Private Hell 36

L.A. police detectives Cal Bruner and Jack Farnham are partners. After a fleeing suspect is killed, they discover a box filled with money and Bruner pockets $80,000 over Farnham's objections. Farnham reluctantly accepts a key to a safe deposit box so that he can access his half, but he immediately becomes agitated and racked with guilt. Bruner receives a call from the dead man's partner threatening to reveal the cop's deceit unless he gets his money back. Farnham demands that they turn in the money, but Bruner says he intends to murder the blackmailer and claim self-defense. Bruner finally agrees to return the money instead, but he is actually preparing to kill his own partner. When the crook suddenly shows up Bruner wounds Farnham, but Bruner is killed by a shot from the dark. Their boss, Captain Michaels, appears and reveals that the blackmailing crook was just a ruse.

• Ida Lupino as Lilli Marlowe
• Steve Cochran as Cal Bruner
• Howard Duff as Jack Farnham
• Dean Jagger as Capt. Michaels
• Dorothy Malone as Francey Farnham
• King Donovan as Evney Serovitch
• Dabbs Greer as Sam Marvin
• William Boyett as Stimson
• Tom Monroe as Patrolman Tom
• Richard Deacon as Mr. Mace
• James Anderson as Patrolman in Locker Room
• Bridget Duff as Bridget Farnham
• Kenneth Patterson as Detective Lt. Lubin
• Chester Conklin as Murdered Man

The extensive racetrack scenes in the film were shot at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California. The interiors of real bars and shops were used so the actors could walk out into actual streets within the same scene.

The film starts with a pre-credit sequence before the first titles appear in an early modernist foreshadowing of the action teaser before it became commonplace on television series of the sixties. Typical of The Film[m]akers productions the last title card misspells “Made in Holl[y]wood, USA.“

The film is notable as one of the early Siegel B movies on which future auteur Sam Peckinpah (credited under his first name of David) learned his craft as a dialogue director.[2]

Film critic Bosley Crowther wrote a tepid review, "A critic might note that attention is sharply divided between the main theme and the incidental character that Miss Lupino plays. This is somewhat understandable, since Miss Lupino happens to be one of the partners in Filmakers and a coauthor of the script. But let's not worry about it. No deplorable damage is done. There's not very much here to damage. Just an average melodrama about cops."[3]

• Private Hell 36 at IMDb
• Private Hell 36 at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Private Hell 36 at AllMovie
• Private Hell 36 at the TCM Movie Database
• Private Hell 36 at Film Noir of the Week by Megan Abbott