The Man Who Cheated Himself

STORY

The movie opens with a close-up of two hands unwrapping a box containing a gun. We pull back the camera, and the man loads the pistol with bullets. He hides the pistol in his closet behind some clothes. He throws the empty box into the fireplace but doesn’t notice a small slip of paper falling to the ground. The man then goes outside the balcony window and locks the door. He uses a fireplace iron to bust open the lock as someone knocks on his door. His wife, Lois (Jane Wyatt), enters and accuses her husband, Howard (Harlon Warde), of looking through her desk. The haughty Lois calls Howard an ingrate and weak, reminding him she is filing for divorce next week. Howard sarcastically mentions her new boyfriend and gets slapped for the effort. As she leaves, Howard sarcastically reminds her to change her will so she leaves him nothing.

Lois picks up the paper that Howard dropped, the inspection certificate for the .38 he bought. She is noticeably stressed and immediately phones Lt. Ed Cullens (Lee J. Cobb) of the homicide division. But his younger brother, Detective Cullens, answers, and she abruptly slams the receiver down. The older brother, Ed, finally returns and tells his younger brother, Andy, that he has a week off for his honeymoon beginning Tuesday. Ed shares a wedding present with Andy. Andy tells Ed about the phone call. He phones Lois from a phone booth and says her husband, Howard, bought a gun and plans to kill her. Ed, realizing Lois’ distress, says he’ll come over right away. As he drives out of the police building, he meets his brother’s fiancée, Janet (Lisa Howard), and tells her about the week off for his brother’s honeymoon.

Ed finally arrives at Lois’ house and finds her visibly upset, saying she found the gun. Ed suggests a drink to calm her nerves. She accuses Howard of wanting to murder her for her money. Ed tries to calm her down, and when he cannot, he kisses her passionately, and she returns the kiss. When Lois fetches the loaded weapon, Howard just happens to be returning home and confronts her; Lois shoots him several times at close range. Ed takes the gun away from her and examines Howard, finding him dead. Lois tells Ed he knows the truth about Howard, and Ed replies that the truth can get you 20 years.

Ed calls the airline and asks if Howard picked up his tickets yet, and the attendant says he has not. Ed concocts a story about Howard getting robbed and killed at the airport, but first the corpse must be returned to the airport. There, a woman screams after seeing a body lying still and another car driving off. And on his way home, Ed stops and throws the murder weapon off a bridge.

The police find and identify the dead body, beginning an investigation. Because of odd blood stains, Detective Andy Cullen supposes he may not have been killed at the airport at all. The witnesses confirm to the investigating detective that they found the body around 10 o’clock. The witnesses, Mr. Earnest Quimby (Charles Arnt) and Mrs. Muriel Quimby (Marjorie Bennett), saw a green coupe drive away with a lone driver, at least Mr. Quimby testifies. During the police interview, Lt. Ed Cullens enters and listens as the witnesses say they don’t remember anything significant about Howard Frazer. But Andy is perplexed that Frazer was at the airport for three hours and no one claims to have seen him. Since it is Andy’s first case, his brother Ed volunteers to tell Mrs. Frazer about her husband’s death, but he soon joins Ed. As Andy sits down to take notes, he fails to see blood on one of the books behind him. Lois feigns fainting so Ed can slip the bloody book under her feet on the couch. Andy checks the balcony door and finds the lock broken. Lois concocts a story about forgetting her key to the French door and breaking it to avoid distressing the servants.

Lois phones Ed because he hasn’t contacted her of late. Andy tells Ed that he is delaying his honeymoon because this case is his big chance. Ed does get married, as he wouldn’t delay that. After the ceremony, the newlyweds are stopped by a traffic cop. The ticket says, “Good Luck,” for their new life together. Someone robs a liquor store and shoots and kills the man behind the counter. A lab expert says it sounds like the person who killed Frazer. All three slugs match the bullets found in Frazer’s body.

Ed later meets Lois in the park and says the pistol matches the bullets. Lois asks Ed to marry her. He kisses her passionately. Two immigrants confirm they found the gun left at the side of a river. But the adult man testifies that his son possesses the gun. While looking for Nito (Alan Wells) at a bar, he overhears the two detectives and quietly tries to sneak out. The Cullen brothers chase after the escaping man. They ultimately catch him, and Ed calls him a peanut brain, citing all the mistakes Nito made. The police brothers try hard to prove his involvement in a bar murder/robbery. Leaving the building, it is apparent that he committed that murder, but Andy is confused about why Ed is trying to pin the airport murder on him too. Ed tries to throw his brother off the trail, and the detective takes his experienced older brother's advice.

Ed later speaks to Lois, feeling guilty about pushing Andy around, bawling him out when he’s right. Andy pulls up at Lois’ house and finds Ed leaving. When Andy asks why his big brother is there, Ed says he only stayed a minute and that Lois is in bed, but Andy just saw her fully dressed, standing by an upstairs window.

The next morning, deep in thought, Andy is ignoring his new wife. Andy finally tells his wife that he and his brother are pulling apart, and that Ed lied to him last night. Then Andy opens a newspaper to see a front-page story about a suicide leap from a bridge. He then calls a highway patrol officer who told him he found Ed on that same bridge. Now very suspicious about Ed, he asks to borrow his car. Andy shows the car to Quimby, who saw Frazer’s body dumped at the airport, and the witness identifies it as the car driving away. But he again identifies the car as green when it is blue. The witness is color blind. Janet Cullen arrives at Ed’s office at headquarters and asks if Andy is there, and Ed says no, and to go home and call if he’s not there in an hour. When Janet leaves, Ed calls Mr. Quimby, the witness, to ask if his brother caught up with him today. He says yes, and that the car Andy brought was the one he saw at the airport.

When Ed and Andy meet up again, Andy asks why Ed killed Frazer. Ed asks if Andy is drunk. Ed tells his younger brother he's inflated by his new job and off the mark. Andy talks him into seeing the chief, but Ed sucker-punches Andy, knocking him out. Ed immediately phones Lois to pack for a trip, saying that he’ll be there in 10 minutes, ready to leave.

Andy wakes to the phone ringing, realizing he’s been tied up. Janet is on the other end of the line. Andy crawls across the room and knocks the phone onto the floor, kicking his feet against the floor to make a loud racket. Before long, the police arrive, and soon an all-points bulletin is posted to find Ed Cullin and Lois. Andy takes Janet home, then begins searching for his brother. Ed, meanwhile, tries to cross the Golden Gate Bridge but sees a squad of policemen questioning people near the toll booth, so he changes his route.

Ed and Lois hide in a building directly beneath the Golden Gate Bridge until later that tonight, when they hope to escape. But Andy approaches the building where they are hiding out. They split up: Lois hides while Ed goes to his car. Soon, Ed and Lois climb higher up the building steps to hide. Andy finds Ed’s car and a note to return it to police headquarters. Andy starts to explore the building where the couple is hiding. Snuggled in a small tower, Andy almost discovers them but leaves. In the heavy wind, Lois’ scarf blows away to the base of the tower. Then it drifts further away, carried by the breeze. Andy fails to notice anything and drives away. After he leaves, Ed and Lois escape downward and are intercepted by a team of police who are poised to catch them.

Ed and Lois share a cigarette and a short moment before they enter court to face the music as music swells.

CRITIQUE

The Man Who Cheated Himself is another “B” noir produced by a major studio, simply produced as a formula picture on a tight budget. It offers nothing innovative and adds nothing to the noir formula. At the same time, it offers a tight little murder mystery that entertains over its 81 minutes.

Felix Feist was a journeyman director, directing shorts, ending his career in television, and directing tons of programmers and a few films that rose above the mediocre. He was generally an undistinguished filmmaker, but he faithfully committed to his job.

These little noirs are more entertaining than they deserve to be simply by virtue of their generally unknown status, being the type of film noir not seen by the average noir fan and offering the chance to see a noir probably not seen before. I mean, how many times can one see Out of the Past, even if it is a far superior movie? Sometimes you don’t want to see something great for the 10th time, but you still want something you’ve never seen.

The relationship between brothers Ed and Andy Cullen, one a veteran cop and the other a novice, is a novel premise. But age-wise, isn’t the relationship more father and son? In real life, Lee J. Cobb was nine years older than John Dall, similar to the age difference between my brother and me. But nine years is still a radical age difference for most brothers. Still, the sense that one younger brother is akin to a pit bull in solving this case, and the older brother is actually guilty of being an accessory to murder, is novel. The more experienced brother has to throw the younger brother false clues and scenarios to distract him from solving the case, but the younger brother still manages to do just that.

And Jane Wyatt plays against type as a rich bitch, utterly unsympathetic. After playing in Lost Horizon, Boomerang, Pitfall, Father Knows Best, and numerous television shows, it is difficult to accept Wyatt as a murderer. Her final meeting with Lee J. Cobb, having her cigarette lit by him and her quickly flashing a smile, is the type of performance we have come to expect.

If anything can be called a significant flaw, it is the complex plot that gets overly convoluted with dumping the body at the airport, throwing the murder weapon pistol over the bridge, and having it found and used in more crimes involving someone new; it is more complex than it needs to be.

And the overlong ending, using that magnificent structure constructed under the Golden Gate Bridge, just seems to go on and on, probably showing too much love for a structure that was made to be used for movies. Sometimes a movie is better when filmmakers focus on what serves the story, not just a beautiful set piece. And when Ed and Lois are caught by hidden police, it is over much too quickly.

But overall, The Man Who Cheated Himself is a more than adequate film noir that will transfix its audience for its running time. Its stars and their performances are excellent, even the supporting roles. Its direction maintains suspense and anticipation, keeping its audience anxious. When it comes to something old and new, this movie more than satisfies.

A STUDIO PUBLICITY PHOTO OF LEE J. COBB AND JANE WYATT

LT. ED CULLEN AND LOIS FRAZER CARRY OUT THE CORPSE OF HOWARD FRAZER (HARLAN WARDE).

A FANTASTIC SET PIECE, THE STRUCTURE UNDER THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

garysvehla509@gmail.com

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