In the 1930's James Cagney programmer PICTURE SNATCHER, he plays a photographer who will stop at nothing (even taking contrived shortcuts) to get a sensational photo... meanwhile romancing the newspaper boss's secretary and dealing with the mob.... who he used to work for but in the case of a more upfront and seemingly sophisticated Howard Duff in SHAKEDOWN, it's a blackmail photo of deadly criminal Lawrence Tierney that lands him in hot water...
Although he did get that gorgeous secretary Peggy Dow with no effort, who basically got him the job through Bruce Bennett, running the paper and not trusting Duff's Jack Early no matter how exciting the photos are... from a man almost drowning in a car to Brian Donlevy's ex-mobster getting blown up in one...
The noir ambiguity is really a cautionary tale on being too sneaky and suspiciously selfish to get ahead, and Duff's character is as stupid and reckless as he's assertive and intrepid, eventually and inevitably falling for Donlevy's French wife, the otherwise comparably bad dame... although she does nothing fatale-like except turning down his constant offers despite him having the far prettier Peggy Dow already in the bag...
This intrusive romantic triangle gets in the way of the first act's exciting action, and at the same time puts the vicious Tierney on the peripheral sidelines: a shame because Duff seemed beyond prime for risk-taking before morphing into yet another smitten noirish sap to a (in this case widowed) woman not worth his time, or the audience's.
Although he did get that gorgeous secretary Peggy Dow with no effort, who basically got him the job through Bruce Bennett, running the paper and not trusting Duff's Jack Early no matter how exciting the photos are... from a man almost drowning in a car to Brian Donlevy's ex-mobster getting blown up in one...
The noir ambiguity is really a cautionary tale on being too sneaky and suspiciously selfish to get ahead, and Duff's character is as stupid and reckless as he's assertive and intrepid, eventually and inevitably falling for Donlevy's French wife, the otherwise comparably bad dame... although she does nothing fatale-like except turning down his constant offers despite him having the far prettier Peggy Dow already in the bag...
This intrusive romantic triangle gets in the way of the first act's exciting action, and at the same time puts the vicious Tierney on the peripheral sidelines: a shame because Duff seemed beyond prime for risk-taking before morphing into yet another smitten noirish sap to a (in this case widowed) woman not worth his time, or the audience's.