Impact

1949 "Wanted By Two Women! One For Love! One For Murder!"
7| 1h51m| en
Details

After surviving a murder attempt, an auto magnate goes into hiding so his wife can pay for the crime.

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Reviews

Diagonaldi Very well executed
Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Hollywoodshack Brian Donlevy and Helen Walker do quite well in Impact, which I recently saw in a longer version on Retro TV network. But some of the characters in the second half seem unrealistic. Ella Raines plays a female auto mechanic, not a likely occupation in the forties, even when Rosie the Riveter was popular. It just seemed to be a plot device to help Walter Williams recover from his amnesia.Charles Coburn plays a police detective, certainly a change from the chubby character parts in Frank Capra comedies. The musical score has flaws. I'm not sure it was in the original film, but it cues to the most sweetest and romantic tone while Irene Williams plots to murder her husband so she can elope with another man, and continues to do so after her scheme is revealed and she tries to cover it up.
wes-connors After scoring big points with his board of directors, wealthy San Francisco businessman Brian Donlevy (as Walter "Walt" Williams) plans a romantic vacation with his beautiful, well-dressed wife Helen Walker (as Irene). Unbeknownst to Mr. Donlevy, Ms. Walker has scored a big point of her own, low-life lover Tony Barrett (as James "Jim" Torrence). They've got deadly plans for Donlevy, but things don't always go according to plan. Donlevy finds female companionship with 25-year-old Mobile service station operator Ella Raines (as Marsha Peters) while "smart cookie" lieutenant Charles Coburn (as Tom Quincy) investigates...The Popkin brothers (Harry and Leo) were great at bringing suspenseful dramas to the screen; in this case, a story by Jay Dratler. This time they should have met with director Arthur Lubin to iron out some details in an otherwise fun film. We get several interesting twists and turns, but are almost derailed, due to some plot problems. There are a couple of implausible events worth mentioning. Just for starters, a character attempts to "murder" another by simply hitting him on the head; obviously, the "victim" was not dead. Also, a "victim" jumps into the back of a parked moving van instead of going up to the driver and asking for help...From the opening "board of directors" meeting to seeing Robert Warwick as a police captain, "Impact" employs several former "silent" screen players. That's not unusual, but there are a few in prominent roles. The chic maid is Anna May Wong, memorable as a sexy young Asian woman in 1920s melodramas. She participates in one of the better story sequences, a chase (photographed by Ernest Laszlo) from Jason Robards' courtroom to her apartment. The landlady who discovers Donlevy's secret is Mae Marsh, one of D.W. Griffith's most acclaimed actresses. Of the four top-billed stars, Walker gets the best out of her role.****** Impact (3/19/49) Arthur Lubin ~ Brian Donlevy, Helen Walker, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn
messages-lc This is absolutely NOT film noir. It's filled with romance and monologues on hope and doing the right thing, not the gritty, pessimistic ambiance of the urban jungle. In fact, it's almost after- school-special-like. Just because a movie has a crime as its major plot point does not make it film noir!That said, I was at first mildly impressed with this film. The poetic justice initially visited upon Mrs. Williams was genuinely clever. The venomous defense attorney was a nice touch. The trickery used by the protagonist to outwit his cheating, murderous wife was interesting.Then, all of a sudden, the film (like others in this faux-film-noir genre - see Kansas City Confidential) was ruined by a needless romantic sub-plot. Instead of darkly, cynically punishing his murderous wife, Walter Williams listens to his new belle and has a change of heart. Her speech wasn't even that convincing: "But that doesn't give you the right to take justice into your own hands."In fact, his wife's attempted murder DOES give him the right to mete poetic justice. That denouement would have made this film interesting. It would have made it dark. It would have made it film noir. Instead, the film's creative potential was sacrificed for a dopey romantic subplot. I'm not impressed.
stutch "Impact" suffers from some unfortunate director conceits, a lazy screenplay and too large of budget.For example: New Dad runs out of the car to announce the news, goes back to the car for cigars, gives her cigars, goes back to the car and then runs back to take back most of the cigars he just handed out. Now I get that he's an excited new Father, but please, 3x? Does nothing.Plus the pregnant-pause/false ending conceit that run throughout. Do we need that? Not clever and gets old fast. Columbo was a master but it falls flat in Impact.Then the numerous dead-end fillers indicate a lazy, sloppy screenplay. Incredible as it may seem, the Producer may have had too much money. There is a enough of a story, enough meat to be able to get in to the heads of the characters. But they don't. Instead VO is used. Scenes such as the needless volunteer fire dept scene serve no purpose to move the story forward. Hopefully someone had a gun to the editor's head, otherwise why have these at all? They belong on the editing room floor. Again too much money in the budget? Were they having a tough time filling the run time?Last it suffers from to weakest of all screen techniques, Voice Over. Honestly, do we need to see him sitting on the bench, staring into space only to listen to dialog be repeated? Even if it is nicely mixed -and it is- c'mon,even he gets bored enough to pull out another smoke. Oooo he's thinking, putting the pieces together. His actions should indicate where his head is and let the audience's stitch things together. That makes a movie.Those are my gripes.Impact is a cool story. Generally well played and properly casted. As others have stated, the lighting is not Noir yet the storyline is, which is what holds this together. Which may be another indicator the budget was too large. Noir lighting came from low budget constraints. Cat People is the the film often used as where the technique got started and was basically a solution to a budget driven problem. No money to light with? Use shadows and let the viewer's mind infer. If you are familiar with San Francisco its nice to see some shots from yesteryear.Bottom line: Give it a new title, tighten up the script and redo the film with a great Director and a solid cast. Then it may have some Impact!