In "Johnny O'Clock" Dick Powell has three femme fatales for the price of one. The first is hat check girl Harriet Hobson (Nina Foch), the second Nella Marchettis (Ellen Drew) the gold digger wife of Powell's boss Guido (Thomas Gomez) and finally Nancy Hobson (Evelyn Keyes) the sister of hat check girl Harriet. How the three weave in and out of O'Clock's life forms the basis of this film noir ably directed by Robert Rossen.
The name Johnny O'Clock is obviously an alias and although we hear Police Detective Koch (Lee J. Cobb) read off a list of Johnny's known aliases, we never learn his true identity.
Johnny is the high living well-dressed junior partner of gambler Guido Marchellis. He runs the gambler's casino for him all the while professing that he himself is not a gambler. When two of the main characters turn up murdered, Johnny is immediately suspected of the crimes. He is dogged unrelentlessly by Inspector Koch who seems to have it in for Johnny. Through it all Johnny becomes involved with the three aforementioned females at various stages of the investigation.
This was a different sort of role for Powell. This time around, he is not the hard boiled detective or wise cracking private eye he usually played but a shady sort of character who is out only for himself complete with character flaws and a past. Lee J. Cobb plays the police inspector as only he could, a role he would reprise several times throughout his career.
Evelyn Keyes, who had just married John Huston, makes an alluring heroine. Nina Foch is suitably innocent as the Johnny's "blind date" and Ellen Drew is sexy and seductive as the real "femme fatale" of the piece. Others in the cast are John Kellogg as Charlie Johnny's "man", Jim Bannon as brutal cop Chuck Blaydon and a young Jeff Chandler as a gambler named "Turk".
Complete with all of the dark shadows and night scenes, "Johnny O'Clock" makes for an entertaining "film noire" murder mystery.
The name Johnny O'Clock is obviously an alias and although we hear Police Detective Koch (Lee J. Cobb) read off a list of Johnny's known aliases, we never learn his true identity.
Johnny is the high living well-dressed junior partner of gambler Guido Marchellis. He runs the gambler's casino for him all the while professing that he himself is not a gambler. When two of the main characters turn up murdered, Johnny is immediately suspected of the crimes. He is dogged unrelentlessly by Inspector Koch who seems to have it in for Johnny. Through it all Johnny becomes involved with the three aforementioned females at various stages of the investigation.
This was a different sort of role for Powell. This time around, he is not the hard boiled detective or wise cracking private eye he usually played but a shady sort of character who is out only for himself complete with character flaws and a past. Lee J. Cobb plays the police inspector as only he could, a role he would reprise several times throughout his career.
Evelyn Keyes, who had just married John Huston, makes an alluring heroine. Nina Foch is suitably innocent as the Johnny's "blind date" and Ellen Drew is sexy and seductive as the real "femme fatale" of the piece. Others in the cast are John Kellogg as Charlie Johnny's "man", Jim Bannon as brutal cop Chuck Blaydon and a young Jeff Chandler as a gambler named "Turk".
Complete with all of the dark shadows and night scenes, "Johnny O'Clock" makes for an entertaining "film noire" murder mystery.