Pushover (1954)

Please don't spend money on this.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A lot of fun.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Fred MacMurray has an extraordinary way of always appearing stupidly out of place and rather awkward, no matter what he does, like almost a permanent loser, maybe because that's the kind of characters he was best at, like in "Double Indemnity". This is the same story but on a smaller scale, and the lady here is different, Kim Novak in her first appearance, and she makes the film. This is like an introduction and rehearsal for "Vertigo", but this is black and white, and there is some real shooting taking place, which doesn't stop at one murder. The main trouble with the film is that it's impossible to understand how Kim Novak can love Fred. Your bets will rather pile up with Plilip Carey as a much more convincing character - Fred is simply hopeless and almost cooked from the beginning. The other lady Dorothy Malone imports some refreshment by her straight personality, and you follow all her scenes with almost keener interest than Kim Novak's , since Dorothy's character is less predictable, and she ultimately does determine the course of the drama.It's not a bad film, but Fred MacMurray will never become a favourite actor with anyone but rather constantly remain something of a bad joke of a stolid actor.

Excellent film noir where Fred Mac Murray repeats his falling into evil as he did ten years earlier in the memorable "Double Indemnity."In her film debut, Kim Novak already showed problematic acting as the moll of a bank robber who Fred, the cop, falls for and the two plan to get the money that her boyfriend had stolen in a bank robbery.With the exception of "The Eddy Duchin Story," and "Jeanne Eagels," both films where she was terrific, Novak just doesn't put it over in the role of the moll.The role of the moll would have been better suited for Dorothy Malone, who would cop a supporting Oscar two years later in the great "Written on the Wind." Instead, Malone is relegated in playing the nurse next door, who is Mac Murray's ultimate downfall when she keeps meeting him at the most inopportune time for him.We have a real good suspense thriller here as other police begin to piece together what is really going on in discovering that Fred is the real culprit here.

"Pushover" was the introductory film for legendary Hollywood actress Kim Novak, who had previously only been on screen for a few seconds between two separate movies. Here she plays a leading role alongside Fred MacMurray, Phil Carrey, E.G. Marshall, and Dorothy Malone in a film which is really nothing special. It's just another one of the early black-and-white crime noir movies that were very popular at that time. Don't misunderstand my critiquing. I am not impugning the movie, I'm just saying that it's about average and I had a good time watching it, so I give it three stars out of four.Novak plays the girlfriend of a mobster who is smitten with an undercover police detective played by Fred MacMurray. Eventually, their secretive romance leads up in the deaths of two men and they must try to figure a way to get out of it along with the two hundred thousand dollars the mobster robbed during a bank holdup after he murdered a police officer. The only trouble is, one of the neighbors (Dorothy Malone) can identify MacMurray's character as the suspect. And the other cops are catching on.Fred MacMurray has always been one of my favorite actors and I often found myself wanting to see him play a villain. I really can't say for sure if I would describe his character in "Pushover" as a villain but if that's what you would consider him, it's not the villain I wanted him to play. Still, he did a fine job as did everybody else. There's really not a whole lot to say about "Pushover" because, again, it's just like the other 50s crime noir films. Nothing special, but certainly an effective and entertaining method of spending one and a half hours.

Enjoyed this great classic film from 1954 starring Fred MacMurray, (Paul Sheridan) who is a detective and gets involved with Lona McLane,(Kim Novak) who is connected with a bank robber and Lona cons Paul to kill her boyfriend so they can take the money for themselves. The only problem is that Paul Sheridan is assigned to watch Lona on a stake out with other detectives and have her apartment watched and her telephone wires tapped. There are many problems that face Paul and Lona and one of Paul's detective friends gets involved with a girl named Ann Stewart, (Dorothy Malone) who lives in the same apartment house as Lona and lives down the hall. This story becomes quite exciting as a crooked cop tries to cover his tracks and makes mistakes after mistakes. Don't miss this Classic it is great with outstanding acting and a great cast of actors. Enjoy.