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Simply Perfect

A Disappointing Continuation

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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

I love film noir movies. And, although "Shed No Tears" is from a tiny production company (Equity Pictures) and has mostly small-time or over the hill actors, it's a top film--gritty, intelligently written and cold-hearted...the way you WANT noir to be!When the film begins, a husband and wife have just set up the fake death of the husband. Using a corpse they bought, they then started a fire in a motel room and made it appear as if the husband was the victim. The plan is to then use the husband's insurance policy to get rich and they'll take off and start a new life. However, what the man (Wallace Ford) doesn't know is that his wife is scum....a true femme fatale. You see, his beloved young wife (June Vincent) already has another lover and is planning on keeping all the money!Into this twisted tale of domestic bliss comes an unknown quantity-- the husband's adult son from a previous marriage. No one anticipated that he'd not believe the way his father supposedly died--and he hires a skunk of a private detective to investigate. I say the dick is a skunk because he soon figures out what's happening and he plans on bleeding the 'grieving widow' of at least some of her insurance money.If it sounds like most of the people in this film are scum, you have it right. Rarely have I seen a film with so many wonderful twists-- all because most everyone (aside from the son) are just dirt! Additionally, great dialog, lots of smart writing, acting and direction make this a surprisingly strong and entertaining film.

...so says sexy Edna (June Vincent with her distinctive blonde hair streaks), the much younger wife of businessman Sam Grover (Wallace Ford) when he tells her she must shed no tears!! At her urging he has faked his own death to defraud the insurance company out of a fortune - the only problem is that while he is desperately waiting, holed up in a distant town, she is definitely shedding no tears in the arms of her lover Ray.There are more twists and turns than a mountain road - enter Sam's son, Tom, who has been estranged from his father since his marriage to Edna. He has doubts that his father is dead and Edna's icy demeanour doesn't exactly quell his suspicions. His eager fiancé puts him in touch with debonair private eye Huntington Stewart (just imagine Clifton Webb from "Laura") who seems to have a finger in everyone's pie. His first port of call is the "grieving widow" where a phone call indicates that she is not grieving nor a widow. He tries to shake her down for $5,000 - to give Tom a start in life but Tom wants to handle things in his own "rough house" way!!Then Sam returns, he has only had one letter from Edna and he is now completely suspicious - but don't feel sorry for poor cuckolded Sam. He is not above bilking his landlady by selling off all her furniture when she is away for the day!! Once back he seems to know exactly what is going on - staking Ray out and then leaving Edna with a finger-printed gun and looking at a stretch in the big house whichever way she turns!! You have seen it all before but at just over an hour there is no wasted space. There couldn't have been any other actor in mind than Wallace Ford as the befuddled Sam who re-enters with a steely purpose but it is June Vincent's movie all the way, from crying crocodile tears when she is told of her husband's death to her only sincere bit of emotion when she realises something nasty has happened to Ray. It is also to Frank Albertson's credit that he makes his role as the standard detective stand out what with all the slippery characters abounding.

There is a sleazy private detective (Johnstone White) in a prominent role as blackmailer and conniver. I swear his character is lifted directly from Clifton Webb's in "Laura," which appeared a few years earlier to bouquets of praise. White is a flit, like Waldo Lydekker. He looks a little like Clifton Webb. He uses the same elegant phrases: "You may abandon that ree-DICK-ulous position." He pays great attention to his wardrobe and grooming, and he's the most interesting character in this twisted hour-long B story of theft, fraud, intrigue, adultery, and murder.Wallace Ford fakes his own death to gain insurance money for him and his wife, Jean Parker. Unknown to Ford, Parker has a boy friend on the side. Tom, Ford's virtuous son by a previous marriage enters the picture, convinced there was some skullduggery involved. He hires White, the private eye, to dig into the matter and White finds out everything and tries to blackmail everyone and then it gets anfractuous and somebody gets shot and somebody falls out the window -- not the same person who got shot -- and it's all a little confusing, but not as confusing as, say, "War and Peace." Not in my estimation anyway.It's an interesting and uninspired move. It exemplifies the Peter Principle. All of the actors, bit parts included, seem to have worked their way up the ladder until they have reached their level of incompetence. Their careers will go nowhere. The performers walk from place to place, as directed, and recite their lines with the same credibility that you and I might show if we'd had a few acting lessons. On those rare occasions when Jean Parker, than whom no femme was ever more fatale, smiles, the smile carries all the significance of that of a synchronized swimmer. There isn't a moment when you believe anything other than that you're watching a movie in which nobody is bringing much to the party.As a performer, Wallace Ford is made of wood here. Too bad. He was capable of better things in better movies. (He was Frankie McPhillip in "The Informer".) He was reliable as a supporting player, usually some Irishman, in other works, but was always hampered by a voice that sounds as if his false teeth were loose or he had half a load on.Overall it's pretty dull except for Johnstone White as the recherché shamus.

You'd think after watching "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice", people desiring to defraud insurance agencies would have learned a lesson, but not these film noir characters, which includes the typical older man/younger woman, and the younger woman intends to use the money to run away with her lover. But the older husband is a bit wiser than his wife thinks he is, and just as she thinks she's getting away with everything, he's back to get his cut, with or without her remaining at his side.Slightly clever repeat of an old theme, this offers some suspense and a femme fatal (June Vincent) worthy of inclusion in the hall of fame for film noir vixens. Wallace Ford gives an excellent performance of the seemingly cuckolded husband with Mark Roberts the unfortunate lover who is too consumed with Vincent to realize he's involved in a loosing game. There's also the family angle of Ford's first wife's son, especially in a scene with Vincent that may or may not be attempted seduction simply to keep his mouth shut. But there's too many scenes of nothing but talk to take away from the intrigue that unfortunately leads to a predictable conclusion.