''Chicago Deadline'' is a 1949 American

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed by Lewis Allen and starring

Alan Ladd Alan Walbridge Ladd (September 3, 1913 – January 29, 1964) was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in films noir and Westerns. He was often paired with Veronica Lake in ...

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 ''Fame Is the Name of the Game'' is a 1966 American made-for-television drama film starring Tony Franciosa that aired on NBC and served as the pilot episode of the subsequent series '' The Name of the Game''. It was directed by Stuart Rosenberg a ...

'' (1966).

Plot

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

newspaper reporter Ed Adams is in a

boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...

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,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. 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. When Temple is murdered, Wellman is thought to be 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

as Ed Adams *

as Rosita Jean d'Ur *

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

as Leona * Irene Hervey as Belle Dorset *

Arthur Kennedy John Arthur Kennedy (February 17, 1914January 5, 1990) was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the origi ...

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 for ...

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 Franchot *

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, tea ...

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 Eugene ...

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 as Minerva * Harry Antrim as Gribbe *

Roy Roberts Roy Roberts (born Roy Barnes Jones; March 19, 1906 – May 28, 1975) was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen. Life and career Born in Tamp ...

as Jerry Cavanaugh *

Marietta Canty Marietta Canty (September 30, 1905 – July 9, 1986) was an American actress, community activist and recipient of numerous humanitarian awards. Early days Canty was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Mary and Henry Canty, who atten ...

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, law ...

and

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər/ kohl-BAIR, born Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin (ʃoʃwɛ̃/ show-shwan); September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway theater, Broadway productions dur ...

. 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 ch ...

and

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and play ...

were reportedly working on a script with

Benjamin Glazer Benjamin F. 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 author / playwright Ferenc Molnár's play '' Li ...

. 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

. 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 L ...

given the job of writing the script.

had just appeared opposite Ladd in '' Beyond Glory''. 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 at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. His ...

'', 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 some ...

dismissed

suspension of disbelief Suspension of disbelief is the avoidance—often described as willing—of critical thinking and logic in understanding something that is unreal or impossible in reality, such as something in a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe i ...

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 Americans, Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the the ...

'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 and later in Western films. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigio ...

Adaptations

The story was adapted for radio on '' Screen Director's Playhouse'' in 1950 with

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 which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor ...

: Edgar, Best Motion Picture; shared with: Tiffany Thayer; 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 English-language crime thriller films 1940s English-language films Films shot in Chicago