Raw Deal
by Anthony Mann
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Claire Trevor, Dennis O'Keefe, John Ireland, Marsha Hunt, Raymond BurrDirector: Anthony Mann
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
Cinematographer: John Alton
Editor: Alfred DeGaetano
Producer: Edward Small
Writer: Arnold B. Armstrong
Writer: Audrey Ashley
Writer: John C. Higgins
Writer: Leopold Atlas
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 79 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-10-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Classic Media
Movie Reviews of Raw Deal
Movie Review: The Good & Bad Of 'Raw Deal'
Summary: 4 Stars
Director Anthony Mann and photography whiz John Alton combined for several film noirs in the late 1940s and this was one. Most of them had the same feel which meant great photography and an okay-but-nothing-spectacular story.
This one was different in that in had a female doing the narration. I wouldn't mind that but in this kind of hard-boiled film, a feminine voice such as Claire Trevor's didn't sound right. Now, if she an edge to her a la Marie Windsor or Ann Savage, fine, but Trevor's voice didn't fit. Trevor was a good noir actress, but using her for narration was a questionable choice.
It did have an apt villain, however, in Raymond Burr. The burly Burr was brutal, which means he was effective. He looked mean and sounded mean, all the way up to his 1954 "Rear Window" performance before going good-guy with television's Perry Mason. Dennis O'Keefe, Marsha Hunt and John Ireland also star and do a fine job. There is a lot of tough dialog in here, which is pure film noir - the kind we noir buffs enjoy!
There are tons of nighttime shots, very dark scenes so make sure you view this on a good DVD transfer.
Summary of Raw Deal
In this film noir classic a revenge-seeking gangster (Dennis O'Keefe) is sent to prison after being framed for a crime he didn't commit. After seducing a beautiful young woman he uses her to help him carry out his plot for vengeance leading him to the crazy pyromaniac (Raymond Burr) who set him up.Run Time: 79 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating:?NR UPC:?796019797818 Manufacturer No:?LVD52136After the success of T-Men, ambitious poverty-row studio Eagle-Lion reunited director Anthony Mann with cinematographer John Alton and beefy star Dennis O'Keefe for this change of pace, a haunting revenge noir about an escaped criminal, his loyal girlfriend (Claire Trevor), and a lovely legal aide (Marsha Hunt) he drags along as a hostage... or perhaps something more. Raymond Burr is the sleazy, sadistic gangster who double-crossed O'Keefe; in the film's most memorable scene he lashes out at a clumsy party girl by tossing a tureen of flaming cherries jubilee on the hapless woman (the scene may well have inspired Fritz Lang in The Big Heat). Trevor narrates in a cold, deliberate, yet hauntingly effective tone, which matches the foggy mist that envelopes the characters from the initial escape (a brilliant exercise in minimalism), through the getaway down a wooded coastal highway, to the finale on the San Francisco docks. Mann provides his usual undercurrent of brutal violence (a fight in a taxidermy showroom in which the antlers of a mounted buck become a lethal weapon), but the film is pervaded by a sense of doomed romanticism not seen in Mann's films before or since, and the volatile romantic triangle adds a further edge to the moody tension. Rife with B movie dialogue, the film may come off stilted and campy to some viewers, but taken on its own stylized conventions it's a minor masterpiece of low-budget film noir. --Sean Axmaker
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