Jigsaw (1949)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Fletcher Markle

Writers:

Fletcher Markle (writer)
Vincent McConnor (writer)

Release Date:

15 December 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery

Tagline:

CAUGHT in the JIGSAW PUZZLE OF A MURDEROUS RACKET.... TORN between two kinds of LOVE!

Plot:

New York Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy investigates a series of murders and uncovers an extremist group.

Plot Keywords:

Night Club | Printing Shop | Neo Fascism | Racism | One Word Title

Cast

Franchot Tone	...	Howard Malloy
Jean Wallace	...	Barbara Whitfield
Marc Lawrence	...	Angelo Agostini
Myron McCormick	...	Charles Riggs
Winifred Lenihan	...	Mrs. Grace Hartley
Doe Avedon	...	Caroline Riggs, Blue Angel Photographer (as Betty Harper)
Hedley Rainnie	...	Sigmund 'Siggy' Kosterich
Walter Vaughan	...	Dist. Atty. Frank Walker
George Breen	...	Knuckles Mueller
Robert Gist	...	Det. Tommy Quigley
Hester Sondergaard	...	Mrs. Max Borg
Luella Gear	...	Pet shop owner
Alexander Campbell	...	Stuart Pemberton
Robert Noe	...	Tom Waldron Jr.
Alexander Lockwood	...	Harry Nichols

Also Known As:

Gun Moll (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Tower Pictures Inc.

Trivia:

Cameo: [Henry Fonda]

Quotes:

Barbara Whitfield: You must have smiled at someone the way you smile at me. People should be careful of that smile. People should be careful of a lot of things about you.
Howard Malloy: You know, even angels can get their wings clipped.
Barbara Whitfield: You got scissors for my wings?

Movie Connections:

References Der blaue Engel (1930)

Crudely directed and edited political curiosity

This little, low-budget noir mystery is marred by crude direction, cutting, and editing, reminiscent of and no more polished than most live television productions of the same period, and hampered by a heavy handed political script that leaves huge gaps in plot logic.

Its chief interest is as a rare curiosity. Its paranoid politics and style mirror the anti-Communist films of the period, but it was made by a group of primarily liberal and leftist New Yorkers (exemplified by the famous actors who contributed cameo appearances), who turned the usual premise on its head. Franchot Tone plays a liberal crusading "special prosecutor" who investigates a shadowy secret organization that is menacing and killing its own members, whom they think may expose them. But this organization isn't Communist or leftist; rather it's a vaguely racist group that is really just a financial scam, run only to collect membership dues and gather other profits. As a result, even the political statement turns out to be rather weak compared with films of the period that explicitly opposed discrimination, such as "Pinky," "Gentlemen's Agreement," "Crossfire," "Lost Boundaries," "No Way Out," and so on.