Hotel is from a Bogart film. It shows a baseball rolling up to Bogart as he sits on a bench.

◊ Save the Tiger is an old-fashioned film driven by the script and has no special effects. When Harry Stoner sees the dead soldiers during the fashion show for his company, the viewers see them, too. It also has a lot of dialogue: The film has some very long scenes in which the actors deliver several lines.

◊ Jack Lemmon lost himself in the character of Harry Stoner. He inhabited the role and was emotionally drained by it.

I have loved Save the Tiger since the first time that I saw it, and that was in a movie theater. But did I see it when it was first released? I’m not so sure. Maybe the film was rereleased to theaters after Jack Lemmon won his Academy Award for Best Actor in 1974 and that was when I saw it. I remember having to convince my mother to see Save the Tiger, an R-rated film. How did I ever manage that! Save the Tiger was a financial failure at the box office, so I guess I was one of the few people to see it in the theater. It’s too bad more people didn’t see it originally, but thanks to modern technology, now everyone can enjoy it.

This article about Save the Tiger is my entry for the Third Annual Favorite Stars in B Movies Blogathon, hosted by Brian at filmsfrombeyond.com. Click on each day (each is a link) below for a day-by-day list of links to participants’ blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon, from March 28 to March 30, as follows:

Day 1, March 28, 2025

Day 2, March 29,2025

Day 3, March 30, 2025

February 14, 1973, release date  •  Directed by John G. Avildsen  •  Screenplay by Steve Shagan  •  Based on the novel Save the Tiger by Steve Shagan  •  Music by Marvin Hamlisch  •  Edited by David Bretherton  •  Cinematography by James Crabe

Jack Lemmon as Harry Stoner (aka Cuban Pete)  •  Jack Gilford as Phil Greene  •  Laurie Heineman as Myra  •  Norman Burton as Fred Mirrell  •  Patricia Smith as Janet Stoner  •  Thayer David as Charlie Robbins  •  William Hansen as Meyer, the cutter  •  Harvey Jason as Rico, the designer  •  Lin Von Linden as Ula  •  Lara Parker as Margo  •  Janina as Dusty  •  Eloise Hardt as Jackie, the fashion show announcer  •  Ned Glass as Sid Fivush  •  Pearl Shear as the cashier  •  Biff Elliot as the “save the tiger” petitioner  •  Ben Freedman as the taxi driver  •  Madeline Lee as Ida, the receptionist at Capri Casuals

Distributed by Paramount Pictures Corporation  •  Produced by Filmways, Inc., Jalem Productions, Inc., Cirandhina Productions, Inc.

The Dick Van Dyke Show: The “Big Max Calvada” Episode (November 20, 1963) Is Film Noir Played for Laughs

I have to be honest: I have always enjoyed every episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. But I picked the “Big Max Calvada” episode for the Eleventh Annual Favorite TV Show Blogathon because it’s a humorous tribute to film noir. And it is a favorite of mine, just like all the episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show!

Nothing about this 1960s sitcom is the least bit noir. But “Big Max Calvada” is one episode that plays film noir for laughs. Carl Reiner, the series creator, and Sheldon Leonard, the series producer, created a very funny homage to film noir. The episode is also a humorous send-up of Sheldon Leonard’s many roles in film noir in which he played gangsters and other ne’er-do-wells before turning to television and producing.

“Big Max Calvada” starts with television writers Robert (Rob) Petrie, Buddy Sorrell (“That’s with two l’s”), and Sally Rogers trying to come up with a new idea for The Alan Brady Show, the television variety show that they write material for. They are interrupted by a phone call from Marge, the office receptionist, who announces that Maxwell Calvada has arrived to see Rob. Rob has no idea who he is, so he tells Marge to have Calvada wait.

The writers try to go back to work, but Buddy wants to know why the name Maxwell Calvada sounds so familiar. The three of them start speculating: Is Calvada on television? Does he work for the government? No, Buddy says, he is Big Max Calvada, the man who was on the witness stand recently because he was being prosecuted by the federal government for his role in organized crime. Rob immediately regrets making Calvada wait. He rushes to the office door and opens it to look for Calvada, but he is already standing outside the door, waiting with his assistant, Bernard.

(This article about the television episode “Big Max Calvada,” from The Dick Van Dyke Show, contains a few spoilers.)

Calvada is very familiar with Rob’s, Sally’s, and Buddy’s writing. He is an admirer of their work, which explains why he is at their office. He wants them to write a nightclub act for his nephew Kenny Dexter. They try to come up with every possible reason why they cannot accept Calvada’s offer: They have a job writing for Alan Brady, they have a contract that they cannot break, they don’t have time to take on another job. Calvada has an answer for all of them: Money is no object, Alan Brady already knows Calvada and will be happy to accommodate him, Calvada will give them two weeks instead of one to write Kenny’s act.

And in case they still have any doubts, Calvada has already taken the time to find out all he can about the friends and family of his “associates,” including Rob’s lovely wife Laura and their son Ritchie. To emphasize his point, he picks up Rob’s photo of Ritchie and then slams it face down on the writers’ desk. Rob, Sally, and Buddy agree: They will write the act for Kenny.

Kenny Dexter is a teenager with no talent. The only person who seems to be a fan is Bernard, who never once cracks a smile but insists, on more than one occasion, that “the kid breaks me up.” Kenny desperately wants to go into show business, and his Uncle Max does what he can to help, including hiring the best comedy writers and booking a night at the Diamond Club, the top nightspot in New York City. The pressure is already on Rob, Buddy, and Sally. To make matters worse, Kenny cannot tell a joke or sing. Kenny’s aunt (Max’s wife, “Mrs. Calvada”) is the only one who says what everyone else is thinking: “He stinks.”

The three writers try to make the best of it. They don’t want to anger Big Max Calvada because they fear the consequences, and Calvada is very intimidating. He threatens Rob’s family; he schedules his nephew’s night at the Diamond Club by arranging for the scheduled performer to be conveniently sick for that one night. When Kenny starts singing at his nightclub debut, Calvada leans across the table and, in front of Rob, Laura (Rob’s wife), Buddy, Sally, and Mrs. Calvada, asks Bernard in an ominous stage whisper to make a note about speaking to Kenny’s voice teacher.

Kenny Dexter’s nightclub performance is a flop, and this disaster leads to a last meeting between the Alan Brady Show writers and Big Max Calvada. Calvada takes over the office of the Diamond Club’s owner and shuts the door on him, then asks Rob, Buddy, and Sally to sit while the faithful Bernard stays on hand to take notes. It’s the last act, the final showdown.

Big Max Calvada and his direct and implied threats are the source of great anxiety for Rob, Sally, and Buddy. Their reactions in each instance, including the last act, are the source of humor and laughs for viewers. Sheldon Leonard doesn’t have to be funny at all. He plays Big Max Calvada straight, much like he would have played a gangster in film noir.

But The Dick Van Dyke Show is a sitcom; it goes without saying that Rob and his cowriters will get out of trouble without a gun being fired or any bullets flying. But how that happens is a surprising and humorous twist that I won’t divulge here. And Sheldon Leonard is the one to deliver it—without stepping out of character. It's a clever resolution, and, as I recall, I didn’t see it coming the first time that I saw “Big Max Calvada.”

That first viewing was a long time ago, when I didn’t know what film noir was and had never heard of Sheldon Leonard or his contribution to noir. I don’t remember anymore how surprised I was by the ending of “Big Max Calvada.” I have seen the “Big Max Calvada” episode (really all the episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show) dozens of times since then. What I do know is that I still laugh as though I have never seen each episode before.

This article about the The Dick Van Dyke Show episode “Big Max Calvada” is my entry for the Eleventh Annual Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted by Terry at A Shroud of Thoughts. Click here for the complete list of blogathon participants and links to their blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon, from March 21 to March 23, 2025.

November 20, 1963, broadcast date  •  Season 3, Episode 9; Episode 71 of the series overall  •  Directed by Jerry Paris  •  Written by Bill Persky, Sam Denoff  •  Edited by Bud Molin  •  Cinematography by Robert De Grasse  •  Opening theme song by Earle Hagen  •  Series created by Carl Reiner

Dick Van Dyke as Robert Petrie  •  Mary Tyler Moore as Laura Petrie  •  Rose Marie as Sally Rogers  •  Morey Amsterdam as Buddy Sorrell  •  Sheldon Leonard as Maxwell Calvada  •  Arthur Batinides as Bernard  •  Jack Larson as Kenny Dexter  •  Sue Casey as Sylvia Calvada  •  Johnny Silver as the waiter  •  Tiny Brauer as Louie, owner of the Diamond Club

Produced by Calvada Productions  •  Broadcast by CBS

Chicago Deadline (1949)

Chicago Deadline is one of those films noir where it really pays to follow the narrative and the visual clues because they are all there. I saw the film three or four times, and I was still discovering new details each time. Alan Ladd plays Ed Adams, an investigative reporter who tracks down leads about a young woman found dead in a cheap hotel room and manages to uncover corruption by the time he is finished. The dead woman is Rosita, played by Donna Reed. Reed’s first appearance in the film is as Rosita Jean d’Ur’s corpse lying on a bed in the hotel room.

You can find Chicago Deadline online. Click here to see it free at the Internet Archive, which has two prints of the film. One is English language only; the other is English language with Spanish subtitles. The sound and picture quality of both prints is not great, but they are still watchable. You will probably enjoy watching the film more on the Blu-ray published by Kino Lorber as part of its Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series. The Blu-ray comes with English-language subtitles and an audio commentary by film historian Alan K. Rode.

Many scenes in Chicago Deadline were filmed on location, and this is established with a pan shot of the Chicago skyline behind the opening credits. Ed Adams arrives by cab at the front door of the Rialto. He is at the hotel to find a young woman called Minerva. While he is talking to her, he hears a scream. One of the housekeepers has found a young woman, Rosita Jean d’Ur, dead in her bed. Just in case this discovery could turn into a newspaper story, Ed looks through the dead woman’s possessions. He finds a diary in her handbag and pockets it. Then he leaves with Minerva.

Before Ed can get Minerva home, he returns to Rosita’s room. Detective Lieutenant Jack Anstruder has arrived to investigate the woman’s death, and Ed is curious about Rosita’s story. Detective Anstruder says that it looks like she died of hemorrhaging from something like tuberculosis. He suspects that Adams knows more than he is willing to admit. The two know each other, and there seems to be a bit of professional antagonism between the them.

Ed Adams returns to his offices at a newspaper called The Journal and starts his own investigation by calling the numbers in Rosita’s diary. This diary is what ties so much of the narrative together, and viewers follow along as Ed learns more and more about Rosita. Her diary includes several names and details that Ed uses to piece together the mystery surrounding her death. The first person he calls is listed by his initials only: G. G. T. On the phone, G. G. T. wonders how Ed got his private number, but Ed won’t say, not without some information in return. G. G. T. denies knowing Rosita at all. But clearly she knew him, so it seems like G. G. T. is lying, and that intrigues Ed. Pig, one of the other reporters, speculates that G. G. T. could be G. G. Temple, vice president of Iroquois Trust. Ed impersonates a district attorney to call G. G. Temple again and find out more, but G. G. Temple hangs up on him.

(This article about Chicago Deadline contains some spoilers.)

The next number that Ed Adams calls belongs to Tommy Ditman, who is shocked by the news of Rosita Jean d’Ur’s death. He is her brother, and he is willing to talk to Ed Adams, at least at first. They do eventually meet at the morgue, where Tommy identifies the body, and then go out for a drink. In a flashback (one of the hallmarks of noir), Tommy is able to fill in a lot of background on Rosita’s personal life, but he becomes disillusioned with Ed and his intentions when the bartender arrives at their table to announce a phone call that promises “juicy” details about Rosita.

From the newspaper offices, Pig and Ed calls a number belonging to Belle, who turns out to be Belle Dorset. She is shocked by the news of Rosita’s death, but she suddenly refuses to talk to Ed and hangs up on him. When he arrives at her place of residence, the Mandor Hotel, he learns that Belle lived in the hotel for about a year but moved out right after his phone call.

Ed Adams next crashes a party and meets someone named Leona Purdy. They are immediately attracted to one another, but Leona lies to Ed and tells him that she met Rosita two or three times at parties. But she has already had a lot to drink at the party before they go out to a bar, where Ed wants her to sober up. He doesn’t really give Leona a chance to go into any more detail because he is intent on pursuing other leads. When he finally takes a moment to visit her, he learns that Leona and Rosita were once roommates, and she tells her part in Rosita’s story in another flashback.

Ed’s next stop is Solly Wellman’s apartment. Solly Wellman remembers Rosita fondly at first, but he clams up when Ed presses for more information. Now, Wellman denies ever knowing Rosita. He is so angry about Ed’s insistence that they get into a fistfight, and Ed is shown the door more confused than ever. Rosita knew several people, but they either deny knowing her or disappear before Ed can find out anything more about Rosita.

Ed has barely started using Rosita’s diary as a source for leads, but he has already tracked down several people connected to her. What follows is a complicated search for the truth about her and the details of her life. He inadvertently uncovers corruption, mob connections, murder, blackmail, domestic violence, and more. Ed Adams himself is threatened for pursuing the story, and he is beaten and left in an empty city lot because he refuses to stop. What started as a possible news story turns into a personal crusade for Ed. He hasn’t written his own newspaper story yet, and he starts to dislike how Rosita is presented in the papers by other journalists, even some on his own staff.

I read online that many compared Chicago Deadline to Laura (1944). It’s true that an investigative reporter finds a dead body and becomes obsessed with her story in Chicago Deadline, and a police detective becomes obsessed with a murder victim and her story in Laura, but that was the end of the connection for me. I never really felt that Ed Adams had fallen in love with Rosita Jean d’Ur. At the end of the film, he burns Rosita’s diary and leaves with Leona Purdy. He has found his story (although he leaves it with her brother Tommy instead of publishing it) and moves on. Detective Mark McPherson learns that his murder victim, Laura Hunt, is actually very much alive, and the two of them fall in love. I think the comparison was made mostly to ride the success of Laura.

I enjoyed Chicago Deadline more and more with each viewing. I’m sure that I would find more details in the story if I watched it just one more time. It’s a short tight story that works really well. Alan Ladd and Donna Reed were already big stars when the film was produced, especially Ladd, so it is a bit surprising that the film isn’t more well known.

For present-day viewers, smudgy dark prints were all that were available until recently, and they don’t provide a very pleasant viewing experience. But Kino Lorber released Chicago Deadline on Blu-ray in January 2024 (see my note above). I would definitely go with the Blu-ray version over the prints at the Internet Archive. But the subtitles on the Blu-ray aren’t always accurate, so don’t rely on them only. Trust your ears, too! For example, it’s Aunt Maggie, not Miss Maggie, that the housekeeper cries out when she discovers Rosita’s body, and G. G. Temple is an executive with power at Iroquois Trust, not Aykroyd Trust.

The audio commentary provided by film historian Alan K. Rode on the Blu-ray is filled with great details. Here is a short list of some of them:

◊ Donna Reed makes her film entrance as a sheet-covered corpse, which was unusual at the time.

◊ The implication that Rosita, Leona, and other female characters were prostitutes was eliminated because of Joseph Breen and the production code. The diary was almost eliminated for the same reason (why would any woman have so many names listed?), but it was retained after all because Paramount overrode Breen’s objections to it.

◊ The newspaper reporter role of Ed Adams is tailored for Alan Ladd’s noir persona. Ed Adams is a working-class reporter.

◊ Alan Ladd and Donna Reed never appear on-screen together.

Rode also mentions that Celia Lovsky plays Mrs. Scheffler, the owner of the pawnshop that Ed Adams during his investigation in to Rosita’s life and death. She is in an uncredited role, and Rode says something about her skill in dragging out the scene to increase her time on-screen, but he missed the point of this scene. Mrs. Scheffler counts the bills, the change, slowly because she is hiding Rosita’s diary, which is on the counter. Adams had left it there during his discussion with Mrs. Scheffler about Rosita when Detective Anstruder and one of his men enters the pawnshop looking for Adams. Mrs. Scheffler is inclined to help Adams because he has grown fond of Rosita, even though he has never met her and because Mrs. Scheffler liked her, too. So she hides the diary with the bills and hands it back to him with his change.

But Rode’s mistake simply illustrates what I have said before about many films noir and about Chicago Deadline, too: Details mean everything in these short, black-and-white films. And now that I think about it, maybe those details were a lot easier to spot on the large screens that were the norm in theaters in the 1940s. We present-day viewers should be more visually oriented with all our screen time, but it may also be true that some films are sophisticated enough to make watching them again and again a real pleasure. Chicago Deadline is one of those films.

November 3, 1949, release date  •  Directed by Lewis Allen  •  Screenplay by Warren Duff  •  Based on the novel One Woman by Tiffany Thayer  •  Music by Victor Young  • Edited by LeRoy Stone  •  Cinematography by John F. Seitz

Alan Ladd as Ed Adams  •  Donna Reed as Rosita Jean d’Ur  •  June Havoc as Leona Purdy  •  Irene Hervey as Belle Dorset  •  Arthur Kennedy as Tommy Ditman  •  Berry Kroeger as Solly Wellman  •  Harold Vermilyea as Detective Lieutenant Jack Anstruder  •  Shepperd Strudwick as Blacky Frenchot  •  Dave Willock as Pig, newspaper reporter  •  Gavin Muir as G. G. Temple  •  John Beal as Paul Jean d’Ur  •  Tom Powers as Glenn Howard  •  Howard Freeman as Hotspur Shaner  •  Paul Lees as Bat Bennett  •  Margaret Field as Minerva  •  Harry Antrim as George Gribbe  •  Roy Roberts as Jerry Cavanaugh  •  Marietta Canty as Hazel  •  Celia Lovsky as Mrs. Scheffler

Distributed by Paramount Pictures  •  Produced by Paramount Pictures