Follow Me Quietly

Director: Richard Fleischer Richard Fleischer

Overview

Though RKO Radio had trouble turning out successful "A" pictures in the late 1940s-early 1950s, the studio's "B" productions were the best in the business. One of the best was 1949's strange, obsessive film noir Follow Me Quietly, which manages to pack more excitement and sheer entertainment value in 59 minutes than most big-budgeters can accomplish in twice that time. Detective Harry Grant (William Lundigan) is assigned to track down "The Judge," an unknown serial killer. With only a handful of sketchy clues, Grant constructs a faceless dummy to help his men conduct their investigation. The film's "money scene" finds the murderer quietly taking the dummy's place, right under the noses of the entire police force! Logic is not the film's strong suit, but Follow Me Quietly builds carefully to a dynamite finale filmed on location at an LA refinery (shades of White Heat!)

Product Details

Release Date:	08/26/2011
UPC:	0883316316771
Original Release:	1949
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	0:59:00
Sales rank:	1,587

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

William Lundigan	Lt. Harry Grant
Dorothy Patrick	Ann Gorman
Jeff Corey	Sgt. Art Collins
Nestor Paiva	Benny
Charles D. Brown	Mulvaney
Paul Guilfoyle	Overbeck
Edwin Max	The Judge
Frank Ferguson	McGill
Marlo Dwyer	Waitress
Archie Twitchell	Dixon
Douglas Spencer	Phony Judge
Maurice Cass	Bookstore Owner
Wanda Cantlon	Waitress
Howard Mitchell	Don, Bartender
Cy Stevens	Kelly
Robert Emmett Keane	Coroner
Paul Bryar	Sgt. Bryce
Lee Phelps	Detective
Art Dupuis	Detective
Walden Boyle	Intern
Joe Whitehead	Ed
Martin Cichy	Cop
Virginia Farmer	Woman
Nolan Leary	Larson
Frank McCarroll	Detective with the Phony Judge
Michael Branden	Dixon
Leonid Raab	Composer

Technical Credits

Lillie Hayward

Richard Fleischer	Director
Herman Schlom	Producer
Lillie Hayward	Screenwriter
Phil Brigandi	Sound Effects
Clem Portman	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

One of the neatest thrillers to come out of RKO in the late '40s, Richard Fleischer's 59-minute Follow Me Quietly was the kind of box office success that made a rare bright spot on the studio's ledger books, at a time when they were losing money by the bushel on productions such as Mourning Becomes Electra and Androcles and the Lion. Fleischer, working with a generally excellent cast and a nice, twist-laden script, keeps things moving so fast, and with such a veneer of eeriness about it, that not only does Follow Me Quietly overcome some moments of wildly illogical action, but positively revels in that action. This is nowhere truer than the bizarre scene near the mid-point in the picture when the obsessive murderer substitutes himself for the faceless dummy in the office of Lt. Grant, the lead investigator; Fleischer has maintained such an odd, off-angle tone and look to the movie up to this point, that the audience simply accepts the scene. Only the romantic subplot involving Grant (William Lundigan) and reporter Ann Gorman (Dorothy Patrick) seems predictable in these surroundings, and it is more than made up for by the overall odd, obsessive tone of the movie, and a pay-off finale at the Los Angeles refinery that manages to echo White Heat and The Naked City while giving the suspense component a twist all its own.