Framed (1947)

[cigar joe]

by Adam Lounsbery http://www.backalleynoir.com/forum.php- Framed starts out with a bang. We see Mike Lambert (Glenn Ford), his hat pushed back on his head, looking scared and exhausted, behind the wheel of a runaway truck. The first minute of the picture looks like an outtake from Thieves' Highway (1949) or The Wages of Fear (1953). Mike careens around mountain passes, fighting the gears of the truck every inch of the way, and pumping the brakes to no avail.

It's a great way to start the picture, and it's fast-paced and suspenseful enough for the viewer never to stop and wonder why Mike doesn't try to run the truck off the road just outside of town instead of driving straight down Main Street and smashing his front fender into a parked pickup truck.

Mike Lambert isn't a guy who thinks thing through before doing them. He's a classic noir character — smart and resourceful, but bullheaded and cursed with a single fatal flaw. In Mike's case, it's his habit of getting blackout drunk at all the wrong times, a condition he accepts the way other men accept the weather. "I told you I never remember what I do after I've had a couple of drinks," he says, as though it's just another one of those things, like not being able to remember people's names or biting your fingernails.

Mike is an out-of-work mining engineer. He took the job driving the truck with no brakes to make a few bucks, but the truck owner's refusal to pay him and his citation for reckless driving leave him stranded in the little California town with no choice but to do some time in jail, since he's flat broke and can't pay the fine.

A beautiful guardian angel appears in the form of pretty blond waitress Paula Craig (Carter). She pays Mike's fine for him and even lends him money to get a room in town. It's not hard to see that she must have ulterior motives, but Carter plays her role well, and has good chemistry with Ford, so it's easy to sit back and let yourself be lulled for a little while into feeling as though you're watching a laid-back, romantic drama in which everyone will live happily ever after.

And for awhile, things seem to be going Mike's way. He befriends the kindly, bedraggled old man (played by Edgar Buchanan) whose truck he hit, and who just happens to have a mining claim he needs help with. Mike also does a good job of keeping Paula at arm's length with matter-of-fact statements like, "Don't count on anything I said last night. Liquor blanks me out."

Soon enough, Paula's evil schemes become apparent to the viewer, if not to the booze-addled Mike. She's only working in a greasy spoon to troll for a patsy that she and her boyfriend, Steve Price (Barry Sullivan), need for a scheme they've got cooked up. And Mike fits the bill.

Framed is a programmer that benefits greatly from having a rising star like Ford in the lead role. It's a B movie that's clearly cast in the same mold as Double Indemnity (1944) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), but I think it succeeds wonderfully on its own terms. The script by Ben Maddow (based on a story by John Patrick) evolves naturally as it chugs forward, and never seems too contrived. Shifting loyalties and the yearnings of the main characters drive the story forward, and it never felt as if plot points were being checked off.

Richard Wallace, the director of Framed, was a hard-working studio hack. His career as a director spanned from 1925 to 1949 (he died in 1951), during which he made 46 features and 15 shorts. Of the films he directed that I've seen, Framed is one of the best. It's a brisk tale of love, lust, and betrayal that might not quite qualify as a classic, but it's never boring. I'll give it a 6-7/10 -- cj

[dave jenkins]

The script by Ben Maddow (based on a story by John Patrick) evolves naturally as it chugs forward, and never seems too contrived. Shifting loyalties and the yearnings of the main characters drive the story forward, and it never felt as if plot points were being checked off.

I found it a bit hard to believe that Paula would suddenly shift her loyalties to Mike at such a crucial moment, without first making sure of the guy. Dramatically, of course, it's very exciting, but not really credible upon reflection. The ending is also rather anti-climactic.  I did like the gag with the monogramed bathrobe, though.

[cigar joe]

I found it a bit hard to believe that Paula would suddenly shift her loyalties to Mike at such a crucial moment, without first making sure of the guy. Dramatically, of course, it's very exciting, but not really credible upon reflection. The ending is also rather anti-climactic.  I did like the gag with the monogramed bathrobe, though.

Hence my 6-7/10  

[drinkanddestroy]

This movie is pure crap 2/10

Ford is always good, and the opening shots of him in that truck are fun (and make you think this is gonna be a good movie), but as soon as that truck comes to a halt, so does the movie. What a total piece of garbage.

Janis Carter sounds like she is reading every line off a paper. Barry Sullivan ain't much better. (Edgar Buchanan is a good actor but here has just a couple of useless scenes). The story is so silly, it's laughable. I mean, when I laugh through a drama, it's pretty damn bad.
So we're to believe that suddenly, Paula really did want Mike?  

The movie would have been better if that truck never would have stopped. It should have driven straight through town, in one end of Main Street and out the other. Maybe Ford would have found more interesting adventures in the next town  

[dave jenkins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-INr2cINnt4

[drinkanddestroy]

This movie is pure crap 2/10

Ford is always good, and the opening shots of him in that truck are fun (and make you think this is gonna be a good movie), but as soon as that truck comes to a halt, so does the movie. What a total piece of garbage.

Janis Carter sounds like she is reading every line off a paper. Barry Sullivan ain't much better. (Edgar Buchanan is a good actor but here has just a couple of useless scenes). The story is so silly, it's laughable. I mean, when I laugh through a drama, it's pretty damn bad.
So we're to believe that suddenly, Paula really did want Mike?  

The movie would have been better if that truck never would have stopped. It should have driven straight through town, in one end of Main Street and out the other. Maybe Ford would have found more interesting adventures in the next town  

Yikes. Just saw the movie for the second time on TCM, and read the above review again. Can't believe I wrote it. This is a decent noir. But the plot does make no sense at all.

How the hell does Ford know that Carter has stolen money? He calls the cops on her – that makes sense, cuz he knows she killed Sullivan. But then he walks into the bank to catch her stealing ... how the hell did he figure that out? No explanation.

Also, the notion that Carter truly falls for Ford is laughable. She'd be best off taking that money and leaving town alone.

It's a decent noir, I'll give it a 7/10, even though parts of it are laughable 

[drinkanddestroy]

Eddie Muller's intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdNwBx1IP8g&feature=youtu.be

Eddie Muller's afterword: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aMo7ijc198&feature=youtu.be

[dave jenkins]

Eddie Muller's intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdNwBx1IP8g&feature=youtu.be

Eddie Muller's afterword: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aMo7ijc198&feature=youtu.be

Man, thanx! Muller's chat is more fun than the movies he talks about.

That change in rating you pulled on Framed has me suspicious, though. Before Muller: Score of 2; after listening to Muller: considerably higher. Yeah, he's the Czar, of course, but would you really have us believe you're a born lemming?

[drinkanddestroy]

Man, thanx! Muller's chat is more fun than the movies he talks about.

That change in rating you pulled on Framed has me suspicious, though. Before Muller: Score of 2; after listening to Muller: considerably higher. Yeah, he's the Czar, of course, but would you really have us believe you're a born lemming?

nothing to do with Muller.

I actually record the thing on TCM, the watch the movie, and don't watch Muller's pieces until I'm done with the movie. Although Muller doesn't say much of the plot - unlike jackass Ben Menckeiwicz, who spoils a lot - I prefer not to know anything about the movie before watching it.

I watched it, said it was a 7/10; it wasn't till later that I saw Muller's comments and my earlier low rating. It's one of those noirs that has major holes but is enjoyable nonetheless

[Jessica Rabbit]

Thanks for the links, D & D. Here are parts of an old review of mine. I liked the film a lot, but haven't seen it in a while.

The photography is slightly pedestrian and lacking a lot of the moody Noir atmosphere, but the typical Noir themes and a superb femme fatale are all there to save the day.

The movie stars Glenn Ford, Noir veteran Barry Sullivan, and Janis Carter, who pretty much reprises her role as murderous and nasty ice-queen femme fatale from the previous year's Night Editor. She simply nailed this kind of role.
The story is not new and the film may be routine, but it is definitively solid and should be better known.

In Noir, many of the key ingredients have become overly familiar with the years, however if done right they never get boring. A case in point is Framed.  The storyline is straight out of the book "Let's make a Film Noir". Femme Fatale takes poor sap for a ride to use him as a fall guy, good guy who is a sucker for a dame doesn't wise up until it is almost too late, dame crosses and double-crosses everybody so she can get on easy street...the movie offers nothing new but is extremely entertaining and well made.

Janis Carter is, just like in Night Editor, a wonderfully scheming and duplicitous femme fatale. She's up there with the best of them. Some reviewers bemoaned the fact that her acting is wooden and stilted, but it fits her cooly calculating ice-queen persona perfectly. There isn't an ounce of real feeling in her.
And as in Night Editor, sex and violence seem to be perversely mixed for her. After Carter has cold-bloodedly killed her lover and partner-in-crime Barry Sullivan and pushed his car down a cliff, there is a sharp intake of breath from her and a very odd and aroused look on her face.

Maybe we've seen it all before and Framed adds nothing new to the Noir canon, but it's served up right.

[moorman]

Well should I or shouldn't I watch this?  The reviews are all over the place, lol...

[cigar joe]

Well should I or shouldn't I watch this?  The reviews are all over the place, lol...

Its decent enough for a watch, not a buy. The beginning is a hoot.

[greenbudgie]

I've just now rated this 7/10 and I must say this had me intrigued. Mainly through pondering what Paula actually wanted from the two men. The switch to Mike did make me wonder so perhaps she did really love him. She would have been better going it alone but hangs onto Mike for some reason. You could see why Mike doesn't really trust her and yet he wanted to.

Perhaps not to buy but I shall give this a re-watch to see if I can figure out the characters better. You Tube have got it at present and with a reasonable print.

[dave jenkins]

Perhaps not to buy

What if it were bundled with some other interesting noirs and the quality was good? http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=1822.1650

[greenbudgie]

What if it were bundled with some other interesting noirs and the quality was good? http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=1822.1650

I hadn't read your post on yesterday's Noir Discussion. That is a very tempting Blu-Ray collection with all those extras. I've got 'Affair In Trinidad' on my You Tube watch-list so I will be watching Glenn Ford in that one soon. I need to keep my eye on Noir Discussion updates I can see.