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Strong and Moving!

Simply A Masterpiece

Let's be realistic.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Lloyd Hallett (Robinson) has developed a case against the murderous Mafia kingpin Benjamin Costain (Lorne Greene, in his second film) to have him deported, because they can't get him indicted for any of his other crimes. Trouble is, all his other witnesses who could have testified against Costain have been killed. Sherry Conley (Rogers) who is serving a prison term, is their last chance to get him deported. She is offered a carrot - commutation of her sentence and a comfy hotel room with food much better than she had in prison. Will that be enough to get her to go through with testifying? If she lives? Watch and find out.Rogers is excellent as an aging model/gangster's moll who was too softhearted in the past, and is paying for her decisions. Whether she's being sarcastic or dodging bullets, Rogers gives one of her best performances.Robinson is matter of fact and businesslike in his role. Hallett's job is his life, and Robinson gets that across to the viewer. It's close to the role he played in "Double Indemnity" (1944), but Robinson makes the cardboard role human.Brian Keith is very good in his role as the Fed who's at first disgusted with Sherry, then starts to care for her.Lorne Green is one great menacing scumbag. Who knew the future wise papa of the Ponderosa had it in him? The shadowy cinematography is by Burnett Guffey, who also did the photography for "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967). The taut script was by William Bowers. Absolutely a hidden gem of noir, done by that economical studio, Columbia, which was full of good surprises such as this one, during the studio system era.

I just saw this for the first time on TCM, and I really enjoyed it. Ginger Rogers was definitely underrated as an actress. Brian Keith and Lorne Green also turned in excellent performances as characters that were far from the genial father figures they were known for in later years. The plot was very engrossing with a surprising twist at the end. The only thing that distracted me was Ginger's awful haircut. Also, her prison seemed to have a manicurist on staff. (Her hands in the opening scene sure don't look like she's been working in a laundry.)

TIGHT SPOT features an A-list cast, however none were A-list at the time, with Brian Keith about to rise to solid star status while Ginger Rogers and Edward G. Robinson were on the downhill side of heights that Keith would never approach. Which is not to say that anyone's abilities had seriously flagged. TIGHT SPOT remains a B-picture, but the performances elevate it to a strong 'B', and that's a lot better than some dreary high budget production. Is it a noir? Columbia likes to think so, and the Brian Keith character makes this a reasonable claim, but the movie centers around Ginger Rogers' Sheri Conley, and Sheri isn't a femme fatale, not by a long shot.Ginger's performance is rather controversial. Sheri is an over-the-hill model who appears to have taken as her own role models the kinds of brassy dames common in the films of her adolescence and played by actresses such as Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell and...well, Ginger Rogers. It would be a natural thing for someone like Sheri to do, and it must be said that director Phil Karlson must have agreed with Rogers in this interpretation even if it didn't exactly fit into the typical noir milieu (near the end of her film career, Rogers certainly didn't have the power to overrule her directors in such matters of interpretation). She'd played a character in a similar situation in a polar opposite fashion in STORM WARNING only a few years earlier, tight and withdrawn rather than outgoing and wordy as here. I'll go so far as to say that you'll like TIGHT SPOT to the degree that you like Ginger's interpretation of her role. In any event, she provides energy to a film otherwise lacking in it.Edward G. Robinson was one of the finest actors that the screen has ever seen, and he's letter perfect here even if he's somewhat wasted. Brian Keith is as solid as always, as is the rest of the cast, with special kudos for Lorne Greene in a small role as the heavy. Phil Karlson was generally a better director than his material (KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL being his one real masterpiece), but he seems caught between a rock and a hard place here, either dissipating the claustrophobic atmosphere by opening it up too much or staying in that hotel room until tedium ensued (many scenes undeniably go on too long, with way too many words).TIGHT SPOT is a decent film, and with two of the genuine greats of cinematic history in its cast, it's one that shouldn't be missed.

Ginger Rogers sheds her usual movie ways and portrays a girl surviving a sentence for hiding a criminal. She is offered her freedom if she will testify against someone who the government is trying to get. Problem is that her ex-boyfriend has already taken a fatal bullet on his way to testify.Edward G. Robinson is the D.A. here in this exciting film. There is a marvelous supporting performance by Brian Keith, as the cop, assigned to watch her. Naturally, romance blooms and there is quite a surprise waiting for viewers when we realize who he really is in this film.Here is a girl telling those in prison to keep their mouths shut and do as little as possible. "Never volunteer" is her motto. How quickly the situation and her beliefs change.As Sherry Conley, Rogers depicts a girl whose environment led her astray. The film is well worth catching.