Raw Deal (1948)

“I want to breathe. That's why I want out of this place... so I can take a deep breath again.”

            Raw Deal begins with Pat Cameron (Clair Trevor) going to visit a guy named Joe in jail. The guard tells Pat she is going to have to wait a minute because someone is already in there talking to Joe. The person talking to Joe is another woman named Ann. She is a social worker who has been trying to reform him. Joe does not need too much reforming. He took the fall for a crime for a gangster named Rick.

            Sometime later Joe breaks out of jail and Pat is the getaway driver. Rick set the whole breakout up but with the idea that Joe would be killed and he would not have to pay him the promised fifty thousand dollars for taking the fall. Unfortunately for Rick, Joe survives his breakout. He has her drive to Ann’s house. He has fallen in love with her and forces her to come with him. Pat is not too happy with Ann coming along because she can see that Joe really loves her.

            Since Joe has escaped successfully Rick now has to come up with another plan to get rid of Joe. Rick gets to Joe by having Ann brought to him.

            Raw Deal was alright. Clair Trevor as Pat does the voiceover in certain parts of the story. The idea of a female doing a voice over in a Film Noir is great but it did not work out well in this film at all. To me the voiceover seemed to set up the story from Pat’s point of view but it was not told from her point of view. It went back and forth between all the characters. Pat was just super annoying. I am not sure if Pat was annoying as a character or if Clair Trevor just made her annoying with her overdramatic acting. Raw Deal is only worth watching if you really like Film Noir otherwise skip it.