Chicago Calling (1951) Reviews

• Brilliant Non-Noir Featuring Excellent Duryea Performance

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  Dan Duryea needs $52.00 to get his phone turned back on, to hear about his daughter, injured in an accident. When it is CHICAGO, CALLING on his phone, will Dan hear what happened to his wife and child, or is Duryea just as doomed to misery as any other noir protagonist. It seems like every b&w movie made circa 1950 that doesn't have Abbott and Costello or Martin & Lewis gets labeled a noir by somebody. In this case -- the label is simply wrong, as there is no real crime, or fatalistic resignation to fate. Instead, this is a character study in which Duryea has what, one hopes, is the worst week of his life. Fate and surprises do play a role, but chance in this one flings both good and bad surprises, and provide hope and despair. There are some really lousy people, but good ones too. Duryea, himself, plays a well-rounded character, who really is the author of his current despair, but also the author of the circumstances that might just bring about his own redemption. And Duryea, given a truly good role, responds with the sort of subtle, well-rounded performance that is supposed to earn an actor an Oscar. No such luck, alas -- the independent film that played the art houses had not been invented yet, and this out of step cheaply made story of the downwardly mobile was not the sort that got bookings -- even as the second part of a double feature. This film is sort of semi-rediscovered. Film blogs have noticed it. IMDb rates it highly. There is a DVD, I believe. But I wonder if it will ever get the respect it deserves. The director made a few cheap noirs for Monogram, and not much else. Duryea is respected as an actor, but beloved for his villainy in westerns and noirs, rather than his occasional star turns, in which his flawed heroes suffer for their flaws. This is a brilliant film. But it does not fit a category, and its world view is perhaps not as bleak as intellectual fashion would prefer. So, find this movie and see it. And spread the word. While the cinematic and critical sins of 1951 cannot be fixed, our view of the past and what it has to offer us can always evolve.

• Don't hang up on Duryea

  clore_22012-05-12

  This was a nice little film. Duryea played the average man here, a bit down on his luck as we first see him, a point emphasized by the stairway that we see him descending en route home. His wife is about to leave him since he's chronically unemployed, and says she's going to take their daughter with her. This happens the next day and then he later gets a telegram stating that his daughter was injured in a car accident and is about to undergo surgery. He'll supposedly get the details the next day via a phone call. But that's just it - his day started out bad, and only got worse as the phone company terminated his service and if that isn't bad enough, his dog is also injured in an accident while he's out trying to scrounge up money to pay the bill so he can get the call the next day. It reminded me of Loretta Young's "Cause For Alarm" in which we follow the protagonist through an agonizing day, in her case she was trying to retrieve an incriminating letter. It may have been sunny in each film, but the characters are having one very dark day. "Chicago Calling" may be the title, but what we get is the lower environs of Los Angeles in all of its seediness. But still some helpful characters emerge, such as a counter-woman who must have seen The Grapes of Wrath and has a soft spot for Duryea's woe, and a young boy, the one whose bicycle hits Duryea's dog. The boy's "help" only compounds Duryea's problems, but he meant well. A very nice job on a low budget, the director John Reinhardt died the next year, but based on this and "Open Secret" - another budget job that had antisemitism in its sights, he had a lot of promise that might have been fulfilled had he gotten the breaks.

• Duryea's Finest Hour - Not to be missed

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  This obscure super-low budget sleeper starts like a million b-movies with a small setback and a minor overreaction. However, as noir emeritus Dan Duryea slowly navigates the ensuing fall of dominoes and swirls and eddies of fate and temptation, CHICAGO CALLING gradually, inexorably pulls itself up by its boot gathers to become nothing less than one of the most touching takes on morality and desperation I've ever seen. It's going to be hard to find (not on DVD and rarely on TCM) but this startling, heartbreaking character study is a must see for any noirist. It's that good. A lot of the credit must go to Dan Duryea. He so convincingly played such a long line of abusive creep boyfriends and irredeemably scummy thugs, one would have been tempted to take a swing at him on the street. In this case, however, Duryea is cast as the protagonist and it is a revelation. Given the chance to emote, Duryea reveals heretofore hidden depth of emotion and angst as he struggles to find his integrity and hope as the world falls down all around him. His performance is subtle and carefully modulated so that we are forced to wait a long time for the powerful payoff, which is his ultimate emotional reveal and Duryea's best moment in forty five years on film. The young boy also deserves a lot of credit... his unlikely friendship with Duryea is believable and powerful precisely because the boy's reactions make it so. There is almost a BICYCLE THIEF quality to their relationship, and Duryea's transformation is beautifully motivated (and tested) by the boy. I defy you not to tear up at the boy's train yard scene at the end. The Bunker Hill location photography by De Grasse is striking and evocative. The score is effective. Look for this one, fans. Duryea's touching performance is one for the ages and the movie will handsomely reward your effort to find it.

• Depressing

  bux2001-12-02

  You might want to have a handful of mood elevators handy when you watch this one. Duryea is out of work, and his wife takes the kid and leaves him. They are involved in an auto accident, out of town, and Duryea must wait until they are out of surgery to receive a phone call informing him as to whether they will live or die. Because his phone bill is un-paid, his phone is disconnected, and he tries in vain to earn, borrow, and even contemplates stealing the money. To make matters worse, his little pooch is run down in traffic. When the Phone Company Rep comes to pick up the instrument (this was made long before we all owned our own phones!) Duryea cons the guy into hooking him up long enough to take the long distance call from Chicago concerning the condition of his wife and kid. This is where you will really need the Prozac! Although this is downbeat throughout, Duryea gives an acting "tour-de-force" and if they ever show it again, it is well worth watching, but you've been warned!

• A movie I never forgot.

  Pepito-52003-01-23

  This is a movie I never forgot, nor the actor Dan Duryea. Every time I see Dan Duryea in a movie, I always remember the movie "Chicago Calling". If I remember correctly, I first saw the movie in the late 50's; and being ten or eleven years old, was very sad to see a father trying so hard to get his phone back on so as to be able to get word from his wife, that she and their son were going to be okay after a car accident. The accident with the little dog made it even sadder. It's nice to know, though, that there are good people working for the telephone company, as was the character that played the part of the telephone man sent to disconnect the phone, but is nice enough to make sure a man waiting for a call from a loved one that was involved in an accident, is given an an opportunity to connect and not be disconnected, like what happens to many of us when we are late in paying our telephone bill. Gee, I really would like to see this movie again.