A decent story based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich, good performances, and snappy dialogue by Clifford Odets elevate "Deadline at Dawn" from 1946. A small film, clocking in at 83 minutes, it packs in a lot of drama.The film begins with a blind man (Marvin Miller, Mr. Anthony from "The Millionaire") visiting a young woman and demanding $1400 that he is owed. Next thing you know, she's dead. A young sailor on leave, Alex, (Bill Williams) sobers up after a blackout and sees that he has a lot of money that belonged to one Edna Bartelli (Lola Lane), a girl who invited him to her home to "fix her radio."Alex has the radio, and at a dime a dance place, he asks for help from June Goth (Susan Hayward) to help him return it. When they get to Edna's, she's dead. Alex is afraid that he did it, but he can't remember.His leave ends in four hours, so that's all they have to find out what happened. They team up with a friendly cab driver (Paul Lukas). In their investigation, they meet a bunch of low-lifes and it becomes apparent that Edna had a few enemies. Both Hayward and Williams give delightful performances. Hayward vacillates from the tough girl she is at the dance hall and softness as she gets to know Alex. Williams, who was TV's Kit Carson is the dad of actor William Katt ("Greatest American Hero") and the husband of Perry Mason's Barbara Hale.True to its New York City wee small hours of the morning scenario, the film is peppered with various actors, each with his or her own story: Joseph Calleia, Osa Massen, Stephen Geray, Roman Bohen, and Constance Worth. Harold Clurman, a theater director, directed this with an excellent idea of what it's like to be in New York City in the summer - hot, and the weirdos who come out at night.Very entertaining, though probably too ambitious given the budget and time frame. The ending is a little convoluted.

COMING DURING THE great wave of Noir that followed the ending of hostilities in World War II, our subject today is a somewhat overlooked "little" film that could well have us take another look. It has been showing on our local ABC affiliate, WLS Channel 7 for years. Its "Movietime USA" print would most often appear in the realm of the weekend late, late movies.WE RECENTLY SCREENED it on Turner Classic Movies an d what a difference we found. We're not sure if it's the crisp, clear new prints or the fact that it runs beginning to end without interruptions to sell us cars, beer, insurance and what have you. And let us not forget all of those Public Service announcements; that the TV Station managers all seem to load up in the wee hours.THE STORY IS uncomplicated, fast moving and very intriguing. The action and interaction of the group of most interesting characters flows like a fast moving trout stream, never wasting any screen time at all. Like so many great stories, the action happens all within the space of one night.BEING CLASSIFIED AS a 'Defective Story' without the presence of a Marlowe, Spade, Chan or Charles is not unusual. The only detectives in it are those of the police department and they have little to do in doing the work for bringing it to the successful conclusion, aka 'solving it.' The legwork and connecting the dots are done mostly by the characters who find them caught up in the murder. It is the character of June Goth (Susan Hayward) who with some help and hindrance from the other characters.AND SPEAKING OF characters, DEADLINE AT DAWN is just chock full of them. an in portraying so many of these "bottom feeders" of society,* we have perhaps as fine an ensemble of screen actors as one could imagine. With Miss Susan Hayward's being the only true "Movie Star" in the cast, we are treated to the talents of the likes of: Paul Lukas, Bill Williams, Marvin Miller, Osa Massen, Lola Lane, Joe Sawyer, Steven Geray, Constance Worth, Joseph Calleia and Jerome Cowan. Added to this group are so many other players who populated RKO Radio's Studio in those days.NOTE: * The setting is the Big Apple, NYC. The social strata is the teaming world of the hood, the swindler, the grafter and the murdered woman, who appears to be a prostitute. Even the main character of Susan Hayward's portrayal is a cynical and world weary lady who sells herself in a ten cents a dance hall. Only Bill Williams as sailor on leave, Alex Winkley, presents contrast as innocent rube caught up in a night of murder.

The biggest thing that Deadline At Dawn has going for it is the snappy dialog by one of the best word-smith's around at the time in Clifford Odets. It really crackles, especially what comes from Susan Hayward's mouth. What prevents it from being top rated noir is the rather unbelievable character of Bill Williams, the green kid sailor from Poughkeepsie.Williams gets himself too much of a snootful of booze and ends up in Lola Lane's apartment with her quite dead. She asked him to 'fix her radio' just like guys ask women to 'see their etchings'. He also has $1400.00 in cash in his pocket and hasn't a clue how that got there either because he was in a poker game with Lane's brother Joseph Calleia, a most crooked gambler.Fortunately for Williams he meets up with a cynical Susan Hayward who sees something in Williams, a naiveté she's not used to in the big city. She helps him investigate Lane's murder and before the cops are called in, they've got an interesting assortment of suspects.The Deadline At Dawn refers to the fact that poor Williams has to get back to his ship by dawn else he be declared AWOL. At times that seemed to worry him more than the fact he's in a nice little jackpot.Deadline At Dawn has a great cast and some great writing. But try as I might I couldn't get convinced about the character of Williams. Nobody could be that naive.

This modest film noir is flat-out crazy and a tremendous amount of fun.Bill Williams plays a sailor on leave who follows a floozy back to her room, passes out and then finds upon waking that the floozy is dead and can't remember what if anything he had to do with it. He's got to catch a boat (or is it train?) at dawn, and is afraid he'll be implicated in the murder if he doesn't find the true killer before then. He teams up with a dance hall hostess (Susan Hayward) and, before the evening's out, a cab driver (Paul Lukas) and sets out into the New York midnight to solve the crime.The screenplay doesn't make a lick of sense, and my wife and I found ourselves actually laughing at the preposterous developments and turns in the story. It's hilarious how committed these three people are to solving this crime despite the fact that there's absolutely nothing attaching the sailor to it, and how easy a time they have following up on clues in as huge a city as NY despite the fact that the clues are things like "he was wearing a tuxedo" and "she had blonde hair." A plot twist at the movie's end, when the real killer is revealed, is right up there with the best of them. Oscar winner Paul Lukas brings much more acting ability to his performance than his role requires, and Susan Hayward is absolutely riveting. This was my first and so far only exposure to this acclaimed actress, and I look forward to many more.What a blast this movie is! Grade: A-