Word: soulfulness
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Behind the pink, tubby façade of rich Clendenin John Ryan, the soul of the selfless public servant throbbed. Unlike many another son of privilege, he did not collect show girls; he devoted himself to business and the sober pursuit of turning rascals out of government...
Except for the people in them, those red-brick apartments along the Charles aren't much different. Adams House has a pool, and Eliot House has a basement snack-bar, but a Leverett House man is a man who wouldn't sell his soul for an afternoon plunge or a hot-dog with relish...
...long as it's good and dirty. This time his target is Joseph Foster (Thomas Mitchell), a pious D.A. who is running for Governor. Beal engineers all sorts of deals to get Foster elected, but ruins his reputation as well. And of course Foster has signed away his soul (in writing, very legal), and only saves himself at the last moment by brandishing a Bible in front of Beal's flendish face...
Dark Warehouses and Foggy Waterfronts fail to retrieve this film. Possibly Paramount signed away the soul of "Alies Nick Beal' as part of Milland's contract. If so, good riddance...
Alias Nick Beal (Paramount) is a modern morality play subtly fashioned around the text: "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Into the life of a gang-busting prosecutor (Thomas Mitchell) floats a mysterious character known as Nick Beal (Ray Milland). At first Beal supplies the prosecutor with evidence against a big-time gambler; then he stands at the lawyer's elbow, goading his political ambitions. By the time Mitchell has been persuaded to play ball with a corrupt, vote-powerful political machine, it is clear that...