Everybody was far past their prime when director Robert Florey made "Johnny One-Eye" with Pat O'Brien and Wayne Morris as former associates turned sworn enemies in "Wild Weed" writer Richard Landau's grim but purposeful adaptation of a Damon Runyon story. This gritty saga of ruthless criminals in New York City who rise to prominence before they topple as a consequence of their old crimes is razor sharp stuff. Meaning, this is not a happy, cheerful yarn about colorful characters with a sugar-coated finale. The eponymous character turns out to be a little doggie, and the story concerns two career criminals who corner a thief on a ferry and kill him after a brief shoot-out. Nobody saw them commit the crime and the body wound up at the bottom of the river. Martin Martin (Pat O'Brien of ") and Dane Cory (Wayne Morris) corner the nervous Dutchman on a foggy morning in the Big Apple who tried to steal $50-thousand from them. Dane watches as his partner Martin swaps lead with the Dutchman and guns him down. Years later when New York has grown too big for them, Dane spills his guts to a District Attorney with presidential aspirations. It seems that the authorities fished the Dutchman's body out of the river and enough evidence to indict Martin. Martin goes down to the theater where Dane watching a rehearsal of a show for his latest squeeze, Lily White (Dolores Moran), and they have a brief conversation. Another gunfight erupts with Dane escaping the slugs meant for him from Martin's revolver, while Martin catches a .38 in the shoulder and has to go into hiding. Earlier, Martin had been a big man. In a scene that it is difficult to believe that the censor allowed, Martin is judging a number of beauties who are in reality prostitutes that he has arranged from his high-flown dinner guests. Anyway, Martin holes up in an abandoned apartment where he meets the title character. Just to hammer home the villainy of Dane Corey, Florey and Landau have him disfigure a poor, harmless pooch. Dane doesn't like either the dog (he puts out one of its eyes off-screen while Lily's impressionable little girl, Elsie (Gayle Reed) watches. Florey doesn't pull any punches in this unsavory epic where our two protagonists eventually shoot it out. Donald Woods has a sturdy supporting role as a sympathetic vet who patches up Martin and informs him that Johnny One-Eye's days are numbered. Initially, I didn't care much for this drama, essentially because the Alpha DVD version is so pictorially dark, but it improved with a second viewing. Some of the symbolism may strike you as a mite heavy-handed but it is nevertheless effective. Lyle Talbot has a minor role as a representative of the District Attorney's office.

In New York City, rich and respectable Park Avenue ex-gangster Pat O'Brien (as Martin Martin) finds out guttery ex-partner Wayne Morris (as Dane Cory) is planning to go straight to the D.A. and squeal about the events surrounding the film's opening. As this would put Mr. O'Brien behind bars and get Mr. Morris off easily, the two men have a nasty confrontation. O'Brien takes a bullet in the shoulder, and goes on the lam. A "WANTED" man, O'Brien makes his way into the Greenwich Village neighborhood where Morris keeps an apartment for busty blonde Dolores Moran (as Lily White)...Ms. Moran lives with her illiterate - but smartly talkative - daughter Gayle Reed (as Elsie) and their dog "Skipper". Morris likes to make time with Ms. Moran, but loathes little girl cuteness and furry animals; he wants the kid sent to school, then kicks and wounds "Skipper". The disabled canine meets O'Brien, who names him "Johnny One-Eye". Next, O'Brien meets little Miss Reed. O'Brien tells the gullible girl he's really "Santa Claus". This was based on a story by Damon Runyon, but hacks out his whimsy. Highlights include authentic New York locations and a velvety-voiced supporting cast.**** Johnny One-Eye (5/5/50) Robert Florey ~ Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris, Dolores Moran, Gayle Reed

When I looked up Damon Runyon on Wikipedia before writing this comment, I could find no reference to this story or this film. This has to be the most obscure Damon Runyon story ever put on film.As surely as Mark Twain is accepted as the chronicler of life on the Mississippi, Damon Runyon is his counterpart for life on the most famous street of all, Broadway in New York City. His characters whether he writes seriously or for comedy are a part of New York, they could not exist in any other environment.Johnny One-Eye is one of his serious and more obscure works. Old time gangster Pat O'Brien and Wayne Morris have done their share of bad things, but now have risen to some respectability. But when a hot shot prosecutor starts breathing down Morris's neck, he's ready to feed him O'Brien. That O'Brien won't have and when he confronts Morris, he's forced to shoot and kill one of Morris's gunsills. O'Brien is wounded himself.The wounded gangster is befriended by a little girl and her badly injured dog who has only one good eye. O'Brien has quite an interesting 24 hours before all is resolved.The film it bares the most resemblance to that I've seen is Odd Man Out. O'Brien certainly found a few more friends than James Mason did in his injured state though.Sad to say that this film is a cheaply made independent film with not so great production values. That's made up by the location shooting in New York a la Naked City. Look for a good performance by Dolores Moran as the showgirl mother of the little girl befriending O'Brien.Fans of Damon Runyon might want to give this one a look.

Despite the film's original storyline, director Robert Florey, who was well past his prime when this low-budget programmer was made, does injustice to a very original Damon Runyon's plot idea. An innocent but plucky young girl naively believes that a criminal fugitive (Pat O'Brien) who's hiding out in a deserted building in her neighborhood, is really Santa Claus. She keeps his presence secret and does her best to help him. Florey fills the story with bathos and saccharine sentimentality involving the title character, the girl's little dog, and the film ultimately becomes mired in its own mawkishness.More than a decade later Bryan Forbes would direct a critically-acclaimed film based on a similar premise. In 1961's WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, youngster Hayley Mills mistakenly believes fugitive wife-murderer Alan Bates, who is hiding out from the authorities in the barn on her father's isolated British farm, to be Jesus Christ. The tact and taste with which Forbes handles the material is a paradigm of understatement and restraint. Although Mary Hayley Bell's (mother of Hayley} narrative was lauded at the time for its great originality, the plot premise appears cribbed from this unpretentious Damon Runyon B-film programmer.