Homicide detective Koch (Lee J. Cobb) is investigating a murder which leads to Johnny O'Clock (Dick Powell),a junior partner in a casino. It's a lot moving parts which can be confusing at the beginning. I do like the hard-boiled nature of the investigation and Lee J. Cobb as an actor. I really like his half of the movie but not so much with the other half. I would have liked to have a dumb partner for Koch so that he can explain his discoveries to him (read me) along the way. I'm less interested in the romantic melodrama of Johnny O'Clock which is a bit of a problem. The melodramatic acting in that half is very thick and less appealing. It's a split decision.

During the 1930s, Dick Powell played in one musical after another--with few chances to do anything else but play a sweet guy who loves to sing. The plots were paper-thin and Powell himself wanted a chance to do something--ANYTHING different. Fortunately, as the 1940s progressed, he got that chance and starred in some amazing film noir pictures. Why did the studios do this? Well, Powell was approaching middle age and wasn't the pretty guy he used to be--and you would never put a pretty guy in a gangster film! Of the tough-guy films he made, my two favorites are "Murder, My Sweet" and "Johnny O'Clock"--mostly because his character was so incredibly jaded and unsentimental--the antithesis of his old persona.

Soon after "Johnny O'Clock" begins, you know SOMEONE is going to die--and soon. A crooked cop is gunning for Johnny (Powell),a married dame is cozying up to him and his partner (the dame's husband) is one dangerous guy (Thomas Gomez). Into this mix is a cop--a good cop, but a tough one played by Lee J. Cobb. I could say a lot more about the plot--suffice to say, I don't want to ruin it for you and I encourage you to find the film yourself. It is available for free download at archive.org and Powell's world-weary characterization makes this film hum. One of the best noir films I can recall having seen even with its minor faults (it lacks the lighting and camera-work you expect in noir and the lady who falls for him does so far too quickly and far too hard to be realistic). Well worth seeing.

By the way, look for Turk in the film--it's a very young Jeff Chandler before he was a star.

A mile a minute screenplay roars straight ahead through the wisecracks, sexual innuendo, brittle metaphors and crackling character development where the men are just as sarcastic as the women. In fact, they are more acerbic here, the two sisters (Nina Foch and Evelyn Keyes) too innocent and long-suffering and the other major female character (Ellen Drew) too drunk to even be understood through her slurred words. Drew is obviously modeled after Rita Hayworth's "Gilda" look, especially with her obvious sugar daddy husband (Thomas Gomez) whom she admittedly married for social status. The film sets up its brittle elements with the opening scene introducing the slatternly cop Lee G. Cobb who simply drops his cigar ashes on a hotel reservations desk while a film noir version of Franklin Pangborn's 1930's irritated hotel clerk places an ashtray at his reach. Cobb is looking for professional gambler Dick Powell for questioning in regards to a crooked cop involved in protecting the casino Powell works at for the nefarious Gomez. This leads to several murders (one cleverly disguised as a suicide) and Powell's desperation to not only clear himself of any suspicion, but to protect himself from Gomez's vengeance because of wife Drew's obvious interest in him.

While Powell is best remembered as a crooner, he really developed some impressive acting skills when he switched his image mid-career into the newly created genre of film noir. "Murder My Sweet" (1944),his first and most famous of these, is certainly a classic, but "Johnny O'Clock" is really his best. He's obviously very comfortable in the skin of this character, advising the pretty Nina Foch about the crooked cop she's seeing, and finally, comforting sister Keyes over Foch's death. When he takes her to the airport after discovering her inside her sister's room, its obvious that she's forgiven him for the initial rough treatment he gave her and that he's opening up to her even though he's involved in some seriously shady activities of his own. Drew's drunken scene is also extremely memorable, as is another sequence where Cobb discovers Foch passed out after breaking into her apartment. The wonderful Mabel Paige has a wonderful bit part as the nosy old lady who tries to get involved in the investigation, and her dialog with Cobb is equally as crackling as the dialog between Powell and Cobb.

This grabs the viewer by the throat almost from the beginning and doesn't threaten. It just drags you in even more as the intrigue grows to enormous points of no return from which you won't want to escape. You could watch this one over and over and never remember all of the jaded dialog which keeps the screenplay sizzling. This moves to a great sequence at the airport where Powell begins to piece everything together, and then rushes towards its very violent conclusion where nobody really comes out the winner. The direction by Robert Rossen of his own screenplay is thrilling, and you really feel that you've entered into a darkened world of Johnny O'Clock where life doesn't begin until its dark and that no sun would be bright enough to interest these night owls in daylight.