Event

The Chase

UCLA Festival of Preservation

Nov 08

(Arthur D. Ripley, USA, 1946, 35mm, 86 min)

Part of our Forbidden Love Double Feature!

Friday, Nov 08 at 09:00PM

A chauffeur, working for a wealthy sadist, makes the mistake of falling in love with his boss's suicidal wife. Combining an original setting and timely story elements, Arthur D. Ripley crafts a highly original film noir.

Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings) is a down-on-his-luck, ex-serviceman, badly in need of a meal in post-war Miami. Stumbling upon a lost wallet, he traces the owner of the billfold to a palatial home. Owner Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran), a suave businessman, is pleased by "Scotty's" honesty, and offers him a job as chauffeur.

Scotty quickly catches on that Roman is bad news, probably involved in the death of a business competitor, but he keeps his mouth shut for the sake of his meal ticket. His resolve is tested, however, when Roman's trophy wife Lorna (Michèle Morgan) appeals to him for help in secretly spiriting her from Miami to Havana as an escape from her soulless existence.

Scotty's moral lapse and corruptibility are somewhat more surprising than in many noir titles, owing to the film's intersection with the "returning soldier" subgenre, which often treated such characters more earnestly.

Preservation funding for The Chase provided by The Film Foundation and the Franco-American Cultural Fund.