Tight Spot is labeled as a Film Noir. Now when I think of Film Noir I think of a dark and broody cop and a sexy looking lady in a jam or two timing him. Ginger Rogers is definitely not the first person I would even think of being in a noir (although she was flawless in Black Widow which is one of my all time favorite noirs) and she in no way a good “femme fatale” in this film… actually she cannot even be considered a femme fatale she is tough but not a woman a man is willing to go to their end for.
The New York PD is trying to convict a gangster for several charges and the only way they can is to get witnesses to come forward. Unfortunately all the witnesses so far have ended up dead. Police detective Lloyd Hallett (Edward G. Robinson) has one more witness that could come forward if coaxed the right way. His witness is Sherry Conley (Rogers) who has been in prison for some time for being connected to the gangster.
Hallett has Sherry brought to a hotel where she is comfortable and she can eat whatever she wants. He has another detective named Vince Striker look after her. Vince thinks that Sherry should not be kept comfortable since she has been in jail for a crime but after a while they get to talking and he begins to like her. For the few days that Sherry is in the hotel she goes back and forth whether she will testify she does not want to be killed.
Somehow the gangster and his men have found out where the police have been keeping Sherry. One night they come to try to kill her, she gets shot in the arm and the warden in charge of watching over her is mortally wounded. Sherry puts her foot down over testify she saw firsthand what the gangster will go through to keep her away from the court.
As the audience we see that the gangster has someone on the inside with the police.
The story was decent but the cast was not right at all. Ginger Rogers is a great actress I adore the woman to no end but she was just not right for the role. She could play a good tough girl she always played her characters with some attitude. This is weird but her hair was so distracting!! It was flat and in an awful style that made her look so much older. I did like when Vince was driving her to the hotel room and she sees some new dresses in the window and she gets all excited because she has not seen any new kind of clothing in a long time. Edward G. Robinson was just playing the type of characters he always played: the hardboiled cop with a bit of a soft spot. He has never made an impression on me in the films I have seen him in. Brian Keith I have never seen before and did not care for him at all.
Tight Spot is not a good film. I did not mind the direction, lighting, and story but the actors were just totally not right and I feel ruined the film. I also feel like the running time was too long there were certain parts that just dragged like the scenes where Vince gets Sherry to talk about her past and her association with the gangster. I especially did not like the fact that they made Sherry fall for Vince that was a load of bull and unneeded romantic fluff. Ginger Rogers’ last line was hysterical when it was not supposed to be which made the film worse for me. Only sit through Tight Spot if you are a Ginger Rogers completist but other than that skip it completely.
No comments:
Post a Comment