Loophole (1954) User Reviews (12)

Les Miserables updated to sunny post-war California

[bmacv · 7/10 · 5 January 2005]

As Jean Valjean had his implacable persecutor in Inspector Javert, so Barry Sullivan finds his in Charles McGraw. The setting, however, is not Europe's great capital Paris but Los Angeles, that post-war cynosure of middle-class dreams where orange groves and jobs in the aerospace industry beckon.

Working contentedly at his wicket in a staid savings-and-loan office, Sullivan has the misfortune to be on duty during a robbery. It's not hoodlums in masks waving guns, but a visit by a bevy of bank examiners come to check that everything's on the up-and-up. Trouble is, there's one more of them than there ought rightly to be, and while a platinumed moll (Mary Beth Hughes) diverts Sullivan, the phony inspector (Don Beddoes) coolly lifts $49,900 from the till. Counting his cash over and over, Sullivan can't believe that he's so much short. So instead of reporting the shortfall, he goes home.

Home is the cozy little bungalow he shares with wife Dorothy Malone, who can't believe that her straight-arrow of a husband didn't report it, either. Promptly on Monday morning he does so, and all seems to looking good until the bank's bonding company is informed. Though most of the staff come to think Sullivan's telling the truth, one of them, McGraw (an ex-cop who "resigned" from the force) issues a no-appeal "guilty" verdict and makes it his private and personal mission to hound Sullivan 'till he fesses up. Fired from job after menial job thanks to McGraw's vendetta, forced to sell the bungalow and relocate to a cramped apartment, Sullivan finally realizes it's up to him to clear his own name....

Loophole's an unusual movie in that its all but exclusive focus is on the unjust persecution of a plainly innocent man (in this sense foreshadowing Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man by a couple of years). It's tense and economical, if Beddoes and Sullivan do pass one another like ships in the night rather too often, in scenes closer in spirit to farce than suspense (and if the action-packed ending leaves a loose end or two). But the dark star of Loophole is McGraw, gleefully playing as despicable a character as he ever played in the noir cycle - and that's saying something.

Javerts have their uses when they're right

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 10 April 2015]

If Loophole had starred a well known actor like Robert Mitchum this film would be better known. But Barry Sullivan good actor that he was never made it to the top tier. As it is it does have Dorothy Malone as Sullivan's loyal supportive wife, but this was two years away from Malone's Oscar performance in Written On The Wind which vaulted her career into the big time.

In fact had Malone already made Written On The Wind she would have gotten the part that Mary Beth Hughes had as the hard hearted dame who drives Don Beddoe into a life of crime.

I have to say that Beddoe and Hughes had one brilliant scheme for embezzlement. They take $50,000.00 from the bank where Sullivan works as a teller and suspicion falls on him. The whole movie is Sullivan trying to clear himself of suspicion.

He's in fact initially questioned by the police and FBI and let go for lack of evidence. But the insurance investigator Charles McGraw stays doggedly and Javert like on his trail. Sometimes Javerts have their uses, but only when they're right. McGraw is dead wrong and won't back off. He keeps hounding Sullivan hoping he'll lead him to the money that he doesn't have.

Beddoe is another interesting character. It's like they borrowed Alec Guinness's character from The Lavendar Hill Mob and used it here in a serious vein. He's this mild mannered teller who gets seduced by Mary Beth Hughes and then embezzles the money. Just a man thinking with his male member getting a taste of a sexy dame way out of his league.

It's Hughes however that really dominates this film. One of her best bad girl roles. But she's definitely one you might risk imprisonment for a little nookie.

Sullivan's a true tragic figure who fortunately had a couple of people believing in him. He's not arrested but he loses his teller job and then McGraw keeps on his trail getting him fired from every job he gets. I've known law enforcement people like that, won't explore other alternatives to a theory of a crime. I've known people who've suffered because of it.

Loophole is quite the sleeper noir film. Definitely do not miss this if it is broadcast.

Loophole (1954)

[MartinTeller · 7/10 · 3 January 2012]

A bank teller comes up $50,000 short and an investigator is determined to nail him for theft. The film is something of a mixed bag. The cinematography is pedestrian, the narration is hokey, and the ending is too neat to be satisfying. However, a story about someone being wrongfully accused always makes my blood boil in a way that holds my attention. Barry Sullivan is great as usual, but more interesting is Charles McGraw. McGraw usually plays a righteous character, but here he's such a relentless, contemptible bastard that you can't wait to see him get what's coming to him. The film could have paid off a little better in this respect, but it's an engaging performance. Dorothy Malone is unfortunately saddled with a dull good girl role that doesn't exploit her talents, but there is a small but delightful femme fatale part for Mary Beth Hughes. Ultimately the positives outweigh the negatives and it's a fun watch.

Barry Sullivan has a shortage in his cash drawer

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 24 October 2019]

Mike Donovan (Barry Sullivan) is a teller with a problem - a $49,900 shortage (the equivalent of $466,000 in today's money) in his cash for one day. Gus Slavin (Charles McGraw) from the bonding company is sent to investigate. Slavin is sure Mike stole the money, so he's arrested. The cops believe he had a female accomplice.

Everyone believes Mike except Slavin, so the bond company revokes his bond, and he is fired. Slavin also keeps him from keeping other jobs by telling the bosses they've hired a thief.

Slavin figures if he can keep Mike broke, he'll go for the money. Meanwhile Mike and his wife (Dorothy Malone) sell their house and move into a cheaper place.

Mike meanwhile gets a job as a cab driver, and the boss tells Slavin that until Mike is in prison, he's working there. It's in his cab that Mike hears a familiar voice and the wheels start turning. He and his wife devise a plan.

Charles McGraw is fantastic as a relentless investigator who doesn't have a nice bone in his body. He has the strongest role. The revelation is sweet '30s and '40s ingenue Mary Beth Hughes as a hardboiled blonde - she was terrific! Sullivan and Malone are sympathetic characters and play their parts well.

Great seeing all those old '50s cars.

He's banking on getting his name cleared.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 25 August 2015]

Barry Sullivan is the innocent dupe used by a fake bank auditor (Don Beddoe) in extorting a great deal of money from his till, and even though his boss believes he's innocent, the bank's insurance company isn't so sure. Charles McGraw is the ruthless detective following him all over L.A., even though one of McGraw's co-workers (Don Haggerty) is certain he's innocent. McGraw even goes out of his way to get Sullivan fired from every job he is hired for, that is until the cab company boss stands up for him and tells McGraw to get lost. What does McGraw have against him? He even tries to bribe Sullivan into confessing, but since the audience knows that he's innocent, they are on Sullivan's side.

Haggerty's days however are seriously numbered as his much younger floozy girlfriend (Mary Beth Hughes in a great femme fatal role) gets more agitated as Haggerty gets more nervous and guilt-ridden, especially when Sullivan spots him waiting on his own wife (Dorothy Malone) who has stood by Sullivan attesting to his innocence. The showdown is inevitable, and I for one couldn't wait to see Hughes get taken down and McGraw eat crow when he realizes that the man he's been stalking has been taken for a ride.

This fantastic later film noir released by Allied Artists (formerly Monogram who released some great film noir in the early days of the genre) grabs you from the start and never lets go. Film Noir is a genre where the fans are as passionate about individual titles as they are in arguing over which titles should be included in the list of noir as they are about those which shouldn't. That argument, however, isn't going to happen here. This has all the elements of what makes the picture perfect film noir: an innocent man trapped into a situation he can't get out of, a guilty party suffering from fear and his own sins, the good girl who stands by one of the innocent parties, and the vixen who uses sex to get what she wants. Hughes makes it clear to Haggerty that unless they have all the money he embezzled, she's through with him, and like Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity", it's straight down the line with her until the gun shot rings out. As for McGraw, wait and see how he eats the crow. It's ironic, almost disgusting, but funny because well, that's life.

Great Movie Powered By Charles McGraw

[boblipton · 7/10 · 14 March 2020]

Barry Sullivan is the chief teller at a bank branch. Checking his figures at the end of the day, he comes up $50,000 short. He rechecks, and goes home to wife Dorothy Malone and his dog, and tells her what happened. She knows he should have reported the shortage before he went home. He tells his boss the first thing Monday, and the bonding company is told. They send Charles McGraw to investigate, and plays tough, finally dragging Sullivan and Miss Malone to the police station. The cops believe Sullivan, who remembers that the auditors had come by in the morning, and had done something odd, asking to recheck the big bills. They send Sullivan home, and try to figure out who the auditor was. Not McGraw. He believes Sullivan did it, and starts hounding him. Sullivan loses his bond and goes through a series of small jobs, each of which McGraw gets him fired from. When Sullivan gets a job at Richard Reeves' can company, he tells McGraw that as long as Sullivan keeps his nose clean, he'll keep his job until he goes to jail.

McGraw is brilliant as the brutal investigator, convinced he is Inspector Javert and suggesting the cops third-degree Sullivan. Miss Malone is the dutiful wife, a couple of years before she would win an Oscar.Don Beddoe, one of those familiar faces from hundreds of movies, is fine as the actual thief, and peroxided Mary Beth Hughes is fine as the viperish dame who has Beddo on the hook.

It's a fine shaky A production from Allied Artists that makes the most of its cast and script, an exercise in the tawdry underworld that Sullivan and perky Dorothy Malone fall into when suspicion falls on them.

The FIlm is Predictable as Sunshine in California - Loophole Still Good

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 17 July 2020]

You know in five minutes how this film will end. But it is the journey, not reaching the destination that is the best part of this low-budget film noir piece. Barry Sullivan is miscast as a banker who has a bad day at the office. But Mcgraw is letter perfect in his Edward G imitation of "Double Indemnity". He plays the hard-nosed bond detective to a tee. The females do well in this film, also. I love the bank robber's moll, who was as evil as they get, and the good girl was predictably played well by good girl Dorothy Malone, who always suffered during love scenes (she could never convince the audience she was overtly sexy). She is fine in this role, however. Sullivan, who was famous for uttering one of the most famous lines that ever slipped through the censors in Hollywood with Barbara Stanwyck in "Forty Guns", when he tells Stanwyck that "she better not play with his gun or it might go off in her face". How the hell did that get through? Anyway, the direction is interesting and the production values are wretched, but somehow, the film works anyway. The idea is quite clever at the beginning. A watchable noir.

Not noir, but a great underrated crime film!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 12 February 2021]

I loved "Loophole", and the film has many things going for it. The story is much like a variation on "Les Misérables" and "The Fugitive" and much of it is because the story seems so real.

When the story begins, Mike Donovan (Barry Sullivan) is a well respected head teller at a bank. However, his reputation is destroyed when a group of bank examiners arrive to check on the bank...a standard procedure. What is NOT standard is that one of these examiners is a phony...a guy using this situation to steal from the bank. And, unfortunately for Mike, the crook steals from his cash box. And, when the bank is $50,000 short, he's in deep trouble with the law.

After investigating, the police find no money nor any proof that Mike stole anything...and they believe he's innocent. However, a security officer from the bank's head office, Gus Slavin (Charles McGraw), has assumed from the start that Mike is a crook...and even after the police release Mike, Guy persecutes him--following him everywhere and getting him fired from many jobs*. After a while, it's obvious the only chance Mike has is to find the real crooks himself.

This films works for two main reasons. First, Donovan is so likable and 'normal' that you really sympathize with the guy. Second, and more important, Gus is just scum....as bad as Javert from "Les Misérables". He's humorless, mean and a punk....and McGraw was wonderful here and in many other films. There just weren't many actors who could pull the role off like he did...plus the writing really helped. Overall, an exceptional crime film...and one that you really must see.

*My assumption is that much of Gus' actions in the film would not be the least bit legal in 2021....especially going to employers and telling them that Mike is a thief and should be fired.

IMPLAUSIBLE

[davidalexander-63068 · 5/10 · 20 September 2020]

Very implausible plot. What bank is ever inspected by a team of auditors in this way who just suddenly turn up to count the money in each teller's drawer? And wouldn't the teller be casting a careful eye over what the "inspector" was doing, no matter how busy he was? Very odd.

MacGraw and Hughes SIZZLE

[qbine3 · 8/10 · 12 July 2021]

This is a pretty interesting tale of an average Joe bank teller who is wrongly accused of masterminding a robbery at his bank. The story moves along, the acting is good, and the direction is adept. The movie really ignites flames when CHARLES MACGRAW, as a vengeful bail bondsman, and MARY BETH HUGHES, as a platinum blond femme fatale, are on screen. They both light up the screen with their world-wary, jaded, magnetism. I wish the film had been about them instead of rather dull BARRY SULLIVAN. And DOROTHY MALONE is wasted as the dutiful, loyal wife. In one particularly cringe-worthy scene, Sullivan's boss, Jim Starling (DAYTON LUMMIS), physically hold up his hand up to shush Malone when she tries to make a suggestion, and barks, "I'll handle this, Ruthie." That about sums up how Malone's character was written. Don Beddoe is great as the mild-mannered bank teller in over his head with Hughes, and Richard Reeves is a scene-stealer as Sullivan's new boss who has no time for MacGraw!

Definitely not a noir

[dierregi · 4/10 · 23 March 2020]

Despite the plot containing a couple of noir elements, such as a wrongly accused man and a femme fatale, this movie fails completely to fit into the noir iconography.

It is usually tricky to define a "real" noir, since so many elements are involved, but this 1954 movie miss the bill in so many ways, that there is no doubt about it. Among the many disqualifying features:

• it arrives very late, at the tail end of the golden period of "noir"
• it totally lacks tension and drama and finally,
• it is shot in a rather pedestrian (at very least unimaginative) way.

No classic, sharp contrast, dark alleys, smoke and mirrors, just a straightforward tale told by day, of an honest bank teller (Sullivan) who gets conned out of 50.000$ in a simple and clever way and spends the rest of the movie trying to 1) clear his name 2) find another job, despite the persecution of the insurance detective 3) find the guilty party

He has a sweet, supportive wife and everybody (except the nasty detective) believes he is innocent.

Very slow moving, very B-movie and pretty boring.