They Don't Dance On Death Row

A down on his luck tap dancer finds himself even further down on his luck when he's framed for murder in 1948's I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes. This surprisingly well written b-movie noir is a tidy little nightmare.

Husband and wife dancing team Tom (Don Castle) and Ann (Elyse Knox) are reduced to living in a miserable little New York apartment while she supports the both of them working a dance hall. This is an old job that seems to factor in a lot of films noir (Susan Hayward had the same gig in 1946's Deadline at Dawn). Apparently you used to be able to go to dance halls and pay girls to dance with you. Girls in films noir who take these jobs are implied to be just a few steps away from prostitution, something which eventually comes into play in I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes.

Tom's so fed up one night he throws his only pair of shoes at some noisy cats outside their window. He goes out to fetch them but they're nowhere to be found until someone deposits them on their doorstep the next morning. They don't know who it was but whoever it was, it turns out, wore the shoes when murdering a nearby miser (a radio announcer in the movie actually calls the murder victim a miser). Of course, the cops hang their whole case on the footprints at the crime scene. Meanwhile, Tom's also found a wallet stuffed with distinctive old fashioned bills like the miser was noted to carry. Not knowing about the murder, Ann begs Tom to spend the money instead of turning it over to the police, it being Christmas and all.

So quick as a wink, Tom winds up on Death Row and it's only Ann left to prove his innocence with the help of one detective (Regis Toomey) who happens to be one of Ann's dance hall regulars. And he needs coaxing, which Ann does with a kiss and an implicit promise of more later. Ann really is the centre of the film; she has all the moral quandaries. Her convincing Tom to spend the money is like Eve getting Adam to eat the apple and it hangs over her endeavours to get him back like original sin.

I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes is available on The Criterion Channel as part of a Holiday Noir collection.

Ella Fitzgerald also sang about the dance hall: