Undertow (1949)

Undertow (1949) is a frame-up crime and romance film starring Scott Brady, Dorothy Hart and Peggy Dow.

The idea of the innocent being caught in a conspiracy of guilt is huge in the movies, but oddly not so common in real life. 

The paranoia of the golden age era was expressed in its purest form in many films, not in the least those by Alfred Hitchcock, of a person — always a man — accused of a crime they did not commit.

These fantastical tales make up a large part of noir cinema, whether it be the innocent man dragged by coincidence into a plot of which he knows nothing — to the ex-con unable to go straight, either due to circumstance, a frame-up, or the general ill-will of society which seems to dictate that once a man's a con — he's always a con.

Prime examples from early in the film noir cycle might include Henry Fonda in You Only Live Once (1937) which depicts the most fateful of encounters with the law in the tragic figure of Henry Fonda who cannot go straight because society and his former criminal contacts won't let him.

Scott Brady in Undertow (1949)

In Undertow, the efforts of Scott Brady's character Tony Reagan are foiled by conspiracy and one of those excellent frame-ups that leave no room for error in the minds of the police. There is the body and the opportunity, and the gun is in his possession. He knows he is innocent because he is kidnapped and set up, and he is fortunate that he has a sound set of supporting contacts, including detective Bruce Bennett, who is on his side.

A paroled convict then is the perfect target for a frame-up however, because the first stop the cops make in any hunt for a criminal, is to consider the criminals they already know — those with form. Film noir often concerns itself with those trying to change, and interestingly across the cycle, reforming criminals reform with mixed results.

For film noir or drama in general, the notion of the inescapable is powerful. In a situation such as that faced by Scott Brady's character in Undertow, we've got a powerful escapist metaphor and a warning for the simple dangers of life. The first of these is obviously the notion that once a person has engaged with crime, the disentangling can be impossible.

An aggressively devious couple are behind the plot in Undertow, and the crime — the murder of 'Big Jim' — is roundly placed at the feet of the heel in question, Scott Brady's character Reagan.

The story commences in Reno where Reagan (Brady) is in a manner of speaking lying low, having being run out Chicago after being a low-level operator in a crime syndicate there, for having become involved with its leader's — Big Jim — niece. 

The back story is not clear, although seven years have passed and Brady feels that it is time to return to Chicago to get married to the niece, although the police are waiting for him, and they seem to think he still involved in crime.

Scott Brady and Dorothy Hart in Undertow (1949)

Before he leaves Reno however, Scott Brady is fortunate enough to meet a 'nice girl' — a school teacher played by Peggy Dow — the contrasting focus here being between two lives, as represented by two types of woman — the demure and innocent woman — her innocence being perfectly demonstrated by her lack of knowledge of gambling. She is contrasted with the niece of Big Jim, worldly and wealthy, and as we later find out, murderous and criminally ambitious.

Sudden violence in film noir — Undertow (1949)

It's not just a word of peril we face in evoking the film noir universe, but a world of options.

The fact that Tony Reagan used to be in the rackets is important because when we see him in the gambling house in Reno with Peggy Dow's schoolteacher character, he still knows some of the tricks. 

As a poor framed-up noir victim, Scott Brady's Tony Reagan has to be up there with the best of them. He spends most of the film on the run, and this is one of the better, darker, more enjoyable fantasies the cinema has to offer — largely because of the nature of familial and social security, we never need to do this.

Bruce Bennett in Undertow (1949)

Dorothy Hart  in Undertow (1949)

The automobiles and corners, and payphones and street scenes of both Reno and Chicago are worth seeing, and highly evocative of the 1940s. 

A sharp shift in film noir tone occurs when Scott Brady is kidnapped, and he is beaten blindfolded, shot and dragged around a labyrinthine underground environment.

Dead end —  Undertow (1949)

The is precisely the kind of thrill-seeking we expect from film noir and come to search for across the 1940s and 1950s. It may well be the case that we call any crime film from the period 'film noir' — and it's a thought worth considering.

It's true there are some real film noirs out there — examples which tick all the boxes and will forever be immortalised in the boxed sets and other canonical expressions of that style we call noir.

But can it be correct to call every crime film of the period 'film noir'?

As noir is more of a movement and a feeling, a style rather than a genre, it is acceptable to discuss film noir in light of any movie made at the time. As a massive and shifting business, the movie-making of the 1940s and 1950s fed off itself as much as it reflected society.

It's therefore appropriate to calla  film like Undertow (1949) a 'film noir' because of certain modes of expression in that film, certain tropes and certain stylistic touches.

Rock Hudson and Bruce Bennett in Undertow (1949)

There may be no film which is in fact the consummate film noir — instead the concept of the 'film noir' is something which crosses the 1940s and 1950s leaving a footprint on many film productions, some more than others.

The film noir elements of Undertow are clearly the notion of the frame-up and the innocent man on the loose in a hostile society, trying to clear his name. This fateful combination is common to film noir, because it represents the paranoia of the style, and it's the paranoia that provides one of the most flavoursome ingredients to the style in total.

Hatless Bruce Bennett in Undertow (1949)

Then there is the aforementioned basement beating. The darkness and the cruelty of this mugging could perhaps be portrayed elsewhere as dramatic action necessary for a plot to evolve — although the darkness of the setting and the unnecessary suddenness of it, and the isolation of the victim so suggest something darker, which may point to film noir territory.

Hatlful Bruce Bennett in Undertow (1949)

While it's not a major part of the plot of Undertow (1949), the corporate crime which supports the plot is also common to film noir stories. At the same time there are story elements in Undertow and many other film noir productions which cross the entirety of Hollywood's output, the strangest example being the romance.

The romance story in Undertow is not typical to any noir paradigm but is in fact a fairly normalised Hollywood trope. You could class it as the good woman versus the bad woman, with the man in between. While he does not make a choice, the man will find that the story will make the choice for him. In Undertow, Scott Brady's character has made the wrong choice, and this is emphasised in a scene on the plane from Reno to Chicago. He is with Peggy Dow and things are going very well — until he mentions his fiancée and her disappointment is massive. She clearly has eyes for him, but he has already chosen the wrong woman.

Dan Ferniel in Undertow (1949)

Despite this, Scott Brady's character Tony Reagan is supported by Peggy Dow's naïve, demure and innocent school teacher while he is bleeding, armed and on the run. She hides him and heals him, and supports him, even when he is with his woman of choice — the bad woman — leaving a somewhat strange message regarding what a woman's role must be.

From a man's point of view it is however visible — her fidelity is constant even when he has nbo clue and is about to get married to a murdering thieving cheat. 

Perfect Patsy — Scott Brady in Undertow (1949)

If there is doubt however, further film noir tropes are present in Undertow — which even has a femme fatale, even if she is not often present. The dark and frantic tone of the chase do contribute to the film noir feel, as do the frequent street scenes and the police procedures. 

Nobody could mistake Undertow (1949) for classic film noir but as it has so many of the elements in place and works hard to achieve full noir fun, while exemplifying the genre of the man-clearing-his-name at the same time.

Within Undertow (1949) is a pleasing amount of Chicago location shooting, although more formal film noir lighting touches are more than amply fitted in at the end which takes place in an underground garage, with a long concrete corridor down which the guilty party must stumble, as his bulky nemesis stumbles after him.

This nemesis is in fact Daniel Ferniel, a complex African American character placement, offering a new twist on the type — with Ferniel being the instrument of death, because of his size and persona, which could be described as the overgrown-infant, loyal to his master. This Daniel Ferniel as Gene appears, and performs in a cliched and racially suggestive manner, simple and honest, a variety of mandingo cliché and something of an odd choice. 

Scott Brady and Peggy Dow in Undertow (1949)

It's hard to cast this violent climax in racialised terms, but it does need done because it's so unusual — but you could either state it as being representative of the white man's fear of the black man — or the righteousness of the black man — since both seem to be suggested.

If you've seen even a few examples of the film noir style, you'll know that nobody is ever really fully out of the rackets. You'll also pick up on that sense of post-war urban paranoia, and perhaps even the implication that what happens to this character, who despite a few bad choices is trying to go straight and be a good guy — could happen to any of us. In that noir city there is a kind of Kafkaesque dread, and even if we only see it for a brief spell — here in a train station as Scott Brady ducks around to avoid the cops — even if it is just for a single scene, this is film noir scene setting and drops us in the place and time when these doubts were new and real. William Castle, the director of Undertow (1949) is well known for going on to make many horror films — and in the film noir period of roughly 1940 to 1960, there was no film horror movement to speak of, most of the tropes, stories and effects being developed after Psycho (1960) took to the screen. 

Scott Brady in Undertow (1949)

Although it isn't much of a starring performance, Rock Hudson can be spotted as a junior detective in Undertow — not doing too much — but Rock Hudson nonetheless.

Not just Universal International but Hollywood as a whole made many pictures in this style at this time, an efficiently so. These many minor but effective noirs must have been scratching some itch or other, or answering some social question, or even a need. The fundamental urge seems to have been transport — to take us away from the moment as fast as possible.

Setting these stories in familiar environments is how this works, and as long as there is a romantic conclusion, it might seem fair to say that both women and men could be expected to tolerate the stories told.

There is also a great theme of enforced chastity in Undertow as we watch and await the moment when Tony Regan (Scotty Brady) and Ann McKnight (Peggy Dow) can finally announce their love and attraction for each other and live in honest and mutual married lust — so along with clearing his name from the frame, this is for Egan and McKnight one noir happy ending.

Undertow (1949)