Take One False Step (1949)

Directed and produced by Charles Erskine

A New York educator (William Powell), in Los Angeles to negotiate funding for a new university, meets a former girlfriend (Shelley Winters), hoping to re-start their brief romance. After ill-advisedly accepting her invitation to a party, the professor drives her home, after which she disappears. Left with a possible murder mystery, with himself as the man the police are seeking, the out-of-towner must follow the clues to make sure he isn’t the one falsely accused of a killing.

One of the most ingratiating actors in Hollywood of the 1930s and ‘40s was William Powell. Whether playing a detective or a crook, a millionaire or a servant, he was always likeable and watchable, and always added more than a touch of class to his characters. Though he continues that tradition in Take One False Step, and is not the only good thing in the movie, the film lets him down, and cannot be counted as one of his showcases.

The problems here are led by one of credibility. I didn’t believe that Powell’s character, erudite, educated, gently fired with the ambition of creating renaissance men through a new school, would ever have taken up with Winters’s character, a childish, self-centred, superficial person who is bored by the idea of a college without a football team. Even in the extraordinary conditions of war-time, under which they originally met, the notion that they could have enjoyed each other’s company – especially Powell enjoying Winters’s – is unrealistic. Both actors do a good job in their portrayals, but it is clear that Powell had much more in common with Winters’s friend (Marsha Hunt), and the little we see of his wife (Dorothy Hart) – married after his time with Winters – it is clear that Powell prefers intelligent, decisive women.

Another unrealistic aspect of the film – and one just as crucial as the principal relationship – is Powell’s pursuit of the truth. There is no compelling reason for him not to go to the police. He begins investigating with an implication of a fear of ruining his marriage and the prospects of the new university. Again, though, the professor’s personality as seen in the film suggests that he would have more credibly explained matters to the authorities, rather than taking on the role of detective himself. If Powell had been playing Nick Charles (from The Thin Man), the sleuthing would have been done almost as a lark, but his role here is much different. So too should have been his actions.

Lending good support are James Gleason and Sheldon Leonard, the cops on the case. While here, Gleason’s detective must surely be the oldest working policeman this side of Dixon of Dock Green, he and Leonard make an effective team and provide some levity. Humour is attempted at other points in the film, but with less success. Hunt is also good as the friend who rather pointlessly keeps Powell from going to the police in the first place. Despite her indefinite motivation, her role deserved a better story.

The writing is adequate, though no more. The story is not convoluted, but tries to throw a few twists at the viewer by unnecessary journeys between cities, and almost has a Cornell Woolrich-style ending, but doesn’t appear to have the nerve to go through with it. As well, there is the curious fact that when Winters disappears, neither Powell nor Hunt seems particularly upset by it, the need to find out what happened evidently more important than the actual happening.

The direction is pedestrian and never provides suspense or tension. There is a good dog-attack scene, and a moment when a man is faced with crossing railway tracks with two trains roaring at him from opposite directions, but the potential is not realised.

The last phrase, ‘potential not realised’, may in fact be the final judgement on Take One False Step. With a superb lead actor and the bones of a decent crime story, the film could have been much better. True to his talents, Powell went on to higher things, even at the end of his career. It would have been disappointing for him to have Take One False Step as his swan-song.