Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

fredcdobbs5 Lawrence Tierney didn't often get to play good guys, and--judging by his performance in this compact, tight little actioner--he's actually pretty good at it. Tierney plays an ex-Marine who inadvertently gets mixed up with a pretty blonde (Anne Jeffreys, looking fetching), German spies and a murdered secret agent. There's more comedy than you usually see in a Tierney picture but there's also the kind of shootouts and fisticuffs you expect in a Tierney picture, and director Phil Rosen expertly blends them all together; in fact, this is probably the best of Rosen's pictures that I've seem (he could usually be found grinding out cheap Bowery Boys programmers for Monogram and shoddy jungle pictures, and worse, for PRC). There's a good supporting cast--John Hamilton, George Cleveland, James Flavin--it's well acted, moves like lightning and everything gets wrapped in just about an hour. Location shooting along the California coast helps greatly. A fun picture, definitely worth an hour of your time.

morrison-dylan-fan Recently having seen Lawrence Tierney's hilarious guest appearance in an episode of Seinfeld called The Jacket for the first time,I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my dad had recently picked up a Film Noir starring Tierney.Looking at the running time stated on the DVD box (61 minutes!),I began to get more hope up that Tierney's lean'n' mean side would be on full display for this "quota quickie".The plot:Being ordered to take a short break from her work,newly appointed secretary Evelyn Smith decides to go for a swim at a near by beach.As Smith starts to relax by the beach,an ex-Marine called Johnny Christopher appears from out of nowhere,and right away,seems to have his eyes only on Evelyn.Despite originally being unease around him,Smith soon begins to fall for Christopher's charm.Later on,Evelyn has to leave Johnny on the beach, so that she can get back to work on time.As she heads back to her work place.Not being someone who gives up easily,Christopher is soon back on Evelyn's trail and heads straight to the mansion front door of her workplace.Loudly knocking on the door,Johnny is soon met by a waiter,who introduces him to the secretary of the building:Evelyn Smith.To Christopher's complete shock,Evelyn seems to have changed into a completely differ woman,who does not recognise Johnny at all.Getting the door slammed in his face,and no offers of help at all from the locals.Johhny quickly realities that he is the only one who can find out what happened to the "real" Evelyn Smith.View on the film:Complimenting Anne Jeffreys charmingly dizzy,bikini-clad performance of Evelyn Smith,and George Cleveland's wonderful,crusty sea-dog.Lawrence Tierney gives a great performance as ex-marine Johnny Christopher,who Tierney shows to be someone that just cant bring themselves to stay away from a strong whiff of increasing mystery,as others who should be doing their jobs attempt to explain Christopher's suspicions away as the words of a mentally unbalanced ex-marine.For the super-fast pace screenplay,writers Stuart Palmer and George Callahan do a mostly excellent blend of Film Noir with a light comedy touch,which allows director Phil Rosen to do a good mix of terrific,low-lit Film Noir mood pieces and some hilarious lovers on the run comedy moments.With the screenplay and Rosen's directing having set the stage for a moody Noir ending.I was disappointed to discover that instead of ending the film on a possibly melon collie note,Rosen and the writes instead decided that they would just stop their lead characters from falling over the edge,and give the film a "they all lived happily ever after" ending,which feels very much at odds with everything that had happened previously in this entertaining Film Noir.

krorie This programmer is action packed with a story filled with intrigue and suspense. It was released during the transitional year 1946 when Hollywood was switching from the Nazi/Japanese menace to the Communist Cold War threat. Apparently, this entertaining little item was a hold over from the year before."Step by Step" deals with a Nazi spy ring in American attempting to stop vital intelligence information from reaching a US senator, involving murder and impersonation. Two innocents, Evelyn Smith (Anne Jeffreys) and Johnny Christopher (Lawrence Tierney)--if you can believe Tierney as an innocent--stumble into the espionage web as a result of a chance confrontation on the beach where Christopher is walking his dog, Bazooka, a friendly little mutt who's not bad as a Nazi hunter. Christopher becomes suspicious when the Nazi agents try to pass one of their own, Gretchen (Myrna Dell), off as Evelyn. Christopher comments to the effect that Gretchen has the body but not the face. "She looks like she just bit into a green persimmon," is one comment used in the film to describe Gretchen's puss. Christopher and Smith find an ally in motel keeper, Caleb Simpson (George Cleveland), a jolly old chap who provides a lot of fun in this otherwise rather dour tale of mistaken identity.One of the best program thrillers to come out of Hollywood at the time, the acting is first rate with Lawrence Tierney playing against type. He was the definitive big screen "Dillinger," released the year before, until Warren Oates came along nearly thirty years later to equal his performance. A programmer was approximately an hour-long B (budget) film released to play as a second feature to a major Hollywood release or as a double feature with another B movie. This is the way it worked in my home town: The major release would play as an "owl show," beginning at midnight on Saturday. It provided a good excuse for a teenager, called youngster back then, to keep his date out late without upsetting her parents too much. The major flick would continue to play on Sunday through Tuesday. Then for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the early evening show on Saturday, a double feature, sometimes a triple feature, would be shown which presented the programmers such as "Step by Step." Included in all this would be cartoons, selected short subjects, advertisements, previews (coming attractions), and newsreels. Saturday afternoons were set aside for the kids. Usually, B westerns, two or three, would be shown along with cartoons, shorts, advertising, previews, newsreels, plus the added attraction of a serial. This was a treat for the children. For only a nickle or later a dime, kids would be entertained all afternoon while their parents shopped or took care of other business. They might all stay around for the early evening shows. Only the teens and adults usually stayed for the owl show.

bmacv Maybe RKO got caught short by V-E and V-J day but decided to release this wartime propaganda programmer anyway. It's still a clumsy embarrassment all around. Just-demobbed leatherneck Lawrence Tierney spots a comely blonde (Anne Jeffreys) going in for a swim along the Pacific Coast Highway and decides to join her. She's just signed up a secretary to a senator on a hush-hush assignment but both she and her employer are kidnapped by Nazis and replaced by imposters (in her place is Myrna Dell, who looks like she just `bit into a green persimmon'). Tierney spends half the movie in bathing trunks trying to find her even though the police are now after them as a pair of killers. The whole thing looks dark and cheap; not even Jason Robards (Sr.) as an unctuous German helps out. Director Phil Rosen doesn't even attain the level of competence he did in his several Charlie Chan flicks. Step by Step's only virtue lies in eliciting giggles at the awkwardness of its script, its acting, its production values and even its ideology.