The bad boys of film noir are here! And they never made a movie together. Let’s dive in!
Ohio-born Brian Donlevy started his career in New York, modelling for advertisements, before moving onto the theatre. Hollywood came calling in the 1920s and for the next three decades he was mainstay in film noir and dramas, in films such as Union Pacific (1939, dir. Cecil B. DeMille), Beau Geste (1939, dir. William A. Wellmann), for which he recieved an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor, The Glass Key (1942, dir. Stuart Heisler) and The Big Combo (1955, dir. Joseph H. Lewis). His piercing eyes and deadpan, cold delivery made him a reliable character actor who could play big tough guys better than almost anyone.
Anyone except Charles McGraw. Iowa-born McGraw was a film noir staple and a darned good one at that. I’ve often spoken about how he literally scares me half to death every time he’s on screen and if you’ve ever seen The Killers (1946, dir. Robert Siodmak), T-Men (1947, dir. Anthony Mann), and especially Border Incident (1949, dir. Mann), you’ll understand why. And though he did play leads occasionally, such as The Narrow Margin (1952, dir. Richard Fleischer) and Roadblock (1951, dir. Harold Daniels), he was one of the ultimate character actors of his generation. With his cold stare and menacing attitude, he particularly excelled at villainous roles.
I’d like to think that sometimes in the late 40s or early to mid-50s, when they were both at their peak, they would have made a noir together. McGraw would have probably played some outlaw of sorts, who runs around killing people, while Donlevy would have been a corrupt police officer or maybe even a former associate of McGraw’s character. Imagine the scenes between them! One of them would end up dead, for sure.
They seem like such an obvious pair, it’s kind of interesting that they never made a film together. Sadly, Donlevy died in 1972 from cancer at 71, and McGraw died in 1980 at the age of 66. He fell in his home and tragically bled to death.