Framed 1947 Glenn Ford

Framed
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Richard Wallace
Produced by	Jules Schermer
Screenplay by	Ben Maddow
Story by	John Patrick
Starring	Glenn Ford Janis Carter
Music by	Marlin Skiles Arthur Morton
Cinematography	Burnett Guffey
Edited by	Richard Fantl
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	March 7, 1947(United States)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Framed is a 1947 American black-and-white film noir directed by Richard Wallace and featuring Glenn Ford,Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan and Edgar Buchanan. The B movie is generally praised by critics as an effective crime thriller despite its low budget.^[1]

Plot[edit]

Mike Lambert takes to driving a truck when he falls on hard times. When the brakes stop working while driving through a small town, he runs into the car of Jeff Cunningham and is arrested. A total stranger, barmaid Paula Craig (Janis Carter), pays his bail, and Mike is quickly drawn into a criminal plot devised by the seductivefemme fatale.

Paula talks a married man, Steve, into robbing the bank that he manages. The two then drug Mike, intending to frame him for the crime. Paula proceeds to kill Steve take all of the stolen cash. She is able to convince Mike that he is the one who killed Steve in a drunken rage and that she has covered up for him, thereby implicating herself. She begs him to run away with her. Mike considers her offer until he learns that Jeff, who has become a friend, has been accused of the killing—and that Paula intends to pin the robbery that Steve committed on Jeff to give the police a fall guy for the crime.Paula is tricked by Mike into opening a safe-deposit box where the stolen money is, and the police quickly place her under arrest.

Cast[edit]

• Glenn Ford as Mike Lambert
• Janis Carter as Paula Craig
• Barry Sullivan as Steve Price
• Edgar Buchanan as Jeff Cunningham
• Karen Morley as Beth
• Jim Bannon as Jack Woodworth

  Reception[edit]

  Critical response[edit]

  Critic Mark Deming called the film, "[a] superior low-budget film noir."^[2]
  Film critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and wrote, "Janis Carter gives a very sexy and dangerous performance, which plays off very well against Glenn Ford's very earnest one of the good guys who can't get a lucky break. Even when he finds someone he could love she turns out to be poison, someone who was about to poison his coffee until she was reassured that he does not know something incriminating about her role in the crime. It was an entertaining B-film that ably caught how an honest but desperate man reacts after hooking up with a falsehearted woman. The good performances overcame the cheap production values and slight story."^[3]

• Reception[edit]

  Critical response[edit]

  Critic Mark Deming called the film, "[a] superior low-budget film noir."^[2]

  Film critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and wrote, "Janis Carter gives a very sexy and dangerous performance, which plays off very well against Glenn Ford's very earnest one of the good guys who can't get a lucky break. Even when he finds someone he could love she turns out to be poison, someone who was about to poison his coffee until she was reassured that he does not know something incriminating about her role in the crime. It was an entertaining B-film that ably caught how an honest but desperate man reacts after hooking up with a falsehearted woman. The good performances overcame the cheap production values and slight story."^[3]

  
  

  Reception[edit]

  Critical response[edit]

  Critic Mark Deming called the film, "[a] superior low-budget film noir."^[2]

  Film critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and wrote, "Janis Carter gives a very sexy and dangerous performance, which plays off very well against Glenn Ford's very earnest one of the good guys who can't get a lucky break. Even when he finds someone he could love she turns out to be poison, someone who was about to poison his coffee until she was reassured that he does not know something incriminating about her role in the crime. It was an entertaining B-film that ably caught how an honest but desperate man reacts after hooking up with a falsehearted woman. The good performances overcame the cheap production values and slight story."^[3]

  
  

  Noir analysis[edit]

  
  

  Film critic Hans J. Wollstein wrote, "These silly censorship rules aside, Framed remains a thrilling example of 1940s film noir at its best: economically told, atmospherically photographed (at, among other places, Lake Arrowhead) and more than competently acted. Carter, especially, is a revelation and it is too bad that she was mostly used by Columbia Pictures for decorative purposes, a sort of second-tierRita Hayworth."^[4]