From the looks of those ears, she’s gonna fly before she walks
Hello to all of the classic people that are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors. As a technical note, references and citations are listed for each show on the site at classicmovierev.com. Today on Classic Movie Rev, we are taking on the Film Noir The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947).
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The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947) has a somewhat low 6.9 rating on iMDB.com.[1] On rottentomatoes.com, it has no Tomatometer score and only 39 percent audience approval.[2] I know this movie is better than that.
Steve O of Film Noir of the Week said:
“As the titular ‘Devil,’ Tierney pretty much knocks it out of the park – consistently displaying both a welcome restraint, and a knack for sudden persona changes. Whenever law enforcement enters the picture he tenses up, and does something kinda great with those creepy, lifeless eyes. Like a cornered animal, he rapidly provides himself a stratagem for detection avoidance and escape.”[3]
New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther fairly hated this movie with the following review on March 22, 1947:
“Simply for the record, let it be noted that “The Devil Thumbs a Ride,” … is a distinctly pick-up affair. It tells how a fugitive criminal who hitches a ride with an innocent young man almost ruins that gentleman’s reputation before the cops finally close in on him. In the role of the thug Lawrence Tierney, who played Dillinger a couple of years back, behaves with the customary arrogance of all gunmen in cheap Hollywood films. It is pictures like this which give the movies a black eye and give us a pain in the neck.”[4]
Watching Lawrence Tierney act in this film is fantastic. As he jumps from personality to personality, it is thrilling to wonder when each fabrication will fall apart.
Actors – The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)
Returning
Lawrence Tierney, the great bad boy, played killer Steve Morgan. This actor was first covered in Born to Kill (1947).
New
Ted North played salesman Jimmy ‘Fergie’ Ferguson. North was born in Kansas in 1916. North’s father operated a tent show. The young North got his first stage experience working in his father’s show.
North graduate from the University of Kansas in 1939. He began his short film career in 1940. He was in several well-known films such as The Bride Wore Crutches (1940), Chad Hanna (1940), Roxie Hart (1942), The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), and Film Noirs The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947), and The Unsuspected (1947). In the 1950s, North became a talent agent[5]. He died in 1975 at the young age of 59.
Nan Leslie played Carol Demming, AKA Beulah Zorn. Nan was born in LA in 1926. Nan is known mostly for her roles in westerns during the 1940 and 50s. Some of her films include Sunset Pass (1946), Western Heritage (1948), and Kings Row (1955). She died in 2000.
Betty Lawford played Agnes Smith. Lawford was born in 1912 in England. She was a cousin of Rat Packer actor Peter Lawford. Lawford began her career on the stage, often performing Shakespeare. She began film work in 1929, and some of her better-known movies are The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929), Berkeley Square (1933), The Monkey’s Paw (1933), and Criminal Lawyer (1937). She died in 1960.
Story – The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)
A man is making a night deposit. If you haven’t had the pleasure, you have to take a big bag of money and checks and find a drop on the side of the bank to put it in. I always felt I was about to be murdered every time I did it.
Steve Morgan (Lawrence Tierney) stuff a gun into the back of the man making the deposits and gives unambiguous instruction to shut up and don’t turn around. The man turns because he is worried about losing his job and screams for help. Steve shoots him in the back and leaves with the money.
Steve waits by a stop sign until a car arrives. The driver, Jimmy ‘Fergie’ Ferguson (Ted North), lets Steve in and is happy to have the company. Fergie is half in the bag as he has been drinking at a combo birthday and anniversary party. His one goal is to get home to his wife Diane Ferguson (Marian Carr).
Steve checks out the gas situation and has Fergie pull into a gas station. When Steve sees a motorcycle cop, he starts to get cagy. The gas station attendant Jack Kenny (Glen Vernon), is helping the cop.
Steve takes over the driving and sees that Fergie has a loaded wallet. When the cop leaves, Steve goes inside. Fergie calls home.
Steve shows what kind of person he is when he is shown a picture of Jack’s daughter. Steve says from the looks of her ears; the little girl will fly before she walks. Ouch. It’s kind of like when Darth Vader crushed that guy’s throat, you know he’s a bad guy.
From the call, Fergie has the perfect wife, but not so much from the mother-in-law.
The station has a police radio monitor. The story of the shooting is not out yet. Steve changes the radio to music.
Two women come running up to ask for a ride. The older woman is Agnes Smith (Betty Lawford), and she has bleach blonde hair. The younger woman is a brunette named Carol Demming, AKA Beulah Zorn. Steve lets them in the car without asking Fergie.
Steve has Agnes sit in the front with Fergie, and he sits in the back with Carol. Steve starts giving the “you should be an actress, and I can help you.”
At the gas station, Jack hears about the shooting on his radio and calls in because Steve matches the description. Jack has called in a few criminals in the past. Jack heads to the station to look at mug books. The police are playing poker, by the police chief stops to call the surrounding towns to let them know about the shooting.
The car with the four travelers reaches Oceanside. Steve starts drinking with Agnes.
Diane nervously waits at home for Fergie to arrive.
Jack identifies Steve from the mug books. Detective Owens (Harry Shannon) is assigned to the case, and Jack is allowed to tag along. Jack says he will split any reward with the detective.
At San Clemente, detective Mack Wilkins (Dick Elliott) is watching the road with his dog along for company. After Mack gets a radio call, he lets his dog out of the car. The car runs into the road just as the car with the four travelers arrives. Fergie swerves at the last minute, saving the dog. Steve gets mad because Fergie almost wrecked the car. Agnes spilled whiskey all over Fergie when he swerved.
Mack calls the car in on the radio.
Fergie is a traveling lingerie salesman, and Agnes tries to get free stockings from him. He says he won’t give away free products, but his manager would. Fergie also says that his manager has a beach house in Newport. Steve perks up when he hears about the house. Steve wants to go to the house, but the other say they will try a roadside joint in Laguna.
Jack and Detective Owens are barreling past Oceanside. Jack is shocked that the car has a two-way radio.
The four travelers arrive at the roadside joint in Laguna. Just beyond it is a roadblock manned by motorcycle cops. Steve sees the roadblock and orders everyone, into the car. Steve takes the keys and says it is because Fergie smells like a brewery.
The cops see the gray convertible head back south, and one of them follows the car. Steve speeds ahead as the cop follows. Fergie wants Steve to stop, but he drives away faster. The cop shots and hits the back window. Fergie threatens to slug Steve, and he stops. As the cop approaches, Steve rams him with the car, severely injuring the cop.
Fergie pulls the keys and turns the car off, forcing it to stop. Fergie gets in the driver’s seat, and Steve says he won’t go back. He spins a yarn about being in reform school and hating cops. Steve says the smell of booze and a man traveling with two single women wouldn’t look right to the cops. Steve says that they should go to the beach house for the night, and he will turn himself into the police in the morning. They all agree to go to the house.
At Laguna, they report that the runover cop has a broken hip and the theater man has died. They get word that the four travelers are in Santa Ana.
Steve has Fergie back the car in, so the bullet hole in the rear window is not showing toward the street. They use the hidden key to get inside. Agnes is really taken by the place. Carol goes to make coffee while Fergie calls home.
While Fergie is on the phone, Agnes comes in and starts blackmailing him for a dozen pairs of stockings. She turns on loud music and calls him Fergie darling. Diane is getting upset, and Fergie says he will tell her the truth.
Outside, Steve is flattening two tires on the car using broken bottles.
Carol tells Steve that her real name is Beulah Zorn, and she had youthful trouble, just like Steve.
A knock on the door comes and Joe Brayden (Andrew Tombes), the night watchman arrives. Steve gets Joe to start drinking with them. Fergie finds out about the two flats, but he wants to leave and get home to his upset wife. Steve tears the phone cord loose in the bedroom. Joe gives Fergie a map showing where he can find a phone and hire a car.
Fergie goes to a lady’s house and uses the phone. Diane does not answer the phone.
Steve gets Joe to drink a full glass of booze for a $10 buck bet. Carol sees that Steve is getting the guard drunk on purpose.
At the Santa Ana police station, they have captured the wrong four people. The Police Captain says the net is closing around the criminals. Detective Owens sees that the cops in the back are playing poker. He and Jack join the game. Jack is a real card mechanic and knows all of the odds.
Joe is drunk as a skunk. Steve puts him on the sofa. Over Carol’s objections, Steve keeps pumping Joe with drinks.
Fergie makes it to the car rental place, and it won’t be available until 5:00 a.m. Agnes lays down in the bedroom. Steve takes Joe’s gun away. Steve begins to rape Carol when the murder report comes out on the radio. A knock is heard on the door. Steve slaps her and tells her to keep quiet.
Fergie says they need to clean up before leaving. Fergie roughs up Steve. Carol writes a warning note for Fergie and then starts vacuuming. She drops the note, but Fergie doesn’t get it. Carol escapes out the door.
The poker game continues, and Jack says it is odd that Steve is a stickup man and a forger as well.
Steve goes back to the beach house with scratches on his cheek. Fergie goes to look for Carol. Agnes warms up to Steve while they are alone. Fergie finds Carol’s dead body in the water. He tries to pull her out but can’t do it by himself.
Fergie wakes Joe and tells them that Carol is dead. The drunken Joe is sent to get the sheriff. Steve plants the idea that Carol may have committed suicide. Fergie and Steve go to get Carol’s body, and Agnes realizes that Steve is a killer.
The local police get a call requesting a coroner for the alleged suicide. Detective Owens is suspicious about the description of the group and decides to investigate. Owens asks for a bunch of police officers to go along.
Fergie goes to get cleaned up, and Agnes says she knows what Steve is, and she wants to know how to not end up like Carol. Steve says Carol was going to rat him out, and the kill was an accident. Agnes agrees to back up his story, and he gives her $100.
Joe and the sheriff come into the beach house. Steve hides his gun in the bookcase. Right away, the sheriff thinks it might not be murder. Steve tries to make an excuse. The sheriff pulls his gun, and Joe searches all of them for guns.
Steve takes over the identity of Fergie. When Fergie objects, Steve knocks him out cold. At this point, the taxi driver arrives. Steve uses Fergie’s ids and tells that the real Fergie is the hitchhiker. Joe, who is still drunk, confirms Steve’s story and throws the spotlight on the real Fergie. Steve forges Fergie’s signature as proof of who he is for the sheriff.
Joe finds a gun in Fergie’s clothes and is shocked when the sheriff identifies it as Joe’s gun. The sheriff lets Steve and Agnes leave when Diane arrives and is shocked to find her husband on the floor.
Diane attacks Agnes and Steve starts to make his getaway. Just then, Detective Owens and Jack come inside. Owens pulls his gun to stop everyone. He then passes the gun to Jack as he handcuffs Steve.
Owens starts finding out who everyone is, and Steve grabs his gun from the bookcase. He fires wildly and hits Jack. Steve tells Agnes to get all the guns and the car keys. Steve and Agnes leave in a cop car. Owens tells the group that cops are all around.
In the car, Agnes says she has had enough and wants to get out at the first bus stop. The police coming in the second car see Steve and Agnes in the other police car. They start giving chase, and Steve runs for it. The cops shoot at the car with a Thompson machinegun. Steve is killed right away. Agnes is injured and held for questioning.
Jack tells Detective Owens to keep the reward. He then says we will play poker again.
Diane and Fergie head home. She lets him know that they are going to have a baby. He kisses her, and they almost crash.
I’ll be back with conclusions and World-Famous Short Summary following a word from our sponsors.
Summary – The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)
It is always good to add a few Noir terms to your vocabulary. In the case of this film, a couple of terms were dropped during that poker games that were new to me. I went to the dictionary of gambling website to brush up on these new words.[6]
I picked out six terms to learn. The first poker term is “All Black,” which means having a club or spade flush. “All Blue” means the same thing. “All Purple” is another name for a black-suited flush.
“All Pink” and “All Red” means having a red-suited flush.
“All Green’ translates to any type of flush.
World-Famous Short Summary – No riders, except blondes, brunettes, and killers
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[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039317/
[2] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/devil_thumbs_a_ride
[3] http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/01/devil-thumbs-ride-1947.html (Broken 2023)
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/1947/03/22/archives/deadhead.html
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_North
[6] http://www.dictionaryofgambling.com/gambling_terms/poker/
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