(1949) 3 Richard Gilliam Impact is a well-told crime drama distinguished by good performances from a veteran cast. Even when playing romantic leads or all-around heroes, Brian Donlevy brought a terse gruffness to his work that added a valuable level of realism. Here he strikes a nice internal-conflict balance as the husband wronged. Rejecting revenge as motivation, Donlevy's character is more interested in rebuilding his own life. Where film noir is often concerned with fatalism and justice in the more karmic sense, "happy ending" crime stories like Impact offer the comfortable reassurance that the organizational structures of society will somehow find a way to set free the innocent and punish the guilty. The film has many parallels to Busby Berkeley's They Made Me a Criminal made ten years earlier in 1939. Both protagonists are wronged by those closest to them. Both are involved in accidents and presumed dead. Both face criminal charges if they are discovered. Both find the love of a good woman. Both are pursued by a principled investigator. Only at the endings do the stories substantially diverge, and even there, both stories give the audience an upbeat finish. The black-and-white cinematography in Impact is undermined by frequent use of daytime exterior shots. Ernest Laszlo was a fine technical cinematographer whose visual style varied depending on what director he was working with. The director here is Arthur Lubin, an efficient craftsman not noted for much in the way of style. Lubin hit success that same year with Francis, a comedy about a talking mule. For much of the remainder of his career, Lubin stayed busy with the Francis sequels and other lightweight animal-oriented projects. While Impact misses out on story originality and cinematic atmosphere, it finds strength in its supporting performances. The much-underrated Ella Raines keeps the film's sometimes sluggish second half moving forward. Charles Coburn, as the investigator, plays pretty much the same character that he did in many of his films. He's good enough that the act doesn't go stale. The best treat is the all-too-brief performance of silent movie favorite Anna May Wong. She's excellent in what few scenes she has. Regrettably, her motion picture career had effectively ended some years earlier and she would appear in only two more films before dying in 1961. Overall, Impact lacks the sustaining energy to attain great classic status, but does its work adequately enough maintain interest and elevate it above many crime dramas of the late '40s.

Impact on AllMovie

Impact (1949)

Impact

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Suitable for Children

genres

Drama

sub-genres

Crime Drama

category

Feature

directed by

Arthur Lubin

countries

USA

released

1949

run time

83 min.

produced by

United Artists

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by Hal Erickson synopsis

Though he doesn't know it at first, industrialist Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) shouldn't trust his wife Irene (Helen Walker) any farther than he can throw her. Irene schemes with her lover Jim Torrance (Tony Barrett) to kill Walter in an "accidental" car crash. The plan fails, and it is Jim who is killed. When it develops that he is assumed to have also died in the accident, Walter changes his name and heads to a small town where no one knows him. Here he starts life all over again as a humble garage mechanic, falling in love with his boss Marsha Peters (Ella Raines) in the process. Disaster looms when detective Quincy (Charles Coburn) comes sniffing around; it seems that Lt. Quincy suspects the incognito Williams of murdering Torrance. To reveal any more would be giving the game away. Impact co-stars longtime favorite Anna May Wong, making her first screen appearance since 1942.

characteristics

- Murder-attempt

- Mechanization

- Murder-suspect

- Starting Over

- Treacherous Spouses

- Mechanic

- Infidelity

- Adultery

- Detective

- Extramarital-affair

- Haunted By The Past

- Adulterer

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HAUNTED BY THE PAST