"The Flame" from 1947 is a B film starring John Carroll, Vera Ralston, Robert Paige, Broderick Crawford, and Victor Sen Yung.

In the beginning of the story, George McAllister (John Carroll) shoots someone. He goes home, calls the cops to report it, and then, while waiting to be arrested, reads a letter sent to him by Carlotta (Ralston).

The film dissolves into flashback. Carlotta is a nurse in the home of Barry McAllister (Paige). He apparently has some disease and not a tremendous amount of time to live. On this particular evening, Carlotta has some harsh words for Barry. However, the next day, he proposes, and she accepts.

Turns out the harsh words were to express her discontent with living there and force him into a proposal. Carlotta is actually in love with Barry's brother George. Since George is not in Barry's will, having Carlotta marry him is the way to get to his money.

Things - no surprise - don't go as planned. First of all, Carlotta begins to realize that all the stories George has told her about Barry aren't true, and that he does care about his brother.

Then, Broderick Crawford enters the scene and blackmails George.

Vera Ralston was Czech; here she's supposed to be French, though she has a Czech accent. Though limited as an actress, she is okay in this role. Victor Sen Yung has a small part, but he is effective. Carroll is a good bad guy, and Paige is a good nice guy.

Barry's big house lends some neat atmosphere.

John H Auer was a major director at Republic Pictures and gave some good films, with the major star of the studio, John Carroll, who also served under Allan Dwann's direction. In this film noir, he is not brilliant but good enough to face Broderick Crawford, whom I did not expect in a Republic film. A classic story for a film noir, with a tepid Vera Ralston performance. Only the ending is very interesting, dark, gloomy and reminds me the end of LE DOULOS, from film maker Jean-Pierre Melville.

"The Flame" stars John Carroll, a second-tier actor who made a living mostly playing sleazy or cocky guys. In many ways, he's Republic studio's answer to Dan Duryea. In the second lead is Vera Ralston, the girlfriend of the head of the studio that made the picture. While her Czech accent was problematic, she was pretty good in this movie...although she has a reputation as a terrible actress who only got to where she did because of her connections. Regardless, she's good in this picture.

The story begins with George (John Carroll) shooting someone to death. In the process, he himself is shot. Soon, he phones the police to report the killing...and then the film goes into flashback mode where it stays most of the picture. Oddly, occasionally the viewpoint changes from his to his ex-girlfriend (Ralston)...something that seems sloppy when they both address the camera. In other words, is it his story to tell or hers? Regardless, the tale is about blackmail and it's an odd case where another blackmailer discovers the blackmail and begins to blackmail the original blackmailer! What exactly is going on here? Watch the film.

Despite the changing narration and Ralston's odd accent (she's supposed to be French...but just sounds Czech),the plot is quite engaging and the film is very well written considering it comes from Republic...a studio mostly known for B-movies...and mostly with cowboys. It is a very unique film...one that is excellent for folks who want to see something gritty and different.

By the way, although Victor Sen Yung was not a big-time actor, mostly assigned to secondary roles such as playing sons for Charlie Chan, here he really showed his talents in a scene late in the movie. A tiny scene...but an amazingly well acted one.