Dial Red O (1955)

Simply A Masterpiece

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Ralph Wyatt, a veteran with a outstanding World War II service record escapes from a mental institution to go and see his wife who divorced him. Soon thereafter, his harridan of an ex is murdered by her lover. We know from the get go who the murderer is (Paul Picerni as Roper) but Roper tries to put the blame on Wyatt. Bill Elliott portrays Sheriff's Department Lt. Andy Flynn as a dour, humorless detective who interestingly is also smart, non-judgmental and does not jump to conclusions nor is he corrupt. I only knew Paul Picerni from "The Untouchables" so I wasn't use to seeing him as a bad guy and he did a fine job. Elliott did a good job but his character isn't particularly memorable even though likable. An okay detective story worth the hour it takes to watch it.

I took a look at Wild Bill Elliott's credits and the last time he was in modern dress for a movie before Dial Red O was in a small role as a bootlegger in The Roaring Twenties. My guess his popularity as a western star was on the decline as the films he made were now being done in television series. I'm surprised Elliott never went into the small screen to continue as a western star. Also he dropped the 'Wild' in his screen billing, that seemed to not fit now that he was playing a police lieutenant in modern dress.In Dial Red O we are introduced to Elliott's new character of Lieutenant Andy Flynn of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The case he catches in this film is the murder of Helene Stanley who is the good time wife of Marine veteran Keith Larsen. Larsen is doing a stay in the Psychiatric Ward of the Veteran's Hospital as things haven't been going so well with him.That's not stopping Stanley from spending his money and having a good time with Larsen's old friend from the Corps Paul Picerni. A little too much pressure going both ways and Stanley winds up dead.We know Picerni did it, the suspense is whether Elliott and Larsen can put it together. An offhand remark by law enforcement tells Larsen who the murderer is. Dial Red O is one no frills production. Allied Artists obviously had a contract commitment to Elliott and they wanted to see how the public would take to him out of his boots and in a squad car not on a horse. It's all right, but again nothing you couldn't see on television.

I was a little disappointed in "Dial Red O" but maybe I was expecting too much. It has a pretty lofty rating and was reviewed by 2 other contributors who usually know their stuff. I guess I just didn't like it as much as they did.On the title page it's labeled a mystery but there's not much mystery here. It's a pretty straightforward story about an escaped mental patient/ ex-GI who gets framed for his wife's murder. As we see, one of his old service buddies kills her and tries to pin it on him. So much for mystery.The acting is solid, with one of my old western heroes, Bill Elliott, playing Lt. Doyle who is in charge of the case. Keith Larsen is the framed war hero and Paul Picerni is his 'buddy'. The story is pretty routine and chugs along to the finish. I was beginning to think Elliott had lost his hair, as he wears his fedora constantly indoors and out, except for one scene in which he is rousted out of bed via a phone call.No surprises here, just your Police Department in action. I would like to see the others in this series, but I'm not hopeful as I had so much trouble getting a hold of this one.

After retiring from the Western screen, Wild Bill Elliott made five hard-boiled police films at Allied Artists, this being the first of them. Elliott plays Andy Flynn/Doyle (the name changes after this one, but it's the same character), a detective for the LA sheriff's office. Elliott's stoic, brooding style is well-suited to crime films, and I'm sorry he did not make more. I've seen four of this group of five, and every one is a solid piece of work. They play very much like a grittier version of the many crime TV shows of the 1950s, and in the post-Dragnet era there is an emphasis on the step-by-step procedures used in investigating a case. Keith Larsen plays a WWII/Korea war hero who has not adapted well to the civilian world and is under psychological treatment; Helene Stanley chews the scenery as his party-girl ex-wife (her scene where she announces to her boyfriend why they "have to" get married is a classic!); Paul Picerni is the smarmy, suspicious friend of Larsen and great and good friend of Stanley. Former Columbia/Monogram regular Rick Vallin is put to good use as a police officer guarding Larsen after he is arrested. No big surprises here--the film simply delivers what it promises to: suspense, action, twists, a nice hard-boiled ambiance, AND Wild Bill Elliott. That's enough for me. While most of the film is shot on small, cheap sets, there are some good location shots of LA circa 1955 that help to give the film atmosphere. Finally, the scenes set in bars and lounges feature excellent West Coast Jazz from Shorty Rogers and his Giants, although if the band is seen, it must be just for a few moments as I went out of the room twice to get a soda and I didn't actually SEE Rogers on stage at all, just heard his music...perhaps I missed him during one of my soda expeditions. DIAL RED "O" is recommended to fans of 1950s b-crime films, if you can find it! (see my review of CHAIN OF EVIDENCE, another film in this series)