Desperate

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Desperate

1947,

1h 13m,

Crime/

Drama

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Watchlist

100%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

66%

100+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

100%

Tomatometer

5 Reviews

66%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

Gangster Radak (Raymond Burr) and his cronies try to coerce truck driver Steve (Steve Brodie) into shipping stolen goods, but Steve manages to tip off the police and foil the crooks. Radak evades capture, but his brother ends up gunning down a policeman and going to jail. Radak and his men attempt to pressure Steve into taking the fall for the killing, using the well-being of the trucker's wife, Anne (Audrey Long), as leverage. But Anne and Steve manage to skip town, and the chase is on.

Geoffrey O'Brien

The New York Review of Books

Aug 13, 2018

B-movie as country-and-western ballad, seventy-three minutes of total involvement followed by oblivion: except for one's lingering uneasiness about unlit corners and warehouses near the river.

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Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Jul 16, 2010

[Has] Mann's sense of coiled violence, just waiting to unload.

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Kelly Vance

East Bay Express

May 5, 2010

The story is standard urban crime stuff, but the director throws in a treasure trove of flourishes.

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Michael E. Grost

Classic Film and Television

Aug 9, 2007

Nicely done crime thriller, with some great visual set pieces.

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Jan 1, 2000

B-

Anthony Mann is a master at directing these cheapie films and making them look stylish.

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Hermione W

Apr 4, 2019

The plot is full of action, but it's all ridiculous, impossible, and B-level material; something to see on Saturday morning with the kids. The story is so outlandish and the actions of the characters are so out of line with what anyone would do that the only saving grace here is that it keeps moving. To heighten interest, it throws in violence, gun battles, and fights. Everything adolescent boys would love. This is a mongrel of a picture, but deserves a slight nod because it is a niche above the simple gun, car chase, and knife fight violence that became prevalent around this time and saturated the movie industry with its insipidness.

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Rey W

Dec 31, 2018

Desperate is an excellent film. It is about a young married couple flee both police and a gangster out for revenge. Steve Brodie and Audrey Long give amazing performances. The screenplay is well written. Anthony Mann did a great job directing this movie. I enjoyed watching this motion picture because of the drama.

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Hermione G

Sep 13, 2018

Not the best noir, but not a bad one, either. B-movie mainstay Steve Brodie is an easygoing trucker who falls in with a gang of murderous thieves, led by childhood pal Raymond Burr. When a warehouse job goes awry and Burr's kid brother is captured, he blames Brodie, and the chase is on. With Audrey Long as Brodie's pretty blonde wife, and Jason Robards Sr. as a police detective. The innocent dupe, a damsel in distress, tough crooks, even tougher cops, and enough gorgeous black-and-white photography to satisfy even the most hardened fan of the genre: it's all here. At a mere 73 minutes, the plot moves so fast that it doesn't always make sense, but this one's worth seeing for Burr himself; pre-Perry Mason, this is the big man at his B-movie best--cold, steely-eyed, and just a little bit scary. Just try to take your eyes off him.

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Ron W

Oct 25, 2017

Husband, Steve Randall(Steve Brodie) owns his own independent trucking moving business, and as a result of unknowingly being involved with some shady characters lead by Walt (Raymond Burr) that has something to do with transporting illegal goods or racketeering, he along with his wife, Anne Randall (Audrey Long) are then forced to go on the run as he is pursued. Anthony Mann's first movie feature.

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Anthony Mann

Director

Steve Brodie

Steve Randall

Audrey Long

Mrs. Anne Randall

Raymond Burr

Walt Radak

Douglas V. Fowley

Pete Lavitch

William Challee

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Synopsis

Gangster Radak (Raymond Burr) and his cronies try to coerce truck driver Steve (Steve Brodie) into shipping stolen goods, but Steve manages to tip off the police and foil the crooks. Radak evades capture, but his brother ends up gunning down a policeman and going to jail. Radak and his men attempt to pressure Steve into taking the fall for the killing, using the well-being of the trucker's wife, Anne (Audrey Long), as leverage. But Anne and Steve manage to skip town, and the chase is on.

Director: Anthony Mann
Producer: Michael Kraike
Screenwriter: Harry Essex
Production Co: RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Runtime: 1h 13m

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