Bodyguard (1948): C

Bodyguard begins with Lawrence Tierney delivering one crackerjack line after another – the best of which is his calling an interfering butler “Dracula” – but ends in pure tedium, its 62-minute running time feeling more like three hours. Featuring a story by 23-year-old Robert Altman, Richard Fleischer’s succinct noir finds Tierney’s insubordinate cop Mike Carter up to his neck in mystery after he’s thrown off the force and winds up being hired to protect a meatpacking firm’s matriarch. Without much in the way of suspense or subtext, however, the main points of interest become strangely awkward moments such as Carter’s interaction with a group of street kids (shades of Angels with Dirty Faces, perhaps?), Priscilla Lane’s girlfriend/sidekick giving an amusing shrug after Carter hands her his glass of milk, and Carter attempting to trick a night watchman with the old “Look, over there!” ruse. A few heightened close-ups cast the star’s rock-hard mug in sharp relief, but there’s little respite from the sexist undercurrents running throughout Tierney and Lane’s “me-Tarzan, you-Jane” rapport.