Hell's Half Acre (1954)

Hell's Half Acre (1954)

starring Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester

directed by John H. Auer

90 minutes

Donna Williams (Evelyn Keyes) travels to Hawaii in search of Chet Chester (Wendell Corey), whom she believes might be her husband whom she thought was killed at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. She knew him as Randy Williams. They were only married for three days before he was shipped off to Hawaii.

Donna's quest gets sidetracked when Chet's girlfriend is killed. He had been arrested for the murder of a former business partner but Chet escapes from the police after identifying her body.

Donna eventually finds Chet but he denies that he's the man she seeks. She refuses to be brushed off that easily. She get mixed up in the search for his girlfriend's killer, gets captured by some low rent mobsters, all while getting driven around town by a cab driver named Lida O'Reilly (Elsa Lanchester).

Thoughts

I saw this movie as part of the 2025 edition of the Noir City DC film festival.

This movie can't seem to decide what it wants to be. It is alternately silly, dark, and heartfelt. I had fun watching it but I don't think that it's a great film or even a particularly good one.

Notes

I've seen two films in which Wendell Corey appeared but he wasn't the star of either of them: Rear Window (1954) and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).

There are a few actors in supporting roles whom I have seen before. One of them is Marie Windsor who played the wife of a row-rent hood in this movie. She played one of the lead roles in The Narrow Margin (1952), one of the movies I saw a few days ago.

Philip Ahn played Roger Kong, one of Chet's business associates. I recall seeing him in episodes of Kung Fu (1972), where he was a recurring character. He was also in One-Eyed Jacks (1961) and many other films that I have not seen.

Keye Luke played the part of Police Chief Dan. I have seen him most recently in Sleep, My Love (1948). He played a recurring character on Kung Fu (1972). He also appeared in an episode of Star Trek (1966) and played Lee Chan (Charlie Chan's son) in several films in the 1930s.

Jessie White played the part of Tubby Otis, one of the low-rent hoodlums. I recognized his face but had to do some research before I could figure out what else he had been in that I have seen. He was in a couple episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959) but the movie that jumped out at me when I looked at the list of his credits on IMDb was Harvey (1950).