I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948)

Original film poster ; To the right: a great 1983 Swedish edition collection of Woolrich stories
including I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (Lippincott collection 1943)
written under pseudonym William Irish


Another old Film Noir i've watched on Youtube and i've no idea if this very obscure B movie based on a story by the Master of
Pulp Fiction - Cornell Woolrich (Georges hopley - William Irish) emanates from a DVD or not. I've watched a lot of old Noirs on
Youtube streaming lately and i suppose most of them belongs in the Public Domain. A whole lot of them can't be found on any
DVD or Blu-ray and, yes, it's a true goldmine for a Film Noir lover cineaste to finally being able to see these goodies.

This film, a true low-budgeted B movie from a Powerty Row film studio, with second rate actors and so Obscure that it was thought
lost .... and based on the writings of The Master, The Edgar Allan Poe of the 20th Century, that IS my thing, Oh happiness!
A Woolrich-trademark dark tale where the malevolent forces of Fate schemes against a poor and loveable couple. The Credo of
Cornell Woolrich could well be the same as Tom Neal's role figure's in Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 masterpiece Detour:

"No matter what you do, no matter what where you turn, fate sticks out its foot to trip you"

That's the spirit Woolrich, and perfectly suited to be the base of the dark magnificent novels, stories and scripts that was Noir.
No surprise then that Woolrich may be the most filmatized writer of crime fiction ever.
Some other Woolrich novels and films:

He's famous for the regular occurence of plot-holes and for re-using his plots, the male- or female revenger, the race-against the
clock thing when a man is on death row and someone's sleuthing for facts supporting his alibi e.g.
But, for any fan of Woolrich that's NOT what's important as the essential thing is his language, the beautiful dark and romantic,
the melodramatic one. This film is great and maybe B- and Powerty Row- studios dared more, to keep the unique Woolrich-ean
overstrung aspects of his writings, and i love Woolrich filmatizations as this film, I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes or as Fear in the
Night and The Chase.

This film has the Man-on-Death Row-waiting-for-his-execution plot, as in Phantom Lady, but in this case it's the wife (also so in
Black Angel) and not the secretary (Ella Rains in Phantom Lady) that has to find the necessary evidence.
The original story was published in the pulp magazine Detective Fiction Weekly in 1938 and then again in 1943 in the story
collection "I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes" (by Lippincott). In Sweden it was published by Askild & Kärnekull in 1983 (pic above).

I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes:

The film starts on Death Row where condemned prisoner no. 5 Tom Quinn (Don Castle) starts telling his story for the other prisoners
in a Flashback, what else in a Film Noir? The married couple, the Quinn's, Tom and Ann (Elyse Knox) live in a scrubby New York
apartment. They are very poor and Ann works as a "Dance Girl" at a nightclub, something that worries the out-of-work dancer
Tom as he's frightened about all the men she dances with for money and hopingly "Only" dances with and nothing more.
Besides this matrimonial stress between them, they can't get no sleep either due to the katzenjammer the darned neighbourhood cats
make in the hot NY summer heat ....

the US collection of stories written under the pseudonym William Irish

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The Following passage from the story in Swedish below:

"Den klagande sorgesången började alltid dovt och molande, som när en tekokare sjuder upp eller en kille gurglar sig eller en
bilmotor spinner tomgång. Sedan vidtog det höga registret. Högre än det gällaste skrik.Vassare än en spik som repar mot en glas-
ruta. Mer skärande än en människas nerver kan stå ut med. Miiiiiiaaaauuuuu. Så ringlade den ihop sig i en ormväsning och explo-
derade i en spottande, fräsande final. Schttttt! Och så började den om igen." (ur Jag skulle inte vilja vara i dina skor i översättning
av Ingvar Skogsberg, Askild & Kärnekull 1983.


Tom Quinn exploderar till slut och vräker ut första bästa pryl han får tag i genom fönstret mot kattorna på bakgården. Det visar
sig vara hans skor, och hans enda par dessutom och hans dansskor därtill. Ann tvingar honom ut i natten för att leta efter dem
men han återvänder tomhänt. Men dagen efter så står skorna putsade och fina utanför dörren och paret rycker på axlarna åt det,
jaha ... och "turen" fortsätter då Tom hittar en plånbok med en massa sedlar, wow, äntligen kan Ann få shoppa lite.
Det är bara det att en rik åldring i kvarteret blivit rånmördad under natten och att polisen hittat ett perfekt skoavtryck som ställer
till det, och snart sitter Tom och deppar i dödscellen utan att förstå varför ödets slägga klubbat honom.

Är det Tom som är mördaren, eller kan det finnas ngn annan som vill ha honom ur vägen ? I novellen hålls detta öppet och varken
läsaren eller Ann Quinn blir klara över den saken vilket i novellen leder fram till det okonventionella men enligt novellens grundidé
logiska slutet. Men i filmen har man alltså ändrat om till en enklare mer vanlig filmintrig, som funkar helt OK den med.

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I had never heard about the actors in this film (with the exception of Regis Tomey whom i have seen in many small part roles) and
maybe they aren't that great, but they're OK in this B noir as both Castle and Knox are likeable, and the mutual attraction between
them feels real. Definitely not a classic in any way but still reccomended for lovers of oddball Film Noir.
This filmatization was so obscure i hadn't even seen it in any of my reference books about Cornell Woolrich

 

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