For 2018 the San Diego Film Geeks are holding a yearlong celebration of film noirshowing a different noireach moth at the Digital Gym Cinema and this months movie was Pitfallstarring Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Raymond Burr, and Jane Wyatt. Because I had already had a bad reaction to Dick Powell in Murder my Sweet, I skipped seeing this one with the Film Geeks but instead watched it over two nights at home by way of Amazon Prime Streaming.

Dick Powel plays Johnny an insurance man, bored with his wife, Jane Wyatt, his son, and his life that is stuck in a dull predictable routine. When he has to reclaim items purchased with stolen money from the lovely Mona, Lizabeth Scott, he begins an affair. Mac, Raymond Burr, is a private eye who works on contract for the insurance company and who has developed an unhealthy obsession with Mona. The situation spirals out of control with Mac turning murderous and Johnny realizing the good life he has endangered with his short sighted and selfish drives.

Over all this is the sort of noirI like, an ordinary character drawn into extraordinary circumstances, but my reaction to Dick Powell remained and made me glad I had not seen the film at the theater. Also the final ending where the ‘loose woman’ suffers a terrible outcome but Johnny skates free because that’s the ‘moral’ outcome is a down check on this movie.

Johnny is the sort of wise cracking character that is actually very tricky to play. SF author John Scalzi has a saying, ‘The failure mode of clever is ass.’ It far too easy for someone who thinks they are being clever to come off as an ass and this it would seem turns on performance. Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falconcan wise crack as Sam Spade and it’s endearing, Peter Jurasik in Babylon 5can make you see the humanity within Londo Mollari even as he schemes and makes terrible choices, and Kristen Bell in The Good Placemakes Eleanor Shellstrop a relatable character even when in her own words ‘she’s kind of a monster’ but Dick Powell can’t pull off this trick. When the psychopathic Mac is beating the crap out of Johnny (Dick Powell) in front of his own house I found myself cheering Mac. The things is I’ve seen Powell in other roles and he was just fine, but he cannot walk that fine line between clever and ass. Invariably he falls over into ass.

Next month is Gun Crazyone of my favoritenoirs.