DVD Review
Impact, starring Brain Donlevy, Ella
Raines, United Artists, 1949
…some guys, some tough customer
guys, who would think nothing, nothing at all of rearranging your face for you,
or run an off-hand sword through your heart just to see you bleed in primitive
times, or today, today in modern times, what with everything all civilized and
sewed up in those more physical fields, maybe cut your throat in the global
financial markets, something like that, and laugh, laugh hard, when you come to
his door asking for a dollar, but who will melt like butter if some femme fatale dame just whistles, or maybe
just thinks about whistling. Go all to putty and so much purr at their beck and
call.
Take Walter, yah, let’s take
Walter, a big captain of industry in ‘Frisco town, widgets or something, in the film under review, Impact, a guy who would run you out of
business and not look back to keep business up, keep production up, and,
incidentally, to keep his ever-loving wife Irene in trinkets and toys. So
naturally if she was a little out of sorts on any given day (most days) old
Walter was at the ready to chase away her blues. Yah, Mr. Softy (a little
inside coo-coo between our pair like a lot of couples but read Mr. Sucker,
okay) would drop the daily production schedule, or fly forthwith (nice) out of
a board meeting if his femme had the vapors, or the hint of such troubles.
But our teddy bear Mr. Softy had a
problem, a big problem, his ever-loving Irene was two-timing him with some
be-bop Jimmy, all hip suited out, a guy who knew all the angles, at least all
the angles on how to get out of cheap street by latching on to Irene. Of
course, old Irene had Mr. Jimmy on a string too and will have him too jumping
through hoops at her first sign of the vapors. Now two-timing women (men too
but this is about a woman), two-timing women in film noir anyway, have two choices- grab a divorce Reno-style and slide
down to cheap street with fancy Dan Mr. Jimmy or take dear hubby Walter out of
the picture permanently, yes, the big sleep, and then just spend her days with
Jimmy (or the next best thing) counting up the proceeds from his estate. Guess
which option Irene took.
Now here is something anyone, even
a rookie at film noir, can take as
wisdom from the ages, murder, murder most foul, is nothing for amateurs to fool
around with. Leave such doings to the pros. Naturally Irene’s hare- brain
scheme (hare –brain for openers for expecting hep cat Jimmy, maybe high on some
goof balls, to stay calm enough to commit a capital crime and survive) breaks
down in the execution. This caper was to involve Jimmy, posing as an Irene
cousin needing a ride from ‘Frisco town east, to meet Walter in front of a
Rexall drugstore in Sausalito, go from there to some convenient isolated spot
along the highway after feigning car trouble and bop old Walter over the head
hard, real hard. Done, well almost done, except two important factors, Jimmy
didn’t hit Walter hard enough and Jimmy, damn those goof balls, wound up dead
after colliding with an oil tanker truck during his get-away.
After Walter woke up (literally
and figuratively) he finally figured out the score with Irene and it didn’t
work in his favor so he drifted off east, east to Podunk Idaho where he, if you
can believe this, started a new life as a lowly but very efficient auto
mechanic for a good simple country woman boss, Marsha, and war widow (World War
II if you are asking) who also became his new love interest. And Irene? Oh yah
she was sitting a little peevishly in pre-trial confinement for the murder of
her husband, her Walter. Ironic right, and served her right. Well almost. See
Walter (and his country honey, after he tells her the skinny) cannot let even
evil Irene step off for the big one since he is very much alive. So he returned
to ‘Frisco town to face the music.
And here is the real beauty of all
those evil femme fatales from Mary Astor (The
Maltese Falcon) to Jane Greer (Out Of
The Past) and their film sisterhood Irene in a fit of hubris (or maybe vapors)
switched up on Walter and set him up for Jimmy’s death, Jimmy’s murder in her
book. Beautiful. So Walter, as he must as a gallant, had to defend himself
against a murder rap. And it really did look like he was going to take the fall.
Not to worry though Irene will get hers,
will get her just desserts. And what do you bet old Marsha will have tough guy
Walter (or whatever little inside coo-coo name our pair like a lot of couples
work out) jumping through hoops for her before things go too far… 
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