The Man Who Cheated Himself

 

(1950)
Directed by Felix E. Feist
Written by Seton Miller, Philip MacDonald.
Starring Lee J. Cobb, John Dall, Jane Wyatt, Lisa Howard. HarlanWade
IMDB Entry

A major defining factor of film noir is the femme fatale -- the woman who draws a man into crime with him having to suffer the consequences.  The Man Who Cheated Himself is an example of that genre, with a different twist throughout.

Lois Frazier (Jane Wyatt) is divorcing her husband Howard (Harlan Wade) to be with Ed Cullen (Lee J. Cobb). Howard leaves her to fly to Seattle, but he confronts her.  Lois shoots her husband.  Luckily for her, Ed is in another room at the time and is a homicide detective.  He goes to work to clean things up, moving the body and tossing the gun off the Golden Gate Bridge. Afterwards, he returns to headquarters to help mentor his younger brother Andy (John Dall), who is just starting out as a detective.  

The body is found near the airport, with witnesses seeing Ed's car.  It seems he was shot at the airport, where he was booked for a flight to Seattle.  But Andy finds a problem with the timeline.

To Ed's surprise, the gun is involved in another murder.  It had landed on the deck of a fishing boat passing underneath the bridge.  Ed and Andy find the culprit and Ed says the murders are connected.  But Andy is not sure.

The tension in the movie is between the two brothers. Ed dismisses Andy's observations, saying that he is too new to the job and jumps to conclusions.  It's a nice little game of cat and mouse because Andy won't be put off the track. 

Jane Wyatt is a surprising choice for a femme fatale. She was known to play wholesome roles, and this was a bit out of her range, though it helps that she is not in most of the scenes until the finale.

Felix E. Feist was a busy director in the 40s and is father of fantasy author Raymond E. Feist.