1947 film
I Walk Alone is a 1947 film noir directed by Byron Haskin and starring Burt Lancaster and Lizabeth Scott, with a supporting cast featuring Wendell Corey and Kirk Douglas.[2]
This was the first of six films that Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas made together over the decades, including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) with Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Douglas as Doc Holliday, The Devil's Disciple (1959) with Laurence Olivier, The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) with George C. Scott and John Merivale, Seven Days in May (1964) with Fredric March and Ava Gardner, and Tough Guys (1986). Douglas was always billed beneath Lancaster but, with the exception of I Walk Alone and The List of Adrian Messenger, their roles were almost of equal importance.
A restoration of the film played at the Noir City festival at the Castro Theatre in February 2018.[3][4] The movie was officially released on home video for the first time on July 24, 2018.[5][6][7]
Plot
Frankie Madison and Noll "Dink" Turner are rum-running partners during Prohibition. They are involved in a shootout with thieves attempting to steal their liquor, attracting the attention of the police. Frankie and Noll part ways with an agreement that if one of them should be caught, he will still receive an equal share after serving his prison sentence. Frankie is sent to prison for 14 years, and when he is set free, he visits Noll.
Noll now runs a swanky nightclub. When Frankie visits the club, Noll stalls, sending him to dinner with his singer girlfriend Kay Lawrence. Noll instructs Kay to discover exactly what Frankie is seeking and learns that Frankie expects him to honor their old bargain. He tells his old partner that the deal only applied to their former nightclub that closed years ago. Dave, Frankie's brother and the only member of the old gang whom Frankie had trusted, had him sign legal papers - without full knowledge as to what they meant - to that effect some time ago.
Noll estimates that Frankie's share is less than $3,000. Furious, Frankie slugs Noll and leaves to recruit men to take what he figures he is owed. However, Noll had Dave arrange for ownership of the nightclub to be divided among several corporations, with bylaws that prevent him from surrendering anything. Frankie's men actually work for Noll, and they beat Frankie and leave him in an alley.
Noll informs Kay that he intends to marry wealthy socialite Alexis Richardson in order to ensure the success of the nightclub. Repulsed by the idea and strongly attracted to Frankie, Kay quits and overcomes Frankie's suspicions about her.
Dave, aghast at how Frankie has been treated, tells him that he is willing to divulge what he knows, which will devastate Noll. However, he foolishly tells Noll what he intends to do and is killed by Noll's henchman, with the murder pinned on Frankie.
Evading a police manhunt, Frankie and Kay visit Noll's mansion. Although Noll is waiting with a loaded gun, Frankie wrests it away from him and takes Noll to the nightclub. Frankie threatens Noll in order to extract a written confession from him, which Frankie gives to the police when they arrive. Noll is arrested but he escapes the policemen and heads toward Frankie, but before Noll can reach him, he is shot dead by a policeman.
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "It's a mighty low class of people that you will meet in the Paramount's 'I Walk Alone'—and a mighty low grade of melodrama, if you want the honest truth—in spite of a very swanky setting and an air of great elegance." Crowther found Kirk Douglas' performance "fairly effective" but panned the other leads: "Burt Lancaster plays the would-be 'muscler' with the blank-faced aplomb of Tarzan. ... Lizabeth Scott has no more personality than a model in the window of a department store."[8]
James Agee, writing in The Nation, opined that the film should be made to "walk alone, tinkle a little bell, and cry, 'Unclean, unclean.'"[9]
Variety called I Walk Alone "a tight, hard-boiled melodrama."[10]
A portion of footage from I Walk Alone was manipulated in 1982's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid to make it appear as though Kirk Douglas is speaking to Steve Martin's character.
