the audience applauded

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

As Good As It Gets

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is actually a very upsetting film, as the vile brutality and vicious corruption of Edmond O'Brien is difficult to associate with such a brilliant actor. It's a sinister drama of police corruption that hardly could be more dark and depressive. The fall of the protagonist into constantly deeper darkness and hopelessness of moral bankruptcy is almost unbearable. Still, there are some brighter spots. Carolyn Jones as a bar blonde at hand for comfort when the abyss gapes open is the one element of comedy in the film, and that whole spaghetti scene is paramount and the best of the film. There are some other scenes approaching it, like when he goes berserk at a public bath being both chased and chasing his own desperate destiny, and of course it can only end one way. It's one of the darkest noirs ever, but pay special attention to Emile Meyer as Captain Gunnarson. You'll never again see a cop like that. He actually runs the show and knows from the beginning the full extent of the troubles mounting and is the perfect realist to handle them. It's a great film worth watching to the end - if you can stand it.

In Shield For Murder Edmond O'Brien is tired of being a straight arrow cop. One night he murders a numbers runner and steals %25,000.00 from him. Of course his official version is that he was resisting arrest, but the bookmaker played by Hugh Sanders knows he's out all that money and he'll get it back one way or another.O'Brien is perfectly cast as the aging detective sick and tired of seeing crooks grow rich. His problem is that he's grown such contempt for the human race he thinks that he's the smartest guy out there. Never credits the crooks or the cops with an ounce of intelligence. That is his downfall.John Agar is his protégé and still a straight arrow. The undercurrent running through the film is that while Agar is trying to catch O'Brien will he fall victim to the same cynicism?Some other noteworthy performances in Shield For Murder are from Marla English as O'Brien's troubled girlfriend, Carolyn Jones as a bar girl he has a small fling with, Claude Akins as one of Sanders's hoods and Emile Meyer as the precinct captain.But Edmond O'Brien is something to see here. In a really crackerjack noir thriller.

And maybe all noir is Shakespearean. This one certainly is.Edmond O'Brien plays the "Macbeth", a rotten detective named Barney, but he isn't the politically correct deputy of Mayberry by a long shot.And it's okay to kid about it, because there is a fairly extensive dark comic relief scene in this film, where he is approached by a flirty blond girl, more cute than naturally attractive, but very charming, in a scene that culminates in a great directorial triumph of mixing violence (in the form of a beating) with dark comedy (as a patron stands in horror, yet continuing to gulp down his spaghetti).This is a perfect noir. The crooked detective begins with murdering a man, and using his "shield" to justify his actions. Agar is well cast as the "good cop" detective. English is stunning as the woman in the triangle about to form.We soon learn it isn't the first offense by the bad detective. The other characters play a big part in this film, as great films are usually the result of believable characters up and down the line up. These are all .300 hitters, down to the pitcher. No intentional walks to this group.And that does penalize it in IMDb voting, since most multiple accounts are from the bubble boys who won't appreciate the three dimensional villain we're given. IMDb's beavis and butthead type voters traditionally praise the "my sadist can outsadist your sadist" movies. This won't appeal to them, as O'Brien gives an acting clinic (helped by the rest of the cast, of course).The depth of O'Brien's acting could well be shown to classes, when one compares this to his technique in D.O.A.. For instance, there is a scene in this film where he recoils in horror upon being discovered, similar to the scene in D.O.A. where he recoils upon being diagnosed with luminous poisoning. Yet he clearly shows different expressions and emotions for recoiling from guilt and recoiling from persecution.This film flows well, full of pace, always with some action, comedy, or interesting tid bits to keep even the most easily bored into it. This film has many positives, and no negatives.

I cannot say that this is one of the better films noir, but it's a good example of the way this kind of film was drifting in the early fifties: away from the studios; toward independent production; more cars, fewer subways; a vaguely documentary air, ala Jack Webb, rather than the more elegant stylization we associate with the forties; more outdoor scenes, fewer cramped rooms; and overall a movement away from the Gothic and toward a more contemporary, which is to say paranoid mood. Having said this, it ain't a bad picture. Edmond O'Brien (who also had a hand behind the camera) plays a basically decent and fair cop who gives in to temptation and steals some money from a bad guy. He pays dearly for his transgression. O'Brien is edgier and tougher than usual; the rest of the cast is okay. This is an extremely watchable film. It involves you more than most police thrillers. I enjoyed it thoroughly.