Jigsaw

Rating:
Summary: Pieces missing
Review: JIGSAW has just enough going for it to merit recommendation, with emphasis on the word `just.' It's a ramshackle story of an assistant New York City district attorney (Franchot Tone) who's hot on the trail of the shadowy racist hate group, the Crusaders.
With low-key photography and acting, JIGSAW has a naturalistic look and feel to it. It's one of those late 40's gray city movies that included scenes taking place in real locations - real dirty city streets with real cats rummaging through overflowing trash cans.
There's a mystery behind the confused mystery the movie presents. While Tone's character is investigating what was then a stereotypical Communist group, JIGSAW includes a number of cameos by prominent stars, many of who were targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as belonging to subversive organizations prior to World War II. It was a time of loyalty oaths and black-listings, so perhaps the cameo stars appeared to indicate their opposition to such organizations as the Crusaders. Two of the cameo stars belonged to the Committee for the First Amendment, which publicly called for the abolishment of HUAC, so perhaps the "harmless lunatics" who support mob-run rackets like the Crusaders aren't Trotskyites after all. Considering the political manipulations this movie exposes, you might even interpret the Crusaders as a front for a HUAC-like politician.
Such is the sea this movie swims in. There's the Good Girl brunette and the Bad Girl Blonde, the political fixer and the exasperated boss. Standard stuff ably handled and nicely photographed. I won't spoil the surprise by naming any of the cameo stars, but the first one appears about 15 minutes into the movie.