Breakdown | |
---|---|
Directed by | Edmond Angelo |
Written by | Robert Abel |
Based on | the play The Samson Slasher by Robert Abel |
Produced by | Edmond Angelo |
Starring | Ann Richards William Bishop Anne Gwynne |
Cinematography | Paul Ivano |
Edited by | Robert M. Leeds |
Music by | Paul Dunlap |
Production company | Pegasus Productions |
Distributed by | Realart Pictures Inc. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 76 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Breakdown is a 1952 American crime film noir directed by Edmond Angelo starring Ann Richards, William Bishop and Anne Gwynne. It was the last film of Richards before she retired. [1]
The film was also known as Decision.
Framed for murder, heavyweight boxer Terry Williams (Bishop) is sent to prison, but is released after a few years on good behavior. He becomes a championship contender and then, on the eve of the big fight, finds the man who can prove that he was framed for the crime for which he served time.
Pegasus Productions was a company headed by Max Gifford which announced they were going to make three films. One of these was The Slasher based on a play by Robert Abel. Abel had been a prize fighter for four years. [2] He had written a play The Big Shot which was produced on stage in Los Angeles in January 1951, directed by Edmund Angelo. [3] [4]
Abel then wrote The Slasher and Angelo signed to direct. His wife Ann Richards played the female lead. [5] It was Richards' first film in three years. [6] She had retired to have children but came out of retirement to help her husband. [7] The film was then known as Decisions. [8]
Filming started 1 December 1951 at Republic Studios. Shooting went for eleven days. [9]
Pegagus' second production was to be You're Not So Dangerous and was to star Richards as a social worker confused for a gangster's moll. [10] However it appears to have not been made.
Variety called Breakdown a "so-so secondary action-meller of only spotty entertainment values." [11]
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in Quick Millions (1931) with Spencer Tracy, Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, Invisible Stripes (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, and Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon; and as a dancer in Bolero (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Bogart.
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Seton Ingersoll Miller was an American screenwriter and producer. During his career, he worked with film directors such as Howard Hawks and Michael Curtiz. Miller received two Oscar nominations and won once for Best Screenplay for the 1941 fantasy romantic comedy film, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, along with Sidney Buchman.
Alan Marshal was an Australian-born actor who performed on stage in the United States and in Hollywood films. He was sometimes billed as Alan Marshall or Alan Willey.
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Little Big Horn is a 1951 American Western film written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren starring Lloyd Bridges, John Ireland and Marie Windsor.
Comet over Broadway is a 1938 American drama film starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter and Donald Crisp. It was produced and released by Warner Brothers. John Farrow stepped in as director when Busby Berkeley became ill, but Farrow was uncredited on the film.
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