Road House 1948

Love triangle gone wrong with Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde and Richard Widmark. A night club inside of a bowling alley as a setting ... and lots of Moose references to remind us that the Canadian border isn't too far away ... what's there not to like about that. I thought it was great. I especially liked the initial verbal sparring between Wilde and Lupino when they "didn't like each other".

I'm not sure if it's film noir as others claim it to be ... it's certainly a melodrama, especially as Richard Widmark's character becomes more vindictive. There's also a few "implausible moments" but I didn't let that get in the way of my enjoyment of the movie. I also didn't mind Ida's less than perfect singing voice ... I thought her croaky gravel voice matched the feel of the songs (much better than using someone else's singing as was done in her other movies).

I thought it was a solid film too. My notes are that Widmark goes into his psycho-self in the second half of the film.

Keaney (who admittedly was inclusive in what was noir and what was not) gave it a 2.0 out of 5. I would grade it just a bit higher. IMDb rating is 7.3.

IMDb also lists it as a noir, but they can be sloppy at times, but I agree in this case.

Bottom line, I would definitely recommend the film.

Bruce R

I actually felt sorry for the Richard Widmark character because he didn't start out being "the psycho" ... he's just some lovesick guy with "control freak" tendencies. Perhaps that's why I didn't think the movie fitted neatly into the "film noir" category because there really weren't any "people gone bad because of lust/love/jealousy" except for Widmark and the movie wasn't from his point of view.

Interesting point, Gary.

Unfortunately I don't remember the film well enough to continue the discussion. Perhaps I should watch it again!

Bruce R