Road House

Director: Jean Negulesco Jean Negulesco

Overview

Richard Widmark plays the borderline-psycho owner of a combination road house and bowling alley. Widmark's singer, Ida Lupino, begins exhibiting an interest in his manager, Cornel Wilde. To get even with Wilde, Widmark frames him on a robbery charge, then has the unlucky fellow released in his custody. The sadistic Widmark takes every opportunity to flaunt his control over Conte, but this only serves to deepen the relationship between Wilde and Lupino.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/13/2016
UPC:	0738329206499
Original Release:	1948
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	A
Time:	1:35:00
Sales rank:	29,036

Special Features

Audio commentary by film noir historians Kim Morgan and Eddie Muller; Killer Instinct: Richard Widmark and Ida Lupino at Twentieth Century Fox; Trailer gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ida Lupino	Lily Stevens
Cornel Wilde	Pete Morgan
Celeste Holm	Susie Smith
Richard Widmark	Jefty Robbins
O.Z. Whitehead	Arthur
Robert Karnes	Mike
George Andre Beranger	Lefty
Ian MacDonald	Police Captain
Grandon Rhodes	Judge
Charles "Heinie" Conklin	Court Clerk
Jack Edwards	Actor
Harry Seymour	Desk Clerk
Jack Lee	Sam
Edgar Caldwell	Man
Blanche Taylor	Girl
Marion Marshall	Millie
Lee MacGregor	Man
Don Kohler	Man
Tom Moore	Foreman
Geraldine Jordan	Woman
Kathleen O'Malley	Woman
Cecil Weston	Woman
Ray Teal	Policeman
Charles Flynn	Policeman
Clancy Cooper	Policeman at Club
Robert Foulk	Policeman
Douglas Gerrard	Waiter
Robert Cherry	Pinboy

Technical Credits

Edward Chodorov

Jean Negulesco	Director
Alfred Bruzlin	Sound/Sound Designer
Edward Chodorov	Producer,Screenwriter
James B. Clark	Editor
Margaret Gruen	Original Story
Joseph La Shelle	Cinematographer
Harry M. Leonard	Sound/Sound Designer
Thomas K. Little	Set Decoration/Design
Cyril Mockridge	Score Composer
Kay Nelson	Costumes/Costume Designer
Lionel Newman	Musical Direction/Supervision
Ben Nye	Makeup
Maurice Ransford	Art Director
Bill Riddle	Makeup
Oscar Saul	Original Story
Fred Sersen	Special Effects
Tom Tuttle	Makeup
Lyle Wheeler	Art Director

Editorial Reviews

Ida Lupino commissioned the script for this Jean Negulesco noir, and she and Richard Widmark make this otherwise run-of-the-mill feature something of a cult item. Lupino is at her best as the tough, sexy torch singer who Widmark brings in to give some class to his bar/bowling alley stuck incongruously in the middle of deer country. The novel attempt to make the bowling alley an atmospheric environment sounds comic, but between Negulesco's mise-en-scéne and the camera work of Joseph LaShelle, it works better than one would think possible. Widmark is perfect as the psycho-in-the-making, and is so well-matched with Lupino that one wishes they had more scenes together. Wilde, who played a similar role in the noir classic Leave Her to Heaven, always seems to have walked into this genre by accident, and here, as the stolid stud, he's almost comically bored by the women who keep throwing themselves at him. For fans of bowling noir.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello