Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

gordonl56 THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE 1947I was not sure how this one would work for me. It has a reputation as a hard case example of film noir. I had also read that some found it somewhat over-rated. So I took the plunge and what I found, was a surprisingly effective lower budget winner.Laurence Tierney headlines as a killer on the loose. This one starts off in San Diego, where Tierney has just robbed a man making a drop off at a bank night deposit chute. Tierney was not above shooting the man when he was less than forthcoming with the cash.He soon hitches a ride going to L.A. from a salesman heading home after an office party. The man, Ted North has had a few too many and could use the company. They stop at a gas station to fuel up. North wants to call his wife, Marian Carr. Tierney now offers a ride to two dames, Nan Leslie and Betty Crawford.The viewer knows that this arrangement is going nowhere good, and right they are. The man Tierney robbed and shot, has died and an all points is sent out. The gas jockey at the filling station, Glen Vernon, hears a report over the radio and calls the Police. He soon identifies Tierney.Now the chase is on with a wild car chase and a motorcycle cop gets a rather close view of a rear car bumper. Tierney, North and the two girls end up hiding out at a small seaside cottage of a friend of North.The minor plot holes here are nicely covered up by the rapid pacing delivered from writer, director Felix Feist. Tierney is a hoot to watch as he goes from one level of nastiness to the next. Ted North is slightly out of place, but Betty Crawford and Nan Leslie are both excellent.All in all, a 62 minute thrill ride that does not fail to entertain.

chaos-rampant I just want to quote the tagline for the film here, someone's deliciously demented hokum: "NOT EVEN HER KISSES COULD HALT HIS FURY...when his evil brain cried "KILL!"So there you have it, Detour's sibling film in the hitchhike b-noir subgenre is every bit as feverish. Once more a plucky all-American guy picks up disastrous company from out of the Californian night. Once more hidden urges threaten to pull apart the soul.Like that film, on the surface we have blackmail, deceit and all the other ordinary tropes of the potboiler, but it's the deeper noir engine that makes all the difference; our guy was on his way to a dream late at night, a dreamy wife waiting for him in Los Angeles (she's a dainty being and her room seems to be shot through with lace and frills), an anniversary that morning, but the gods of the crossroads have other plans in store, sardonic plans, mischievous.So he has no sooner finished talking on a gas-station phone with the wife, reassuring, sweet-talking, he's going to be there in a couple of hours tops, than two broads are in the backseat of his car. With booze spilled all over him and that stupid grin on his face, he'd have trouble convincing anyone he's not on his way back from partying in Vegas with a bunch of girls, the stuff about co-workers and a birthday party only the lame excuse.The sense of anxious nightmare becomes more evident when they hole up for the night in a friend's empty lakehouse. His panic to do the right thing and be back home in time for the wife not to be upset, in retrospect testimony makes him out to be the only one suspect. Turns out that every move he made incriminates him, every desperate phonecall in the middle of the night, the smell of booze all over him.The final beat is all about the horrifying dissolution of identity and self, so characteristic of noir.Meanwhile, cops are solving the case from the side of poker tables. It's all about fates dealing the cards cops assume, but the young gas-station attendant demonstrates there's clear math to it.The math is that there is no fate, the dreamer is always what is being dreamed. There is no difference between who you are and the narratives you surround yourself with. You will need no better clue than a miraculous last-minute apparition by the wife in that lakehouse that extricates him from nightmare. Whatever it is he was up to in Vegas, the film as a whole is one hell of a guilt trip.

Adam (VonCouch) In 2002, Reservoir Dogs came out with their 10th Anniversary Edition DVD. Included in the set was a tribute to the actor who played Joe Cabot: Lawrence Tierney. The cast had mixed feelings towards Tierney but all agreed on one thing: he was amazing in The Devil Thumbs A Ride. I had never heard of this film, but immediately went on a hunt for it. I checked every tape trader online and couldn't find the sucker. For a year and a half it became my Unicorn (something you want but always seem to just miss). So when through dumb luck I found that TCM was showing it one Friday night I canceled my plans and set my VCR.The film is about bank robber Steve Morgan. After pulling a late night robbery, he takes a ride with slightly tipsy salesman Jimmy Ferguson driving back home to California. On the way they pick up two ladies who are also on their way to Cali. Through several seemingly logical mishaps, Morgan convinces Fergie to evade police, back up over an officer and hide out at a friend's house until morning. The way Morgan manipulates the passengers is really quite something, and there are moments of true suspense in the friend's house. Some of the acting from the lesser characters can be a little corny, but Tierney is more than enough reason to watch. And the climax is especially good.This is a film that I highly recommend. That is, if you can find it. Good luck and happy hunting.

secragt Lawrence Tierney singlehandedly lifts this poverty row cheapie from lowbrow crime melodrama anonymity to the upper pantheon of low budget noir exploitation immortality. Bears some resemblance to other low budget limited set piece claustrophobic pics like THE DESPERATE HOURS or PETRIFIED FOREST, but don't dwell on that. There are a lot of strangled laughs given the tense set-up, but don't dwell on that, either. Ignore the implausibilities and wildly uneven acting and revel instead in young Tierney's charismatic menace and casual sadism. He so dominates the proceedings that any analysis of plot points (fairly lacking) or cinematography (surprisingly good) or direction (not so hot) really pales in comparison. One of those rare films that has such bad performances that it is an instant classic yet also featuring such a standout performance from Tierney that it is also an instant classic. Trust me on this one, brother... don't miss this obscure but vital piece of 50s Americrimedramacana. You will be amused and amazed, horrified and entertained, but most of all... you will not soon forget the experience.