The title of this film is a big clue. It's nighttime and you've got a deadline when the sun rises. Pressure, pressure, presure. This 1946 film noir was the only film directed by Harold Clurman, a theater director, playwright and co-founder of the Group Theater, a New York based group of actors who followed the Stanislavski method of acting.
One of the members of that group was playwright Clifford Odets, who wrote the screenplay for Deadline at Dawn (from a Cornell Woolrich novel, one of the chief authors of novels which became some of the darkest of films noir.)

Have you seen the Coen Brothers' Barton Fink? The main character of that film, played by John Turturro, is based on Odets.

It's funny, but I can hear Odets speaking in this film. When Susan Hayward (looking beautiful in a three dollar dress) thumbs the roll that the sailor hands her, she says "This is real money, son." In Sweet Smell of Success (a portion of the screenplay was written by Odets), Burt Lancaster tells Tony Curtis "You're dead, son. Get yourself buried." Both of those lines were written by Odets, I have no doubt.

We've been talking about the Perry Mason TV series. Actor Bill Williams, who plays the sailor in a real jam, was married to Barbara Hale, Mason's secretary in the TV show.

Cornell Woolrich stories all share this nightmarish quality of "This can't be happening to me" and just as in nightmares, things transpire which don't make sense- there are lots of coincidences in Woolrich's stories. Actor Paul Lukas plays a philosophical taxi driver who brings the story together. Don't be surprised by the convenient ending of the film. Everything just drops into place nicely in this film, much more so than it would if the scenario played out in real life. Remember, it's a nightmare. Just enjoy the ride.

And who do we find behind the camera yet again? My man, Nicholas Musuraca.

If you're a student of film noir, Deadline at Dawn is essential viewing. It's one of my favorites.

Airing today on TCM @ 6:30 pm EST.

Well, I didn’t see that coming.