Detective Story (1951)

This movie was on the other night and I got sucked in. The premise looked good and it had Kirk Douglas. So it had to be a winner, right? No. No, no, no! By the end of the movie, I regretted having sat sat down to watch it, feeling my evening had been wasted.

There are spoilers below the cut.

Let's start out with... production! The movie is based on a play. So almost the whole movie takes place in a detective squad room and the LT's office next door. And that was fine with me. It reminded me of Barney Miller from decades later. One thing I especially noticed was the clothes the detectives wore. Still a very distinct post-War look there.

The story and characters are the weak links of the movie. I was thinking the movie was going to be one of those gritty, post-War/'50s movies that annoy me a little, but are okay. Maybe a little hyperdramatic. But still a step towards realism. And this one was like that with the secondary characters and their plotlines. Unfortunately, Kirk Douglas's character's plotline quickly descended into melodrama. Instead of being just hardened cop who had no mercy for the criminal element, Jim had daddy issues and became more and more unlikeable and irredeemable. Well before the end of the movie, it was obvious the only way out for Jim was for him to die heroically.

The acting was pretty good. Cathy O'Donnell was playing Wilma again. And she's so awkward showing affection. But she's so cute and genuine and really into it. So it's hard to not like her acting. Horace McMahon was a cool police lieutenant. Joseph Wiseman was very effective as a burglar who I think was borderline mental. I like that, how those types were still portrayed as sick subhuman types. Lee Grant was also very effective as one of those scatterbrained women in the movies alot back then. Eleanor Parker, The Baroness herself! She was really was a beautiful woman back then. But I agree with something I read, that maybe she wasn't right for such a jaded character. I was thinking Donna Reed would have been better, based on her speech to Prew about why she's fucking G.I.s in Hawaii so she can afford to go home and be respectable and marry a somebody. Last, but not least, there was Kirk Douglas in one of his more smoldering performances. He really does a great job of making Jim an unlikeable mental case.