High Tide

High Tide is the best of two short, low-budget, film noirs made this year by the "poverty row" studio Monogram Pictures released. Like The Guilty, released six months earlier, it stars Don Castle, is directed by John Reinhardt, produced by Jack Wrather, written by Robert Presnell Sr., shot by Henry Sharp, and scored by Rudy Schrager. Wrather was a fascinating character who ventured into all kinds of businesses besides film, including owning the Disneyland Hotel much to Mr. Disney's chagrin. 

In the film, Castle plays Tim 'T.M.' Slade, an ex-crime reporter turned private investigator hired by Hugh Fresney (Lee Tracy), a Los Angeles newspaper editor intent on taking down the local mob run by Nick Dyke (Anthony Warde). Fresney fears he may get rubbed out and, if so, he wants the reluctant Tim to take over his investigation. The elliptical, disorienting tale, based on Raoul Whitfield’s story “Inside Job”, is told in flashback after Slade and Fresney get into a car wreck that lands them trapped on a beach under the vehicle as the tide comes in. It's a terrific set-up for a flashback-style film noir story, and Reinhardt's no-nonsense direction is perfectly suited to the stripped-down nature of the narrative and the production. The supporting cast, including Regis Toomey, playing virtually the same police inspector he did in The Guilty, shines brightly. But the star attraction here is Tracy, who plays an older, not quite as fast-talking or wise-cracking version of the fast-talking, wise-cracking newspaper men he built his career on in the early 1930s.