Who Can You Trust?

If you're a regular schlub, down on his luck, who enters town by crashing his truck into another, and the prettiest gal in town takes an inexplicable interest in you, exercise caution. That would've been good advice for Glen Ford in 1947's Framed, a film noir directed by Richard Wallace. It's a good one, too.

Ford plays Mike, a mining engineer with a college degree who's nonetheless had to take odd jobs, like truck driving. The shady outfit he's driving for at the beginning apparently couldn't be bothered to give him a truck with functioning brakes but they did make him sign a contract that makes him liable for any damages or legal troubles he might get into with the car.

Fortunately, or so it seems, the luxuriously dressed barmaid he meets before the police nab him decides to pay his fifty dollar bail for no reason.

It all becomes clear to the audience before it does to Mike. It turns out the dame, Paula (Janis Carter), is having an affair with a wealthy banker (Barry Sullivan) who wants to bump off his wife. Mike turns out to be of around the same age and build as the banker, if you get the picture. Mike gets the frame.

Ford is always a solid centre of any noir. He always seems to be just barely containing a boiling fury and there's certainly plenty for him to be furious about.

Framed is currently available on The Criterion Channel. And apparently on YouTube.