STREET OF CHANCE (1942)

This early film noir was directed by Jack Hively and it established a number of noir elements that would be used throughout the next decade and beyond. There are moments of excellent cinematography work by Theodor Sparkuhl as his camera may pan out to see where the action is going or for scene transitions. The closing scene, in particular, with an elevated camera, is cleverly handled. The seventy-four-minute film was produced by Sol C. Siegel for Paramount Pictures and generally received good reviews.

Burgess Meredith stars as a man who suffered amnesia nearly a year before the film begins. Not knowing who he was, he assumed a fictitious person. A subsequent blow to his head opens this film which actually eliminates that fictitious character. Yet it creates a second dose of amnesia. Somewhat humorously, and a departure from the typical amnesia gimmick, Meredith now has amnesia about his previous year with amnesia. He is left to figure out who he used to be and why he is being aggressively pursued by men in felt hats. His inner thoughts are periodically inserted as voice-overs. Though Sheldon Leonard is an all-business detective this time around, the audience nor Meredith are sure at first, given Leonard’s trademark delivery, if he is a gangster or not. All Meredith knows is Leonard’s bullets are a bit too close.

Meredith reunites with his wife after their lost year apart. Both are unclear where he has been since “going out for a quart of milk.” With not a single question about his supposed “nervous breakdown,” his former employer hires him back. It takes a couple of days, but Meredith pieces together his old life, taking a chance back on the street where he thinks his troubles started. Second-billed Claire Trevor recognizes him from the old neighborhood and provides shelter from Leonard—who suspects him of the murder of a wealthy family member whom Trevor has been a servant. She does not realize she fell in love with the guy who no longer exists. She is puzzled by his searching questions. They arrive at the mansion where he meets the family’s invalid, elderly matriarch, who was an eyewitness to the murder. Oddly, Meredith realizes she is also mute after glancing over at her...wheelchair? Or so it appears. Through a form of sign language, blinking her eyes once for yes, twice for no, Meredith discovers who committed the murder.

During the final scene, Leonard is on the premises and hears the murderer’s confession. There is a struggle with a handgun and it fires in the unintended direction—one of Hollywood’s most used devices—killing the murderer. The overhead camera boom then ascends up from the mansion’s living room seemingly bursting through the roof in the process. The camera moves with Leonard walking through the movie set and exiting the front door as the boom returns to a ground-level perspective. He lights a cigarette and moves off-screen as a distant “smoker's cough” echoes through the night. Pure speculation about that last bit.

Note: There are a couple of contrived stagings when Leonard pursues Meredith. First is when the two men pass each other on opposite sides of a hand-carried protest sign, obscuring their view of each other. On the heels of this scene, Leonard ducks into a barbershop but does not recognize Meredith behind an avalanche of shave cream.