Aspiring photographer Jack Early (Howard Duff) so desperately craves success that, like a modern-day Yojimbo, he pits two rival crime bosses against one another in an elaborate scheme designed to catapult him to the top of the journalistic food chain. Alas, Early is such a smug little twit that it’s difficult not to wholeheartedly root for his demise during the entirety of Joseph Pevney’s Shakedown. As contentious mob adversaries, dapper Brian Donlevy and human bulldozer Lawrence Tierney bring some steely ruthlessness to this clumsily melodramatic noir, even as Duff – whose resemblance to John Garfield is only skin-deep – proves unbearably annoying and his snow-white love interest Ellen (Peggy Dow), employed as a newspaper “picture editor,” serves as a constant reminder of the story’s less-than-modern attitude towards women. Sluggish and not nearly sordid enough for a tale of tabloid deceit and corruption, the film at least offers up a supremely hilarious climactic death scene, in which Early’s undoing nonetheless fails to prevent him from capturing one last picture-perfect criminal snapshot.
Comments