Detective Story (1951)

Paramount Pictures
Director: William Wyler
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix

Not all heroes need to be sympathetic to make a film good. This style of storytelling Hollywood was slow to be accepted in production motion pictures production through the first half of the 20^th century, due in most part to the self-enforced Production Code. William Wyler’s 1951 film noir Detective Story helped push the boundaries of story as its hero goes beyond ethics and proves to lead to his own undoing. Starring Kirk Douglas in one of his finest performances as a troubled New York detective along with an exceptional ensemble cast tells a compelling tale is a setting tightly confined by space and time.

 

Detective Story is a film noir police drama about a detective’s obsession towards cracking a case uncovering unexpected personal issues. New Yok’s 21^st Precinct gets very busy in the late afternoon/early evening as a cast of criminals and detectives process recent activity. That sets the background as we follow Detective Jim McLeod (Kirk Douglas), who on his way to spend time with his wife, Mary (Eleanor Parker), is compelled to remain. Alleged “baby farmer” and murder Dr. Schneider (George Macready) is brought in for questioning, a crime Jim has been obsessed with and is determined to bring to justice. Known for his vengeful passion, Jim is bothered when Schneider claims to have damning personal knowledge towards the detective, leading to Jim physically abusing the alleged criminal. Further digging into Schneider’s claim unravels truths of Mary’s prior history where she had visited Schneider due to a pregnancy before meeting Jim. Fixated on Mary having been with other men and using Schneider enrages Jim, upsetting Mary to the point of waking out on him. Distracted, Jim is shot by a criminal in the station, leaving him begging for forgiveness as he dies.

 

A picture with many storylines interwoven as a background to the main course Kirk Douglas led plot makes for a very compelling film. As a short-fused detective filled with a dangerous, vengeful rage Douglas is engrossing as a flawed leading man. With a construct that is obviously inspired by a play with its limited sets, Detective Story comes as a character study of various people good and bad, exhausted a desperate, helpless and sympathetic all trapped in troubles situations they created and how they deal with it in the short time we spend with them. With the creative hands of William Wyler and a wonderful cast that come together every little thing that happens gripping, making this film is a delight with its antihero story.

 

Purchased for the remarkably high price of $285,000 plus a percentage of the profits, the Sidney Kingsley play was given faith of being a breakout picture for Paramount adapted into a film noir production. Alan Ladd would originally be attached to star in the role of Jim McLeod until changes allowed Kirk Douglas to slide into the headlining position while many pieces from the Broadway production made their way west to be featured among the ensemble cast. Among the performers reprising their stage roles were intriguing actors such as Lee Grant, Joseph Wiseman, Michael Strong, and Horace McMahon, while Paramount’s Eleanor Parker and William Bendix, and other common Hollywood players filled out the remainder of the cast.

 

Being adapted for the screen allowed the script to take moments to expand beyond the walls of the 21^st Precinct, but as most of the genius of the story is about the cast of characters and their close proximity to each other most of the picture remains within the confines of the main floor precinct offices. This execution allows for brilliant acting as details of actors fill the story with words and body language within the confines of the crowded space. All this serves to add in the intrigue to how each character acts and reacts to the stories that surround them as they find their way through the day, all well directed by Wyler with a smooth movement.

 

Kirk Douglas is at the top of his game in the role of the troubled detective. A hard-nosed figure with a desire to be with his loving wife pushed aside by passion towards his duty allows for his ruination. The role of Jim McLeod is truly one of his finest performances that goes under the radar of his greater body of work. Eleanor Parker’s performance is much more understated and limited as a meek wife with a troubling secret that once revealed liberates her. With just over 20 minutes of screen time for Parker, it marks as the shortest time for a leading actress to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards.

 

William Bendix, Horace McMahon, and Frank Faylen flesh out the majority of the supporting police surrounding McLeod while the most intriguing characters lies within those alleged criminals being processed. The humble performance of Lee Grant as a first-time shoplifter, the lowest crime we see in the story, spends most of her time in sorrow, analyzing and reacting to the action surrounding her. She would find herself nominated for her supporting work in this, her very first motion picture role. Supporting secondary stories are provided by a pair of burglars, one most notably played frighteningly by Joseph Wiseman in a chilling performance. This is capped off by the story of two young people caught between love and foolish act of desperation portrayed by Craig Hill and Cathy O’Donnell.

 

Paramount did have its share of trouble adapting the play to the silver screen, needing to make alterations to avoid trouble with censors concerning some of its subject matter. In the play Schneider is an abortionist, an idea that was clearly not going to be dealt with in a Hollywood picture, so Paramount changed his illegal activity to a “baby farmer,” although audiences and critics would openly understand he worked in abortions. The unwritten code of Hollywood also had it so cops were never to be killed in movies, but Paramount talked their way through censors as McLeod was not saint of a character, and his wrong doing comes to being punished in the end. All this justified the allowance of McLeod dying on screen and opened the door for further challenges in the near future towards creating more antiheros in Hollywood pictures.

 

In the end the lesson lies within not being caught up in desperate matters when what you really need is found right in front of you. Jim McLeod was a sympathetic character with many flaws, a role Kirk Douglas performed marvelously. This constrained story has its moments of high energy and suspense while having rather little action, allowing us to dive into the characters in this little slice of New York.

 

Critical approval lent to meager box office numbers, but in the greater long run the film was not well remembered. In studying the piece, it is a pleasing work of director and co-writer William Wyler with success of a colorful ensemble cast making this black and white film noir into a colorful character piece feature, unsuspecting at first, but marvelous underneath. With deep focus and use of every corner of the limited set, this film is a quite treasure of a feature and a delightful watch.