What did you watch? The 1953 action crime adventure Man In The Dark.

What’s it about? A mobster has a lobotomy so that he forgets he was a criminal and starts life anew, but his former gang and the insurance company want to know where the money he stole is located.

Wow…that’s a plot, technically. Is there anything special about it? IT’S IN 3D!

This is an interesting movie in that it’s pretty ridiculous and is also one of the first 3D movies ever made. If I believe wikipedia, it was filmed in 11 days. It’s not a bad looking film, and because of the gimmick it requires a lot of action beats, which it delivers.

Steve is the aforementioned gangster, it is revealed, as we meet him in a mental ward awaiting a surgery. Doctors operate on his brain…IN 3D! from the patient’s point of view as the camera is poked with various surgical instruments. Steve recovers, and while he does, an insurance investigator stops by to ask the doctor if he can interview Steve. No-can-do, not good for Steve’s recovery – and the doctor fully believes that Steve is a new man with no memory of his past.

Steve’s former gang, however, arrives and kidnaps Steve from the hospital grounds, and speed away through all kinds of neighborhoods inconspicuously. The cops still find their recklessly speeding car, and give chase shooting wildly. Because they have to make scenes that highlight 3D, there’s a great bit where one of the gangsters leans out the window and aims the gun right at the camera. Pretty effective!

(I must add: I didn’t have 3D glasses for this, I was watching it streamed in a regular presentation. I doubt a 3D version is passed around on the internets. It makes for these great over the top showcases of centering objects and action in the center screen.)

The mobsters hole up in an apartment and play cards as they wait for Steve to remember who he is and where he hid the money. A former girlfriend, Peg, also tries to help him remember, but all it does is affect her and her love for crime. After a couple beatings by his former gang, Steve has a dream about a circus and a boardwalk, and wakes up thinking he might remember where the money is. He also finds a piece of paper he had written a number on. He and Peg escape, with the gang and the insurance investigator after him. They find their way to an amusement park and Steve discovers he left a box in a coat check facility at the park, and sure enough they still have the box.

From there, it’s a chase from his former gang members as he tries to hide out on…a rollercoaster? Just wait until the ride is over, guys – but no, they climb on the coaster to try and ambush him? The chase was pretty tense up until this point, and then it’s just a set piece for action and maybe taking advantage of the 3D setup.

Is it noir? No – there’s a potential at the end for a darker ending, but this movie is clearly to get kids in seats for the cheesy SCTV-Count Floyd-style 3D effects. (say it with me, “in three deeeeee”) But instead we get a happy ending that’s kinda disappointing. I think it’s because I question using a new surgical technique on a mobster whose contribution was robbing others, and so what if you change who he is. Why not just lock him up? I guess he was a volunteer for this new procedure. But, this is for kids, since you have gangsters named Lefty and Cookie. Just a fast moving action packed story with a tiny bit of mystery no deeper than the field of depth needed to make the 3D work.

It’s not terrible – I’d suggest checking it out, it’s pretty amusing.

Anything about the cast? Audrey Totter who plays Peg was in another gimmicky movie, “Lady In The Lake,” an adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel making use of a 1st person camera perspective. She’s had many other roles including co-starring in one of the more well known noirs, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Steve is played by Edmond O’Brien, who also had a long career and starred in another crime movie that packs a punch, D.O.A.