“THE DEVIL MAKES HIM DO IT”

By Raymond Benson

The actor Ray Milland always presented himself on screen with a serious intensity. His Oscar-winning turn as an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend (1945) catapulted him into the upper ranks of Hollywood stardom in those years. He didn’t always appear in A-list pictures, though. Film noir and thrillers like The Big Clock and So Evil My Love (both 1948) featured Milland in what might be perceived as moonlighting roles, but he is nonetheless effective.

Such is the case with Alias Nick Beal, directed by frequent Milland collaborator, John Farrow. This is not a film noir, per se, but rather a thriller-cum-supernatural tale that borrows heavily from the Faust myth. And while Milland is the fire that energizes Nick Beal, it is third-billing Thomas Mitchell who is the protagonist of the story.

Mitchell is Joseph Foster, a district attorney who aspires to run for governor. He’s an honest and “good” man with a loving wife, Martha (Geraldine Wall). Foster has influential friends, including Reverend Garfield (George Macready), and he has ties to a youth center that caters to wayward boys. Enter Nick Beal (Milland), who offers Foster “help” to attain his goals. The only hitch is that Foster must, essentially, sell his soul to Beal. To sweeten the pot, so to speak, Beal brings in lovely but troubled Donna (Audrey Totter) to turn Foster’s head from what is right and lead him down the same dark path that she is on.

It’s a classic Good vs. Evil story—one we’ve seen a dozen times—but its retelling here in something of a film noir style is refreshing. Farrow directs the picture with flair and grace, evoking a moody, sinister atmosphere with many set pieces blanketed in fog and darkness. It’s almost a horror film, by the looks of it. And, while Mitchell is believable and sympathetic in his plight against damnation, it is indeed Milland who ensures that Alias Nick Beal works. Milland is truly creepy as the Devil (and it’s obvious early on that he is the “alias” of the title). Totter is also winning in her role as a tramp who gets caught up in Beal’s plot to win Foster’s soul, although the Production Code likely prevented the filmmakers from blatantly depicting what she’s really out to do to Foster!

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray release could have used some better cleaning of the source material, but it looks good enough in its glorious black and white. Lionel Lindon’s cinematography is suitably gothic, especially in the exterior night scenes. The movie comes with an audio commentary by the informed and celebrated film noir historian Eddie Muller, plus the theatrical trailer for this and other Kino Lorber releases.

Alias Nick Beal is an entertaining diversion for fans of crime pictures, dark fantasies, Ray Milland, and 1940s Hollywood B-movies in which the creators made lemonade from lemons.

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