Watch The Man Who Cheated Himself For Free

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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

A restrained Lee J. Cobb stars in this noir where he plays a cop protecting the woman he's having an affair with after she kills her estranged husband. Cobb's brother, who has been promoted to detective, keeps questioning the clues & suspects as Cobb tries to overlook them w/disastrous results. Nicely shot in San Francisco, this may not be the best noir made but it'll do.

A superb noir thriller. Lee J. Cobb and John Dall square off as brothers and fellow policemen in this breathlessly paced, well-written and well-acted film. Normally I can't stand Dall's jack-o-lantern grin, but it's bearable here as part of his counterpoint to Cobb's brute intensity. The two women are as different as the men; Dall's Lisa Howard is sweetness and sunshine, Jane Wyatt's Lois a selfish, manipulative schemer.It's ironic that Dall's Andy, the younger, and presumably naive brother, has by far the better private and public life. Cobb's character, on the other hand, junks everything to cover up for Lois's murder of her husband. She's frantic and seemingly delusional in her first scene with Cobb. Even though she's right that her husband intends to kill her, she immediately declaims responsibility for killing him. As Cobb chooses to play a double game 'investigating' the murder, we sense the tension he undergoes, as well as his brother's growing skepticism.The young guy who Cobb tries to frame for the murder convincingly portrays a somewhat stereotypical down-on-his-luck type. He's also complicates the plot, as he has committed a murder, just not the one in question. So, in the middle of the movie, Cobb looks like he just might get out from under the murder after all. Cobb's menacing demeanor, which winds up tighter as the plot ensnares him, makes us forget that he's an accomplice, not the actual murderer.The last scene at Fort Point is great. Claustrophobic and desolate, it captures hauntingly the iconic noir atmosphere. The corridors and passageways lead Cobb and Wyatt ultimately into handcuffs. The title points in a few directions: Cobb has cheated himself by going along with the cover-up, he's also the man whose lover 'cheats' her husband for. The only quibble with The Man Who Cheated Himself involves disposing of the husband's body. It is a nice recycling of the husband's alibi to use the airport, but who would be dumb enough to drop a body in plain view of witnesses? Especially if you're a detective. Use the Bay, so the body can 'sleep with the fishes.' Anyway, if you can stand this miscue, along with John Dall's rubber-band grin, this is a fine noir movie.

Playing the lead is unfamiliar territory for Lee J Cobb but a welcome change of pace in a role usually reserved for a handsomer marquee player. Love is in the air for the usually abrasive haranguer but in this case it leads to his undoing.Wealthy Lois Frazier (Jane Wyatt) is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce with her husband Howard. When she finds a receipt for a 38 she immediately suspects her hubby might want her dead as well. Fortunately for her she's involved with police lieutenant Cullen (Lee J Cobb) who can smooth things over. When the husband returns she drills him and Cullen clumsily tries to cover the murder up. His green detective brother (John Dall) psyched in his first week on the job begins to piece things together while Cullen does his best to distract him from the trail. But he may have taught his brother too well.Cobb acquits himself well in a part that calls for softness and not the generic intolerance and rage he specializes in. He has the rumpled veteran dick down pat but in his clinches with Frazier a realistic every-man blinded by beauty. As the supercilious Frazier, Wyman overreaches but for those of us brought up in the 50s it can be quite jarring to watch Father Know's Best wife making out with Johnny Friendly.A B-picture Double Indemnity it lacks the classic's dialogue but director Felix Feist does have top shelf cinematographer Roger Harlan ( Gun Crazy) along for the ride who delivers at least two scenes ( an interrogation and an abandoned factory scene near the Golden Gate) that any noir or crime drama would be proud to inject into their mise en scene.

The influence of Billy Wilder's classic Double Indemnity is rather obvious with the creation of The Man Who Cheated Himself. This is quite the B film with some surprising casting in the female lead.The Walter Neff part is played by Lee J. Cobb and he's a veteran homicide detective in San Francisco who happens to be seeing rich heiress on the side Jane Wyatt. Wyatt is getting rid of her husband by divorce, but one night with Cobb in the house she puts two bullets in him when he comes at her.The scandal would have been terrific and Cobb's career might have come to an end, but it would have been better than what follows. Cobb agrees to help in a cover-up, but it falls apart.The Barton Keyes in this film isn't an experienced investigator, it's John Dall probably playing the most straightforward part in his career. He gets a bad feeling when certain things don't add up and Dall who is looking to make his bones as a homicide cop in the family tradition gets sadly disillusioned.The real revelation in this film is Wyatt. Forgetting she was the All American mother in Father Knows Best, Wyatt is one mean vixen in a part that Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis usually does. It was so offbeat casting for Jane Wyatt. I don't recall seeing her in another part like this.What she does in that little coda as the film ends. Stanwyck couldn't have done it better.