Hit and Run

Hugo Haas almost always played a role himself in the films he made and often he played the character of a more or less naive fool who is cheated on by his beautiful wife who wants to run away with the young guy, or his money .

Frank can't stand Gus's new wife at first (or so it seems) but secretly he is also crazy about Julie, when she finally seems to fall for him after a few advances he hatches a plan to get rid of Gus.

Hugo Haas dared to do something that many bigger film makers would rather avoid, and that is portraying the nastiness and evil of women, here that plot story is less extreme, especially the few twists in the plot towards the end that give this film that extra push that makes it just that little bit better than Hugo's other work.

Cleo Moore was one of the sexiest blonde starlets of the 1950's but sadly this 1957 release was her swan song. She had starred in around ten films and was well known by the public but I guess there was just too many beautiful blondes around at the time. She's the best thing in this standard little film noir of the beautiful young wife, middle-aged husband, and the young hunk who comes between them. Looking fantastic as a platinum blonde, Cleo gives an excellent performance and her love scenes with hunky Vince Edwards are fairly torrid. Director-costar Haas seems a little too sympathetic to his own character for my liking, a boisterous auto repair shop owner who woos option-less showgirl Moore. Never a particularly good director (to say the least), Haas notably wastes the potential in one scene in the wrecked car "graveyard" beside his repair shop which manages an eerie touch nevertheless. The movie quite low budget but that proves to be an asset in capturing the angst of low-income 50's America.

This story isn't pretty, in fact it's downright scuzzy:

He's old and fat, with a bank account to match his belly. She's young and hungry, with too much peroxide and not enough scruples. Toss in a muscle-bound mechanic with a yen for faux-blonde skanks with alley cat morals and you can be sure that the postman who always rings twice will be heading for the doorbell again.

Welcome to the lower depth digs of Hugo Haas & Cleo Moore, a particularly grimy rung of the film noir inferno. Like most of their collaborations, it plays like a lurid, dog-eared pulp mystery paperback come to life, chock full of murder, mendacity, horny Hungarian junkmen with goulash for brains, Italian studs with sky-high pompadours, and femme fatales with bosoms the size of Tucker Torpedoes.

HIT AND RUN was the final collaboration between writer/director/star/gutter auteur Haas and his slatternly muse Moore. Along for the ride is Vince Edwards as the beefcake buddy who covets his best friend's bride. As with all Haas/Moore noirs, everything they touch turns to pig slop.

All told, it's one of Hugo's better efforts, a compelling, typically feverish riff on the DOUBLE INDEMNITY formula (albeit told from the perspective of the elderly cuckold) festooned with several oddball twists and turns and touches. Well worth seeking out. With Julie Mitchum, Robert's lookalike sister, as an undertaker's sassy wife.

And it was their last film together. After "Hit and Run," Cleo married a multimillionaire, went into the real estate business, and never looked back. This potboiler also stars Vince Edwards.

Haas, a garage owner named Gus, meets Julie in the club where she works and gives her his card, telling her to call him about a car. You don't have to ask her twice. She shows up soon after. Before you know it, wedding bells.

From the beginning, there's a sexual tension between her and Hugo's helper Frank (Edwards). One night, Frank grabs her and declares his love. Julie is attracted to him, but tells him to leave town. Gus, meanwhile, catches on that there are some sparks.

This story has a little twist to it.

Cleo is stunning, and as usual, the focus is on her. Besides her looks, she had a strong presence. Edwards' looks normally don't appeal to me, but he is quite hunky here. Haas turns in a good performance. He was actually quite well known in his native country of Czechoslovakia.

Some trivia, the woman from the circus, whom Frank meets later in the film was Robert Mitchum's older sister. She retired after getting married.

That Hugo Haas was a small gem of a producer/writer/director. "Hit and Run" is the second Haas film I've seen after "Pickup," and while I didn't like this one quite as much as the other one, mostly because this one has the misfortune of not starring Beverly Michaels, it's still a lurid and pulpy good time.

Haas is a really winning screen presence, and you end up rooting for him based on the strength of his charm. It helps that he's always a pretty decent guy who finds himself saddled with a no-good dame, who usually brings along with her some other bohunk who wants to do him harm. Cleo Moore is said dame in this one, and if she's not exactly a femme fatale, she also doesn't do much to stop the grisly proceedings carried out by said bohunk, played here by the smoldering Vince Edwards. Edwards comes across as a dim bulb, but good grief did that dude drip with sex, and the scenes with him and Moore have a real erotic charge.

"Hit and Run" is my favorite kind of noir, because it's cheap and tawdry. It also has a sense of humor, and I think one of the things I like best about Haas is that he never took himself or his films too seriously. That gives them a unique playfulness that sets them apart from other films of their kind.

Grade: A-