Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

ShangLuda Admirable film.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Ed-Shullivan No doubt Virginia Mayo is a classy, beautiful dramatic actress. In this film she plays a young woman named Carla North. Ms. North is attempting to make a living working the nightclub circuit going to where the jobs paid sufficiently to provide her food and shelter. By a series of of unfortunate but not related incidents the owner of a large freight company named Johnny Torno (played by George Raft) is trying to solve the mystery of a missing motel bible that his recently murdered brother while taking his last dying breath alludes to will solve who murdered him in that motel room. Johnny Torno then finds Carla North who happened to be in that same room shortly after his brothers murder. After eliminating Carla North as a suspect he engages her to work with him in finding out the current location of the other motel room customers who may have stolen the motel room bible that his brother said provides the only clue to his murder.So big brother Johnny ignores his freight company responsibilities and with the help of the motel bellhop and the beautiful Carla North finds out who subsequently rented that same motel room over the next week in an effort to find out who took that bible that is the key to solving his brothers mysterious death and murder.I am sure you noticed that I rated this film a dismal 3 out of 10. The 3 points are all attributed to the classy Virginia Mayo who plays Carla North, as well as to actor Raymond Burr who plays the recently released convict Nick Cherney. Cherney served his time in prison for fudging Johnny Torno's books and embezzling funds from the Torno Freight company. So the big burly bad convict Nick Cherney sought vengeance from Johnny Torno for putting him behind bars and what better way to seek vengeance than to have Johnny Torno's little priest brother whacked by his cellmate Rocky (Harry Morgan aka Dragnet's detective Bill Gannon) who was being released from prison before he was.This film noir is an okay time waster except for the fact that the so called male star of this film, Johnny Torno, played by the cardboard acting emotionless little George Raft kept sinking the film every time he opened his mouth and/or moved across the black and white screen with his hands stiffly held next to his hips as if he was a robot. Johnny Torno (George Raft) in my view was unable to portray on the screen the heartbroken older brother of a hero priest who survived five (5) years overseas serving in the war, only to be murdered and leaving his brother Johnny with a task to find his murderer and get even. There is one scene in a public washroom where Johnny Torno confronts the recently released convict Nick Cherney and commences to put a beating on him. Let's be real folks, George Raft stands a mere 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighs maybe a generous 135 pounds. The convict that Johhny Torno is supposed to be laying a beating on Nick Cherney, is played by the burly Raymond Burr who at the time, stood at least 6 feet tall and 250 pounds. This is just another example of how poorly cast George Raft was in the leading role of Johnny Torno.The Red Light title was merely used as a result of the very recent huge success that was ALL Virgina Mayo's for starring in the earlier 1949 release of another film noir titled "White Heat" which starred a real action/drama star in James Cagney. As of my writing this review, the 1949 Red Light film received an average IMDB rating of 6.4 by only 610 IMDB users. As for the much more critically acclaimed and earlier 1949 film release "White Heat" has received a much higher average IMDB rating of 8.2 . The key here is that this higher 8.2 rating of "White Heat" is attributed to a whopping average of 22,696 IMDB viewers, compared to only 610 IMDB user ratings for red Light.A title can help a film but it is the stars who will actually make a movie great as was the case with White Heat and compartively mediocre (at best) as is the case with this film noir Red Light. It is unfortunate that the attractive and good performance of Virginia Mayo was assigned to work with one of the worst actors of the time period, that being the short cardboard acting of George Raft.Sorry, but I call them like I see them. I give this film a 3 out of 10 rating.

a_chinn I'm not all that familiar with director Roy Del Ruth, but this was a surprisingly solid little film noir. George Raft's brother is murdered, but left a clue as to the identity of his killer in a Gideon Bible, the MacGuffin of the piece, which Raft spends most of the film trying to locate. There's a fine cast for a low budget crime picture, which includes the under appreciated Virginia Mayo, along with Gene Lockhart, Raymond Burr, and Henry Morgan (who nearly steals the picture with his villainous phychotic supporting role). Overall, the film isn't all that original, but it has a strong cast and solid direction, which makes it a must see for fans of film noir.

rsda0723 First of all, we all agree that George Raft was wooden and didn't have a clue what a good script looked like. He did turn down CASABLANCA, MALTESE FALCON and DOUBLE INDEMNITY. But this script produced and directed by Roy Del Ruth is bottom of the barrel. How Virginia mayo ever got tied up to this production is a mystery. A waste of her time and effort especially since she was in a flurry of excellent films like WHITE HEAT and Colorado TERRITORY.At least Raymond Burr and Henry Morgan bring some life to the proceedings. Dmitri Tiomkin's score hammers home every scene like a sledge hammer. He makes Max Steiner look subtle. He uses Ave Maria to the point of nausea. I can't imagine how this film could appeal to many folks looking for a good suspenseful film noir. A tepid try not worth your time.

John Downes I thinks this film stinks, right from the opening titles dominated by a dreadful derivative score from Dmitri Tiomkin. Did nobody tell him that the Gregorian chants for the Mass for the Dead are so nineteenth century? Or that Berlioz and Liszt flogged it death (so to speak) a hundred years before? And as for that Ave Maria stuff, it's just sick-making. Barf.I was going to give this tripe three out of ten, but then I recalled Raymond Burr as a pretty good bad guy and upped it to five. He is the sole redeeming feature of this very poor movie. (Is it a spoiler to say Raymond Burr plays a bad guy in this? I'm assuming not, he was making a career out of such roles by then).But as for George Raft... oh dear oh dear. How did a no-talent bum like that ever make it in the movie business? Is he even slightly credible in any of the roles he plays? The day before watching this I saw Background to Danger (1943) and I thought to myself is this guy always this bad? Now that's another poor film almost redeemed by the top notch supporting cast (Lorre, Greenstreet), but the dead weight of Mr Raft is just too much for them to carry. As I said on one of the message boards, the fairies at the bottom of my garden would eat this so-called tough guy up for breakfast and then call for their porridge.The saccharine ending had me reaching for the sick-bag too. I can't blame that on Mr Raft, that's solely down to the production team.Unless you're a Raymond Burr fan, this film is just a waste of time.