Pushover

4/20/2020

Money isn't dirty. Just people. Pushover is directed by Richard Quine and adapted to screenplay by Roy Huggins from stories written by Bill S. Ballinger and Thomas Walsh. It stars Fred MacMurray, Phillip Carey, Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone and E. G. Marshall. Music is scored by Arthur Morton and cinematography by Lester White. Straight cop Paul Sheridan (MacMurray) is on the trail of the loot stolen in a bank robbery where a guard was shot and killed. He is tasked with getting to know Lona McLane (Novak), the girlfriend of the chief suspect in the robbery. But once contact is made, and surveillance set up over the road from her apartment complex, Sheridan begins to fall in love and lust with the sultry femme. Comparisons with the superior Double Indemnity are fair enough, but really

5/21/2023

I always felt that Fred MacMurray was a bit of a lurch as an actor. Never particularly versatile nor charismatic to watch. Here, though, he is pretty effective as the undercover cop "Sheridan". Things hot up for his character when he encounters the enigmatic "Lona" (Kim Novak) and soon they are having a passionate affair. What we soon find out is that she is the gal of a thief behind a $200k robbery and he is supposed to be using her to get to her beau. When she discovers he is a policeman she tries to make sure that he is, and stays, in her corner. He, on the other hand, has a job to do - or does he? This packs loads into ninety minutes with a decent amount of intrigue and plenty of raw greed as you are never quite sure who (if anyone) is going to betray whom. Novak is also on good form a