''Chicago Deadline'' is a 1949 American film noir crime film directed by Lewis Allen and starring Alan Ladd and

Donna Reed Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger; January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American actress. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her portrayal of Mary Hatch Bailey in ...

. It was remade as '' Fame Is the Name of the Game'' (1966).

Plot

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

newspaper reporter Ed Adams is in a boarding house when the body of beautiful tenant Rosita Jean d'Ur is found. Ed takes her diary before the police arrive. The police give the cause of death as tubercular hemorrhage, but Ed suspects otherwise. Of the fifty-four names listed in her diary Ed talks to hoodlum Solly Wellman, trust company vice-president G. G. Temple, and Belle Dorset, all of whom deny knowing Rosita. Belle Dorset immediately moves home. At a party Ed meets alluring blonde Leona Purdy, who knew Rosita. Ed starts dating Leona. Ed believes Rosita was not promiscuous but was compassionate and mistreated. Ed's suspicions grow when both Wellman and Temple threaten him. Rosita's brother Tommy Ditman tells Ed his sister ran away aged seventeen from their home in

Amarillo Amarillo ( ; Spanish for " yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall Cou ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Tommy tracked her down to San Francisco where she had fallen in love with artist Paul Jean d'Ur. They married and moved to New York, after which Tommy didn't see her much. Their marriage went bad, Paul died in a car accident, and Rosita became lonely and bitter and had difficulty keeping a job. Gangster Blacky Franchot arranges to meet Ed to talk about Rosita but is shot before Ed arrives. He says to Ed "I loved her" before he dies. Ed reports to the city editor, Gribbe, who writes a long column making Rosita's life and fate sound sensational and mysterious. Leona reveals that Rosita had been involved with Blacky, although she was frightened of his connections to gangster Wellman. She resisted the persistent advances of Temple. When Blacky was severely beaten they moved to the countryside together. When Blacky left her, Rosita returned to Chicago and started dating Temple. Ed accuses Temple of ordering Blacky's beating but Temple denies it. Interfering police detective Anstruder insists on accompanying Ed as he meets with invalid Hotspur Shaner, for whom Rosita worked as a housekeeper under an assumed name. The man who introduced them, John Spingler, is reported murdered, and Ed uses the distraction to get away from the police. Rosita's former maid, Hazel, tells Ed Rosita left Temple when he hit her a year before her death. Leaving Hazel's building, Ed is knocked unconscious by two of Wellman's thugs and awakens in a junkyard. Ed takes Leona to a boxing match featuring the last names listed in Rosita's diary: fighter Bat Bennett and his manager, Jerry Cavanaugh. Jerry reveals that Bat fell in love with and became distracted by Rosita. Jerry threatened to expose her to Wellman unless she ended the relationship. Rosita reluctantly agreed and disappeared. Temple is murdered, rumors say Wellman is responsible. Ed believes Temple financed Wellman's rackets. Belle tells Ed that Wellman had hired Spingler to get rid of Rosita. Belle denies knowing of Spingler's duplicity until reading of Rosita's death. Wellman shoots and wounds Ed before escaping. Belle reveals the missing link in Rosita's history: on the night of their argument, Temple admitted to Rosita, whom he was supporting, that he hired Wellman to get rid of Blacky. During the ensuing argument Temple struck Rosita down and panicked when she appeared dead. He called Wellman for help. Wellman corners Ed in a shootout in a parking garage and Ed kills Wellman. At Rosita's funeral, Ed tells Tommy what really happened to his sister, and then burns her diary in the funeral parlor's eternal flame.

Cast

* Alan Ladd as Ed Adams *

as Rosita Jean d'Ur *

June Havoc June Havoc (born Ellen Evangeline Hovick; November 8, 1912 – March 28, 2010) was a Canadian American actress, dancer, stage director and memoirist. Havoc was a child vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her mother Rose Thompson Hovick, ...

as Leona *

Irene Hervey Irene Hervey (born Beulah Irene Herwick; July 11, 1909December 20, 1998) was an American film, stage, and television actress who appeared in over fifty films and numerous television series spanning her five-decade career. A native of Los Angeles ...

as Belle Dorset * Arthur Kennedy as Tommy Ditman *

Berry Kroeger Berry Kroeger (October 16, 1912 – January 4, 1991) was an American film, television and stage actor. Career Kroeger was born in San Antonio, Texas. He got his acting start on radio as an announcer on ''Suspense'' and as an actor, playing fo ...

as Solly Wellman * Harold Vermilyea as Anstruder *

Shepperd Strudwick Shepperd Strudwick (September 22, 1907 – January 15, 1983) was an American actor of film, television, and stage. He was also billed as John Shepperd for some of his films and for his acting on stage in New York. Early years Strudwick was ...

as Blacky Frenchot *

Dave Willock David Willock (August 13, 1909 – November 12, 1990) was an American character actor. He appeared in 181 films and television series from 1939 to 1979. Biography Born in 1909, Willock began his professional career in vaudeville in 1931, teamin ...

as Pig * Gavin Muir as G.G. Temple * John Beal as Paul Jean d'Ur *

Tom Powers Thomas McCreery Powers (July 7, 1890 – November 9, 1955) was an American actor in theatre, films, radio and television. A veteran of the Broadway stage, notably in plays by George Bernard Shaw, he created the role of Charles Marsden in Eug ...

as Howard *

Howard Freeman Howard Freeman (December 9, 1899 – December 11, 1967) was an American actor of the early 20th century, and film and television actor of the 1940s through the 1960s. Biography Freeman was born in Helena, Montana, and began working as ...

as Hotspur Shaner * Paul Lees as Bat *

Margaret Field Margaret Field (née Morlan; May 10, 1922 – November 6, 2011) was an American film actress usually billed as Maggie Mahoney after her marriage to actor Jock Mahoney. The mother of actress Sally Field, she was best known for her work in two scie ...

as Minerva * Harry Antrim as Gribbe * Roy Roberts as Jerry Cavanaugh *

Marietta Canty Marietta Canty (September 30, 1905 – July 9, 1986) was an American actress, community activist and recipient of numerous humanist awards. Personal life and social engagement Marietta Canty was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of ...

as Haze

Production

The novel ''One Woman'' was published in 1933. Paramount bought the film rights and announced the following year they would film it as ''Are Men Worth It?'' starring

Lee Tracy William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is known foremost for his portrayals between the late 1920s and 1940s of fast-talking, wisecracking news reporters, press agents, lawye ...

and

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...

. In 1935 the project was listed on Paramount's schedule with Colbert still attached.

Charles MacArthur Charles Gordon MacArthur (November 5, 1895 – April 21, 1956) was an American playwright, screenwriter and 1935 winner of the Academy Award for Best Story. Life and career MacArthur was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the sixth of seven chil ...

and Ben Hecht were reportedly working on a script with

Benjamin Glazer Benjamin Glazer (May 7, 1887 – March 18, 1956) was a screenwriter, producer, foley artist, and director of American films from the 1920s through the 1950s. He made the first translation of Ferenc Molnár's play ''Liliom'' into English in 1921 ...

. No film resulted. However the success of '' Laura'' (1944) and '' The Big Clock'' (1948), which contained similar story elements to the novel, saw it put back into development as a vehicle for Alan Ladd. Robert Fellows was assigned the job of producing and

Warren Duff Warren Duff (May 17, 1904 – August 5, 1973) was a film and television writer and producer. As a writer, Duff wrote for films including, ''Fashions of 1934'', ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), '' Experiment Perilous'' (1944), '' Step Li ...

given the job of writing the script.

had just appeared opposite Ladd in ''

Beyond Glory ''Beyond Glory'' is a 1948 American drama film directed by John Farrow and starring Alan Ladd and Donna Reed. Written by William Wister Haines, Jonathan Latimer, and Charles Marquis Warren, the film is about a former soldier who thinks he may have ...

''. She was borrowed from MGM again to play his co-star. Lewis Allen was assigned to direct. Filming started on July 29, 1948, on location in Chicago. The title was changed from ''One Woman'' to ''Chicago Deadline'' in November.

Reception

Box office

According to ''Variety'' the film was the 37th most popular movie in the US and Canada in 1949 earning $2.1 million. It earned $1.7 million the following year.

Critical response

When the film was released Stephen O. Saxe, writing for ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

'', recommended the film due to the acting, the action and suspense. He wrote, "''Chicago Deadline'' is a picture with a Twist. It's not an O. Henry twist, either ... he picture offersa good plot with plenty of suspense, and, in due course, lots of action ... ''Chicago Deadline'' is not the sort of picture you'd go out of your way to see; but once inside, you won't walk out, either." Film critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

dismissed suspension of disbelief in his review, "People who picture reporters as dashing young fellows, all named 'Scoop,' whose lives are just rounds of excitement in what such people call the 'newspaper game' will find the ideal of their illusion in the newshawk Alan Ladd plays in Paramount's ''Chicago Deadline'' ... But for those other level-headed people whose knowledge of newspaper men—and, indeed, of life in general—is a little more sober and sane, this fancy will surely seem a mish-mosh of two-penny-fiction cliches, recklessly thrown together in an almost unfathomable plot. Flashbacks and narrative descriptions will fascinate them no more than will Mr. Ladd's ridiculous posturing as a brilliant newspaper man-sleuth." In his review of the film, Dennis Schwartz, compared the film to

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...

's '' Laura'' (1944), "In a ''Laura'' type of minor film noir, director Lewis Allen fails to make his love sick hero who is mooning over a corpse into anything but a superhero figure ... The film failed to make his cop character as inviting as ''Laura'' made

Dana Andrews Carver Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts ...

Adaptations

The story was adapted for radio on ''

Screen Director's Playhouse ''Screen Directors Playhouse'' (sometimes written as ''Screen Directors' Playhouse'') is an American radio and television anthology series which brought leading Hollywood actors to the NBC microphones beginning in 1949. The radio program broadcas ...

'' in 1950 with Alan Ladd reprising his role.

Accolades

Nomination *

Edgar Allan Poe Awards The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

: Edgar, Best Motion Picture; shared with:

Tiffany Thayer Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer (March 1, 1902 – August 23, 1959) was an American actor, writer, and one of the founding members of the Fortean Society. Biography Born in Freeport, Illinois, Thayer quit school at age 15 and worked as an actor, reporte ...

; 1950..

References

External links

* * * *
Review of film
at ''The New York Times''

at Noir of the Week

Streaming audio

''Chicago Deadline''
on Screen Director's Playhouse: March 24, 1950 {{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago Deadline 1949 films 1940s crime thriller films American crime thriller films American black-and-white films Film noir Films scored by Victor Young Films about journalists Films set in Chicago Paramount Pictures films 1940s American films