Interesting but ultimately disappointing noir starring Dick Powell as the title character, a casino operator who is up to his neck in trouble when bodies start popping up around him and his boss finds out Johnny is sleeping with his wife. Robert Rossen's directorial debut is a talky picture that looks nice and has some snappy dialogue but, after a strong start, drags and drags. It's basically a B movie plot on an A movie runtime. Powell is great. Fine turns from Lee J. Cobb and Thomas Gomez. Evelyn Keyes is flawless as ever. All the pieces are there for this to be a first-rate movie. It just runs out of steam too early. It's almost like Rossen, who also wrote the screenplay for this, was as cynical and tired as his protagonist so he just gave up midway through writing. Still worth a look because there's a lot of good here. It's just sad that it never rises to its potential.
Review of Johnny O'Clock
