Violence
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Jack Bernhard
Nancy Coleman
Michael O'shea
Sheldon Leonard
Peter Whitney
Emory Parnell
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
True Dawson and other leaders of the United Defenders, an American fascist organization based in Los Angeles, kill Joe Donahue, a war veteran, when he announces that he is quitting the organization. Joe's decision to quit was prompted by his discovery that the organization, which was supposed to help war veterans, was actually exploiting them. Working for Dawson is Ann Dwire, a photojournalist who is posing as a secretary named Ann Mason in order to get photographs of the organization's activities for an exclusive story. After telling Dawson that she is going to Chicago to visit friends, Ann makes preparations to deliver a roll of film containing pictures of the United Defenders' activities to her editor, Ralph Borden. When Ann arrives in Chicago, her taxi crashes and explodes into flames. The next day, Steve Fuller, who was sent by the United Defenders to follow Ann, learns that she has suffered a loss of memory as a result of the accident and does not know her identity. Steve tells Ann that he is her fiancé, and takes her back to Los Angeles. Later, at the United Defenders' headquarters, Ann is asked to address an assembly of leaders and recruits. Having forgotten her past as a journalist, Ann quickly becomes a fervent supporter of the organization and speaks about the need to contribute money to it. One day, when Joe's wife Sally arrives at the United Defenders offices looking for her missing husband, Ann offers to help her find him and invites her to stay at her place until he is found. Ann is later told by Dawson that Joe absconded with money from the organization. Steve, however, finds evidence that Fred Stalk, Dawson's lieutenant, lied about Joe's disappearance, and tells Ann that he thinks that Joe was murdered. After Steve urges Ann to get out of the organization before an investigation exposes the organization leaders as the killers, she becomes confused about her allegiances and tells Dawson that Steve is trying to frame the United Defenders for Joe's murder. Ann is further confused when Bess Taffel, Borden's secretary, calls her and says that Borden will be arriving in Southern California the following day to meet with her about her magazine story. Stalk later strikes Ann across the face when she asks him what happened to Joe and Steve. The attack restores much of Ann's memory, and she tells Borden that she is now determined to rescue Steve, who, she believes, is being held captive by the United Defenders. When Stalk discovers that Ann is the author of the article on Dawson, he confines her to a basement cell with Steve, who tells Ann that he is a special detective who has been assigned to investigate the organization. Ann's article inspires an angry demonstration in front of the United Defenders' headquarters, during which Stalk plans to kill Ann and Steve. Stalk intends to frame opponents of the organization with Ann and Steve's assassination, but they manage to escape in time to warn the protesters that Dawson's men are planning to silence them. A brawl ensues, during which Ann and Steve find Dawson and force him to take them to Stalk. Stalk accuses Dawson of setting him up to take the blame for the organization's misdeeds, and when Dawson tries to escape, the two men shoot and kill each other. With the United Defenders exposed, Ann and Steve are satisfied that they have reached their objectives.
Director
Jack Bernhard
Cast
Nancy Coleman
Michael O'shea
Sheldon Leonard
Peter Whitney
Emory Parnell
Pierre Watkin
Frank Reicher
Cay Forester
John Hamilton
Richard Irving
Carol Donne
Jimmy Clark
Drew Demorest
William Ruhl
Dick Rich
Frank Cady
Harry Depp
Helen Servis
Mary Donovan
Bob Faust
Barbara Bettinger
Crew
Jack Bernhard
Jason Bernie
Escha Bledsoe
Bernard Brandt
William Calihan
Glenn Cook
Eddie Davis
Charles Huber
Edward J. Kay
Louis Lantz
Augie Lohman
Lorraine Maclean
Stanley Rubin
Henry Sharp
Otto Siegel
Earl Sitar
Richard Streit
Oscar Yerge
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although the onscreen cast list includes a credit that reads "Mr. X ....?" that character was only mentioned in the dialogue and was apparently cut from the film. The Variety review lists William Gould in the role of "Mr. X," while CBCS lists Billy Green in the part. The New York Times review describes Mr. X as a "mysterious real estate tycoon." According to a Los Angeles Times news item, in July 1946, Jack Bernhard and Bernard Brandt's production company bought a novel titled Violence by John W. Stearn, but it is not known if Stearn's novel had any connection to this film. Melville Cooper was announced in the same item as a possible star of the Stearn adaptation.
According to mid-December 1946 Hollywood Reporter news item, the film's script was being revised to include the "Columbians of Atlanta and its expose by a girl agent." Columbians, Inc. was an Atlanta-based "hate organization," whose declared goal was the deportation of blacks to Africa and the forced assimilation of Jews with other races or their deportation. In mid-February 1947, New York Times reported that Homer L. Loomis, Jr., secretary of Columbians, Inc. of Atlanta, GA, was convicted on various charges, including incitement to riot in a case that stemmed from the beating of a black man who was passing through a white residential section in that city. Loomis and Emory Burke, the group's president, were also convicted on charges of usurping police powers and illegal possession of dynamite. Walter Tetley is listed in a Hollywood Reporter news item as a cast member, but his appearance in the final film has not been confirmed.
