This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Takes itself way too seriously

Excellent adaptation.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The trucker Steve Randall (Steve Brodie) is an ex-GI that has fought in the war and has been married with Anne Randall (Audrey Long) for four months. Steve has a trunking business, but he arrives home with the intention of celebrating his wedding anniversary with Anne. He receives a phone call from a client that offers a small fortune to him to transport some goods that night and he does not have how to refuse.When he arrives at the spot, he finds that he was lured by the mobster Walt Radak (Raymond Burr) that wants to use Steve's truck to transport stolen furs. Steve does not accept the deal but is forced by Walt's gangsters to drive his truck. When he sees a police officer on the street, he blinks the headlights to call his attention. There is a shooting and the police officer is murdered and Walt's young brother Al is left behind and arrested by the police. Walt tries to force Steve to assume the murder to save his brother but Steve flees from the gangsters and travels with Anne, who is pregnant, to the countryside, pursued by Walt and his gangsters and by the police. When Steve finds a safe place for Anne in the farm of her Aunt Klara (Ilka Gruning) and Uncle Jan (Paul E. Burns), he goes to the police department and tells his story to Det. Lt. Louie Ferrari (Jason Robards) that does not believe in his words but let him go. Steve returns to the farm without knowing that Ferrari released him to be a bait to catch Walt and his men."Desperate" is a film-noir by Anthony Mann with a good story of pursue and death wish, with sordid characters, like for example the mobster, the car dealer, the detective lieutenant among others and good duel between Steve Brodie and Raymond Burr. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Desesperado" ("Desperate")

Desperate is directed by Anthony Mann who also collectively writes the story and screenplay with Harry Essex, Martin Rackin and Dorothy Atlas. It stars Steve Brodie, Raymond Burr, Audrey Long, Douglas Fowley, William Challee and Jason Robards Senior. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by George E. Diskant.After innocently being roped into a robbery that goes wrong, Steve Randall (Brodie) and his lover, Anne (Long), are forced to go on the run when a vengeful gangster seeks an eye for a eye retribution.One of Anthony Mann's first forays into film noir, Desperate is a lovers on the run drama instilled with impressive noir touches. Short sharp shock in running time parlance, film takes the form of innocents thrust into a perilous fight to survive. The middle section is a bit too airy and draggy, with a wedding sequence still further pushing the picture away from the brilliant dark tone set up earlier, and for sure the Randall couple are a bit too precious at times, but when it's trawling the alleyways of film noir it's a classy piece of film.The first third features a quite excellent "beating" sequence that showcases the skills of Messrs Mann and Diskant. Filmed in a darkly lit room, the scene plays out in the fluctuating shadows of a swinging overhead light. This is menacing enough but Mann also introduces some potent close up shots of a fist and a broken bottle to really emphasise grim tones. Then the final third comes back into noir territory where we are indulged in a ticking clock countdown that leads to a finale played out on four stories of shadowy stair wells. With Burr offering up a considerable turn of hulking villainy, there's much to recommend here, where were it not for the middle section then this would be up with the best of Mann's noirs. Still, it's very much one for Mann and film noir fans to seek out. 7/10

Noir is a fascinating journey, especially if you follow patterns in the narrative.In the early stages before noir proper, the detective was everything, in the sense that he was responsible for the story coming together, everyone else including the viewer merely along for the ride. The logic of the exchange between viewers and a master storyteller allayed fears of a universe without order, the gap could be bridged, made sense of; the person existed who could restore missing parts of the narrative for us. A key thread is following this mode of detective fiction into the 40's, starting with Bogie's Falcon.A world war had shattered logic and all the other boring social insights. The world was no longer made of hard matter, it was fluid self, dreams, desire. It was surreptitious sex that could kill you. Writers-investigators could no longer be trusted, as evidenced in Laura, Indemnity, The Big Sleep. The thing had acquired life of its own spun from neon night.So it's a big transition when we arrive at something like this. The detective is only a footnote reporting back with trivial info and to collect expenses. He won't even make the arrest. The game is entirely left between ordinary desperate beings and capricious reality. The plot is that an ex-GI desired quick trucking money to pay for a baby in the pipeline and new home with his darling, a meagre $50, but his sense of what's right rebels late in the night and crooks will be looking across the country for the two of them.Again the woman is pure. There is a wedding scene back in Minnesota among immigrant family that reflects everything that is stable and good in her blood.Our loss is that Mann was always about what's real and pains, together with some handy psychologic workaround. So we get a simple thriller that benefits from a semi-conscious understanding of noir.A deeper way to deliver the story would be center the main anchor on self and let the noir flow be all about guilt that he feels for leaving his girl alone at nights. The anchor is that someone is scheduled to die at midnight.

The plot of this film is simple enough.An honest vet truck driver is tricked into being involved in a heist, where as a result of coincidences, a policeman is killed. The ringleader's brother is caught and sentenced to die for the crime, as the ringleader himself tries to get the truck driver to take the rap.In short, all the flavor of Film Noir, none of the filling character development.Basic Plot Logic fails here. The Truck Driver eventually goes to the cops, but instead of doing what cops always do, get a plea bargain as long as you are willing to testify against the bad guys, they use this guy and his pregnant wife as bait. In short, cops in 1946 were completely incompetent, and couldn't even do rudimentary investigations.Again, if you want the ambiance of the genre, it's an okay film but it lacks substance.