Page 42 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 155

42 Issue #155 December 2025 www.sportsenergynews.com

In Reel Time

Pointing the Finger

By Nikolai Adams

hristmas Eve – usually a day
Cof family togetherness, holy
happiness and plenty of joy. . . that
is, unless you’ve been picked up by
the coppers and they’re putting the
mighty squeeze on you. Directed
by Harold D. Schuster, the 1955
crime thriller film noir Fingerman
(sometimes spelled Finger Man)
finds a longtime mid level thug
with good street cred given a less
than envious gift for the holidays –
the chance to put a sting on one of
the most dangerous criminal bosses
thriving on rackets in at least eleven
different States.
Voice-over narrated by our stuck Photo Submitted
between a rock and a hard place
protagonist, Casey Martin (Frank
Lovejoy – In a Lonely Place; The ‘fingerman’. wonder, is it even possible for a is for sure – the odds are certainly
Hitch-Hiker), he has recently been Aided by his longtime friend former femme fatale to work her against them. Mismatched at every
way out of such a soul sucking turn by the ultra safe Dutch and
nabbed by the Treasury Agency (that is looking for something
predicament? And, going hand in his aid Terpe, like almost every
(A.K.A. the T-Men), with their more), Peggie Castle (Gladys
hand with the previous query, can movie he appears in, character
boss, Mr. Burns (Hugh Sanders), Baker) – who has previously made
two people as flawed as Casey and actor Timothy Carey steals the
giving him his one and only choice her living off of the crime lord, it
Peggie still find love while living in show – with every twitch, hair
– help them grab one Dutch Becker does not help that Dutch is always
the crooked world they’ve buried pull, and menacing grimace wholly
(Forrest Tucker) – a wealthy standing next to his right-hand
themselves in? believable as a man who seems to
criminal mastermind who has his man, Lou Terpe (Timothy Carey –
have more than one screw loose.
dirty paws in everything from The Killing; Crime Wave) – a man A gritty, low budget B movie,
It’s not a shocker that this film had
illegal alcohol and gambling, to who Casey can’t stand from a stint Fingerman is filled with black and
night clubs and prostitution. in prison and always seems to be on white shadowy light, ample risk of issues with the censors – as there
are definite implications of some
the very edge of snapping. crime and punishment, as well as the
With Casey’s sister Lucille rather seedy stuff going on in the
threat of death round every corner. .
(Evelynne Eaton) in dire straits after Forced to get on the inside foreground and background
being used and abused (at the very of Dutch’s heavily safeguarded . meaning that there is plenty to like
about this thrilling film noir. Etched (including a scene that shows
least, addicted to narcotics) by what organization, will Casey be able
was her longtime employer (you to use his longtime criminal with a moral ambiguity that leaves many dead young women by way
the audience wondering if our of photos – one thing’s for sure,
guessed it – Dutch), you cannot say reputation to weasel his way into
that this isn’t quite personal for the their midst? If so, can he create a two protagonists deserve a second they didn’t die of natural causes).
chance at life as they attempt to So, finger this Christmas set hidden
man as well. . . plus, the agency has believable enough ruse that will
told him that all of his charges will whet the appetite of the already extricate themselves from the world gem of a film noir for your viewing,
they’ve long survived in, one thing it’s a live wire.
be dropped if he is able to be the wealthy mobster? One also has to