Cover Up (1949)

Well worth the $2.99 I paid for it, 23 April 2006

Before his company will pay out, an insurance investigator (Dennis O'Keefe) arrives in a small town to look into an apparent suicide. But he immediately begins to suspect something's not quite right. No gun, no powder marks, no bullet, no coroner's report, and no sheriff's report seem to lead to no suicide. Was it suicide – or was it something even more sinister?

It may not be the noir I was expecting, but Cover-Up is a nice little 40s style mystery. The plot kept me going up to the end. It's full of red herrings and I could have never guessed the outcome. Other than the It's a Wonderful Life style ending, I've got nothing to complain about. The cast is more than capable with Dennis O'Keefe, William Bendix, and Barbara Britton giving nice performances. I'm not all that familiar with Britton, but it's easy to see why she was a Revlon Girl for more than a decade. The cast also features Doro Merande who steals every scene in which she appears.

I picked up the DVD on the budget Geneon label. If you don't mind a lack of extras (and that includes the absence of a menu), it's not a bad deal for the money. The cover art is misleading. I have no idea what movie it was taken from, but it most certainly wasn't Cover-Up.

7/10