“NOT SO TANGLED, IT WEAVES”

By Raymond Benson

The low budget 1947 film noir drama, The Web, is a fairly typical example of the type of B-picture that many Hollywood studios were churning out in the late 1940s. No one referred to these crime movies as film noir at the time; it wasn’t until the late 1950s that French critics looked back at this body of work and proclaimed, “Sacré bleu! Film Noir!”—and the term stuck.

In the case of The Web, the title is categorized as film noir for being a crime picture shot in black and white by DP Irving Glassberg with high contrasting light and shadow, a tale that features cynical and unreliable characters, a twisty plot, and some double-crosses. That’s about it, really—there is no femme fatale (we think that one character is going to serve that role, but ultimately that isn’t the case), and there is a tangible grittiness to other, classic films noir that is missing here. Nevertheless, The Web is enjoyable, if somewhat predictable.

While the lovely Ella Raines receives top billing as Noel, the personal assistant to wealthy industrialist Andrew Colby (Vincent Price), it is Edmond O’Brien, as Bob Regan, who is the protagonist of the story. Regan is an attorney—something of an ambulance chaser, it seems—who is temporarily hired by Colby to serve as a bodyguard as protection against a former employee, Leopold Kroner (Fritz Leiber). Kroner has just been released from prison, blames Colby for framing him, and allegedly seeks revenge. On the first night on the job, Regan is forced to shoot Kroner in Colby’s office during a struggle. Even though the police deem the incident as self-defense, Lieutenant Damico (William Bendix) is suspicious and wants to pin a murder rap on Regan. While Regan sweats it out, he becomes romantically infatuated with Noel while simultaneously doing his own investigation into Colby and the man’s history with Kroner.

Yes, a “web” of conspiracy is revealed, and it turns out to be not so tangled. We can foresee the outcome, really, from the first act of the picture. It’s no spoiler to say that a viewer would have to be an idiot not to realize that Colby is the heavy (he’s Vincent Price—duh!). That said, the film moves along at such a brisk pace and features an enthusiastic, plucky performance from O’Brien as the cocky lawyer-cum-bodyguard/detective. Raines, who made several film noir titles, seems to have been molded by Hollywood to be a second string Lauren Bacall-type; she does possess silver screen presence and a charisma that plays well off of O’Brien’s antics. One can’t help but be entertained.

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray restoration looks and sounds superb. There is an accompanying and informative audio commentary by film scholar, Professor Jason A. Ney. The theatrical trailer is included along with other Kino Lorber trailers.

While it’s not going to win any awards (it didn’t), The Web is indicative of the era in which it was released. For fans of film noir, Edmond O’Brien and Vincent Price, and Hollywood B-movies.

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