What did you watch? The 1950 crime noir cautionary tale Shakedown. And I’m going to skip the intro joke and just get into it, because Shakedown didn’t waste time either getting its protagonist in over his head and on a way way path into the noir abyss.

Jack is introduced getting beat up by a bunch of angry guys, throwing his camera into the water. That’s the start of the movie, he’s in a newsroom next trying to peddle his photos of this attack to a skeptical editor. Jack is given an assignment, to take a photo of local racketeer Nick, who is known for not liking having his picture taken. Granted, Nick seems like a guy who has to frequent courthouses, so my first thought is “he probably has a number of mugshots the paper can access, and I know paparazzi exists back then, so this is quite the odd quirk.” Just a very specific thing about one of the characters. Jack shows up to the courthouse as Nick is leaving, and charms Nick into even posing for a photo. Nick says he’ll be in touch.

Jack is an opportunistic photographer, He sees someone struggling in a building fire or on a boat sinking in a lake? He asks for them to pose for a photo, and then leaves to get back to the newsroom. He’s chided for ot sticking around to get more info or get a reporter on scene, and veteran staff members try to give him some guidance can tell he’s not interested in developing these skills beyond his sensational photos. One person who is impresses is staff member Ellen, and they start dating. Jack knows that there are plenty guys at the paper who are interested in Ellen, but he lets her know he’s doing everything he can to sweep her off her feet with his output.

From there, gangster Nick calls on Jack to help him take a troublesome stooge out of the picture, by giving Jack info on that stooge’s upcoming robbery, hoping Jack takes a pic of the stooge to get him arrested. But Jack thinks way ahead, and shows up at the robbery and takes a couple photos, putting aside the pic showing the face of the stooge and his henchmen.

That stooge is Colton, who is played by Lawrence Tierney. Friends, if you know, you know. There is a feeling of real danger as Jack leaves Colton’s office after letting him know he has evidence of the robbery, and Tierney’s stare as Jack walks away is pretty terrifying. Tierney was a pretty rough personality off camera, especially around this time.

Anyway, Nick is disappointed that as far as he knows Jack didn’t take a clear photo of Colton. Jack has also hidden the evidence at Ellen’s home, which turned out to be a good idea after Colton shows up at Jack’s and beats him up. Jack starts playing everyone, building a small fortune, raising his profile beyond the newspaper, and making googly eyes at Nick’s wife, who is not interested but tolerates him. Colton decides he’s going to kill Nick, and Jack catches wind of this and sets up his camera and takes a pic of Nick getting in his car right as it blows up. The newspaper staff is worried, how the heck did Jack know to be there at that moment, but no one can prove a thing, and Jack becomes more famous for this photo. He decides to move in on Nick’s wife, basically giving Ellen the cold shoulder. Colton tells Nick’s wife that it was Jack who killed Nick, so the two set him up, mostly in hopes for Colton that Jack gives up the evidence he’s hidden. So Nick’s wife has a fancy party where she has Jack set up a camera to take pics of her high society friends, but she and Colton ambush him, and Colton kills Nick’s wife. Jack begs for a chance to get the evidence and calls Ellen who is like “yeah i’m not searching my apartment for you for this picture” and hangs up on him, and Colton shoots Jack, just as Jack takes a picture of Colton killing him.

Was it noir? In the sense that our protagonist goes down a dark path and can’t redeem himself from it, yes? However, it’s not like he was persuaded or enticed into crime. No one asks him to turn the Colton job into a blackmail scheme or have him play Nick against Colton. Heck, no one at the paper ever talks about how they wish they’d stop doing honest work and join the scum hiding in the shadows they would usually uncover. You figure out pretty quickly he’s an opportunist. I still don’t know why Nick doesn’t knock Jack around for (as far as he knows) failing to set up Colton. Instead Jack is allowed to stay in his circle.

However, the comeuppance, despite being seen a reel away, is pretty good, though the ending of Ellen & friends lamenting on Jack’s good photography feels like a quick line to just cut to black and get people out of the theater. Jack is never sympathetic. I might’ve wondered how he was going to get himself out of something, but he pretty much deserved getting bit by criminals he tried to keep on a short leash. You even see it on the faces of his coworkers, the veteran staff who want to him to stick to some ethics but he just ignores him. He even mocks one of the older editors for having a crush on Ellen and how easy it was for him to scoop her up with his brash photography.

Was it good? Mostly, in that it was a tight script and looked good, and had Lawrence Tierney beating people up. So, definitely check it out, it moves quickly and is pretty suspenseful. It’s a cautionary tale in that Jack’s actions affect Jack, and despite all the positive aspects, Jack willingly throws himself down the doomed crime chasm with no hint that he didn’t deserve it.

Howard Duff plays Jack, who had a long career, despite losing jobs around this time due to accusations of being a communist. One of these jobs was being Sam Spade on the radio! He was also married to Ida Lupino, who I’m sure has films we’ll cover here in the near future