At the end of the film the main characters exit the 8th Police Precinct.
It is night time and the streets are deserted.
Yet when June and Alex drive away in the police car we can see through the back window of the vehicle the streets bustling with activity,cars and people and it's bright and sunny.
Sailor Alex Winkler (Bill Williams) discovers that the woman he argued with hours earlier has been murdered, making him a prime suspect. It's already late in the evening, and he only has until 6 AM to find the real culprit, as he has to catch a train to make it to his ship on time.
Bill Williams plays Alex Winkley, a sailor on leave who awakens from a drunken blackout to find a large sum of money on his person, which he believes belongs to a young woman named Edna(played by Lola Lane) whom he had helped the night before. Sadly, he finds her dead, and is unsure if he's guilty or not, but is helped by a dance hall girl(played by Susan Hayward) and a friendly taxi driver(played by Paul Lukas) to solve the mystery, which has many suspects, and he only has four more hours until he has to report back to his ship, or be AWOL.
The story of why I love this picture starts when I was about 12 years old back in the late 1960's or early in 1970 my parents took my brother and I to the local thrift store, because I was crazy about buying and playing 78rpm records from the 1940's! I loved the big bands, and this particular second hand store sold 78rpm records for a nickle each!
'Deadline at Dawn' sounded like my kind of film, being a long-term fan of mystery and of film-noir. Of which there are many greats around.
Woolrich, writing under the name William Irish, furnished the busy screenplay for this suspenseful minor film from RKO, photographed in true noir style by Nicholas Musuraca and starring SUSAN HAYWARD, PAUL LUKAS and BILL WILLIAMS in the leading roles.Williams is an innocent sailor who can't recall what happened to him during a blackout when a female (LOLA LANE) is later found murdered in her hotel room.
In this film Susan Hayward, (June Goth) plays the role of a gal who meets up with a young sailor named Alex Winkley, (Bill Williams) who got himself involved with a lady of the night who was also a blackmailer and the sister of a mobster. Alex drinks too much and has a lapse of memory in the apartment of the woman and he wakes up and finds a large sum of money in his pocket.
I have watched this film twice, and each time I was spellbound. It's a nice, tight little murder mystery that keeps your interest throughout the picture.
Terrifically gritty noir. Susan, still a B actress at the time took a big step forward with this little gem, one of the great overlooked noirs.
The biggest thing that Deadline At Dawn has going for it is the snappy dialog by one of the best word-smith's around at the time in Clifford Odets. It really crackles, especially what comes from Susan Hayward's mouth.
