Blu ray review: The Chase (1946)

United Artists indie featuring Robert Cummings turning in a strong performance as a war vet who has fallen on hard times like many returning soldiers.  Returning a lost wallet, he is given a position as a chauffeur by the grateful owner, only to become mixed up with gangsters, marital infidelities, substance abuse, and eventually teerting on the threshold of madness.

With a screenplay adapted by Phillip Yordan from a story by Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window), the film is compelling and exciting.  Cummings is supported by Steve Cochran, Michele Morgan and Peter Lorre in the cast.  The director is Arthur Ripley, who began writing and directing comedies with Harry Langdon, W.C. Fields, and Edgar Kennedy.  He moved on to features and film noir like this movie and the later Thunder Road (1958). 

Post-war America was a particularly good period for noir cinema, and while this film can be argued as just a crime drama, there are elements of noir abounding, especially from the layered character Cummings portrays with such focus and intensity.

The Chase slipped into the public domain, and thus there were a lot of shoddy, multi-duped copies available at cheap prices, but the Kino Lorber blu ray is a HD master from 35mm elements preserved by UCLA.  There is an audio commentary by filmmaker Guy Maddin, and a radio version of the Woolrich story featuring Cary Grant and Brian Donlevy.

Recommended for libraries, research centers, and anyone interested in post war noir cinema. 

The blu ray is available at this link: THE CHASE