The Chase - DVD

A man is dragged into a violent underworld when he returns a lost wallet and discovers that the owner is a crime lord. The kingpin, impressed by Scotty's naive honesty, hires him as a chauffeur. Troubled by the sadistic treatment the tyrant visits upon his beautiful wife, the innocent man succumbs to her appeals for help, and organizes an escape plan. The getaway is foiled when she is brutally stabbed and Scotty finds himself framed for

When InchBubberInch Reeves (Robert Redford, The Sting) escapes from prison, it upsets the folks in the nearby town of Tarl, Texas. Sheriff Calder (Marlon Brando, The Godfather) wants to capture Reeves alive, which puts him in opposition to many of the townspeople who have resorted to mob justice. Businessman Val Rogers (E.G. Marshall, 12 Angry Men) wants Calder to apprehend Reeves quickly, through any means, since he fears the criminal will come after Val's son, Jake, who is sleeping with Reeves' wife (Jane Fonda, 9 To 5).

The noir genre is known for it's labyrinthine plots, but Arthur Ripley's The Chase takes the wrong man premise to unexpected extremes. Robert Cummings (Saboteur) stars as Chuck Scott, a down-on-his-luck veteran who lands a job as a chauffeur to a sadistic millionaire (Steve Cochran, Private Hell 36) and his reptilian bodyguard (Peter Lorre, My Favorite Brunette). Scott plays white knight to his boss's suffering wife, stealing her away to Havana. But when she is fatally stabbed in a crowded nightclub, Scott is accused of murder, and must flee the shadowy streets of Cuba in a reckless attempt to prove his innocence. Adapting a novel by Cornell Woolrich (author of Rear Window and The Bride Wore Black), screenwriter Philip Yordan (The Big Combo) introduced a number of twists to the original story, including a third-act surprise that transforms what might have been a conventional story of an ill-fated love into something truly mind-bending and surreal - making it one of the most unique entries in the hardboiled genre. Co-starring legendary French actress Michele Morgan (Port of Shadows) and wonderfully directed by Arthur Ripley (Voice in the Wind).