Take One False Step
| Take One False Step | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Chester Erskine |
| Screenplay by | Chester Erskine Irwin Shaw |
| Produced by | Chester Erskine |
| Starring | William Powell Shelley Winters Marsha Hunt Dorothy Hart |
| Cinematography | Franz Planer |
| Edited by | Russell F. Schoengarth |
| Music by | Walter Scharf |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Take One False Step is a 1949 American crime film noir directed by Chester Erskine, and starring William Powell, Shelley Winters, Marsha Hunt and Dorothy Hart.[1]
Plot
A married college professor agrees to have a drink with an old girlfriend; the next day he's being hunted for her murder.
Cast
- William Powell as Professor Andrew Gentling
- Shelley Winters as Catherine Sykes
- Marsha Hunt as Martha Wier
- Dorothy Hart as Helen Gentling
- James Gleason as Captain Gledhill
- Felix Bressart as Professor Morris Avrum
- Art Baker as Dr. Henry Pritchard
- Sheldon Leonard as Detective Pacciano
- Howard Freeman as Dr. Markheim
- Houseley Stevenson as Dr. Montgomery Thatcher
- Paul Harvey as A.K. Arnspiger
- Francis Pierlot as Prof. Herbert Watson
- Jess Barker as Arnold Sykes
- Mikel Conrad as Freddie Blair
Reception
Critical response
The New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther, panned the film and also gave the producers some advice. He wrote, "Something of the same drollery that was displayed by William Powell in his saturnine performance of Nick Charles in the Thin Man films is flashed by him on a few occasions in the Rivoli's new Take One False Step, a curiously mixed-up mystery picture which Chester Erskine produced, directed and helped to write. But for the most part our erstwhile detective and comedian is forced to play a role of rather painful proportions with forbidding austerity in this film ... a little more of Miss Winters—as an active participant, that is—might have rendered a rather drab picture more decorative, at least."[2]
References
- ^ Take One False Step at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, June 23, 1949. Accessed: July 31, 2013.