The Chase
About The Chase
Chuck Scott, a broke World War II veteran in Miami, finds a wallet and returns it to the gangster Eddie Roman. Eddie hires him as chauffeur and tries him with a hidden accelerator in the back seat. Eddie's wife Lorna offers Chuck $1,000 to drive her to Havana. In the night that follows, she is stabbed in a Havana club, the evidence points at Chuck, and Eddie's man Gino destroys the photograph that would clear him. Chuck wakes in Miami, on pills, with no memory of that trip. A naval doctor, Commander Davidson, walks him back through the evening. Chuck remembers, gets Lorna out, and heads for the port. Eddie and Gino chase them, hit a train, and die. Chuck and Lorna sail for Cuba. The Havana murder was the dream.
Cast & crew
More about The Chase
Arthur Ripley directed. Philip Yordan wrote the script from Cornell Woolrich's 1944 novel The Black Path of Fear. Seymour Nebenzal produced it for Nero Films. Franz Planer photographed it. Michel Michelet wrote the music. United Artists opened it in New York on 17 November 1946. It runs 86 minutes. Robert Cummings plays Chuck. Michèle Morgan plays Lorna. Steve Cochran plays Eddie. Peter Lorre plays Gino. Cuba-set scenes were adjusted so they would not offend the Cuban government. UCLA restored a print in 2012. Kino Lorber issued that restoration on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States.
Themes
Making
Ripley and Yordan put the killing of Lorna inside Chuck's dream, then replay the night as an escape that ends on a ship. The article on the film ties that structure to the Production Code.
Reviews
Leyen Decker in The Independent called the dream the easiest way out and said audiences would be confused. J. Hoberman later wrote in The New York Times that Lorna is posed like a Cecil Beaton Vogue portrait. Gene Arieel in The Hollywood Scene granted the suspense and noted the flaws.
Look
Franz Planer shot the Miami streets, the back-seat accelerator, and the Havana club where the dream killing happens.
Music
Michel Michelet wrote the score.
Preservation
The UCLA Film and Television Archive restored a print in 2012. Kino Lorber released that version on DVD and Blu-ray.
Notes
- Eddie nicknames Chuck "Scotty.
- The accelerator Eddie uses is in the rear seat, so the passenger can take the car away from the driver.
- Lloyd Corrigan, Jack Holt, Don Wilson, and James Westerfield are in the cast.
- Leyen Decker, in The Independent, wrote that the film falls back on the dream solution as the easiest way out.
- J. Hoberman, in The New York Times, wrote that Lorna is dressed and posed like a subject of Cecil Beaton's Vogue portraits.
- Gene Arieel, in The Hollywood Scene, said the picture has flaws and also suspense.
Scenes
- Eddie tests Chuck by hitting a hidden accelerator from the back seat.
- In the dream, Lorna is stabbed in a Havana club and Gino destroys the photograph that clears Chuck.
- Eddie and Gino die when their car hits a train on the way to the port.
Influenced by
- Cornell Woolrich's The Black Path of Fear (1944)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheChase_)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Chase (1946) by Arthur Ripley.webm)
- Kino Lorber (DVD and Blu-ray of the 2012 UCLA restoration)