Product Details

• Actors: Kim Novak, Fred MacMurray, Phil Carey
• Directors: Richard Quine
• Format: NTSC, Black & White
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Goodtimes Home Video
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007XPV4A
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #246,283 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Though she had already played bit roles in a brace of RKO Radio films, Kim Novak was officially "introduced" in this, her first starring feature for Columbia. Novak is cast as Lona McLane, the gorgeous but hard-boiled moll of gangster Harry Wheeler (Paul Richards). Assigned to track down the $210,000 stolen by Wheeler in a bank robbery, superficially honest police detective Paul Sheridan (Fred MacMurray) puts Lona under round-the-clock surveillance. Succumbing to her charms, Paul falls in love with Lola, who tries to persuade him to bump off Wheeler so that she and Paul can abscond with the two grand. Initially resisting this notion, the half-bewitched Sheridan finally agrees, but after killing Wheeler he is forced to murder his own partner, detective Paddy Dolan (William Nourse), to cover his tracks. Descending even further into corruption thanks to the scheming Lola, Paul ends up being pursued by his longtime friend and fellow officer Rick McAllister (Phil Carey), and also manages to involve Rick's innocent girl friend Ann (Dorothy Malone) in the sordid intrigue. -- Hal Erickson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bit of Double Indemnity, a bit of Rear Window and Vertigo., March 22, 2005

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yygsgsdrassil "yygsgsdrassil" (Crossroads America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pushover (VHS Tape)

...but the for the money, the doll wasn't worth it. In another film in which a cop falls head over heels crazy over Kim Novak, and he begins to case her like he's a stalker, we find the MacMurray character falling deeper into the dark void as he tries to get the gal and the dough. He ends up lying to his co-workers as he covers up for the scamming and all. It more or less helps to reinforce the idea that cops think like crooks, but of course never act out on their thoughts. It is done in RKO noir B&W, so you can smell the unfiltered cigarettes wafting thru the darkness.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Voyeurism Is a More Powerful Theme than the 1950s Kittenish Spider Woman., July 14, 2010

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mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pushover (VHS Tape)

"Pushover" is an example of a middle-of-the-road film noir well into the 1950s: not as interesting as a comparable film would have been in the 1940s but reflecting rapidly changing post-War ideals. Police detective Paul Sheridan (Fred MacMurray) is asked to get close enough to the young beauty Leona McLane (Kim Novak) to discover if she is really the mistress of bank robber Harry Wheeler (Paul Richards). When Paul is certain, he and partner Rick McAllister (Phil Carey) stake out her apartment. But Leona has figured out that Paul is a cop, and the prospect of this alluring blond and her boyfriend's stolen $200,000 prove too tempting for Paul. He concocts a plan to get the woman and the loot, which, predictably, turns out not to be as slick as he hoped.

Leona is exemplary of a 1950s femme fatale: kittenish, brainless, helpless, and devious almost in spite of herself. She's not the single-minded master manipulator of the 1940s. Kim Novak fills the bill but seems to do little else than give come-hither looks until late in the film. Paul is an older man, determined to get that money more out of boredom than ambition for high living. "Pushover" would be a run-of-the-mill example of film noir late in the cycle, as classic crime films were withering under pressure from television, color, and post-War ideals, if it were not for its heavy dose of voyeurism. We spend a large part of this film watching people watch other people. Paul and Rick are not just surveilling Leona's apartment but spying on every young woman in the building, setting up an odd power dynamic.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Blonde Beats a Badge Every Time, July 15, 2007

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pushover (VHS Tape)

Really taut little thriller, with enough cat and mouse to satisfy fans of the old Tom and Jerry. Fred Mac Murray's cop starts out as a professional but ends up in a vortex of crime thanks to the compelling allure of the shapely Miss Novak. Good thing she's called on to do little more than stand around looking sexy, because her bad, breathy imitation of Marilyn M. in the opening garage scene had me reaching for the off button. I gather Columbia (read Harry Cohn) had high hopes of launching Novak's career with this role. Too bad she had to compete with a hundred other bosomy blonde Marilyn's for the honor. I like the seduction scene with its subtly unzipped zipper, about as far as the screen could go at that time. The plot wrinkles get pretty complicated at times, but the pace keeps moving nicely along. Then too, the final line presents a cleverly poignant slice of insight.There's the inevitable comparison with the thematically similar Double Idemnity, but then Novak is no Stanwyck and MacMurray is a ten dissapated years older. Still, this little suspenser needs no help from the past and can stand firmly on its own.