Stage Struck (1948)
Stage Struck (1948)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 8000 kbps | 4.4Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps
01:11:00 | USA | Crime, Drama, Romance
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 8000 kbps | 4.4Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps
01:11:00 | USA | Crime, Drama, Romance
The young women come to New York with a suitcase and a dream, determined to make it on the heartbreak street called Broadway. Many of them, as this cautionary noir points out, fall prey to career predators. Stage Struck zeroes in on the murder of one hopeful and of two overlapping investigations to catch the killer: one by persistent police detectives; the other by the victims intrepid sister who poses as a footlight hopeful, signs on with the same talent agency her sibling used and infiltrates the dead girl’s bright but illusory world.
Director: William Nigh
Cast: Kane Richmond, Audrey Long, Conrad Nagel, Ralph Byrd, John Gallaudet, Anthony Warde, Pamela Blake, Charles Trowbridge, Nana Bryant, Selmer Jackson, Evelyn Brent, Wanda McKay, Lyn Thomas, Wilbur Mack, Andy Andrews, Valerie Ardis, Martin Cichy, Dorothy Douglas, Franklyn Farnum, Helen Francell, Beverly Jons, Denise Kay, Gerry Pattison, Larry Rio
Stage Struck (1948)
Stage Struck (1948)
Structured much like an exploitation film, but minus any sleaze or cynicism, this 1948 crime drama exposes the sordid world of "modeling agencies" set up to entrap and exploit lonely runaway young women from small towns who find themselves in the big city, waiting for some kind of "break" toward a career in modeling or acting. With a first-class supporting cast (Conrad Nagel, Evelyn Brent, Wanda McKay, Ralph "Dick Tracy" Byrd), the film pits Audrey Long–the sister of the young woman whose murder opens the film– against the seedy yet suave Kane Richmond. Richmond, in one of his last roles before retiring from the screen and re-entering the business world, is best-known as leading man in many 1930s/1940s action films and serials, yet here he is the heavy, and he uses his personal charm to comfort then exploit the young women who are all to eager for a "break." Director William Nigh–whose last film this was and whose credits as director-writer-actor-producer date back to the mid-1910s–keeps the action moving at a brisk pace, but clearly worked with each actor to capture the right tone of performance, so that as "predictable" as the elements of the film may be to the genre-film fan, each character seems real. I first saw this film six or eight years ago and just watched it again, and it's just as solid and riveting as I remember it. Kane Richmond is especially memorable in a rare villain role, and the devoted fan of B-crime films of the 40s (this was a Monogram release) should search for a copy.
~ django-1
IMDb
Stage Struck (1948)
Stage Struck (1948)
