Since noir movies were nearly always about crime, there's only so many types of plots you can write before they start to become boring. In this very average movie, we see many common themes found throughout the genre coming together: somebody being framed for a crime, a girl getting men into trouble, a corrupt cop, the person you least expect being a criminal, etc. It's not one of the worst films I've seen lately, but the lack of originality is quite hard to overlook. The story follows a Vaudeville dancer, Tom Quinn (Don Castle), who is going to be executed for allegedly killing someone after he threw shoes out his window. The rest of the movie is a flashback. Every night in his apartment, Tom waits for his wife Ann (Elyse Knox) to get home from her work at a dance hall. She is usually late, due to a customer she calls Santa Claus tipping her all the time. One night, noisy cats on a fence disturb Tom's sleep, so he throws his only pair of shoes at them. Ann tells him he better look for them before a janitor or somebody discards them. When Tom goes looking for them, they're nowhere to be seen. However, they somehow show up outside his door the next day. Soon, an unrelated incident happens and Tom gets embroiled in it. Otis Wantner, a neighbor who some believe is in possession of a large amount of old money, is murdered. The prints of Tom's shoes are discovered at the scene. Tom's not aware of this event yet, but he just so happens to find a wallet with a large amount of money in it. After waiting several days to see if anyone comes forward to claim it, nothing happens, so Tom decides to start spending the money. He is arrested shortly after by detective Clint Judd, who is the same guy who tips Ann at her job. Tom is found guilty and sentenced to the chair. Desperate, Ann enlists the help of Clint in order to find any clue that can save her husband from execution. After searching the same boarding house as Tom, Clint discovers John Kosloff, a former resident who has also spent a lot of money recently. He is brought in for questioning, and just as it looks like he's the real killer, he reveals he was in the hospital at the end of July, a day before Otis was killed. This timing means it's impossible he killed Otis, and thus John goes free while Tom remains on death row. About an hour before Tom is to be executed, Clint and Ann meet at the dance hall, and he reveals to her that he wants her to marry him. He even went ahead and bought an apartment for her without her knowledge. When Ann makes it clear she doesn't like the idea, Clint sarcastically tosses her one last dollar and leaves. Ann realizes something: it's an old note no longer being circulated, which means Clint is the murderer. Ann pretends to change her mind about the apartment and tells Clint she wants to go see it, but calls the cops beforehand. At the apartment, Ann pieces together Clint's whole scheme about how he killed Otis for the money, framed Tom, and then tried to fight for his innocence so he'd look like a hero in Ann's eyes. Two cops appear and try to arrest Clint, but he pulls a gun on them. The cops gun him down. While this movie was fairly generic and didn't really have anything special going for it, it did interest me pretty much all the way through. No parts of it were really boring, but Ann's sudden revelation at the end made it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief. She just so happens to correctly guess all the scheming Clint did in order to make him look like a killer. The sappy core from which this movie's mediocrity stems from for me is the way it ends. If Ann couldn't find out the truth in time, her husband would have been killed. They could have ended it that way, but how predictable of them to have a pleasant finale. In general, this movie is something of an anomaly, since the concept isn't unique but it didn't feel mundane.
Review of I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes
