Anthony Mann called Desperate his first proper movie, the one where he got to do what he wanted to do. Mann, now so famous for his westerns, had previously proved himself a master of film noir, as Desperate proves. This was the first of seven he’d crank out in 1947 and 1948. It’s a good work rate, but then these were made hot and fast.
If it was me I’d have put director George Diskant’s name on the movie as its star. His cinematography is majestic. He was known for deep focus and his mastery of contrast – plenty of both here.
But things being how they are it’s Steve Brodie’s name at the top of the bill. Who? Precisely. Brodie is a weak link, but the film survives in spite of his overacting, his insistence on dramatic (hammy) pauses – his B movie approach. To an extent it’s forgivable. His character is underwritten and Brodie is attempting to compensate by building exposition into his performance as a driver coerced into admitting to a murder he didn’t commit by a hood. If Steve (the character’s name too) doesn’t play ball, his wife is going to end up disfigured – so he plays along.
This is the story of a nothing man forced into doing things he doesn’t want to do by bad men. Steve is a Hitchcock character, the innocent abroad. Hitchcock would have piled this milquetoast’s plate with more adversity; Mann seems content for his lead character to act as a linkman between other, more interesting characters.
Like Raymond Burr’s psycho bad guy Walt Radak, a typical Burr heavy in the years before he became TV’s white knight, Perry Mason. Or William Challee as a henchman – often lit from below to make it clear he’s not nice. Audrey Long as Steve’s sweet, pigtailed wife (Audrey Long), who actually instigates the trouble Steve ends up in. Douglas Fowley as a private eye who winds up at the wrong end of a bad situation. Jason Robards Sr as the cop on the case, a fastidious detective who files his nails while talking to people. An insurance salesman (Eddie Parks) trying to sell Steve a policy while he’s in a hospital (funny).
Born Emil Bundsmann to German-Czech parents, Mann’s own background is reflected in the dynamic between Old Europe and New America, one being decent, orderly and a touch fantastical, the other (the one everyone lives in) much more problematical. At one point an old Czech couple prompt Steve and wife Anne to get married in the Czech style – trad garb, violins playing, polkas danced. At another the bad guys invade the home of said couple, lovely Klara (Ilka Grüning) and Uncle Jan (Paul Burns), and Jan is forced to carve slivers of Thanksgiving turkey for Walt. A corpulent man, Walt devours them hungrily. Greedy America.
I’m making it sound sexier than it is. As a plot it’s almost painfully dull, but really the reason to watch is Diskant’s masterly command of his lights. This is a beautiful and highly cinematic movie. Lovely deep focus. Dark spaces. Huge shadows, with Diskant always drawing attention to the gulf between light and shade, at one point doing remarkable things with a swinging lightbulb.
The lighting injects drama where the characters cannot. Brodie would never again get star billing in a movie and he’s not really up to snuff. But Mann gives him all the assistance he can, doing things with close-ups – especially in the climactic scene – that help paper over Brodie’s shortcomings.
Desperate’s failings are the failings of many a B movie – not the greatest cast or enough time to do things properly. But the successes are those of B movies too – darkness given its head, free rein given to a director to try out new things. Not bad at all.
Desperate – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
