This gritty 1949 film noir is adapted from the Cornell Woolrich novel The Black Path of Fear, so a nice book tie-in exists. For the most part, I enjoyed viewing THE CHASE. The picture and sound quality on the version I saw was grainy and scratchy, particularly during the night scenes. Still, I was interested enough to hang in there. THE CHASE's length runs 81 minutes. It stars Robert Cummings as our clean-cut hero, Steve Cochrane as the sadistic pretty boy gangster, and Peter Lorre as his oily lackey. The gorgeous Michèle Morgan is Cochrane's miserable wife, and Cummings falls madly in love with her. Naturally, he wants to whisk her away from criminal Miami and go live together in the festive Havana. (This was in the days before Fidel Castro came to power there.) I can't say anymore regarding the plot and play the spoiler. (Here's an eerie aside from Wikipedia: Michèle Morgan's California house was later the site of the horrid Manson murders.) If you're a film noir fan, THE CHASE delivers on several levels. The shadowy camera work is first rate. The plot has an interesting structure. Cochrane (check out his strange real life death on Wikipedia) and Lorre are in top form as the antagonists. Cochrane's getaway gangster car features a nasty mechanical trick you'll defintely want to check out. Woolrich's oppressive atmosphere is there, too. IMDb.com rates THE CHASE at 6.8/10.0, but I'd grade it a tad higher at 7.1. This is another film noir (remember they were just made as B movies) which has passed into the public domain. The youtube link I used to view this one is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9T0mE... Enjoy watching it.

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