Robert Cummings, Peter Lorre and Steve Cochran Take a Wild Ride in "The Chase"

The Chase (1946) is an offbeat, twisty thriller which tells the story of Chuck Scott, a down and out war veteran who’s drifting around Miami looking for work. He finds a lost wallet, and after taking out just enough money to buy himself a meal, returns it to its owner. It turns out that owner is Eddie Roman, a hot-tempered “businessman” (aka gangster), who’s duly impressed by Chuck’s honesty when he admits he removed some money before giving back the wallet. The volatile Roman offers Chuck a job as his driver, and he accepts. He learns how just crazy the gangster can be when Eddie uses a device in the rear of his car to assume control of the vehicle while Chuck’s driving, and pushes the car to high and very dangerous speeds. This act frightens both Chuck and the car’s other passenger, Gino, Eddie’s bodyguard and associate. Chuck later meets Eddie’s wife, Lorna. She appears to be a virtual prisoner of her husband, and is kept locked up in the house, except when Eddie requires her to appear with him as arm candy at social events. The one exception is when Eddie allows her to take a ride in the car every evening. Chuck drives Lorna to the beach, where she confides in him that she’s tired of her lonely existence, and Eddie’s violent mood swings. Chuck is attracted to Lorna, and immediately agrees to help her escape Eddie’s clutches.

Robert Cummings, Peter Lorre & Steve Cochran
are out for a little spin in The Chase

The couple flee to Havana, but while they are dancing in a nightclub, Lorna is stabbed and killed. Chuck is blamed for the crime, and apprehended by the police. All the available evidence points to him as Lorna’s killer. At the same time, Eddie dispatches Gino to find the runaway lovers. Chuck realizes there is a piece of evidence that may help clear him; a photograph taken at the club. He evades the police and searches out the photographer, but Gino finds Chuck and kills him. Or does he? Suddenly, Chuck wakes up, and we learn that much of what we’ve seen since just before the trip to Havana was a dream. Not only does Chuck suffer from what we’d now call PTSD, he’s having memory issues as well. It turns out he suddenly quit his job as Eddie’s driver earlier that evening, leaving Lorna to wonder what happened to him. Chuck can’t remember anything, and visits his military doctor, Commander Davidson, asking for help. Meanwhile, Eddie and Gino are wondering why Chuck has suddenly disappeared, and they think it might be best to permanently remove him from the picture, especially if he’s overheard anything about Eddie’s shady business dealings. That’s when things get even more interesting. To say too much about what occurs would ruin the effectiveness of the film’s third act twists and surprises. Suffice it to say that everything that’s been building in the plot up to this point comes to a head, as the intertwined fates of Eddie, Lorna and Chuck are decided once and for all.

The Chase is a fast-paced thriller that is a combination of “wrongly accused” man dramas, gangster stories and noir-infused tales of lovers on the run. The movie is based on a story by Cornell Woolrich, whose work was adapted for a number of films, including Phantom Lady (one of the finest noirs ever made), Black Angel, and the Val Lewton produced thriller The Leopard Man. The screenplay by prolific scribe Philip Yordan (The Black Book, The Big Combo) alters some elements of Woolrich’s original novel, The Black Path of Fear, adding in the “war veteran with amnesia” angle featured in movies like The Blue Dahlia and High Wall. The effective direction is by Arthur Ripley, who was actually best known for his work on Mack Sennett comedies. He brings a nice aura of impending doom to the proceedings, and the excellent cinematography by Frank F. Planer gives the film a closed in, claustrophobic atmopshere. As for the cast, Robert Cummings is quite good as the perplexed hero, and Michele Morgan (a French actress who never quite got her due in the United States) adds an ethereal air to the somewhat under-written role of Lorna. But it’s the villains who steal the show here. Steve Cochran gives a full throttle performance as the edgy, unpredictable Eddie. The part feels like a template for some of the tough guy roles Cochran would play throughout his career in crime dramas such as Private Hell 36. Peter Lorre is genuinely creepy as Gino, adding some real depth to what could have been a second-rate henchman part. Jack Holt and Nina Koshetz are also memorable in supporting roles.

The film’s offbeat blend of styles is intriguing and genuinely compelling. Noir maven Eddie Muller has been quoted as saying that the movie is “the closest thing to a David Lynch film made during the classical Hollywood era” and that assessment is perfectly accurate. The mix of quirky and offbeat characterizations, left-field plot twists, and the surreal, fever-dream structure of the movie definitely feels a bit Lynchian. The film also pre-sages some of the wild, twist-heavy mystery thrillers of the 1980s and 1990s, with a dash of art house style thrown in for good measure. The Chase runs 86 minutes, and at that express train pace, you might just feel like you’re being swept along on Chuck’s dark journey of the soul. The movie is somewhat underrated in the noir pantheon; it’s definitely worth a look for fans of the genre. The Chase had been in the public domain for years, and was often released in awful, unwatchable editions on DVD, but it has now been restored by The Film Foundation, and is available in a fantastic edition on Blu-ray from Kino-Lorber. The extra features include a commentary by filmmaker Guy Maddin, and audio for two radio adaptations of the story. This post is part of the The Noirathon hosted by Maddy Loves Her Classic Films. I want to thank her for letting me take a walk through the shadowy corners of film noir with my fellow bloggers. You can find out more about the blogathon, and check out the entries, by following this link: https://maddylovesherclassicfilms.wordpress.com/2019/03/15/announcing-the-noirathon/.