FRAMED - 1947

I have had this one laying around for several years gathering dust so i decided it was time for a viewing. What a great little film noir it turned out to be!

Glenn Ford, Barry Sullivan and Janis Carter headline this classic femme fatale ditty. Ford is a man who gets set up to take the fall for a bank robbery. The bank manager and his girl, played by Sullivan and Carter, plan to help themselves to $250 grand of the bank's cash. They plan to liquor Ford up, plant Sullivan's id on him and stick him behind the wheel of Sullivan's car. Then off a cliff and let the fire take care of the rest.

Sullivan however has underestimated just how much Carter wants the cash. She applies a monkey wrench to the back of Sullivan's head instead of Ford. She then lets Sullivan take the spin off the cliff. Carter then sets Ford up as Sullivan's killer.

Needless to say Carter's perfect plan is anything but. Carter comes across as a Joan Crawford clone in this one. A cold and calculating femme fatale if ever there was one. A brisk and to the point noir with cast and crew all shining. Great time-waster. (b/w)

Ford was a natural for film noir, and "Framed" illustrates this. He is a more vulnerable character than we're used to seeing him play in his other films, and he seems to be easily duped by a beautiful blonde(Janis Carter).

Carter puts in a solid performance and should have been in more films of this type. She is perfect as the scheming and seductive Paula.

Barry Sullivan is a bad guy here, the co-schemer with Paula. While the plot is somewhat predictable, it does include enough surprises to make it a good film noir.

It puzzles me that Framed has apparently not been released on any format in video in either Region 1 or Region 2.

Perhaps Sony will produce a Volume 4 of Columbia film noir and include Framed.

The moment JANIS CARTER pays GLENN FORD's fine for driving recklessly you know the two are going to meet their fate together in FRAMED. At this point in his career, Ford seemed to be specializing in playing men hooked by a dame at first glance and willing to suffer the consequences.

FRAMED is a neat little crime melodrama from Columbia in which the title almost gives away the plot. Carter and BARRY SULLIVAN devise a crooked scheme to get their hands on a quarter of a million dollars, involving GLENN FORD and a bank robbery.

JANIS CARTER resembles a blonde version of Ann Sheridan as she plays a cunning femme fatale with silky ease planning to make mining engineer Ford take the fall for an embezzlement.

Like all good noirs, there's a final plot twist that comes as a surprise and confirms suspicion that Carter was even more of a schemer than she let on.

Well worth seeing--maintains taut suspense all the way. And, of course, Ford's moral fiber wins out over Carter's amoral seduction.