Sadly Over-hyped

Lack of good storyline.

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Lesser known than you would expect, but still very much well worth a viewer's time (111 minutes to be exact), "Impact" (1949) comes across as a very clever cross between film noir and picturesque small-town romance, with the super-beautiful but murderous Helen Walker brilliantly holding up the noir end and super-slim but super- attractive Ella Raines playing the good girl. Caught in the middle we find Brian Donlevy who makes a surprisingly sympathetic fist of the besotted hero. Cleverly written by Dorothy Davenport and Jay Dratler and directed with a fair amount of tension and style by the usually competent (but little else) Arthur Lubin, "Impact" was obviously (and surprisingly for an indie effort) produced on an extremely large budget. (The 6/10 Alpha DVD has excellent visuals, but sound is badly out of sync for the opening reels).

A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding, and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.In the 1940s, it was still uncommon for brand name products to be seen in movies, but this was a notable exception. A Bekins moving van is prominent in several scenes. The movie trade paper Harrison's Reports typically called attention to cases in which such products appeared on screen, and always took a stand against that practice. It is interesting to consider Bekins within this context, as you not find it strange for vehicles with signage to go by in the real world.One thing that really stands out today (2017) is the Chinese shopkeeper. While not outright offensive or insulting, it is interesting the way a person from the Chinese community was portrayed. Some credit ought to be given on casting: Anna May Wong was actually Chinese, and Philip Ahn was Korean, still better than casting a Caucasian with a mustache.

"Impact" suffers from some unfortunate director conceits, a lazy screenplay and too large of budget.For example: New Dad runs out of the car to announce the news, goes back to the car for cigars, gives her cigars, goes back to the car and then runs back to take back most of the cigars he just handed out. Now I get that he's an excited new Father, but please, 3x? Does nothing.Plus the pregnant-pause/false ending conceit that run throughout. Do we need that? Not clever and gets old fast. Columbo was a master but it falls flat in Impact.Then the numerous dead-end fillers indicate a lazy, sloppy screenplay. Incredible as it may seem, the Producer may have had too much money. There is a enough of a story, enough meat to be able to get in to the heads of the characters. But they don't. Instead VO is used. Scenes such as the needless volunteer fire dept scene serve no purpose to move the story forward. Hopefully someone had a gun to the editor's head, otherwise why have these at all? They belong on the editing room floor. Again too much money in the budget? Were they having a tough time filling the run time?Last it suffers from to weakest of all screen techniques, Voice Over. Honestly, do we need to see him sitting on the bench, staring into space only to listen to dialog be repeated? Even if it is nicely mixed -and it is- c'mon,even he gets bored enough to pull out another smoke. Oooo he's thinking, putting the pieces together. His actions should indicate where his head is and let the audience's stitch things together. That makes a movie.Those are my gripes.Impact is a cool story. Generally well played and properly casted. As others have stated, the lighting is not Noir yet the storyline is, which is what holds this together. Which may be another indicator the budget was too large. Noir lighting came from low budget constraints. Cat People is the the film often used as where the technique got started and was basically a solution to a budget driven problem. No money to light with? Use shadows and let the viewer's mind infer. If you are familiar with San Francisco its nice to see some shots from yesteryear.Bottom line: Give it a new title, tighten up the script and redo the film with a great Director and a solid cast. Then it may have some Impact!

"Impact" is the ideal sort of film for a wet Sunday afternoon. It is one of those many enjoyable, if largely unmemorable, crime dramas churned out by Hollywood studios in black and white in the pre-TV era. Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) is a self-made man. Having started life as a sheet-metal worker, he has worked his way up over a period of ten years to become a successful industrialist who has the board of directors of the company that employs him eating out of his hand. He adores his wife Irene (Helen Walker), whom he sometimes addresses as "Softy", and earns enough to keep her in fine style and to buy her expensive jewellery and flowers. However, unbeknown to Walter, his affection is not reciprocated. Irene has grown bored with him and is having an affair with Jim Torrance (Tony Barrett). The two of them hatch a plan to kill Walter in a staged car crash. But their scheme does not work out and Torrance is killed instead. Walter escapes to a small town known as Larkspur, gets a job as a garage mechanic and falls in love with the garage proprietor Marsha Peters (Ella Raines, whose role as a beautiful car mechanic stretches credulity almost to breaking point). At the same time he has begun gradually to piece together the details of his wife's duplicity. Things move on from there."Impact" is not intended to be a serious film. It is essentially a pot-boiler whose only purpose is to provide 90 minutes or so of entertainment. On that basis, it is reasonably successful. Yes, elements of the plot are frankly ridiculous and rely far too much on coincidence. The film looks technically prehistoric by today's standards in that many outdoor scenes are clearly filmed in a studio with an appropriate backdrop that, to modern viewers, will simply be unconvincing and amateurish. But that is perhaps an unfair criticism of a film that was made more than 60 years ago. The acting and the direction are competent enough, without standing out in any way. "Impact" is an enjoyable, if forgettable, film. 6/10.