George Raft

(On Cable TV, March 2021) You would think that the single biggest reaction to a film titled A Bullet for Joey would be “Who is Joey and why does he deserve a bullet?”, but after watching the film, the first thing that comes to mind is “Wow… Edward G. Robinson as a French-Canadian policeman?”  A cold war thriller chiefly concerned with communists kidnapping a nuclear physicist, it brings Robinson as “RCMP Inspector Raoul Leduc” (A French-Canadian name is there’s one, despite Robinson making no effort at playing French Canadian) tracking down the miscreants and saving the west from a crucial brain drain. As a Canadian, the film is probably far more interesting than to American viewers, especially as it’s largely set in Montréal without actually showing anything distinct about Montréal — it might as well be any other Midwestern American city so little does it take advantage of what makes Montréal such a unique place. But if you keep to the script’s guns-and-girls portion, the film becomes an average genre entry, a bit dull on the sides and not really worth any sustained attention. Robinson plays opposite George Raft as a criminal manipulated into helping the communists, and the much more interesting Audrey Totter as a better-written love interest. There are a few shocks along the way (the best, or worst, being what happens to a shy sweet secretary who becomes a pawn in the larger game), but otherwise A Bullet for Joey is a routine film with noirish overtones and some occasionally decent dialogue. Canadian fans will get more out of pointing and chuckling at the film’s “Hollywood, Canada” setting.