Displaying items by tag: Franchot Tone

JIGSAW

US, 1949, 74 minutes, Black-and-white.

Franchot Tone, Jean Wallace, Myron McCormick, Marc Lawrence, Winifred Lenihan, Doe Avedon.

Directed by Fletcher Markle.

Jigsaw, a popular name for many films from the US, UK, Australia, and for the Saw franchise.

This is a legal thriller with overtones of film noir from 1949, Franchot Tone playing with his wife, Jean Wallace (and they divorced that year).

The setting is a subversive group and social unrest, the Crusaders, from the poster something of a racist and supremacist group. The man who printed their leaflets is murdered, his wife frightenend. The assistant district attorney, Tone, is interested, spurred on by his journalist friend who, in turn, is killed.

There are various clues, leading to philanthropist, gangster, Angel, Marc Lawrence who works for a higher authority. Also involved is a singer at a nightclub, The Blue Angel (and a glimpse of Marlene Dietrich leaving, memories of her 1929 film, and the film includes a number of star cameo appearances, noting Burgess Meredith, John Garfield, this reviewer missing Henry Fonda as a waiter.)

The singer, Jean Wallace, who  becomes something of a femme fatale as the assistant DA seems to have an affair with her to gain information. In the meantime, there is the district attorney, a society woman with power, the assistant DA being promoted through connections to a special prosecutor.

There killings, fights, the involvement of artists, potential blackmail, the revelation of the power behind the scenes, and a climax in an Art Gallery.

Not fully a film noir, rather a legal detection thriller.