Directed by:
Robert RossenScreenplay:
Robert RossenCinematography:
Burnett GuffeyComposer:
George DuningCast:
Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Lee J. Cobb, Ellen Drew, Nina Foch, Thomas Gomez, Jeff Chandler, Bert Stevens, Kenner G. Kemp, Jeffrey Sayre, John Kellogg (more)Plots(1)
Three years after song-and-dance man Dick Powell reshaped his nice-guy image by playing hard-boiled gumshoe Phillip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet, he returned to film noir with this crime-based thriller. Johnny O'Clock (Dick Powell) and his partner Pete Marchettis (Thomas Gomez) operate a gambling casino that has seen better days. Chuck Blayden (Jim Bannon), a cop on the take, wants in on the casino, and he makes friends with Pete while trying to convince him that Johnny, the smarter of the two, should go. When Chuck's girlfriend Harriet (Nina Foch) is found dead, a supposed suicide, his sister Nancy (Evelyn Keyes) smells a rat, especially after Chuck skips town. Nancy is convinced that her sister was murdered, and she asks Johnny to help her prove it. Johnny, who already has a number of women in his life - including Nelle (Ellen Drew), Pete's wife - figures that one more can't hurt and agrees to help her. But Police Inspector Koch (Lee J. Cobb), convinced that Johnny and Pete were behind Harriet's death, is making it hard for Johnny to do much investigating, and matters get worse when Chuck's body is found floating in the river. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Dick Powell
USA
Best movies:
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Tall Target (1951)
Evelyn Keyes
USA
Best movies:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Union Pacific (1939)
The Face Behind the Mask (1941)
Lee J. Cobb
USA
Best movies:
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Ellen Drew
USA
Best movies:
If I Were King (1938)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
Nina Foch
Netherlands
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Prescription: Murder (1968) (TV movie)
Spartacus (1960)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Thomas Gomez
USA
Best movies:
Key Largo (1948)
Phantom Lady (1944)
Who Done It? (1942)
Jeff Chandler
USA
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The Jayhawkers (1959)
Man in the Shadow (1957)
Taza, Son of Cochise (1954)
Bert Stevens
USA
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Some Like It Hot (1959)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Kenner G. Kemp
USA
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The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Limelight (1952)
Jeffrey Sayre
USA
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Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
North by Northwest (1959)
John Kellogg
USA
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Samson and Delilah (1949)
Kenneth MacDonald
USA
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Brute Force (1947)
The Jayhawkers (1959)
Brick Sullivan
USA
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Singin' in the Rain (1952)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Love Crazy (1941)
Paul Bradley
USA
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Giant (1956)
Gilda (1946)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Kit Guard
Denmark
Best movies:
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
It Happened One Night (1934)
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Brooks Benedict
USA
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
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Fred Aldrich
USA
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Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
Phil Brown
USA
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Adolph Faylauer
USA
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North by Northwest (1959)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Robin Raymond
USA
Best movies:
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Wild in the Country (1961)
Tortilla Flat (1942)