On this side of the law

The rich estate "Sanssouci" is located on the edge of the cliff. Somewhere in the vast territory of the estate there is an abandoned well, at the bottom of which there was a certain David Cummins ( Kent Smith ), who recalls what happened to him during the last week:

Once an intelligent, but impoverished, David wandered along a city street, stopping at a pawnshop to examine a revolver in a shop window. Paying attention to his battered appearance, the police officer detained David, and the judge sentenced him for vagrancy to a $ 50 fine or a 30-day prison sentence. In the courtroom, David was seen by lawyer Philip Cagle ( Robert Douglas ), who immediately paid a fine for him. When they left the courthouse together, Philip invited David to a cup of coffee and then to his office, promising to make him an interesting offer. When David entered the lawyer's reception, secretary Mrs. Roberts ( Francis Morris ) mistook him for someone Mr. Taylor. Left alone in his office with David, Philip explains that David looks very much like his missing client, Malcolm Taylor, a wealthy heir to a fortune of $ 3 million. Two weeks later, it will be seven years from the moment Taylor disappeared without a trace, after which he is recognized dead by law, and all rights to his condition will be transferred to other heirs, which the lawyer wants to avoid. To prevent this from happening, Philip makes David an offer within two weeks to impersonate Taylor, promising to pay him $ 500 for it. David agrees to this work for a fee of 5 thousand dollars, after which Philip supplies him with all the materials about the identity of Malcolm. Philip says that David should mainly deceive three people living in the Sanssouci estate - Malcolm Taylor’s brother named Calder ( John Alvin ), his wife Nadine ( Janice Page ) and most importantly, his wife Malcolm, whose name is Evelyn ( Viveka Lindfors). As they approach the Taylor mansion, Philip asks David to keep in mind that Calder hates his brother.

When David appeared in the house, all three of his inhabitants did not notice the substitution and clearly mistook him for Malcolm. Calder immediately runs upstairs in annoyance, and as Nadine is worried, she is noticeable that she is not indifferent to Malcolm. Evelyn, who came down soon, coldly meets her husband who has returned. The next morning Philip arrives, to whom David talks about the fact that it seems that Malcolm is not loved in this share, and he hardly saw his wife. The lawyer says that David was the favorite of his father, and in the eyes of the romantic Evelyn was a hero, but then "she realized that his armor was rusted." She wanted to file for a divorce, but Philip dissuaded her, since in the event of a divorce she would receive pennies, but if Malcolm did not return, a rich inheritance awaited her. At the same time, Philip notes that "she had reason to divorce." According to the lawyer, if Malcolm found out about the death of his father, he would not be hiding. His father was a famous man, and Malcolm could not help but hear about his death. In parting, Philip said to David: "Remember Evelyn is sweet, and from Nadine - only troubles."

When a thoughtful Evelyn watches the sunset on the seashore, David approaches her. Explaining his return by the need to enter into inheritance rights, he asks Evelyn if she still hates him. She replies that she no longer has hatred, only emptiness, after which she leaves. Immediately after this, Nadine approaches David, inviting him to the arbor, where he makes it clear that they had a relationship between them and she is not averse to continue them. However, David keeps himself aloof, after which she accuses him of still spitting on other people's feelings and continues to hurt others. She recalls that before he was not embarrassed that she was the wife of his brother. When David clearly does not want to continue his relationship with Nadine, she declares: “You are waiting for a fortune, and I am a fool Calder. If you had not returned, he would have got the money, and now it belongs to you and Evelyn. ” At that moment, Calder appears watching them, who pounces on David with his fists, but David quickly relieves his impulse, and Calder leaves. In the house of the returning Calder, Evelyn calls out to whom he reports that Malcolm had many novels on the side, including with Nadine, and "now he will take it from me again." Calder, according to him, did not tell Evelyn about this earlier, because he was afraid that she would drive them out of the house, to which Evelyn replies that now it does not matter. Appearing, David and Nadine understand that now everyone knows about her affair with Malcolm. Meanwhile, it is noticeable that David is clearly not indifferent to Evelyn. He rises to her room, and, not impersonating himself, apologizes to Evelyn for his old treason, especially for the affair with Nadine, after which he declares that the house belongs to her. Evelyn notices that he has changed.

The next morning, David arrives at Philip’s office, informing him that Nadine and Malcolm had a relationship, and she was ready to continue it. David then asks why Nadine is confident that if Malcolm had not returned, Evelyn would not see the money. The lawyer demands that David protect the interests of Malcolm and protect Evelyn for this, then Nadine’s chances of inheritance will be illusory. David is worried about the fate of Evelyn when he has to leave, but the lawyer makes it clear that this is not his concern. Returning to Sanssouci in the evening, David persuades Evelyn to take a walk in the park, where he again repents of "his" past mistakes, but claims that he has since become a different person and wants to be with her. David's words touch Evelyn and they kiss. After leaving, Evelyn appears Nadine, who hugs David by the neck, but he removes her hands. Seeing his wrist, she declares that he is not Malcolm, because he does not have the scar that Malcolm had. Nadine's first thought was that he killed Malcolm to take his place, but then he realized that this was unlikely. Nevertheless, Nadine decides to take advantage of the situation. She states that she will not betray his deception, and when he enters into the inheritance rights, he will receive both money and her. Upon returning to his room, David urgently calls Phillip, informing that Nadine has bitten him, after which the lawyer asks him to come to his office tomorrow morning. Immediately after this conversation, Philip calls Nadine, making an appointment for her that very evening in the house near the cliff. At the meeting, Philip asks if Malcolm is an impostor, to which she confidently replies no. It then turns out that Philip and Nadine were in conspiracy, and according to their plan, if Malcolm had not returned, they would have arranged for Evelyn an accident, and Calder and Nadine would have gotten the whole fortune. However, with the return of Malcolm, this plan collapsed. Seeing Nadine's stubbornness regarding Malcolm's personality, Philip states that the plan is changing, then hits her on the head, and then takes her body to the edge of a high cliff and dumps it into the sea.

The next morning, when Nadine’s body is discovered near the shore, Calder tries to accuse her brother of her murder, but the last person to see her alive is Calder himself, after which the sheriff concludes that it was an accident. Returning to the house, David tells Philip that Calder accuses him of murder, which the lawyer recommends that he disappear from Sanssouci as soon as possible, claiming that now Evelyn is not in danger. In the afternoon, they meet in the office of Philip, who had just arrived from the sheriff. Philip warns that the investigation will raise questions that David has no answers to, and therefore he should leave forever as soon as possible, writing a will in favor of Evelyn, and Philip will be his executor until the arrival of Malcolm or until the moment when he is recognized dead. Philip assures David that he will not leave Evelyn penniless, as in this case he will have to get rid of Calder. To David’s words that he does not know how to sign like Malcolm, Philip claims that he forged a signature, after which he gives David a pen and invites his two collaborators, whom he asks to confirm that he has just signed this document. After that, Philip takes David to Sanssouci, where he must inform Evelyn of his will and declare his departure for an indefinite period. After his departure, Philip plans to get Evelyn to entrust him with all inheritance matters. At Sanssouci, Evelyn reads papers in surprise, astonished that Malcolm left nothing to Calder, after which he claims to be leaving forever. Evelyn says that she doesn’t need the money, and makes David understand that she would like him to stay, but he silently closes the door behind him. When Philip and David leave the estate together, David goes out to open the gate. At this point, Philip takes a revolver from the glove compartment and hits David on the head with a hilt, then pulls it and throws it into the well. Waking up from a blow, David sees a skeleton next to him with a bracelet on which the name of Malcolm is engraved, realizing that it was Philip who killed Malcolm in the same way that he had just tried to kill him.

While David is in the well, Philip returns to the house, where he encourages Calder to think that it was Evelyn who killed Nadine out of hatred. Calder decides to take revenge on Evelyn. He rises to her room, where he sees that she is packing up, intending to leave Sans-Susi forever. Calder insists on driving her to the station. Before leaving home, he persuades Evelyn to take a walk to the cliff for the last time, and during the walk he tries to push her into the sea. He says that although Nadine did not love him, he loved her madly, accusing Evelyn of having killed Nadine. Meanwhile, Philip calls the sheriff from home, saying that Calder and Evelyn are missing, and that before he disappeared, he accused her of killing his wife. At this moment, David, who managed to get out of the well, having heard the screams of Evelyn, runs up to the cliff and pounces on Calder, managing to save her. Calder leaves, and David confesses to her that he is not Malcolm. He further says that Calder was provoked by Philip, who thus wanted to get rid of both and get the whole state into his virtually uncontrolled control. When David enters the house, it comes as a surprise to Philip, who sends a revolver at him with the words that "he will kill him and he will not be anything." David accuses Philip of having killed both Malcolm and Nadine. Initially, he along with Nadine wanted to get rid of Evelyn, but then, seeing David in court, he decided to take over everything himself. At this moment, the sheriff (Monte Bleu) drives up to the door of the house. When Evelyn unexpectedly leaves the other door, Philip is distracted by it, and at that moment David turns off the light in the house. Philip shoots several times in the dark, and then runs out into the street, where he is chased by Malcolm's dog, driving him to the well. Philip falls into the well and is broken to death. David tells the whole story to the sheriff, after which Evelyn declares that she has no complaints against David. Against the backdrop of sea sunset, David and Evelyn hug and kiss each other.

As the film historian Arthur Lyons notes, “ Richard Sayle , the author of the film’s story, later became a recognized screenwriter and director who wrote, in particular, the scripts of an excellent noir of category “ Unexpected ”(1954) with Frank Sinatra in the title role, the melodrama“ Female World ”( 1954) and the adventure thriller Beyond the Seven Waves (1957). He also wrote several novels satirically representing the Hollywood studio system, among them Lazarus No. 7 and Oscars. According to Lyons, “in 1966, studio managers immortalized Sale's opinion of themselves by making the absolutely disgusting film“ Oscar “” ^[1] .

Director Richard L. Baer directed such films as the musical crime melodrama Smart Girls Don't Speak (1948), the film noir Flexi Martin (1949), the crime comedy The House on the Other Side of the Street (1949), and the western movie Return of the Migrant "(1950). In addition, from 1942 to 1956, Baer directed 63 short comedy films with a character named Joe McDouks, and from 1955 to 1973 worked mainly on television, producing more than 300 episodes of 40 different television series. Baer died in 2015 at the age of 101 ^[2] .

Kent Smith in the period 1936 to 1977 played in almost 50 films, the most significant of which were Cat People (1942), This Earth is Mine (1943), Spiral Staircase (1946), Nora Prentiss ( 1947), " Source " (1949) and " Girl from a Party " (1958) ^[3] . Later, Smith made a career in television, in particular, had regular roles in the popular television series Peyton Place (1964-1966) and The Invaders (1967-1968) ^[4] .

In 1946, the Warner Bros film company brought Swedish actress Viveka Lindfors to Hollywood in the hope of making her second Greta Garbo or Ingrid Bergman . She starred in the films The Adventures of Don Giovanni (1948), Night, (1949), Dark City (1950), Four in a Jeep (1951), Moonflit (1955) and I Accuse! "(1958). In the 1960s, she gradually switched to supporting roles and to work on television, but continued to act in films until her death in 1995 ^[5] .

The story of Richard Sale, which was the basis of the script, was called "The Doctor Deals with Death" ^[6] .

The working title of the film is “Dead End” ( Eng. Deadlock ) ^[6] .

The film did not attract much interest from critics. Spencer Selby only noted that the film tells about "a man whom a criminal lawyer hires to impersonate a rich client, whom he is very similar to" ^[7] .

According to Arthur Lyons, "the film is an example of the usual noir theme of an impostor lookalike who, thanks to the masquerade, is embroiled in circumstances that he could not have foreseen." As the critic believes, "the film successfully pumps suspense to a certain extent, and a capable cast demonstrates a decent game." The critic also liked the plot, however, in his opinion, “the film as a whole suffers from a far-fetched scenario and probably demonstrates Warner Bros’ weak interest in the production of Category B films at that time.” As Lyons further notes, “in fact, the big four movie companies — Warners , Fox , MGM, and Paramount — compared to medium and small movie studios, produced not only fewer Category B noir films, but also generally fewer significant Category B films .” This, according to Lyons, “reflected the approach to cinema of major tycoons, according to which category B films served only to fill the dual viewing program, but had little intrinsic value” ^[1] .

Кинокритик Хэл Эриксон отметил игру Вивеки Линдфорс , которая «добавляет некоторый объём в остальном двухмерному персонажу „жены“ Камминса» ^[8] .

• Spencer Selby. Dark City: The Film Noir . - Jeffeson, NC: McFarland & Co Inc, 1997. - ISBN 978-0-7864-0478-0 ref = Selby.
• Arthur Lyons. Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir . — Boston, MA: Da Capo Press, 2000. — ISBN 978-0-3068-0996-5 .

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