Impact (1949)

Director:

Arthur Lubin

Writers:

Jay Dratler (story)
Dorothy Davenport (writer) ...

Release Date:

26 September 1949 (Sweden)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery

Tagline:

Wanted by two women! One for Love! One for Murder!

Plot:

In San Francisco, the successful self-made businessman Walter Williams has just bought three factories...

Plot Keywords:

Mechanic | Small Town | Maid | Falling In Love | Murder Plot

Cast

Brian Donlevy	...	Walter Williams
Ella Raines	...	Marsha Peters
Charles Coburn	...	Lt. Quincy
Helen Walker	...	Irene Williams
Anna May Wong	...	Su Lin
Robert Warwick	...	Capt. Callahan
Clarence Kolb	...	Darcy
Art Baker	...	Defense Attorney
William Wright	...	Prosecutor
Mae Marsh	...	Mrs. King
Sheilah Graham	...	Herself
Tony Barrett	...	Jim Torrence
Philip Ahn	...	Ah Sing
Glen Vernon	...	Ed (as Glenn Vernon)
Linda Leighton	...	Telephone Operator

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA

Company:

Cardinal Pictures (II)

Trivia:

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: Marsha's mother, is identified in dialogue by the name Mrs. King. Yet in the closing credits, she is identified as Mrs. Peters.

Quotes:

Narrator: [First lines] Impact, the force with which two lives come together. Sometimes for good, sometimes for evil.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Avain (2006)

Soundtrack:

It' Can't Be

Many memorable moments

Whoever likes movies of the late Forties should not miss this one. It tells a typical film noir story that is coherent and easy to understand. Impact is a quite artful picture, obviously made by first rate professionals. The balance between location shooting (mainly in and around San Francisco) and the extraordinarily stylish sets is in my opinion perfect and well thought out. At the center of the story is the attempted killing of the main character by his wife's lover. The car with the two men drives at night along a sinuous mountain road. It slows down and stops because of a flat tyre. As the viewers already know, this is the spot where the murder should take place. With unbelievable ease the natural surroundings (reminding you of the dramatic climax in Hitchcock's Family Plot) change into an almost expressionistic stage set with artificial fog at the bottom and everything. It is an unforgettable moment. What the film people could achieve in those days!

Brian Donlevy has some very good moments. As after a phone call he fully realises that his wife who he naively loved (calling himself "Softy" in his messages to her) had cheated and betrayed him, he stumbles to a bench on a station platform, stares into the void with dim eyes and then starts crying with rage and frustration. The scene takes almost a minute and proves that Donlevy is a much underrated actor who should be honored more.

Apart from the realistic presentation of parts of San Francisco in the late Forties (it complements Welles‘ impressions in Lady from Shanghai"), Impact has some nice pieces of slang (at least to a foreigner whose mother tongue is not English). "Grovel a shuteye" for "taking a nap", that's nice, isn't it?