Jigsaw (1949)

the audience applauded

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This is above all a fascinating intrigue. None of the actors are anything special, they are all good enough but not more, while the intrigue is more like a labyrinth of webs than a jigsaw puzzle. The film opens with an unknown man getting murdered for unknown reasons by an unknown man, and the poor widow of foreign origin is terrified to death to state anything else than that he committed suicide. That's just the first of a number of murders and attempts, and more and more people are getting involved all the time.Most of the action takes place at night in darkness, there is of course an exotic night club ("The Blue Angel" - what else?) with a dangerous blonde sounding the alarm at long distance for obviously being one of the spiders in the web knowing too much and too many people in too high positions, but she is not the only dangerous lady.The political undercurrent is rather remindful of "Keeper of the Flame" six years earlier about American underworld fascism, but this is after the war, and although there are hints at racism and nazism, the secret society here has no colour and is the more menacing for being open with many leads in society.The story is complicated but makes sense all the way, the logic is infallible, and there are many instances where you almost feel a Hitchcock behind the camera. It's only 72 minutes, so it's rather condensed and therefore thick and certainly hard for some to follow, wherefore it would be worth while seeing it again, especially for the Hitchcock references.

Franchot Tone stars with then-wife Jean Wallace in "Jigsaw" from 1949. It's a B movie with lots of cameos from stars, I guess who were friends of the director, Fletcher Markle, or friends with someone: John Garfield, Henry Fonda, Marlene Dietrich, Marsha Hunt, Burgess Meredith, Everett Sloan, and Brenda Frazier, in roles like a bartender, a waiter, a nightclub singer, etc.This is a real mess of a movie despite the cast. The DA (Walter Vaughn) thinks the death of a print shop owner was suicide, but the ADA (Tone) believes it was murder, connected to an extremist group, "The Crusaders." I think they were supposed to be Communists.Then a journalist who has attacked the group is killed, and Malloy becomes certain The Crusaders are behind it. Investigating, he meets a strange political boss and an attractive singer (Wallace). Either they can help him or are part of a cover up.I really couldn't figure out if this group was really subversive or just a money-making scam; the script kind of waffled between the two. The only reason to see this is for the cameos and the cast, although in my opinion, Jean Wallace couldn't act her way out of a phone booth.At the time of this film she was recently divorced from Tone and would later marry Cornell Wilde. Tone would go on to become involved with starlet Barbara Payton, whose boyfriend Tom Neal would put him in the hospital. In a way, these people's real-life stories are more interesting than this movie.

Well I have to say, this was the most interesting mystery flick that made no sense whatsoever that I've ever seen. I actually got more out of viewer posts on this board than the movie itself. That happens every now and then, perhaps one in every three hundred or so films. I'd be willing to give this another go, but it came in a mystery film boxed set of two hundred fifty pictures, and I'm going to get to all the rest of those first.It's uncanny - the picture holds your attention the whole time, and I had to figure something was going to come out of this to tie the whole thing together. Very mysterious, very sleek, thirty five dollars to bail out the cat - that's it! I'm not going to get pretentious and say I spotted all the future stars in their cameos, just Burgess Meredith as the bartender, and he could have been Leonid Kinskey just as easily.Clever stuff here - The Crusaders, the Blue Angel, the Mohawk Political Club, and Molloy (Franchot Tone) named the special something or other. What were the papers hidden in the museum art? I don't know. Neither will you. Maybe next time.

A different and at times dark and disturbing noir/crime/political drama starring Franchot Tone. Tone plays Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy who is investigating a couple of strange murders, including that of his friend and newspaper columnist Charles Riggs, that seem to have ties to an underground hate group called The Crusaders. Though it is not ever mentioned by name, the film seems to point towards the emerging dangers of communism. The film is well acted by Tone and his supporting cast including Jean Wallace, Marc Lawrence, Myron McCormick, Winifred Lenihan and Betty Harper. Though only competently directed by Fletcher Markle, there are some interesting camera angles and the finale in a dark, shadowy museum is the real highlight of the film. The movie appears to be filmed on location in New York City and the keen eye will spot quick walk-on and cameo appearances from stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Henry Fonda and Burgess Meredith. A unique, dark, if at times slow film that makes for a real interesting watch.