This Side of the Law

Plot synopsis:
David Cummins (Kent Smith) is trapped in a dry cistern and wondering whether he will die there. The largest portion of the rest of the film is a flashback to a week earlier then forward, detailing the events that landed him in that precarious pit.
A bright but down-and-out vagrant is tapped by a police officer for looking longingly in a pawn shop window at a revolver. A smart retort to the officer's question has him carted off to jail for "no visible means of support." The following day he's in court hearing "$50 dollars or 30 days."
Listening to the exchange is cagey lawyer Philip Cagle (Robert Douglas), who pays his fine. After a meal and a taxi ride the pair enter the attorney's office, where he explains why. The counselor is the executor of the estate of a wealthy man whom the bum just happens to resemble exactly. The rich man has been missing for seven years minus two weeks and is about to be declared legally dead, which would be inconvenient for the lawyer. (Though it's unclear why).
If David will agree to impersonate the missing man he'll be paid $500. Holding out for $5,000 the pair come to terms then ride to a huge house near a cliff belonging to the missing man. During the journey the lawyer adds some information about the man's task. He must fool three people — the man's wife, his brother and the brother's wife. He adds at the end of the trip, just as they arrive: "By the way, your brother hates you."
David soon finds that it isn't just the brother who is none too fond. His wife Evelyn (Viveca Lindfors) is more than a little estranged, apparently as a result of the husband's many affairs and general callousness before his disappearance. Fortunately, Evelyn doesn't know that husband Malcolm Taylor's most recent affair was with his brother's wife, Nadine Taylor (Janis Paige).
The impersonation comes off well for some time as David insinuates himself into the family until Nadine notices his hands, which lack some tell-tale scars. David tells Philip and the lawyer connives to have her meet him at a lonely spot on the estate, then shoves her off the cliff.
Things move rapidly ahead from this point, past various confusing scenes that ultimately result in Philip tossing David into the cistern. His plan all along was to continue to act as the executor of the estate in order to control the money. (Which, incidentally, makes it somewhat baffling why he wanted to delay the wealthy man being declared legally dead in the first place. Apparently, he needed more time to arrange for Evelyn's death.)
No matter, for David will soon find the will and ability to crawl out of the dry well — but not before discovering the skeletal remains of Malcolm Taylor. He reaches the top just in time to hear the screams of Evelyn, with whom David is now completely besotted. He rushes to rescue her just in time to avoid her suffering the same fate at Philip's hands as Nadine.
All is confessed to the puzzled police and all resolved, with Taylor's wife showing that she now returns David's feelings.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
Fun Thriller.
This Side Of the Law is a rather fun thriller from the early fifties and concerns a man hired to impersonate someone else, a greedy family and other unwholesome things.
The cast is decidedly of the second-string variety; however that doesn't make it bad.
Kent Smith and Viveca Lindfors were both talented performers and play their starring roles well.
It's particularly nice to see Smith in a leading role for a change, as he was a decent actor who never quite made the cut in Hollywood.
Character actor John Alvin does nicely in a showy supporting part.
I wouldn't quite call the movie film noir, though it's close.
It plays somewhat like an episode of the Perry Mason TV series, as it's full of similar plot twists and surprises.
If one likes dark mysteries this is a good one to look for..
pretty good black & white thriller.
At the beginning, a narrator speaks as we are shown a residence and the dog named "Angel" that guards it.
The viewer is shown the top of a cistern, with "David" the narrator (played by Kent Smith) at the bottom of the cistern.
Here's the flashback to tell his story...When David is picked up for vagrancy, someone pays his fine, and has a proposition for him: He is to pretend to be a millionaire, who had disappeared several years prior.
Even the millionaire's wife can't tell he is an impostor, but things start to go wrong.
The man he is impersonating wasn't very well liked, and David must find out why.
Viveca Lindfors gets top billing as "the wife", but it's Janis Paige as the sister- in-law who (rightfully) steals the show.
Watch for Monte Blue as the Sheriff.
The acting isn't anything special, but the story is mildly compelling, and since we know right from the start that David ends up in the well, we get hooked on finding out how he ends up there.Written by Richard Sale, who had several novels and screenplays made into films.
This one IS available on DVD, although you can catch it on Turner Classic Channel about once a year.
Directed by Richard Bare, who wrote a book on the proper technique on film directing..
a vagrant is hired to impersonate a millionaire.
Kent Smith, Viveca Lindfors, Janis Paige, Robert Douglas, and John Alvin star in "This Side of the Law," a 1950 film directed by Richard L.
Smith plays David Cummins, a vagrant who is baled out by an attorney named Phillip Cagle (Douglas) who wants him to impersonate a missing millionaire in order to divide a $3,000,000 estate.
Cummings agrees to do it for $5,000, but he walks into a hornet's nest: a wife (Viveca Lindfors) who doesn't seem to like him much, a brother (Alvin) who detests him, and a sister-in-law (Paige) who likes him a little too much.
It's all pretty confusing, as Cummins tries to do the right thing by the millionaire's obviously hurt wife.
Then murder complicates the situation further.The story is told in flashback, as we see in the beginning that Cummins is in grave danger -- as he tries to save himself, he goes over the events that brought him to his present problems.Fairly interesting story.
I'm sure for Lindfors, a wonderful actress brought over from Sweden, this was hardly the stuff of star-making, but she does a good job.
Paige is gorgeous.All in all, fast-moving and satisfying..
Solid Little Noir.
A vagrant is bribed into impersonating a millionaire as part of an inheritance scheme.
The trouble is he gets more than he bargained for.I'm not sure why this little noir-- and it is a noir (hand of fate, a web of intrigue, a spider woman, & dark atmosphere)-- remains so obscure.
This Warner Bros.
entry may not be top-flight, but it is respectable.
That opening scene with the pin-light on Cummins' (Smith) ravaged face is a grabber.
Several other moody scenes emerge along the way, plus a neat plot twist, that makes this thriller an entertaining 70-minutes.I'm guessing one reason for the film's obscurity is the cast, especially the lead, Kent Smith.
He performs well enough.
The trouble is he lacks screen presence, almost fading into the background at times.
On the other hand, Lindfors and Paige split the women's time, such that neither is able to establish much presence of her own.
John Alvin, however, comes across vividly in the thankless role of the weakling brother.
Also, I'm surprised director Bare manages the dark material as well as he does, given that his previous career was exclusively with comedy shorts.
(Note, for example, how Cummins has to work at getting a name off the ID bracelet—a good realistic touch.)Nothing memorable here, just a solid little noir..
Nice Thriller..
THIS SIDE OF THE LAW - 1950 This one has it all, greed, cross and double-cross, twists, turns, a cliff-side mansion and a couple of murders.Kent Smith plays a down on his luck drifter who hits town and is grabbed up by the local police.
He is given 30 days or 30 dollars on a vagrancy charge.
Smith figures 30 days worth of free grub and a roof over his head is pretty good.
But before he hits the cells, he is bailed out.Meeting him at the jail-house doors is lawyer Robert Douglas.
Douglas gives Smith a ride to his office in order to discuss a business arrangement.
Douglas offers Smith 500 dollars for a small favour.
"And what kind of favour costs 500 bucks?" Asks Smith.
Douglas shows Smith a photo of a well-dressed man who looks just like Smith.
"I represent this man, Mal Taylor's 3 million dollar estate.He has been missing for 7 years and is about to be declared legally dead.
I do not want that to happen." Says Douglas.
Douglas explains that he thinks one of three people might have killed Taylor.
He believes that the wife, Viveca Lindfors, his brother, John Alvin, or the sister in-law, Janis Paige, might have done the deed.Douglas wants Smith to "reappear" and see what reactions result.
Smith agrees but demands $5,000 for the work.
Douglas gives him an evil look but agrees.
Douglas spends the next two days filling Smith in on Taylor's habits etc.
Taylor it seems was a womanizing cad who treated everyone like dirt.
Lindfors was on the verge of divorcing Taylor when he disappeared.Smith does his Taylor bit and the family is needless to say rattled.
Lindfors tells him he is an ass while brother Alvin obliviously hates him.
He spends the next few days snooping for Douglas and of course falling in love with Lindfors.
Smith quickly finds out the reason for the brotherly hate feast.It seems Taylor had been stepping out with dear sister in-law Paige.
Paige puts the moves on Smith and quickly realizes he is a phony.
She figures he is a con man after the fortune and offers to keep quiet for a price.
Smith calls Douglas to tell him Paige has tumbled to the act.
Douglas tells him to play along with Paige.Now we find out that Paige is also doing the horizontal cha-cha with Douglas.
It looks like Douglas is the one making a play for the estate.
Douglas now figures Paige is doing an end run for a slice of her own.
Douglas dashes out to the mansion and confronts Paige about Smith.
This little talk ends with Paige being dropped off the handy cliff edge.Now the ball is really rolling as the body is discovered the next day and the local law called.
They conclude that she stumbled and fell.
Alvin however accuses Smith of pushing her off.
The cops put Alvin's rant down to grief and call Paige's death an accident.Douglas tells Smith his job is over except for one more item.
He has Smith forge Taylor's name to a document signing over the estate to Lindfors.
Douglas and Smith head off to town.
They are not 100 yards down the road when Douglas gives Smith the butt end of a pistol.
He then hauls Smith out into the woods and dumps him down an old well.Douglas now speeds back to the mansion.
There, he tells Alvin he believes it was really Lindfors who killed Paige.
Alvin decides he will get his revenge and drop Lindfors over the same cliff.
He asks Lindfors to come out for a "walk".
As soon as they leave Douglas calls the police.
He tells them he is convinced Alvin has gone mad and is going to kill Lindfors.
If Alvin kills Lindfors, then is locked away, Douglas, as the family lawyer, will have complete control of the estate.While all this is going on, Smith, though somewhat worse for wear, has survived the thirty-foot drop.
He finds the remains of the real Taylor, and quickly realizes he has been played for a world-class chump.
At the cost of some broken nails and the like, he manages to clamber his way out of the well.
Just as he reaches the top, he hears Lindfors screaming.
Smith does the old hundred-yard dash in record time and drops Alvin with a few solid punches.Smith takes Lindfors back to the mansion where a less than amused Douglas is waiting.
He pulls a gun and starts blasting.
The police now show and the chase is on.
Douglas makes a run through the woods where needless to say he tumbles into the same hole Smith had just exited.
A broken neck puts an end to Douglas and his plans.
Smith comes clean with Lindfors and the two embrace.
She prefers Smith anyway.Smith was in CAT PEOPLE, THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, NORA PRENTICE, THE DAMNED DON'T CRY.
Lindfors walked the dark side in BACKFIRE, DARK CITY and THE HALLIDAY BRAND.
Douglas was in HOMICIDE, SPY HUNT, FLIGHT TO TANGIER.
Alvin had bits in ILLEGAL, THE NAKED ALIBI, DIAL 1119, HIGHWAY 301, OPEN SECRET and THE BREAKING POINT.The director was Richard L.
Bare.
Bare.
His work includes SMART GIRLS DON'T TALK, and FLAXY MARTIN.
The d of p was Carl Guthrie.
THE BIG PUNCH, FLAXY MARTIN, BACKFIRE, CAGED, IRON MAN, THE TATTERED DRESS, DEATH IN SMALL DOSES, Hollywood STORY, UNDERCOVER GIRL, HIGHWAY 301, STORM WARNING.
Story was by Richard Sale who was involved in LADY AT MIDNIGHT, THE INSIDE STORY and SUDDENLY.
This film was made in 1948 but not released till 1950.
I've seen this story before, but here it has a gender change..
Reminding me of the 1945 film noir sleeper "My Name is Julia Ross", this interesting film noir deals with a vagrant (Kent Smith) bailed out of jail and utilized in a lawyer's scheme to defraud a wealthy family.
Resembling the missing black sheep of the family, the prodigal son who never returned before his father died, Smith finds that he's bitten off more than he bargained for when he finds a brother (John Alvin) who hated him, a wife (Viveca Lindfors) who is terrified of him, and a sister-in-law (Janis Paige) whose relationship with him was far more than platonic.
They live in a gloomy mansion overlooking the ocean from a high cliff, just like the wealthy mother and son in "My Name is Julia Ross", so it is very apparent that there is danger about, if not the cliffs, then the yapping dog who snarls at practically everybody and could tear them to bits, as well as an abandoned well where Smith is seen in the opening scene of the film.
As the clever family attorney, Robert Douglas is an obvious villain from the start, using the vulnerable Smith for his own purpose.
The opening sequence of a beat cop simply arresting Smith for looking in a gun shop window is disturbing because it gives the sense that beat cops during this era could arrest anybody for anything they wanted to charge them with.
Certainly, research of the law indicates that vagrancy was an arrestable offense, and Smith does look like a hobo in the opening scene.
But cleaned up and put in the missing brother's alleged designer suits makes him the perfect doppelganger for the presumably dead brother (by Douglas's hands, I will imagine, although that is never established), Smith's arrival at the gloomy family home is not without despair for the three members of the family.
Fights soon begin between Alvin and Smith over Paige's lingering feelings for the dead brother, and when Paige makes a discovery, it leads to Douglas taking horrific action with the entire family just so he can get his hands on the family estate.
This is one of the rare opportunities to see the usually vivacious Janis Paige in a serious, dramatic role (other than the 1946 remake of "Of Human Bondage" and perhaps a few others), and her perky voice is missing from her characterization.
She's closer to a vixen here than the flirtatious good time gals she played in all those Warner Brothers and MGM musicals (as well as on Broadway and later on T.V.), and it is fascinating to see her in such a unique part.
Lindfors is brooding and quiet, suspicious and scared of Smith, while Alvin is not really as well established character wise as the two women and Smith and Douglas are.
The scenery around the estate is brooding, nearly dead looking (like one of those 1960's Vincent Price American International horror films), and as Lindfors explains, the grounds and the house are beyond evil.
It is suspenseful but predictable, saved by the performances and the brooding atmosphere..
The man who wasn't really there.
***SPOILERS*** Almost unknown little film noir gem involving this down and out vagrant David Cunmmins, Kent Smith, who's made to impersonate ,for a cool $5,000.00, this missing millionaire Malcolm Taylor whom he has a striking resemblance to.
Spotted at the L.A courthouse by shyster lawyer Philip Cagel, Robert Douglas, who pays his $50.00 fine Cummins is given all the information about the missing Malcolm Taylor and sent to his pad, mansion, on the Pacific Ocean coast to convince both his brother Calder, John Alvin,sister in law Nadine, Janis Page,as well as wife Evelyn, Viveca Lindfors, that he's the real deal or real McCoy the missing for some seven years Malcolm Taylor.
Even though the three all fall for Cummins act the pet dog Angel doesn't and that's to make things later difficult for him as well as the person who put him up to this sham Philip Cagel.We already saw that Cummins was double crossed by Cagel at the very beginning of the film so we knew what a phony he, Cagel, was and how he was just using Cummins for his own greedy and selfish purposes.
But what we don't know and later find out is that Cagel knows a lot more about the missing Malcolm Taylor then he lets on.
And the biggest secret that he has is that he not only knows where Malcolm is, at the Taylor Sans Souci estate, but also how he got there.***SPOILERS*** As Cummins puts two and two together Cagel changes his plans to get his hands on he Taylor fortune, all three million dollars worth of it, by getting his partner in crime knocked off so he won't have to split the money with him.
As Cummins gets out of his deep and pressing predicament, that Cagel put him into, he's forced to confront Calder who's been brainwashed by Cagel that he and Evelyn murdered his wife Nadine, by throwing her off a cliff, with Cagel trying to check out before he's noticed.
It's then that the real hero in the movie the family dog Angel goes into action and puts an end to Cagel's evil plans together with Cagel himself.