Red Light

I'm not all that familiar with director Roy Del Ruth, but this was a surprisingly solid little film noir. George Raft's brother is murdered, but left a clue as to the identity of his killer in a Gideon Bible, the MacGuffin of the piece, which Raft spends most of the film trying to locate. There's a fine cast for a low budget crime picture, which includes the under appreciated Virginia Mayo, along with Gene Lockhart, Raymond Burr, William Frawley, and Henry Morgan (who nearly steals the picture with his villainous phychotic supporting role). Del Ruth directs this film noir with a fair amount of visual style, which was the main reason for holding my interest. Dimitri Tiomkin provided the score. Overall, the film isn't all that original, but it has a strong cast and solid direction, which makes it a must see for fans of film noir. FUN FACT! I recently learned that star Raft was a functional illiterate who had to have his scripts read to him by others.