CINEINFINITO / Filmoteca de Cantabria
Sábado 25 de Noviembre de 2023, 17:00h. Filmoteca de Cantabria
Calle Bonifaz, 6
39003 Santander
Programa:
– The Chase (1946), 35mm, b&n, sonora, 81 min.
Formato de proyección: DCP
Arthur DeWitt Ripley (12 de enero de 1897 – 13 de febrero de 1961) fue un guionista, editor, productor y director de cine estadounidense.
En 1923, se unió al estudio de Mack Sennett como escritor de comedia. En la década de 1920, trabajó estrechamente con Frank Capra produciendo guiones para numerosas películas. Después de romper con Capra y el estudio de Sennett, Ripley volvió a ser escritor de gags, guionista y director ocasional, haciendo cortometrajes con comediantes como W. C. Fields y Edgar Kennedy. Sus trabajos como director en la década de 1940, Voice in the Wind (1944) y The Chase (1946), fueron éxitos de crítica, pero ninguna de las dos películas fue éxito de taquilla.
Ripley entró en el mundo académico, ayudando a crear el Centro de Cine en la Universidad de California en Los Ángeles (UCLA), mientras que también trabaja ocasionalmente en la televisión. Ripley volvió a dirigir una vez más, a petición de Robert Mitchum, para Thunder Road (1958) antes de regresar a la UCLA donde siguió trabajando hasta su muerte en 1961.
The Chase (1946)
The Chase is a 1946 American film noir directed by Arthur Ripley. The screenplay by Philip Yordan is based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1944 novel The Black Path of Fear. It stars Robert Cummings as Chuck Scott, a veteran who suffers from hallucinations. When he returns a lost wallet to violent mobster Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran), Eddie offers to hire him as a chauffeur. Chuck becomes mixed up in a plot to help Eddie’s wife Lorna (Michèle Morgan) run off to Havana to escape her cruel husband.
Production
The Black Path of Fear was published in 1944. The New York Times praised its “fiendishly ingenious plot and thrilling episodes.”
Producer Seymour Nebenzal bought the rights to the story. In January 1946, he announced Phil Yordan, with whom he had made Whistle Stop, was writing the script.
Adjustments were required for the story to comply with the Production Code. Much of the action was framed as a dream sequence so that the characters could escape the consequences of their actions. The character of Scotty was originally to reenlist in the army at the end, but veterans thought this was a bad idea, so the time of Roman’s death was advanced so that Lorna could wind up with Scotty. The cause of a death in the book was changed from an attack by a mad dog to an auto accident. Adjustments to scenes set in Cuba were required to avoid upsetting the Cuban government.
In March 1946, Robert Cummings signed on to play a lead role and Joan Leslie was borrowed from Warner Bros. to costar. Arthur Ripley signed on to direct. Warner Bros. then insisted Leslie was still under contract to them, causing principal photography to be delayed by a month over the dispute. Nebenzal grew impatient and replaced Leslie with Michèle Morgan. Leslie sued Nebenzal for lost wages and damages, and she sued Warner Bros. to release her from her contract. Morgan joined the cast in May along with Steve Cochran, who was borrowed from Sam Goldwyn. Peter Lorre joined the cast in June.
Also according to Variety, production was delayed by an electrical workers’ strike at RKO’s Culver City studio.
Reception
The Chase was entered into the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.
Critic Gene Arieel of The Hollywood Scene wrote: “The Chase has flaws, to be sure, but it has additionally a good share of suspense and excitement.” He also noted that “the performances are indispensably good.”
Leyen Decker of The Independent newspaper wrote: “The Chase is fascinating and suspenseful but falls back on the familiar dream solution as the easiest way out, and the audiences will be confused and disappointed.”
In a retrospective review in The New York Times, J. Hoberman wrote: “The Chase is nothing if not arty. Mrs. Roman is dressed and posed as if she were one of the subjects of Cecil Beaton’s Surrealist-inflected Vogue portraits.”
Legacy
Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward write in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style: “Phantom Lady excepted, The Chase is the best cinematic equivalent of the dark, oppressive atmosphere that characterizes most of Cornell Woolrich’s best fiction.”
The story was adapted for television in 1954. In 1957, Steve Sekeley was reportedly preparing a version of the novel for United Artists, but the project did not materialize.
