The Long Wait (1954) User Reviews

Tony Quinn's shot at "Mike Hammer" (almost, anyway)

[melvelvit-1 · 7/10 · 9 September 2015]

Girls, guns, fists, and fedoras abound in Mickey Spillane's hard-boiled yarn about an amnesiac (Anthony Quinn) who can't remember if he stole a quarter mil from his boss (a doddering Charles Coburn) or killed the town's D.A. ...not to mention the fact that his girl went and got plastic surgery, so he doesn't know who she is, either. Could it be Venus (a smoking hot Peggie Castle) or one of the other babes who swarm around the craggy Quinn like moths to a flame when he's not dodging bullets? Far-fetched fun for fans of obscure fifties noir with as much sex & violence as the Code allowed -and some of it is quite surreal, especially a bound & gagged Castle crawling across the floor as if in an S&M fever dream.

Director Saville and leading lady Castle filmed Mickey Spillane's I, THE JURY the year before (in 3D, no less) but that "Mike Hammer" mystery was more of a sucker punch thanks to Biff Elliot's powder puff PI. It's too bad he and Tony hadn't traded films...

The Lyncastle Lasso.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 21 January 2017]

The Long Wait is directed by Victor Saville and adapted to screenplay by Alan Green and Lesser Samuels from the Mickey Spillane novel. It stars Anthony Quinn, Charles Coburn, Gene Evans, Peggie Castle, Mary Ellen Kay and Shirley Patterson. Music is by Mario Castelnuovo- Tedesco and cinematography by Franz Planer.

Johnny McBride (Quinn) is a amnesiac who manages to get back to his home town of Lyncastle where he hopes to unravel who he is. But pretty soon he finds himself in a quagmire of trouble and strife...

Every once in a while I come across an instance like this, where a film noir picture's reviews back upon its release were savage, and yet today the more modern noir lover is mostly positive about the pic. In fact IMDb's rating sits currently at 7.2, which as the site's users will attest to, is pretty good going. So where we at with this Spillane revamp?

The complaints back in the day about it being dull and boring smack to me of writers back then not exactly understanding the noir ethos, though it's noted that there is the odd modern reviewer sharing the same complaint. It's a film very much erring on the side of bleak and moody, dabbling in the complexities of the human condition, and it's done very well, though the screenplay is hardly minus plot holes and is full of incredulous set-ups.

We also have to buy into Quinn being catnip to the dames, four of them no less! But Quinn does angry and broody very well, and he gets to do lots of both here. The aura of a town paddling in its own muck is evident, the amnesia angle merely an excuse to keep things on the side of murky, for it's imperative that we feel Johnny McBride's confusion and mistrust, and we do. All of which is framed superbly by Planer's (Criss Cross) photography, which never misses a chance for shadows and low lights.

With salty villains and sultry dames, violence and choice dialogue, and a few superb scenes (one sequence in an empty warehouse is stunning), this is very much a noir for noir lovers to sample. But with that in mind, these warnings should be noted, that as is often the way in noirville, the ending is divisive and the overt misogyny could well offend. 6.5/10

Based on a Mickey Spillane story

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 4 December 2021]

Mickey Spillane's "The Long Wait" stars Anthony Quinn, Charles Coburn, Peggie Castle, and Gene Evans.

Quinn plays Johnny McBride, who survives a horrible car crash but winds up with burned hands and amnesia. A clue leads him back to his home town where he, unbenownst to him, is wanted for the murder of the DA. And there seem to be people who don't want to ask too many questions. However, he learns one thing - a woman he knew back then, Vera West, who has left town, can tell him what actually happened.

Johnny also learns that rumor has it that Vera, to escape the bad guys, has had complete plastic surgery and changed her name - but she's back in town with her new identity. Johnny meets several women, but which one of them if any, is Vera?

Johnny proves himself a chick magnet as he becomes involved with each of these women, who work for a man named Servo - but Servo takes orders from someone else.

Unfortunately for the viewer, the potential Veras looked alike and it was hard to tell them apart. They weren't familiar enough to this viewer to be able to tell them apart.

The film has an amazing scene where a bound Peggie Castle crawls up to a tied-up Johnny, supposedly for a final kiss, but to get his gun. Stylish pulp for sure.

This is a real Mike Hammer type of story - dames, brawls, and misogyny.

Terrific Noir

[louis-king · 12 October 2004]

A well directed, well photographed little known gem of a film.

Great role for Quinn who would have made a great Mike Hammer. His primitive face and huge hands seem prepared for instant violence.

In spite of being a low budget film, the directing, acting and photography seems superior than that better known B classic 'Detour'. Gene Evans and Charles Coburn always took their character roles seriously and seemed incapable of bad performances. The lovely ballad that plays over the credits 'Once' is appropriately used throughout the movie and deserves to be a standard.

The scene where a bound-up Peggie Castle crawls to a bound-up Quinn (to get her hands on his hidden pistol under pretense of a final kiss) would have made a great paperback cover for a Spillane Novel.

Spillane's misogyny distorts noir about amnesiac battling corruption

[bmacv · 6/10 · 6 July 2002]

Contemporaneous with the noir cycle came the rise of the cheap paperback, bringing lurid crime novels with provocative cover art to racks in drugstores and bus depots. Spearheading this pulp revolution were the scribbles of Mickey Spillane, several of which became films: I, The Jury; The Long Wait; My Gun Is Quick; and Kiss Me Deadly – the only indispensable title among them.

The Long Wait remains anomalous in that Spillane's thuggish protagonist, Mike Hammer, makes no appearance. Anthony Quinn hitches a ride in a car which promptly plunges into a ravine and bursts into flame. In the fire, he loses both his fingerprints and his memory. After two years working in an oil field, he's sent on a wild-goose chase to his home town, unaware that he's wanted for the murder of the District Attorney, who was prosecuting him for embezzling a quarter-million. His cauterized fingertips force the police to release him, but other parties want him dead. But he forges ahead with a two-pronged quest: to vindicate himself, and to find the girl he's told he once loved. She used to be called Vera – shades of Moose Malloy and Velma in Murder, My Sweet (Farewell, My Lovely) – but now she's...somebody else.

The four prime candidates for Verahood (Peggie Castle, Mary Ellen Kay, Shawn Smith and Dolores Donlon) become pasteboard targets at which Spillane can spew out his misogynistic venom. They're nothing more than scheming nymphos, throwing themselves at Quinn despite any prior arrangements they've made to insure their kept-women comforts. Inevitably they're terrorized and slapped around.

The movie's most visually arresting sequence (thanks to cinematographer Frank, or Franz, Planer) proves also its most sadistic: in an abandoned factory, lit with Expressionistic panache, Castle, bound with rope and under the muzzle of a gun, crawls across the floor to give Quinn a final kiss. Aficionados of film noir must, of course, grapple with the nettlesome problem of the femme fatale, the alluring but heartless Lilith who brings men gladly to ruin. But The Long Wait preserves an unregenerate, macho view of womankind that surpasses the merely dated or distasteful. It's a movie about the corruption of a small city that never questions the corruption of its own vision.

A poor man's "Mirage"

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 13 June 2018]

If you liked Mirage, rent The Long Wait. It came ten years earlier, but it feels like a poor man's Mirage. Anthony Quinn stars in the film adaptation of Mickey Spillane's novel. He survives a terrible car accident, with amnesia and burned hands as his souvenirs. He has no memory of his past, but when he finds out he's wanted for murder, he has to work quickly to prove his innocence.

This is actually a pretty entertaining flick, with plenty of eye candy and good acting from Tony. The only detriments were the leading ladies in the film. They looked so much alike, I kept getting them confused, and their collective talent was maybe one tenth that of a normal actress. The only way I was able to excuse it was to believe they were all cast as favors to producers, and in the story, they all were supposed to look similar. Tony is trying to find a girl from his past, and he-and the audience-can't tell if she's Peggie Castle, Shirley Patterson, Dolores Donlon, or Mary Ellen Kay. I didn't really like being confused, but that was the point.

Charles Coburn adds a bit of class to the movie and somewhat makes up for the lousy acting of the four women. Really, though, it's Tony's show. Without him, it would be a terrible B-picture with low energy and bad pacing. Tony's incapable of giving a low energy performance, and he adds a fantastic spice to the tension-filled scenes with the ladies. And if you're wondering how many of the girls he romances, the answer is all of them. Want to rent it now?

The Long Wait (1954)

[MartinTeller · 6/10 · 3 January 2012]

I've had about enough of amnesia stories. It's just a goofy premise and is rarely satisfying, unfortunately it pops up in noir far too often. This one doesn't do anything that original with the concept, and is riddled with plot holes and unanswered questions, but at least it's done with some panache. Thanks to an excellent cast of pulpy characters and terrific cinematography by Franz Planer, it carries the feel of classic hard-boiled noir. There is one fantastic sequence where a tied-up Peggy Castle crawls across a warehouse floor at gunpoint to lay a steamy smooch on our hero, Anthony Quinn. However, I don't care much for Spillane's brand of misogynistic maschismo. This isn't Mike Hammer, but it might as well be, with him throwing punches at every guy he meets, and every gal throwing themselves at him. So while it's probably a real treat for Spillane fans, it's not my cup of tea (or glass of bourbon).

The Mighty Quinn

[kalbimassey · 8/10 · 24 April 2022]

It's worth every minute of the long wait in order to experience one of film noir's most indelible moments. A single, unforgettable set piece - stark, surreal, sensual and sadistic in equal measure. Opening with a crane shot, Anthony Quinn and Peggie Castle, battered and bruised by brutal bad boys (Gene Evans and Bruno DeSota), with no means of escape, seem about to bid a torturous farewell to the game of life. Castle, in particular, is stunning as the used and abused moll, bloodied and beleaguered, but demonstrating unquenchable defiance...... and it's not even the climax, which, when it arrives delivers an ironic twist, prior to the movie's playful romantic joker in the final scene.

Quinn is the ultimate three time loser. Following a horrific road accident, he temporarily loses the use of his hands, loses his memory and discovering that he is a murder suspect, stands to lose his life.

Fortunately, he hasn't lost his marbles. Moreover, having a head that's emptier than a hermit's address book, strangely works in Quinn's favour, quickening his thoughts, sharpening his awareness and heightening his survival instinct. His grim, relentless determination to clear his name, break the web of corruption which is strangling the town and find the killer, leads to close involvement with beautiful women of varied repute and to the bank where he was previously employed as a teller.

A sadly neglected and under appreciated picture, of genuine weight and substance, my one minor misgiving is that so momentous a movie be marred by so mundane a moniker. Still, at least it's better than: The BIG Wait.... Just!

Worth it for 5 minutes? No....

[adverts · 4/10 · 20 February 2024]

An extremely tedious noir that goes on waaaaaay too long for it's own good. Those familiar with Spillane's novels know what to expect. A lot of machismo, women falling at the lead's feet. The only thing missing is an anti Communist rant. There were so many "blondes" in the film, I couldn't keep track. Quinn manhandled and kissed woman after woman - in apartments, department stores, wherever. It got very silly.

To be honest, the film started fairly well. About 20 minutes in though, the tedium set in. Anthony Quinn is quite good, but some of the actors can't pull their weight.

The only saving grace is a wild 5 minute expressionistic scene towards the end of the film. Not enough to recommend the picture though....

"An honest man doesn't use a silencer"

[richardchatten · 9/10 · 6 December 2022]

Once the dreadful title song is over this proves a surprising but welcome departure by Victor Saville into Mickey Spillane territory, which shares with 'Kiss Me Deadly' a formidable foursome of females (one of whom actually tells the hero "Oh mister! I haven't been kissed like that for a long, long time!" and a sense of humour that somewhat disqualifies it as a bona fide film noir.

Anthony Quinn (who inevitably turns out to be called "Johnny" and finds himself surrounded by guys in big suits shooting at him) gains in assurance as the film progresses back in the days before winning his first Oscar turned his head.

Not much oomph

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 14 February 2023]

THE LONG WAIT is a lesser-known film noir of the era, made after the first wave was effectively done and dusted. Anthony Quinn is cast against type in this one in a Bogart-style as an amnesic hero trying to work out whether he himself is a villain or not. Sadly, this is something of a plodding little movie, light on action and suspense and heavy on the chit-chat. A great deal of the running time, too much in fact, is given over to Quinn's relationship with various women, some of whom are the usual femme fatales, while the bad guys seem particularly unimposing for the era. Passably entertaining, but if you're looking for oomph you won't find it here.

Next to "The Falcon," my film noir favorite.

[DianaGal · 11 September 1999]

One professional reviewer calls this film "meandering, actionless." I'd call it complex and psychological, with well-developed characters and some memorable dialog. It is quintessential film noir with a torrid romance thrown in. You have to suspend your disbelief to buy it, but you'll gladly toss it away and revel in the intensity of it's emotions and unexpected plot twists. It's not just a battle of wits with dangerous adversaries, it's a hero's quest for truth and a search for lost love. You're kept guessing as to the finish right until the end -- more importantly, you care how it ends. I saw it at least a half dozen times back in the 1950s and 60s. I'd like to see it again and discover if it's as good as I remember it -- or whether I was just a hormone-charged teenager with a crush on Anthony Quinn. ;-)

The Long Wait was worth it

[wilvram · 9/10 · 7 December 2022]

Sure had a long wait to see this having read the book. Its last showing on UK tv seems to have been well over half a century ago prior to it turning up on the indispensable Talking Pictures yesterday. So often a film you've long wanted to see turns out a disappointment, certainly not the case here.

In one sense almost a classic Noir of an amnesiac trying to piece together his past, menaced by criminals and the law and becoming involved with four glamorous women, with the requisite Noir atmosphere enhanced by the lighting and Franz Planer's superb photography. On the other hand it also falls into the category of a lone individual taking on the crime syndicate that holds sway over the town. At the centre is a convincing, well-judged performance from Anthony Quinn as McBride, bringing what could have been a stock character to life, his quick-temper cooling as he starts to figure out what is going on. The stunning Peggie Castle, so unforgettable in the previous year's Spillane, I The Jury, features prominently in the slightly sadistic but most memorable scene toward the end.

Best forgotten like his so called lost memory

[carlbushmann · 2/10 · 10 February 2023]

Im not a massive fan of Mr Quinn to begin with--- so it will be no surprise that i watched this so called noir movie with impedipous astonisdhment (ie) tthe banal dialogue and amatuer over acting throughout -the wooden actors trying to be realisticly dramaitc is truly laughable -the scritpt is total rubbish--& the story is so stupid-I fast forwarded most of the banal stuff but stoped now & then to relisih being gobsmacked how bad the movie actually was / is ect-- so if like me you enjoy watching a terrible movie to demolish it after wards wiih scathing reviews--- then you willl love this this movie trust me--ive just watched it on ( ff speed )--so Im actually going to watch it all over again later in the week to enjoy laughing even more at how banal it is -yes of course I gave it two stars for the amusement factor I got while viewing it thats only fair is it not ---

" And all the children are insane,all the children are insane,Waiting for the summer rain,yeah."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 24 August 2014]

With a poll coming up on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best titles of 1954,I started to search around for near-forgotten Film Noirs to view.With having heard about lead actor Anthony Quinn,I was thrilled to stumble up on a title,which would hopefully make the long wait I've had of seeing Quinn on screen something that was worth waiting for.

The plot:

Hitch-hiking Johnny McBride gets a lift from a driver,who ends up crashing his car and leaving McBride in a coma for 2 years.

2 Years later:

Waking up from the coma McBride discovers that along with his finger prints having been burnt off in the crash,that he is also suffering from amnesia,with any type of ID that McBride owned having been burnt in the crash.Walking out of hospital at last,McBride starts attempting to put his life back together.Meeting 2 people who claim to be friends,McBride is told to go to a small town,due to a shop in the area having a photo of him.Unknown to McBride,the 2 friends are actually people who want to claim a reward over McBride being linked to a bank robbery and a murder.

Reaching the town,McBride soon run into 2 police officers who arrest him for murder.With their main piece of evidence being the finger prints on a gun that McBride used to rob a bank that he worked at,the cops are horrified to discover,that all of McBride's finger prints have been burnt off.Horrified by the allegations,McBride decides that he has waited long enough to start search around the city's underground,in the hope of uncovering his long forgotten past.

View on the film:

For their adaptation of Mickey Spillane's novel,writers Alan Green and Lesser Samuels smartly keep the audiences unrevealing of the past at the same distance that McBride is heading towards,which allow for each of the films sharp twist & turns to strike the viewer with the same shock that they hit McBride with.Whilst the ending is disappointingly up- beat,for the rest of the running time,the writers create a wonderfully grim Film Noir world.Giving some strong hints that McBride has shell shock from serving time in the war as he obsessively searches for his near-mythical dame,the writers paint the world that McBride attempts to remember as one that's rotten to the core,as McBride discovers to his horror that he may be linked to an underworld which has got a firm grip on the entire city.

Wrapping the city in shadows as McBride goes in search of his past, director Victor Saville and cinematographer Franz Planer build an atmospheric city which is covered in dirt,with Savile and Planer making every street look like it has been infected with the characters morals,as each building appears to be rotting away.Along with the filthy Film Noir streets,Savile and Planer cake McBride's (played by an amazing,rough Anthony Quinn) in sweat,which drips across the floor as he delves deeper into the underbelly of the city and uncovers the past which he has long waited to find.

Deserves More Viewing

[joeparkson · 9/10 · 27 July 2009]

I see by the credits that this gem of a noir was filmed by Franz Planer, who did many classics. I've seen most of the Mickey Spillane movies, and this one has the most distinctive photography. The director Victor Saville seems to have been a better producer than a director. he also had an affinity for Mickey Spillane; he produced nearly all the Mike Hammer movies in the 1950s.

The cast is outstanding; besides the great Anthony Quinn, there are several lovely girls, the best being Peggie Castle. Even the trampy woman at the beginning who gets a rude kiss-off from Quinn plays her small part to perfection.

The doctor who treats Quinn's hands at the beginning has a familiar face. I've seen him in many TV shows as well as movies.

It's impossible to make a bad movie when you have Charles Coburn and Gene Evans backing you up.