You would think that a movie like Alias Nick Beal would come along much later in the film noir cycle, after other ideas had been exhausted, but it premiered today in 1949, before many of the best noirs had been made. If we determine that it’s indeed a film noir—we think it qualifies—then it might be called a noir that jumped the shark. In a genre thematically defined by the fact that the choices protagonists make go wrong, the premise here is diabolical: an honest district attorney played by Joseph Foster comments casually that he would give his soul to nail an elusive waterfront criminal, and faster than you can say fire and brimstone, a mysterious figure played by Ray Milland summons Foster to a shadowy bar and leads him to the evidence needed for an indictment and conviction.
It’s the first of many unbidden Milland appearances, as he keeps popping up accompanied by musical stings, and we audience members are: “He’s the Devil, you fool!” The Devil wants something related to the prosecutorial fame now propelling Foster toward the governor’s mansion. Slashed programs for children? Loosened regulations? Undeserved agency appointments? The Devil angle is revealed in the first ten minutes, so we’ve not spoiled anything—plenty of plot follows thanks to the source story by Mindret Lord and screenplay by Jonathan Latimer. Were they writing an allegory about lobbying? They might as well have been. Alias Nick Beal, starring Foster, Milland, and the priceless Audrey Totter, is a weird must-watch—part mystery, part horror, part film noir. Did it jump the noir shark? Yes, in a good way.
