Coral Chandler from DEAD RECKONING (1947)

Film noir and its losers...

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There are seven deadly sins and seven wonders of the world. Lizabeth Scott's face is a strong contender for number eight on both counts. Impossibly, almost offensively beautiful and with a voice to match, only slightly higher though raspier than Lauren Bacall's, every second she was not on screen, was a wasted second. And film noir was her playground. Logically. In Desert Fury (1947), Pitfall (1948), Too Late For Tears (1949), among others, she proved that she was one of its key players. And in Dead Reckoning (1947), she showed us why.

Written by Steve Fisher and Oliver H. P. Garrett, Dead Reckoning (dir. John Cromwell) is one of those labyrinthine noirs that nobody understands. But let's try, shall we? Captain Rip Murdock (Bogart) walks into a church as he tries to hide from the police. He tells the priest what led him to this moment in case they kill him. Flashback time! Murdock and Sergeant Johnny Drake (William Prince) are to be awarded the Medal of Honor, but Johnny mysteriously runs away and disappears, leaving Murdock to try and find out what happened. Turns out, Johnny had to run away to avoid murder charges, after becoming the main suspect in the murder of a rich old man whose wife Johnny was in love with. The wife is Coral Chandler, played by Lizabeth Scott and you better believe her entrance is every bit as femme fatale-y as they come.

'Cinderella with the husky voice' Murdock

Cinderella with the husky is now singing in a nightclub, unsurprisingly. She's left her past behind her, but it eventually catches up with her and she's back in that convoluted plot in no time. Thugs like Martinelli (Morris Carnovsky) and Krause (Martin Miller) may or may not have something to do with the whole thing, and Coral may or may not be lying. And that's just the thing. Is she? Who is she? Is she just femme fatale-ing us all or is there something more? Murdock falls for her pretty quick, of course, and she tells him all about her past.

'I lived by the train tracks. I was a carhop in Texas, a cigarette girl...' Coral Chandler

Coral Chandler isn't particulary ground-breaking as a film noir character. She isn't necessarily unique or profound. She is pretty much a run-of-the-mill femme fatale. But there is something just so endearing about her. She makes you feel things you know you probably shouldn't. You believe her despite knowing better. You believe her because you want to believe her. You want her to be different. Despite being one of the foremost performers in one of cinema's darkest genres, Lizabeth Scott is immensely likable. And that likability comes through in every scene. Including her final moments on screen. Only someone of her calibre can make you feel for her and mourn her in such a way that you forget who Coral Chandler was and who she may or may not have pretended to be.

Coral Chandler is well-written character that probably doesn't warrant any more attention than she gets in the noir universe. But Scott's charisma seals the deal. Her ambiguity somehow earns her an unusual level of sympathy that is, in and of itself, unique. She is bad, and we love her as if she's good. And she gets the short end of the stick. Coral Chandler loses in the end.

We bid farewell to Coral Chandler and Dead Reckoning. Our next loser gets involved in an armored truck robbery against his better judgement. The film is Criss Cross (1949), the actor is Burt Lancaster and the loser... is Steve Thompson.

See you on the sunny side of the street.