C-Man/1949

Growing up in the 60’s I always remember Dean Jagger as the bald headed principal in Mr. Novak also starring James Franciscus. This Laurel film directed by Joseph Lerner showed that he had hair and at first I didn’t recognize him. Jagger plays agent Cliff Holden who is trying to recover a $300,000 necklace along with solving the murder of a fellow agent. A passenger on the plane Kathe van Bourne played by Lottie Elwen is tricked into carrying the necklace back into the country and her fiancé is killed in the process. Jagger gets worked over on more than one occasion, Doc Spencer played by John Carradine is also beaten to death but the custom agent prevails in the end recovering the necklace and solving the murder. Love blooms in the happy ending. I really didn’t go for the in and out narration by Jagger. It added a bit of humor to the stock footage of New York but it appeared when you least expected it. The avant garde film score from Pulitzer winning Gail Kubik was a bonus and added to the film. Available for purchase at a low cost from Alpha Video (5017D). (**).