User Reviews

Road House (1948)

Road House is in some ways a straight up romance with noir stylizing. The setting is great, out in some isolated and spectacular club/bar of a type once known as a roadhouse (often out of town to avoid local laws about drinking and cavorting). The core is that the troubled and cocky Jefty, played by the inimitable Richard Widmark, wants the troubled Lily, played by a tough Ida Lupino. Widmark as the roadhouse owner is pure Widmark, so that even when he's charming he's scary, and when he's not so charming he becomes demonic. This repels Lupino, who though hard edged is decent deep down, and she falls for the nice guy, played by Cornel Wilde, who is a sweetheart with an inability to stand up for himself. This gets him, and everyone else, into trouble.

The steady, downward drone of this movie from a just barely tense introduction as Lily comes to town to be the new entertainment to a love conflict and a frame up is subtle and effective. Don't look for fireworks--it's all smoke until the very end. A full hour passes before you reach the movie's one major plot twist (the bizarre parole conditions announced in the courtroom), and then the gun has finally been cocked. Now all that we wonder about is how it will go off.

And Lupino. There is no one in Hollywood quite like her, one of the best women for making bitter arrogance smart and snappy. Her husky-voiced singing is far more provocative than awful, and perfect for this roadhouse in some unlikely mountain town fifteen miles from Canada. Not only is Lupino brilliant with her lines, she has brilliant lines to deliver, almost as though she invented them, they fit so well. The fourth main character, the "second woman" played by Celeste Holm (the beguiling voice-over in Letter to Three Wives), seems to have a smaller role, but she's ultimately the sensible and good gal, not as sexed up and headturning as Lupino's Lily, but steady and practical and a key to everyone's salvation in the end.

The camera-work starts out as pretty straight 1940s greatness (aided by an astonishing series of period sets), with Joseph LaShelle as cinematographer building up the drama through the last half hour to some searing, dramatic face shots. The final scenes in the woods presage the similar foggy ending to Gun Crazy, which has more of a cult following (and which has visual innovations this one doesn't), and these scenes are worth the ride by themselves. Director Jean Negulesco has only a few features of note to his credit, but Road House, along with How to Marry a Millionaire and Johnny Belinda, makes a great case for his ability.

It's easy to fault the film for some small things (Pete seems inexplicably powerless to fight the frameup) and even for larger ones (the romance that holds it together isn't all that convincing), but the moods and sets and lines are all great stuff. The plot has some gratuitous moments (including an exhibitionist Lupino) but taken another way they emphasize her difference from the others, her insouciance and her confidence. It's curious, and maybe defining, that the natural match between the troubled characters, the Widmark and Lupino leads, is rejected, but then Lily's shift to Pete ought to catch fire.

In a way, the film's theme, of a man being overwhelmed by his wanting and expecting a woman, is defined best in Lily's matter of fact line, "Doesn't it enter a man's head that a girl can do without him?" Not usually.

This was a very interesting character study of three people: "LIly Stevens" (Ida Lupino), "Jefty Robbins" (Richard Widmark) and "Pete Morgan" (Cornel Wilde).

The two guys are attracted to Lupino, who prefers good-guy Wilde. The scorned Widmark then gets his revenge. This film was a year after Widmark played sadistic killer "Tommy Udo" in "Kiss Of Death" and his character in this movie isn't too far removed from Udo. In both films, Widmark provides the spark when the story needed it.

That's not to say the rest of the cast isn't good, too, but Widmark playing these psycho villains is just fascinating and just stands out. Another fine thespian is Celeste Holm, who also is in this picture but with a role that did not stand out. I can't even remember what she did in here, although it's been awhile since I've seen this. Hopefully, this film noir will be issued on DVD some day.

The main attraction here are the amazing performances by Ida Lupino, and Richard Widmark. Jean Negulesco was able to capture it all in this tale of passion gone wrong.

Lily Stevens arrives at Jefty's Road House to entertain in the lounge area. Jefty, has offered her 250 a week, a sum that in Pete Morgan's estimation is a lot more than the place can afford. Pete offers money to send Lily back to Chicago because he senses she will bring chaos between him and Jefty, the man who has been generous to him and who, he feels, will fall again for this chanteuse of mysterious origins.

Thus begins one of the best films of that era. It's a noir because of the elements, but actually it might be considered a semi-noir since it's not an obvious one.

Ida Lupino had a way for 'talking' her songs at the Road House. She had a style that got to the lounge patrons that heard her sing. Her interpretation of "It's a quarter to three" is done faultlessly. Her voice, a combination of alcohol and the cigarettes she positions at the piano's lid while singing, contribute to create a portrait of the sultry woman she is. She sings "Again" twice; her rendition of that song makes it impossible for anyone else to sing it without comparing it to what Ms. Lupino did with it, much better!

Richard Widmark was the favorite looney in the 40s. His acting was always an exercise on intensity. He always played the weird roles on the screen. In "Road House" he appears almost normal until he realizes that Lily will never love him. He has to get his revenge on Pete who has stolen Lily's affection away from him. Jefty will stop at nothing in order to get her back. Thus he accuses Pete Morgan, his loyal friend, of stealing the week's receipts.

Cornel Wilde plays a passive role as Pete. He too falls for the charms of Lily, but at the same time, Lily wants him because she sees in him her own salvation from joints and a ticket to a normal life. Celeste Holm is the other principal. Her role is not as well defined. She should be resentful of Lily, but she is a kind soul who accepts the fact that Pete never loved her. Ultimately, she is the one who solves the puzzle of the missing money.

"Road House" should be seen more often.

A fascinating, quietly invigorating noir piece from director Jean Negulesco. Richard Widmark is fantastic as the owner of the roadhouse who spoils the marriage of Cornel Wilde and Ida Lupino in the quasi-idyllic setting located in the U.S.-Canadian border. There are two things that kept me fascinated by this odd and satisfying little noir. One is the sultry presence of Ida Lupino as the silky, smooth-voiced torch singer Lily (her rendition of "One for My Baby" is itself precious). Without a doubt this is one of Lupino's best performances. The other is director Negulesco's intriguingly stylish direction: the use of languorous long takes and deep focus, particularly in the misty, smoke-induced finale in the wilderness is quite haunting and expressive. This is the only Negulesco film I've seen. I'm looking forward to this other works.

Richard Widmark, Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde and Celeste Holm are all in the "Road House," a 1948 film noir directed by Jean Negulesco. Widmark, fresh from his career-making role of Tommy Udo, plays Jefty, who owns a road house. His friend from the service, Wilde, runs the place. Jefty is gone on Lily (Lupino) but can't get to first base and hires her as a singer. Unfortunately, she falls for Pete. Jefty frames Pete for robbery to keep him and Lily from leaving town to get married, and then arranges with the judge to have Pete paroled to him. To say he's up to something is an understatement.

The revelation here is Lupino as a sexy torch singer. She does her own singing here, husky, seductive, very stylized and smoking. She's wonderful. Widmark is vicious as only Widmark could be, and Wilde repeats his "Leave Her to Heaven" nice guy as victim role. Celeste Holm looks great and does her usual excellent job as a woman attracted to Pete who takes pity on him and Lily just the same.

My only criticism is that there is a scene where Lily turns on the radio to a classical station where a soprano is singing "Einsam im Truben Tagen." She tells Pete that she studied opera, and her father had great ambition for her. With that whiskey and cigarette soaked set of vocal cords - I doubt it.

This is one of my favorite film-noirs. I could watch it every night and not get tired of it. What Ida Lupino was able to do with a cigarette, a few shrugs of her shoulder and a gravelly singing voice, well lets just say they there oughta be a law against it. The casting of this film could not have been better.Richard Widmark, Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde and Celeste Holm are all at the top of their game here. And to top it all off, it has one of the greatest bar-room brawls of all time. If you've never seen it, you're wasting valuable time here. Shut off your computer, go down to your local video store and rent it immediately. You won't be disappointed. Or better yet, try to catch it on a big screen somewhere.

'...and then by bus to a throaty restless obsessed temptress 'thrush' slouched in mortal danger atop a white piano, singing the blues and chain-smoking, somewhere in the long, dark, wet and winding night between Chicago and 'the coast.' – James McCourt, "Mawrdew Czgowchwz"

Jean Negulesco's Road House must have inspired that sentence (or rather fragment). With her voice shredded by Scotch and Luckies, Ida Lupino is the thrush, the canary, whose smoldering cigarettes leave a bar-code of burns scarring the smart paint of her white piano. She's been brought up from Chicago by Richard Widmark to lure paying customers into the cocktail lounge of his establishment – Jefty's Road House – up in the piney woods a few miles from the Canadian border. (On one side, it's a bowling alley – that kind of joint; the only game in town).

In the past, Widmark has been known to engage no-talents who strike his romantic fancy. So when Lupino arrives, Widmark's boyhood pal and now Man Friday Cornel Wilde, cruel to be kind, tries to send her packing. He fails ('Silly boy,' she scolds him after slapping his face). But Wilde was wrong; Lupino brings down the house at her debut, with a gravelly, sprechstimme rendition of the Mercer/Arlen 'It's A Quarter To Three.' ('She does more without a voice than anybody I've ever heard,' marvels Celeste Holm, another worker toiling under Widmark's thumb.)

Maybe it would have been better had she packed. Widmark assumes that Lupino's as mad about him as he about her and runs off to get a marriage license. But after starting off on the wrong foot, Wilde and Lupino find a grudging romance kindling between them, to Holm's chagrin – she assumed she was Wilde's girl. (The whole plot's based on unfounded assumptions.)

When Widmark stumbles upon the truth, he frames Wilde for stealing the week's take. And that's only the start of Widmark's delusional plot to redress the wrong he thinks been done him, to an extent that Lupino turns on him: 'And you know what else? Your mind's gone. You're crazy, Jefty. Crazy!' Since, in film noir, that's about the worse thing you can say to someone with a mad little glint in his eye (and demented giggles to match it), Widmark goes totally unhitched....

Like the following year's Beyond The Forest, Road House is an overheated melodrama set in the cool climate of hunting lodges and icy lakes where loons (not only the avian kind) call through the dusk. It's a pastoral backwater where routine passions build up to explosive force, without the many vents cities offer for release. (We see it in a drunken bear of a backwoodsman who comes violently onto Lupino, thinking her torch songs were sung not for a paycheck but expressly for him.)

Negulesco was working at the top of his game in Road House, as was Widmark (though we had seen his gleeful psycho before). With his constitutionally dour manner (maybe it's just his face), Wilde was not one to set celluloid aflame, but the part of victim fits him; Holm, alas, has to grapple with a thankless, ill-thought-out character (it's an Eve-Ardenish part that needs another splash of vinegar).

But Lupino gets one of her best roles, and runs with it. Scion of a British theatrical family whose roots go back to Renaissance Italy, she never received the star treatment or the prestige productions her talents deserved (she did, however, help to shatter the directorial glass ceiling). As Lily Stevens, world-weary chanteuse of a certain age, she stays the headliner in a dark, accomplished and entertaining movie. It's a late-show treasure that makes a television an appliance worth having.

Road House manager Pete (Cornell Wilde) falls in love with singer Lily (Ida Lupino) brought to entertain customers by Road House owner Jefty (Richard Widmark). However, Jefty has his own interest in Lily and intends to marry her. While Jefty is away getting a marriage license, Pete and Lily become involved and decide to go away together. Well, once Jefty discovers this, he is not happy and plans revenge against the pair and it's a good revenge, which leaves the pair only one real choice..........they make a run for it.......

Throughout the film, I felt a little sorry for Susie (Celeste Holm) as she is made out to be Pete's girlfriend but her feelings seem to be papered over. She gets a bum deal in this film. She even covers for her boyfriend's philandering with Lily once Jefty returns to claim Lily for his wife. There is some snappy dialogue between Susie and Lily and Lily and Pete and the most memorable line for me is delivered by Jefty on his entrance. He greets pal Pete with a cheeky delivery of the line "Hey, you son of a gun" on meeting Pete and Lily in the Road House office.

The cast do well with Richard Widmark being my favourite, despite being 4th billed. Ida Lupino sings a few songs with her gravelly voice and we have been pre-warned that she may not be much good at singing, so the outcome is not too bad. Overall, it's an interesting and enjoyable film with memorable scenes including every time Widmark appears and an interesting sparring between Lupino and Wilde while he is teaching her to bowl. You don't need to see a bedroom but you get the gist....

What a tremendously under-rated film classic. The wonderful Ida Lupino was as sultry and sensual as one could get, especially in the 1940s. How about the scene at the lake when she improvised and made her own bathing suit. I would have liked to see her in a bikini. She turned a routine role as a hard luck woman singer into a great performance.

Richard Widmark is one of my all-time favorite actors. Why he has never received a Career Achievement Award from the Academy is mind boggling. No actor in film history has given so many memorable performances portraying sociopaths and psychopaths.

I will skip the fine plot as so many others have explained it but will say that this is a great film noir that holds up exceptionally well even 60 years later. Cornel Wilde and Celeste Holm were also outstanding in less flamboyant roles. Holm was superb as the good hearted woman who was in love with Wilde who thought of her only as a good friend. Wilde gave a fine naturalistic performance as the stable and hard working good guy whom Widmark turned against out of jealousy and eventually hatred.

The direction, screenplay and cinematography were also top notch, and "Again" is a classic song that has endured the march of time and is still played on jazz and oldie stations regularly.

Come on Acadamy! Give the great Widmark a Career Achievement Award.

When the Chicago singer Lily Stevens (Ida Lupino) arrives at the Jefty Road House hired by the owner Jefferson T. 'Jefty' Robbins (Richard Widmark), the manager Pete Morgan (Cornel Wilde) gives a cold reception to her. Jefty asks Pete, who is his best friend, to drive Lily to the local hotel. However Pete drives her to the train station instead and asks Lily to go back to Chicago. She refuses to go and her performance is successful in her debut. Soon Pete changes his opinion towards Lily and the accountant and cashier Susie Smith (Celeste Holm) informs that the public has increased not only in the roadhouse, but also in the bowling alley. Jefty feels attraction for Lily, but when he travels, Lily and Pete fall in love with each other. When Jefty returns, he brings a marriage license and proposes Lily; however she dumps him and Pete and she decide to travel to Chicago and leave the town. However Jefty frames Pete and reports a hake theft to the police. Pete is arrested and found guilty by the jury. However Jefty proposes to the judge that Pete continues to work for him instead of going to the prison. What is the intention of Jefty?

"Road House" is an engaging film–noir with a storyline of unrequited love and obsession. Ida Lupino has an impressive performance, singing with a wonderful husky voice. The first performance of the famous song "Again" is the soundtrack of "Road Movie" sang by Ida Lupino. This film is also the third appearance of the outstanding Richard Widmark and his insane smile on the cinema. Cornel Wilde and Celeste Holm complete the dream cast of this unknown gem. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Taverna do Caminho" ("The Tavern on the Way")

Road House is directed by Jean Negulesco and adapted to screenplay by Edward Chodorov from a story by Margaret Gruen and Oscar Saul. It stars Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Celeste Holm and Richard Widmark. Music is by Cyril J. Mockridge and cinematography by Joseph LaShelle.

When Jefty Robbins (Widmark) brings new torch singer Lily Stevens (Lupino) to the Road House he owns, it causes friction between Jefty and his boyhood pal Pete Morgan (Wilde). So much so it will have dire consequences for some...

I guess this is a moose trap all around.

Love triangle noir that comes away from the city and out to the sticks, Road House rises above the clichéd storyline to become engrossing entertainment. Narrative stays straight and true, two pals from way back are divided by the appearance of a woman on the scene, it's going to end bad for someone and the audience knows this, and they know who it's going to be, which sadly nullifies the mystery element. But the characters are well drawn and well performed, with Negulesco (The Mask of Dimitrios) able to paper over the cracks without using pointless filler. The big rewards here come in Widmark's coiled spring performance and the script which is full of acid tongued barbs and sardonic observations.

The backdrop is most unusual in terms of genre conventions, the Road House of the title is an out of the way bar with a bowling alley out in back country Americana. This is a bar that reeks of moose hunting and forests, it's all very rustic and rural, with the fashions adorned by the principals reflecting their surroundings, but LaShelle's photography keeps us in the noir frame of mind with classic isolated lighting. There's also some musical numbers performed by Lupino, she has a husky voice that while it isn't exactly musical grace, it conjures up a feeling of too many cigarettes and bourbon, with a sadness befitting the mood of the songs, particularly where the standout "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)" is concerned.

Unusual at times and not as "drastic" as the source story hints it could have been, but very much one for the noir faithful to enjoy. 7/10

Interesting for Ida Lupino but that's about it. This movie didn't age well. It's intriguing for the social differences in time, but the style of acting didn't age well. When things get emotional, especially toward the end, in the final scene, every actor goes into overdrive with near hysterical overacting. A bowling alley/nightclub hires a new canary who sings more like a man. It's interesting that Ida Lupino sings without really singing much and she pulls it off. Maybe not as much as the movie likes to portray, but it's fun to watch her.

This is made with enough memorable pieces - the 'road house' in the small Midwest town, the torch singer fresh from Chicago who comes to upset the sleepy routine, the two men, owner and manager of the joint, who lust after her - that it would have been something to see regardless of who was in it.

Someone like Gene Tierney or Rita Hayworth would have been equal parts fierce and coquettish in navigating their private wants against the male desire that threatens to create a narrative that engulfs them. That would have been fine and the film worth watching.

But we got Ida Lupino instead, that whirlwind of softly indomitable spirit. I had heard enough about her in my various travels through film, always in context of trailblazing individualism, and have even seen her in a couple of films before. But for whatever reason, this was the first time I was so profoundly captivated by her talent that from now on, she's forever celebrated in my house.

Going by what she achieves here, she should be rightfully mentioned on par with Cagney, that other whirlwind of intelligent presence. It's an ability to float past obvious limits of a narrative, and from there inhabit a self who can freely enter the story, play and improvise on that edge, that makes her unerringly modern. In this case she gives us the soulful ingenue, the one required by the story, but at her choosing, and the next morning freely becomes someone who just wants to look around and explore.

Just look how her ability to shift what she inhabits in an easy and free manner makes the whole context of a scene shift. The scene with going up to the pond for a swim is written for her character to impress Wilde's as not just a stuck-up singer from Chicago. But the way she plays it turns it into she's there for a swim and shucks if he's impressed. Maybe she likes him, but she'll be fine either way.

She's so marvelous in the first half of this (which is largely devoted to her and her romance), you forget you're watching a film noir of the time. It's like watching an actor from 20 years later, a Nouvelle Vague woman. She manages to make the whole transcend and had me feeling what it would be like if more studio pictures of the time were allowed to simply follow along with contemporary life on the streets. We'd have to wait for Cassavetes to start that ball rolling and then onwards to Altman and the others. Ida would have made a dreamy collaborator in those years and would have flourished and shined all the more as both actor and filmmaker.

But this is still a film noir, which means succumbing to narrative controlled by selfish desire. In this case Richard Widmark is not happy that she chose his helping hand around the club; so he conspires to create a vengeful narrative that entraps all three, and no less his own self. The setting for this part is a remote cabin in the woods.

In a great scene the two lovers, looking glum now, sit across the table from each other overseen by Widmark at the head, as if the whole world has shifted to something other than real. Widmark, that early Jack Nicholson of film, deserves a standing ovation himself for all he achieved; not once has his usual mode of seething, petulant menace failed to enhance a film all the more.

The resolutions are predictable and really the last part of of the film is, but it's still decent noir. Taken as a whole, it's a rich primary text and wholly deserves the visit.

Richard Widmark gives a superior performance in this film as an unstable owner of a road house that's located in a small community close to the Canadian border. He inherited the business from his father. His lifelong friend, played by Cornel Wilde, works for him managing the business. The two are equals until Ida Lupino shows up as an out of town singer and pianist who's hired by Widmark to provide entertainment. Her presence is what causes the extreme strain that breaks Widmark's and Wilde's friendship for good. The settings are unique, with a taut finale out in the woods, and as well a courtroom scene. Widmark gets best actor honors (in my opinion). He slips so easily into his character's unpredictability, and goes from cool and cunning to sadistic, which is even more than he did in Kiss Of Death, where the character was entirely crazy and sadistic. Lupino, who apparently had zero vocal range, is great as the sultry singer from Chicago with a troubled past. For such an idyllic setting as the Road House is in, miles of forests and lots of lakes, the film noir characters provide a great contrast. Directed by Jean Negulesco and shot by Joseph LaShelle, the film looks and moves quite crisply. While the finale is really well done, it's not as if the viewer suffers through lapses before that point, as the tension between Wilde and Widmark, and Wilde's romance with Lupino are well enough placed to keep the punches coming.

The primary attraction of Road House is Ida Lupino. Tough and self-possessed, her character is nonetheless vulnerable and endearing as that quintessential staple of film-noir, the throaty nightclub singer--in this instance named Lily. She's not a femme fatale, but roadhouse owner J.T. decides to go crazy over this dame anyway. Well, he's played by Richard Widmark, after all, and you know how THAT fellow gets. Celeste Holme is another standout as Susie. Amiably sardonic and ultimately courageous, she has some of the best lines in the film. Cornel Wilde is about as boring as a guy named Pete is apt to be. It's not the actor's fault. He just has the bad luck to be surrounded by all these colorful characters. Anyone would pale by comparison.

Speaking of Wilde, you could make a case for Road House being sort of a gender-swap variant on Leave Her to Heaven. Not the most convincing case, but a case nonetheless.

The script has a lot of good dialogue but falls apart in the third act as characters start behaving in nonsensical ways. I guess it's to resolve the plot. It's sloppier than it needs to be. Still, lots of moody photography and the aforementioned performances make Road House worth seeking out.

The lovely Ida Lupino and curiously handsome Richard Widmark deliver brilliant performances in this classic film noir about a love triangle in a small town bowling alley.

Widmark is cast as the owner of the bowling alley who hires Lupino to sing in the bar. We learn that this is his way of meeting new women so his best friend, convincingly portrayed by Cornell Wilde, tries to dump Lupino at the railway station before she causes any trouble. Of course, she refuses to leave and ends up in a love triangle with Widmark and Wilde.

Lupino exudes star quality in a truly amazing performance as a sultry, world-weary night club singer in search of redemption. Her mannerisms, vocalizations, and facial expressions are superbly nuanced and define her as one the best actresses of her generation, comparable to Bette Davis.

Widmark gives a mesmerizing performance as a repressed psychopath who naively deludes himself into believing Lupino will marry him, then goes off the deep end when he discovers she is in love with his best friend. In the final scenes, he explodes in a virtuoso display of controlled insanity that characterized his early career as an actor.

The direction and cinematography are excellent with beautifully composed shots and lingering close-ups of the stars. There is some sharp dialog and the rest of the cast deliver convincing performances, making this an outstanding film noir. Highly recommended.

Unlike many of the other film-noir films; the setting is a "sinister" bowling alley, which is more and more suspenseful, as you don't know what Richard Widmark will do next.

Ida Lupino, Celeste Holm and Cornel Wilde are the perfect foils, setting off Widmark in this film; the settings alone are original; the acting superb, and I wish they still made them like this!!!!.

You will enjoy the mystery, the cast of characters, and the final outcome of this movie. You definitely will not be able to predict what happens.

Rent it as soon as you can for a dark, rainy night!.

What stands out in ROAD HOUSE, despite the lurid melodramatics of the plot, is RICHARD WIDMARK doing his standard psychopathic job once he discovers his love life has been compromised when IDA LUPINO and CORNEL WILDE fall in love with each other. Widmark takes full advantage of his character's sudden turn from nice guy to a man consumed by cunning jealousy, trapping Wilde into a charge of theft that almost puts the victimized man into prison.

Widmark gets the judge to suspend sentence and has Wilde's parole placed under his management. At this point, the plot becomes wildly melodramatic and churns up the heat for the last twenty minutes of explosive emotional fireworks. The fight scenes between Widmark and Wilde are artfully staged and look painfully realistic.

Widmark and Lupino dominate the film with forceful work, full of intensity. Wilde is impressively quiet but determined and looks like he'd make a good bouncer at any bar. CELESTE HOLM has more of an onlooker role that does nothing for her career but does about as well as she can with a nothing part.

Jean Negulesco has done much better work in other melodramas (notably JOHNNY BELINDA). Here, he directs the film well but lets the melodrama get a bit too overwrought by the time the film winds toward a conclusion. It's not one of his best films.

Ida Lupino's husky voice is barely able to wobble through a few good song numbers, which makes her nightclub scenes a little ludicrous. It's one thing to have a throaty voice for standard pop tunes sung in a husky manner, but Lupino's vocals suffer from her one-note monotone delivery.

Very entertaining indeed. The only flaw was that Pete could never had been convicted over what is just the word of the alleged victim. No money was found in his possession and Pete had character witnesses on his side. Pete's lawyer could have retrieved the marriage license Jefty requested, to show his motives for that false accusation, and his claim would have been dismissed.

Other reviewers have noticed Jefty's ex-parte with the judge (with no defense lawyer present --very irregular, and cause for mistrial) and the absurd fact that Pete was released under the control of the alleged victim (no parole officer).

In Jean Negulesco's noir Road House, Richard Widmark and Cornel Wilde are co-owners of a nightclub. Sultry and seedy Ida Lupino auditions to be their nightclub singer, but Cornel objects. He knows she's bad news, but Dick is enamored and is willing to do anything for her. Given her character, it's no surprise that Ida isn't content with only one of the owners under her thumb. Cornel is playing hard to get, so get him she must - even at the expense of Dick's feelings.

All in all, Road House is entertaining, but it's not my favorite noir or even my favorite Richard Widmark movie. I'm much more partial to Pickup on South Street. If you love the cast, or Ida in particular, you can give it a shot, but don't expect it to be on par with the classic Dana Andrews noirs like Fallen Angel and Where the Sidewalk Ends.