The Hunted

A B movie noir from 1948. The only reason I bring up B movie is that this particular outing had a cheaper budget than most in this tale of a recently released woman from prison & the cop who arrested her re-entering her life to see if she really is walking the straight & narrow. Starring Belita (a once popular ice skater, I kid you not) who parlayed a film career specializing in noir roles, plays the ex-con & since she wasn't trained as an actor, most of her line deliveries sound strange & ill prepared but it actually works in the narrow confines of this story. Shot handily on minimal locations, this slight nugget of noir may not redefine the genre but it does what it sets out to do.

"The Hunted" starts off very well and showed tons of promise as a film noir picture. However, by the time it ends, I found myself incredibly disappointed.....as the movie seemed afraid to really allow itself to be tough and cynical like most noir pictures. Plus, the happy ending just seemed stupid and like a wimp out!

This movie stars Belita, a one-namer who was a skating star and appeared in just a few movies. Much of it might be because although she IS pretty, she's not traditionally pretty and her looks are a tad tough...which is a plus for noir. It seems that Laura Mead (Belita) just got out of prison, where she'd been for four years after being convicted of robbery. However, to complicate things, her old boyfriend, the Lieutenant (Preston Foster), is the man who arrested her! Now that she's out, he is interested in re-starting their relationship...though he's not sure if she can be trusted. See the movie to find out the answer.

Belita was excellent--mostly because they gave her some amazingly snappy dialog. But the ending....it was as if they'd lost the ending and just EXPLAINED the ending...a terrible way to wrap up any film. Plus, the upbeat ending just didn't seem to fit...hence me score of only 6. I really wanted to like this movie more than I did.

Towards the end, you get the idea this was on a deadline and / or budget cap expecting, but good little movie carried by good performances by all cast members. A real effort put in by each actor to not ham it up nor plod through the lines. It's film, we won't know for days what was in the can! Pretty solid in that respect, and no great stunts, just a story line to push it along. This movie could be done in a modern setting and fill in the holes, but I'm not sure Hollywood has the discipline to keep all characters humble and sublime. It would really need to be done with obscure but top flight actors to pull it off. Belita's character would be more realistic if she's not an ice skating star on probation. That was a bit silly, but you read about Belita, that's probably the driver that got this film made in the first place. But probably a sales clerk in a jewelry store profession would match the script a bit more realistically. The heist she was accused of isn't so well explained at the beginning nor at the end, where the audience is tasked to read a newspaper headline to tie everything together (not going to spoil it, but you can't be looking away from screen for a split second!). It's definitely worth the watch, and an interesting piece of period magic. Did anyone look up Belita's actual bio? I got the impression she was probably an actual resistance operative of some type(?); Born in England, trained for ballet in Russia, performed in skating & ballet in France, actress & skater in USA...all of this during WWII era?! That's really her skating in this movie, so obviously that was the money driver and how it got added hamfisted into the script that would do better without any tinges of glamour. It doesn't fit for ideal movie result, but in historical sense, Belita such a very interesting woman with immense talent. How does that international background not come out in her lines at all with any accent? How could she have such stellar talents on the ice and be such a committed actress? I find it interesting she competed in 1936 Olympics. Traveling itself was dicey stuff her entire young professional career, and this comes out as European friction is still high in post WWII reparations and fragile political climate. Really great movie in the context of the times.

Police detective Johnny Saxon (Preston Foster) is on high alert when his former girlfriend Laura Mead (Belita) is released on parole for a bank heist which she was found guilty of four years earlier. Despite always having proclaimed her innocence, at the trial she had threatened to kill those she thought were responsible for her conviction, including boyfriend Saxon who helped put her away for the crime. Despite his misgivings Saxon again becomes involved with Mead when she appears in his apartment after arriving back in town. Though she is seemingly repentant, Saxon remains suspicious of her motivations. When a body turns up, Saxon pegs Mead as the likely suspect and figures he might be next. Did she do it or not?

A crime, mystery and melodrama mixture, this film could be described as a niche noir. The casting with the well into his forties Foster and Belita as his 21 year old girlfriend is on the surface a bit odd since the premise of the film teeters on the chemistry of the two characters. The older Foster, a definite candidate for a smoking cessation program, is spot on as the hard boiled cop and former boyfriend. The big surprise is Belita. 'The Hunted' is the third in a trio of crime programmers the former skating champion did for Monogram / Allied Artists. After watching this film it's hard to understand why her career never gained much traction. She certainly had the screen persona even though not what might be described as a classic Hollywood look.

Even though there is some padded fluff (superfluous ice skating sequence) and an over-extended early scene where the characters rehash their previous relationship, the movie is also a stylized and entertaining trek though the post war era of tough-guy detectives and dangerous dames. Again, not a straight up noir film but for viewers who enjoy filmdom's golden age of grit and duplicity it will likely check off enough boxes to make them happy.

In this detective story, a private eye must send his fiancee to prison as he truly believes that she was involved in a bank robbery. Unfortunately, she is innocent. Still she serves her time. Upon her release someone frames her for murder. The detective is in quite a quandary until the real criminal is found. The woman finally returns to her beloved private eye. More romantic melodrama than 'noir' 'The Hunted' still shines as 'Belita ' the "Ice Queen" who was in the 1936 Olympic games as a figure skater for England ; serves up a great cat and mouse performance as Laura Mead . B-film crime story ably directed by Jack Bernhard. The Hunted is lit on 'noir' but is still a great Crime, Drama and Film-Noir in the end . Highly entertaining .