Appointment with a Shadow

Appointment with a Shadow is less about its plot and more about the characters, an interesting take on the film noir genre. What we are looking at is a film that spends the first half examining the personal hell a man goes through to try and stay sober, just for the day, and then spends the second half following that man, newly confident in his sobriety, proving himself to his girl and the police when neither has any faith in him anymore. This is not a typical film noir movie, though it still succumbs to many of the genre clichés. 

The film opens with Paul Baxter (George Nader), an alcoholic washed-out reporter passed out in a bar. His friend, police lieutenant Spencer (Brian Keith), takes him to his sister, Penny Spencer’s (Joanna Moore), apartment to sober up and recover. Penny, who is romantically involved with Paul, waits for him to awaken, then makes him a deal. If he can stay sober for the day, she has a potential story for him that will be big enough to save his sinking career. This story involves a gangster, Dutch Hayden (Frank de Kova), who allegedly has had facial surgery to avoid the police. His girl has agreed to set him up for the police, and Paul can be right there for an exclusive report on events. Though Paul does manage to avoid drinking, though there are several close calls, an accident leaves his suit covered in alcohol. When he sees the real Hayden, his real face unaltered after all, hiding out on a rooftop while the raid goes down leaving a man the police believe to be him dead in the street, Paul tries to convince them they killed the wrong man. But the smell of whisky on his clothes naturally leads everyone to believe he couldn’t stay sober after all and imagined all that he claims he saw. 

This is a surprisingly well-made picture considering how little real story there is here. A big part of that is the strong performance by Nader, who is selling the intoxicating allure alcohol has on him. However, once we get later into the film, that addiction seems to become an afterthought, and by the time the film ends, he is acting like he has broken the cycle of addiction altogether, even though very little time has passed. He casually remarks that he is ready to go another day without alcohol, and another, but those of us who have known alcoholics know it is not that simple. The Lost Weekend made similar unbelievable breakaways from  the draw of alcohol. Paul goes from shaking constantly as withdrawal sets in to showing no signs of the illness in way too short of a time.

Joanna Moore plays off him well, selling just how much she loves him and how much his drinking is hurting her. Her every scene as she checks in on him or tries to call and he doesn’t answer tells us just how much she worries for this man. In many ways, it is an even better performance than Nader’s. Unfortunately, she is absent for large portions of the film, especially in the second half, so her opportunities to shine are limited. Brian Keith is a welcome presence, though his character is woefully underwritten. He has screen presence but this part could have been played by just about anyone.

The first part of this film is much more interesting to watch than the second half. The struggles with the bottle and how close Paul comes to giving in to his addiction are fascinating to watch. Once the action kicks in for the second half, though, it loses a lot of steam and only has a few moments that truly carry excitedly toward the obvious finale. Still, as a whole, this is a fun movie that is one of the better noir films from the era. It has plenty of flaws, but those are greatly outweighed by a strong performance from the lead and a great supporting performance by Joanne Moore. 1957 - 72 minutes