Framed

STORY

A large commercial truck being driven dangerously fast by Mike Lambert (Glenn Ford) barrels into a small town. Driving much slower in town, the truck still hits a parked car driven by Jeff Cunningham (Edgar Buchanan), who gets out and demands payment for his busted fender. When the townspeople turn against Cunningham, Lambert yells for the trucking company's owner to pay him. Lambert says he never knew he would be driving a truck with bad brakes. When Mike demands his $15 payment, the owner tries to delay, but Lambert demands his money now. He drops his money into Cunningham’s hat and walks away. Then he stops and takes back a bill for his own needs.

Walking into La Paloma Café with his suitcases, Lambert sits at the bar and orders a whiskey; a blonde behind the bar makes eyes at Mike. The blonde, Paula (Janis Carter), starts making conversation with Mike and brushes against him as she delivers drinks to a table. Mike asks the bartender about the card game upstairs, but he is told it is private unless you know the right person. Mike tries to sell his watch to the bartender, but he isn’t buying.

The truck company owner enters the bar with two policemen and points Lambert out. They ask for identification and find his driver’s license expired three months ago. Mike says he’s a mining engineer and is looking for work. The cops escort Mike out of the bar. Mike is eventually brought before a judge on charges of driving recklessly without a license. He is fined $50 or 10 days. He yells that he doesn’t have the money, so he’s going to jail. Paula, who’s present for Mike’s sentencing, yells that she’ll pay his fine. They walk out of court together, and Mike ends up at the La Paloma Café sitting alone, drinking himself beneath the table. Mike vows to settle down and make something good of himself. Paula enters with the boss and says she wants to quit her waitressing job. Paula helps Mike get home and into bed fully dressed. Once he passes out, Paula checks his coat pockets for his wallet and stuffs some money inside. Then she exits the apartment.

Paula returns home to her apartment, notices it’s 12:20, gets redressed, and meets Steve Price (Barry Sullivan) downtown, who picks her up in his flashy car. “I found him,” she mutters, same height and build, but different faces. Steve drives to his ornate home. Paula has spent five weeks looking and waiting, and sometimes she feels frustrated, even if the scheme is worth a quarter million dollars. Steve asks if her mark has any connections to this town, and that he must not make any friends while here. Paula signs the paperwork to access a safety deposit box. She asks Steve about the keys, and he says he must keep them so he can return the money if necessary. Before Steve drops off Paula, she tells him not to worry, that the plan has to work.

When Steve returns home, he finds Beth (Karen Morley) waiting for him. She is upset that Steve stayed out late. Tension exists between the married couple. Beth utters that it’s time to thrash this out like two sane people. Steve insists that Beth is imagining all the subtle changes in their relationship. Beth doesn’t want Steve to admit his sins but to do something about them. He admits he’s too old to change. She says after nine years of marriage she really doesn’t know him. After an intense interchange, Beth slaps her husband in the face and walks out of the room.

In the morning, Mike Lambert tosses and turns, then awakens, still fully dressed in bed. Mike finds the money Paula left in his wallet. He goes to the claim office and offers his engineering services to anyone who has recently opened a mine. The claim officer tells him a man came in yesterday with an impressive silver sample. He invites Mike to sit and wait for this fellow who should arrive shortly. Soon the man arrives, Jeff Cunningham, who raves he might have found the silver vein after all these years. Jeff plans to open the mine in two weeks, and he invites Lambert to breakfast after hearing he’s a certified college-bred engineer. Jeff wishes to sign a contract with Lambert for 10 percent of all silver extracted. They want to meet later this afternoon after Cunningham visits the bank for a loan.

Later, as Mike is preparing to meet Jeff, Paula comes to his apartment. Since Mike was in a bad way last night and didn’t call, she decided to check up on him. Paula, flirtatious, says Mike told her she was beautiful last night. Mike tells her about his new job, which he has to run to. Paula accuses him of being afraid of her. Then Mike grabs and kisses her. He speaks of the new job being his big break, and swears no one is going to spoil it for him. He tells Paula the mines are 50 miles from here. Mike says Cunningham is at the bank currently negotiating a loan. Paula leaves after wishing Mike all the best, but outside the room she is distressed.

Cunningham meets with bank Vice President Steve Price and is told they cannot award the loan on sentiment alone, citing past loans already paid off. Steve offers him a three-month loan for $5,000, which is hardly enough money. Cunningham walks out in disgust. Cunningham tells Mike the bad news, saying he’s leaving town for a few days to acquire the money from a friend, Donovan. Now with the big deal in doubt, Mike goes to see Paula. He tells her the deal apparently fell through.

Steve Price meets Paula at a cozy cabin. Paula senses trouble, and Steve says the bank examiners are coming the day after tomorrow. Steve says $250,000 is in Paula’s safety deposit box. Steve says they’ll search long and hard for the money, but it’s been deposited right under their noses. Steve tells Paula there’s a wrench under her car seat and to get Lambert up here immediately. They plan an accident where Mike Lambert will be discovered as Steve Price. But when Steve Price drops off Paula in his car, Mike Lambert is watching.

Returning to La Paloma, Mike sells his watch for 10 bucks and joins the sizzling poker game upstairs. Mike wins a little money and quickly exits. He buys his watch back from the bartender for $20 and leaves.

Mike returns to Paula’s place, but he is now a much wiser man. He pays off the money he owes Paula in a very cold manner. And, showing anger, he leaves. Paula tries to barricade the door with her body. Mike realizes that a waitress who doesn't seem like a waitress, with plenty of money to burn on him, living in a nice apartment, seems very wealthy. Mike admits seeing her with Price an hour ago, but she says she was trying to convince the Vice-President to reconsider the loan. She tells him he got the money. But Mike remains suspicious. But Paula hands him the money, cash.

Later, Steve, Paula, and Mike drive together to the Cunningham mine to examine it. On the drive back, Steve says he might have been a bit hasty, that the mine looks good to him. To celebrate, Steve offers to take Mike to his mountain home for drinks. There, Steve is quite enthusiastic. Before Mike leaves, Paula says she is starving, and Steve says there’s plenty of food in the refrigerator. While Mike goes to the bathroom, he sees an embroidered “Paula” robe hanging on a hook. Returning downstairs, Mike acts out of sorts. Steve goes upstairs to the bathroom and sees the robe. Steve privately tells Paula that Mike saw her robe. Mike stands in a corner drinking away. Steve says to let him drink ... it will make it easier later. Hours later, Mike passes out on the sofa.

They haul Mike, still unconscious, to the car and drive off. Paula reaches under the backseat, pulls out the wrench, and hits Steve over the head instead of Mike. Paula gets out of the car and drags half-conscious Mike out too. Paula gives Steve one last look and sees blood streaming from his head. She fetches the key from Steve’s pocket and lets the car drift down the ravine, and she smiles. Off to Paula’s apartment, Mike sleeps it off on her sofa.

After finding the bank closed because of Steve Price’s death, Paula returns to her apartment to find Mike disheveled but up and around. She admits she lied to Mike but says it’s all in the past. But Mike, weary, says he is pulling out of this whole situation. Paula, with innocent, bold eyes, says that Mike killed Price. Mike wants to do the right thing and go to the police, but Paula says Mike will be considered guilty, and so will she for covering up the crime. Paula tells Mike to pack his things, that they are leaving tomorrow. The current paper says that Steve Price’s death was murder and not an accident, and Jeff Cunningham is indicted for the murder.

Mike visits Jeff in jail and learns he never found his friend Donovan. Instead, he stayed at his cabin overnight. So he has no alibi. Mike admits he was the last person to see Price. Mike admits to having a few drinks and that he may have killed him, but he can’t remember. But Jeff remembers Price getting a phone call during their meeting, and Mike gets a flash of who killed the banker, but he needs time to gather proof. The first thing is to track Price’s secretary, Mrs. Woodworth, down. Mike asks who telephoned during the Price meeting with Cunningham. Though she remembers a different name, Woodworth said she called several times every week.

Mike once again visits Paula’s apartment, and she tells him that they’ll leave town in a few hours. And Mike says he visited Jeff Cunningham yesterday and he’s in a bad spot. And he asks if she knows the woman who called Steve during his meeting, and she registers shock before returning to normal. But while serving coffee, Paula eyes a container of poison and uses some of it in Mike’s cup of coffee. But reconsidering, she knocks the cup of coffee over and spills it. Paula leaves to pick up her last check from La Porada. When she leaves, Mike hurriedly phones someone, and Paula heads to the bank. She immediately heads to the safety deposit box to claim the money. But while examining the money inside a side office, Mike starkly enters. He asks to see the money, realizing Paula killed Price. Mike mutters to Paula that would she let Cunningham die for something he didn’t do? Paula leaves with the money after telling him goodbye. But the bank officials and security guards are waiting for her to leave. Paula runs back to Mike for help, but he greets her with a stone-cold face. The authorities whisk her away. When a guard tells Mike he’ll get a big reward for this, he tells him to keep the money. And Mike, tossing his cigarette, walks away as the end credits appear.

CRITIQUE

Framed is an excellent example of a film noir, but it isn't innovative in any way. It's an excellent programmer producing a film noir by the numbers, and it does it well. An outstanding femme fatale, check. A naive leading man, down on his luck, who allows a shimmering sex-pot to manipulate him, check. A kind entrepreneur who is framed for a murder he did not commit, check. A bank official corrupt and bad to the bone, check.

Journeyman director Richard Wallace directed a slew of nondescript films and a handful of more recognizable ones, including The Young in Heart, A Night to Remember (1942), The Fallen Sparrow, Kick In, and Sinbad, the Sailor. But he never mastered the film noir format. At least the two writers, Ben Maddow and John Patrick, were responsible for writing scripts for The Asphalt Jungle, The Savage Eye, Intruder in the Dust (Maddow), and Les Girls, High Society, and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Patrick).

Glenn Ford, always the consummate professional, was outstanding in the role of Mike Lambert, always the decent everyday man, but an easily controlled one. He is outraged that he is hired to drive a commercial truck with bad brakes, and he willingly gives his salary to the man whose car he dented, after using force to be sure he is duly paid. For a college-bred engineer, he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he is decent and a man of principle, even though he lacks faith in his career path thus far.

Janis Carter is an unusual femme fatale, a rather enthusiastic one, downplaying her streak of evil when she announces she has found the perfect male to be used in Steve Price’s treacherous scenario to steal $250,000 from his own bank. And Mike, while she survives the ordeal, is only saved because at the final minute Paula decides to kill Steve instead of Mike. The banker is killed more as a victim of happenstance. It could have gone either way.

But aside from Glenn Ford and Barry Sullivan, the film is cast with an army of “B” stars who do well in their roles but lack the star aura to attract a legion of fans or draw any real publicity.

With Framed, we don’t have real star power, but we do have a newly created, innovative script. We just use the standby tropes we have in an excellent, suspenseful way. This very average movie strikes way above its pedigree. It uses the tools of any “B” production to its creative advantage, assembling average parts and making them hit with force. It’s simply a case of rising above.

Framed doesn’t offer audiences anything new or cutting-edge, but it uses well-worn components in a hard-driven way, using character, script, and clever twists and turns to craft another “B” picture that manages to hit beyond its weight. It will never be more than a half-forgotten film noir, but for fans patient enough to try even the most lowly noirs, they will be pleasantly rewarded for trying even the little noirs that outdo their entertainment value.

A STUDIO PUBLICY SHOT OF FEMME FATALE PAULA (JANIS CARTER)

A PUBLICY SHOT OF STEVE PRICE (BARRY SULLIVAN), PAULA (JANIS CARTER), AND MIKE LAMBERT)

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