The Chase

The Chase is a 1946 American film noir directed by Arthur Ripley. The screenplay by Philip Yordan is based on Cornell Woolrich's 1944 novel The Black Path of Fear. It stars Robert Cummings as Chuck Scott, a veteran who suffers from hallucinations. When he returns a lost wallet to violent mobster Eddie Roman (Steve Cochran), Eddie offers to hire him as a chauffeur. Chuck becomes mixed up in a plot to help Eddie's wife Lorna (Michèle Morgan) run off to Havana to escape her cruel husband. Plot Chuck Scott is a World War II veteran who is now a penniless drifter in Miami tormented by bizarre dreams. After finding a wallet and returning it to Eddie Roman, a vicious gangster, he is hired by Roman to be his driver. Roman tests his new driver, whom he nicknames Scotty, by assuming control of his car from the back seat. Scotty does not know that Roman has an accelerator in the rear passenger compartment. This bizarre trick unnerves Scotty and Roman's right-hand man Gino. Roman reveals himself as a tough gangster by killing any competition, and even locks his wife Lorna in her room every night to control her. Lorna goes for a drive every night, and one day she asks Scotty to take her to Havana, Cuba in exchange for $1,000. He consents and realizes that he is in love with her. When they reach Havana, they stop for a drink at a club, where Lorna is stabbed to death while in Scotty's arms. All the evidence, including the fact that Scotty had apparently purchased the knife earlier that day, points to Scotty as killer, and he realizes that he is being framed. A photograph from the club that proves Scotty's innocence is destroyed by Gino, who has come to Cuba to exact revenge against Lorna and Scotty. Scotty escapes police custody but is supposedly gunned down by Gino when he returns to the curio store from which the knife was purchased. Scotty's face is never shown during this scene. Scotty wakes in Miami on the night that he and Lorna are supposed to abscond to Havana. He is sweating profusely and immediately takes his pills, presumably prescribed to treat his posttraumatic stress disorder from battle. Scotty remembers nothing, and visits the naval hospital to seek treatment from his doctor, Commander Davidson. Davidson urges him to try to remember why he was dressed as a driver, but Scotty is unable to do so. The two go drinking at the Florida Club.