Johnny O'Clock (1947)

Johnny O'Clock (Dick Powell) thinks he's got things figured out. Plays it smart, plays it safe. Makes sure none of the dealers in his gambling parlor sneak any cash up their sleeves. Rejects the advances and gifts of his partner's wife. Advises the naive coatcheck girl to take the hint and stop pursuing the bent cop that takes cares of problem gamblers. Uses a two-time loser of a con as his sidekick. Brushes off the questions of nosy Inspector Koch (Lee J. Cobb.)

And then the bent cop, after trying to cut Johnny out of the business, turns up dead. As does the coatcheck girl, seemingly a suicide, until the cops determine there was poison in her stomach. Odd choice for someone who sealed herself in her apartment and turned on the gas, unless she figured she was a descendant of Rasputin and was going to be hard to kill.

So while Koch digs into the girl's life, Johnny's doing his own digging. Then the girl's sister, Nina (Evelyn Keyes) arrives. She can't offer much help to Koch, but when Johnny sneaks into the apartment looking for something incriminating, the two of them end up spending some time together.

A lot of the movie revolves around this fast-moving relationship, which I'm not sure is to its benefit. Powell plays Johnny as constantly running hot and cold on Nina. He's charming one minute, keeping her company when rain delays her flight out, and then the next he's pushing her away. Or she's pleading with him to leave with her one minute, and mocking him for not deciding to go kill his partner - because it's not the right time, according to him - the next. Meanwhile, Koch is the one driving a lot of the plot, as he pokes and prods for a weakness to exploit to solve two murders, but it feels like there are long stretches we don't see him.

I guess the point is Johnny thinks he's smart by playing everything close to the vest, by only being concerned about himself, but it backfires. Johnny could have told his partner his wife was trying to make a play for him, but that could have loused the business one way or the other. Better to let Guido think he's in a happy marriage, keep his eyes on making money. He figures if he gives Charlie some nice shirts, then Charlie won't mind getting pushed around or humiliated by cops on Johnny's behalf. After all, what other job options does he have? But keeping every relationship on that level means there's no one with any real loyalty to him, and not everyone is willing to put money above personal grudges.