Pushover

(Richard Quine, US 1954, 87 min., 16mm)

The Tarnished Badge. In a variation on his character in Double Indemnity, Fred MacMurray plays a potentially crooked cop who gets mixed up with an irresistibly alluring gangster’s girl (Kim Novak in her first leading role). Underappreciated director Quine would later direct Novak in Bell, Book and Candle and several other films, but here, they combine their talents for the first time and come up with an effective film noir gem.