STEP BY STEP: Blu-ray (RKO, 1946) Warner Archive

At 62-mins., director, Phil Rosen’s Step by Step (1946) holds the dubious distinction of being so brief, to the point, and frankly, rushed in its execution, that to label it as a legit feature seems absurd, yet to call it a ‘short’ is, decidedly incorrect.  The picture stars noir fav, Laurence Tierney who, upon further reflection, sported a lifestyle far more troubled and complex than any of the heavies he ever played in the movies. Tierney's numerous drunk and disorderly arrests and assault convictions (he beat up civilians and lawmen with an indiscriminate yen for hating the world at large) were partly attributed to his chronic alcoholism. But the bottle eventually caught up with Tierney, who suffered a stroke in 1982. He died of pneumonia in a nursing home in 2002. So, bad boys do pass their prime. But it is rather amazing the man had time at all for a career…and not just one. From 1944 to ’51 Tierney was arrested a whopping 12 times, serving a 90-day jail sentence for breaking a college kid’s jaw, and later, thrown into the booby-hatch after being found disheveled and disoriented in a church. And that past-imperfect grew even dimmer as Tierney’ glory days in Hollywood drew to a close. In 1973, he was stabbed in a bar fight, and later, questioned in connection with the ‘apparent’ suicide of a 24-year-old playmate he was then seeing. Tierney was never charged with murder, but later attempted to add even this infamous crime to his extracurricular credentials by shooting his nephew in a drunken rage. Thankfully, the boy survived. Tierney was arrested, but bailed. Mercifully, Tierney elected to never marry, though he sired a child, Elizabeth.

Before proceeding, it is important to put all of this backstage tragedy into perspective. Some people, like some situations, cannot be helped, and in Laurence Tierney we have a text book example of a guy hell-bent on destroying himself. The notion that Tierney’s stint in Hollywood helped him indulge in this lifestyle is, frankly, misguided. He likely would have gravitated to a life of violence anyway, suffering from ‘bad boy’ derangement syndrome, occasionally, able to convince otherwise sane men the world at large values them only if they play the part of the tough guy and/or rebel, instead of a free-thinking man of tempered and clear-eyed decision-making prowess. Tierney liked this ‘bad boy’ image. Moreover, he saw his own life’s work as an extension of the hard-boiled bruisers he readily played in the movies. So, in his case, life did, indeed, imitate art. Much to his detriment, Laurence Tierney today is far more ‘regarded’ for his notorious behind-the-camera antics than his ‘front and center’ work in the movies. His reputation outside of the movies does not diminish that body of work. It merely dwarfs it. However, and quite on the contrary, one gets the distinct and uncanny impression, observing Tierney in movies like Step by Step, that he is doing far more than the script allows. In fact, he is playing himself, or rather, that version of ‘himself’ he concocted as the recast thug he always wanted to be and believed was of value as a ‘manly’ man’s man.

This persona is only slightly put off in Stuart Palmer’s fast-paced screenplay, cribbing from a story idea by George Callahan. By 1946, RKO was in the business of making B-grade (even, C-grade) programmers to fill a matinee with content, and desperately hoping to make a good film besides. The ever-revolving management at the studio resulted in an uneven spate of generally unremarkable projects.  But Step by Step, despite its anemic run-time, and other shortcomings to be discussed, is not one of them. In fact, director, Phil Rosen shows a fairly impressive and deft ability to make the most from the least he has been given. The picture is a penultimate effort from Rosen, who died of a heart attack barely 3-years later, having contributed 142 movies to Hollywood’s pantheon. The visual finesse Rosen – and his cinematographer, Frank Redman, illustrate on a shoe-string budget is not only commendable, but elevates Step by Step beyond the usual low expectation for mere popcorn-filler, noir crime/drama. This one kicks into high gear from the outset. We are introduced to secretary, Evelyn Smith (Anne Jeffreys), who fakes a resumé to land a job as a stenographer for Senator Remmy (Harry Harvey Sr.). It seems Remmy has hired Evelyn to transcribe some very confidential notes of vital importance to national security. Given the ‘top secret’ nature of the assignment, it is a small wonder Remmy never bothers to check for references on the girl who will be privy to all this highly classified information.

However, just as Evelyn and Remmy arrive at his secluded mansion by the sea, Remmy receives a cryptic call from his Washington contact, James Blackton (Addison Richards). Unable to convey his message by phone, as Blackton realizes his hotel room is bugged, Remmy agrees to entertain Blackton at his home instead. Blackton writes all of his secret information on a scrap, before slitting the lining of his coat with a razor just beneath the armpit to conceal it. Meanwhile, Remmy sends Evelyn to the beach to sunbathe. Alas, in the interim, and with the complicity of Remmy’s chauffeur, Norton (Phil Warren), a trio of spurious agents, hinted to be working for the German government, fronted by Von Dorn (Lowell Gilmore), Gretchen (Myrna Dell) and Bruckner (Jason Robards Sr.), break into Remmy’s home. They torture Remmy and murder Blackton. Bizarrely, given their ruthlessness, they do not also kill Norton, merely to tie up loose ends, but instead, elect to pay him off, then tie him up in restraints he can easily free himself from once they have gone, presumably to cast off suspicions regarding his participation in their crime. Yeah, I know…this one didn’t make any sense to me either.

While all of this is going on, Evelyn catches the eye of passerby, Johnny Christopher (Laurence Tierney), who wastes no time parking his car by the side of the road, stripping down to his bathing trunks (conveniently he’s wearing a pair under his pants even though he isn’t headed to the beach) and pursuing the girl with his beloved dog, Bazuka. Evelyn, it turns out, is not so easily influenced by a taut torso and some small talk. And so, this ‘cute meet’ goes nowhere fast. However, after taking a dip in the Pacific, Johnny decides to try again, venturing up to Remmy’s manor for ‘take two’. Only the woman who answers the door, claiming to be Evelyn Smith is actually Gretchen. Realizing something screwy is afoot, the forthright Johnny garners the aid of a passing cop. But their investigation goes nowhere when Bruckner, playing the part of the senator, and Von Dorn, pretending to be the chauffeur, insist Johnny is off his nut. He wouldn’t be the first guy to be fluffed off by a pretty face. While the cop is convinced, Johnny remains highly suspicious. After he realizes he has locked himself out of his car, Johnny decides to skulk around the mansion, his stealth witnessed by Norton who quietly observes as Johnny steals a pair of his pants from an adjacent room, also, Blackton’s coat from the Senator’s study, before Von Dorn can search it for clues, with Johnny quite unaware he now is carrying the highly classified documents they are after.   

Von Dorn and his motley crew are drawn away from the mansion, leaving Johnny to discover Evelyn tied up in a nearby room. After freeing her, discovering Blackton’s body, and realizing Remmy is still very much alive, Johnny telephones the police. Alas, he and Evelyn do not stick around to explain the situation, leaving Police Sgt. Roth (Lee Bonnell) to come to his own deduction. As is usual for a crime noir, the police have it all wrong. So, now a manhunt ensues for Johnny and Evelyn. After fleeing the scene of the crime, Johnny and Evelyn return to the Senator’s house to confront Norton. Johnny pummels him silly. Norton is about to confess when he is shot dead by Von Dorn, who now attempts to incriminate Johnny and Evelyn in this murder too. Naturally, the police believe the worst. And so, Johnny and Evelyn once more flee into the night, this time, stopping at an out of the way cabin park, run by the kindly Capt. Caleb Simpson (George Cleveland). Knowing of their suspected crime at the outset, the good captain nevertheless can spot a criminal from a couple who is being framed for a crime they did not commit. And so, he ably abets Johnny and Evelyn in their search for the truth. Unbeknownst to all, Von Dorn and his minions are also staying at the same cabin park.  Connecting the clues to the missing coat and Bazuka, Von Dorn, Gretchen and Bruckner intercept Johnny and Evelyn, knocking the pair out cold before, dumping Johnny in the trunk and Evelyn in the backseat, ushering them to a secluded warehouse on the wharf. The plan is to leave the couple for dead while Von Dorn and his cronies escape by sea.  However, Johnny comes to in the boot and uses the wires connected to the car’s tail lights to signal the police. Feigning unconsciousness at first, Johnny is able to subdue Von Dorn and Bruckner, while Evelyn takes care of Gretchen. The police arrive and arrest the trio. Exonerated of the crime, Johnny and Evelyn announce their plan to marry. A short while later, the wedding takes place at a Justice of the Peace with Captain Caleb and Bazuka serving as their witnesses.

Step by Step is an unusually deft little programmer. There is not a whole lot of time for character development here, and yet both Laurence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys make the most of their cardboard cutouts. Each has a presence on the screen to anchor their alter egos in the ‘reel’ world. This goes an awfully long way into making us care about what happens to Johnny and Evelyn.  She is more than just a pretty face. He is better than your average tough guy. Alas, the baddies in Step by Step are of the stock villain class, particularly the non-descript Myrna Dell who has but four lines of dialogue and makes the least of them. Lowell Gilmore is the wrong sort to be the lynch pin in a post-Nazi-esque organization of spies who act more like a rank brood of barroom brawlers than international thugs out to intercept vital secrets from the U.S. government. Director, Phil Rosen gets some mileage and menace out of the initial set-up – just a guy, attracted to a girl who suddenly goes missing – but then, begins to fumble the ball as the tone of the piece shifts from potential murder mystery into a conventional ‘just two people at the wrong place and time’ thriller with an espionage MacGuffin – leaving Johnny and Evelyn’s ‘discovery’ of the clues a rather foregone conclusion. Not much more to say about Step by Step, except it effortlessly burns through an hour of red herrings, some given short shrift (like Bazuka, digging up dead ‘fresh water’ fish, supposedly caught by Von Dorn in the salt water ocean), leaving not much of an impression one way or the other once the house lights have come up. It isn’t a bad movie - just a mostly forgettable one.

Step by Step is yet another valiant effort from the Warner Archive (WAC) and it sports all the admirable time, care and effort poured into their other Blu-ray releases. While some of the image is soft, owing to archival elements – not flawed mastering – much of what is here looks marvelous. Contrast tends to be ever-so-slightly anemic during a few of the scenes shot in stark, sun-blistering daylight with everything registering in light hues of tonal grey. Age-related artifacts have been eradicated. Fine details do not have the same pop in long shot they possess in medium or close-up shots. But again, all this speaks to the movie’s fly-by-night budget and elements likely unloved and mismanaged for decades before Warner Bros. became their legal custodians. What is here speaks to WAC’s hallmarks of quality and their verve for releasing obscure movies back into circulation on home video. Top marks there! The 1.0 DTS mono audio is adequate, with clean dialogue. Nothing to distinguish it. But nothing to complain about either. Two shorts with a ‘crime/thriller’ theme, one a Warner Bros. Daffy Duck cartoon, and an original theatrical trailer accompany this release. Bottom line: Step by Step isn’t a waste of time. But it isn’t exactly a classic either. Best to judge the picture on its own merits, as a passable programmer that works but doesn’t leave much of an impression thereafter. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

1