Welcome back for another installment of Review Stew! This week we’re adding to our review stew a prison escape, a love triangle, and some clever lighting and camerawork with…Raw Deal (1948).
Title: Raw Deal
Director: Anthony Mann
Released: May 21, 1948 (United States)
Runtime: 1 hour 19 minutes
Available to stream on: Kanopy
Joe Sullivan (Dennis O’Keefe) took the rap for his boss, Rick (Raymond Burr), when a robbery went sideways. Rick, along with Joe’s lover Pat (Claire Trevor), comes up with a plan to spring Joe from the joint.
However, both Pat and Joe are unaware that Rick isn’t banking on Joe getting out successfully. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, Rick hopes Joe doesn’t survive the escape. If he isn’t alive, he won’t be able to rat out Rick.
Joe manages to successfully escape and now finds himself on the run with Pat and his legal aid, Ann (Marsha Hunt). While initially hesitant to go along with things, Ann reluctantly goes along with the plan for her own safety.
If things weren’t messy enough, Joe winds up catching feelings for Ann while they’re all on the run. Now he has to manage to escape both the police that are after him and the love triangle of his own making.
Will he be successful?
One thing that stood out almost immediately to me about Raw Deal (1948) is the narration. No, it isn’t uncommon that there is narration in a noir. However, it is uncommon that the noir narration comes from the point of view of the leading lady, in this case Pat. I enjoyed the uniqueness of having the story told from the perspective of someone who wasn’t our main anti-hero.
As far as noir films go, this is fairly paint-by-numbers. Raw Deal (1948) is a lean and mean 79-minutes with a rather straightforward story. While the story and performances are each entertaining in their own right, it’s the lighting from DP John Alton that really elevates things. Alton was able to use both light and shadows in ways that took rather generic set pieces and transformed them into almost their own characters in the film.
Being that the story is nothing that tried to reinvent the genre, the short runtime winds up helping the film. We get exactly what we need to put the pieces together and tell a cohesive story without the film overstaying it’s welcome.
If your library uses Kanopy, and you’re a fan of noirs, definitely give Raw Deal (1948) at least one viewing.
So, if you have already seen Raw Deal (1948), what did you think of it?
Leave a comment below or reach out to me on Bluesky and let me know!
If you are curious as to what else I’ve been watching, give me a follow over on Letterboxd.
And finally, one last note, Livestream for the Cure is this week.
May 16th and 17th some of the best in indie podcasting will be live-streaming on Twitch to raise money for a world immune to cancer.
If you’d like and are able to, you can donate early here.