Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Undescribable Perfection

A Major Disappointment

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

In the late 1940s and into the 50s, Lawrence Tierney made a niche for himself starring in film noir pictures. His characters were cold, menacing and without remorse...exactly what you'd want in these sorts of movies. Sadly, while Tierney is in "Step By Step", it's not a noir film at all but a rather tired and uninteresting murder mystery involving neo-Nazis.Johnny (Tierney) has recently returned from serving in the US military during WWII. He sees a very pretty lady, Evelyn Smith (Anne Jeffreys) and soon his lust for this woman draws him into a plot involving murder and post-war Nazis! It seems that Smith learned too much and was taken prisoner and they substituted her with another woman...and Johnny recognized the switch. However, he soon is himself accused of murder and he and the real Smith are sent on a wild chase by the authorities. Can goodness, Americanism and niceness prevail?!This is a silly film with some bad clichés (such as the stranger that automatically believes the pair and helps them evade police). Not terrible...but also not very good and completely lacking in grit. Simply a B-movie...a B that came out a year too late considering its Nazi connection!

The very model of the fast-paced, short, inexpensive, utterly routine B features the studios ground out in the 30s and 40s to supplement the elaborate A features in the theater.Lawrence Tierney is a tough guy with a shaggy little dog named Bazooka. Much is made of his having just been discharged from the Marine Corps where he was evidently a Platoon Sergeant in the Pacific. This was 1946, possibly shot in 1945, just after the war. If you were going to play a good guy, you had to have served. (But not in the Coast Guard.) Tierney can't act. It doesn't matter. Things happen so fast -- what with everyone in pursuit of some secret documents that are never described -- with the fist fights, the murders, the intrigues, the funny old codger who runs the motel where Tierney and his newly acquired blond girl friend hide out, that no one, even someone who really cares, can possibly care.You don't want to blink otherwise you'll miss some sock on the jaw or a tin lizzie cresting the surf off Malibu Point. You're unlikely to thrill to an artistic masterpiece but you're not likely to fall asleep either.

Recently having seen Lawrence Tierney's hilarious guest appearance in an episode of Seinfeld called The Jacket for the first time,I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my dad had recently picked up a Film Noir starring Tierney.Looking at the running time stated on the DVD box (61 minutes!),I began to get more hope up that Tierney's lean'n' mean side would be on full display for this "quota quickie".The plot:Being ordered to take a short break from her work,newly appointed secretary Evelyn Smith decides to go for a swim at a near by beach.As Smith starts to relax by the beach,an ex-Marine called Johnny Christopher appears from out of nowhere,and right away,seems to have his eyes only on Evelyn.Despite originally being unease around him,Smith soon begins to fall for Christopher's charm.Later on,Evelyn has to leave Johnny on the beach, so that she can get back to work on time.As she heads back to her work place.Not being someone who gives up easily,Christopher is soon back on Evelyn's trail and heads straight to the mansion front door of her workplace.Loudly knocking on the door,Johnny is soon met by a waiter,who introduces him to the secretary of the building:Evelyn Smith.To Christopher's complete shock,Evelyn seems to have changed into a completely differ woman,who does not recognise Johnny at all.Getting the door slammed in his face,and no offers of help at all from the locals.Johhny quickly realities that he is the only one who can find out what happened to the "real" Evelyn Smith.View on the film:Complimenting Anne Jeffreys charmingly dizzy,bikini-clad performance of Evelyn Smith,and George Cleveland's wonderful,crusty sea-dog.Lawrence Tierney gives a great performance as ex-marine Johnny Christopher,who Tierney shows to be someone that just cant bring themselves to stay away from a strong whiff of increasing mystery,as others who should be doing their jobs attempt to explain Christopher's suspicions away as the words of a mentally unbalanced ex-marine.For the super-fast pace screenplay,writers Stuart Palmer and George Callahan do a mostly excellent blend of Film Noir with a light comedy touch,which allows director Phil Rosen to do a good mix of terrific,low-lit Film Noir mood pieces and some hilarious lovers on the run comedy moments.With the screenplay and Rosen's directing having set the stage for a moody Noir ending.I was disappointed to discover that instead of ending the film on a possibly melon collie note,Rosen and the writes instead decided that they would just stop their lead characters from falling over the edge,and give the film a "they all lived happily ever after" ending,which feels very much at odds with everything that had happened previously in this entertaining Film Noir.

Step By Step plays like a feature version of an old time serial. Jam-packed with fist fights, auto chases, Nazi spies (still causing trouble in the pre-Cold War year of 1946), comedy, a little romance, and lots more, Step By Step also features an attractive lead couple in Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys. Director Phil Rosen's bread and butter was short and sweet Poverty Row programmers, and this is one of his best. Great fun on a low, low budget.