Chicago Calling (1951)
"$53 means life or death to him!"

Title: Chicago Calling
Original Title: Chicago Calling
Release Date: 1951-12-31
Status: Released
Rating: 7/10 (from 2 votes)
Language: EN
Genres: Drama, Thriller
Production Companies: Arrowhead Pictures
Bill Cannon (Dan Duryea) loses everything to alcohol: his job, his family, his self-respect. Soon after his wife and daughter leave him, he receives word his little girl has been injured in a car accident outside Chicago. His wife will call later with news, but Bill’s short the $53 he needs to keep his phone from being disconnected. Filled with anguish, he heads out onto the Los Angeles streets to find some way to come up with the cash. As his character encounters expected cruelty and unexpected kindness, Duryea takes what might have been mere melodrama and turns it into a perceptive examination of one shattered soul. The other fine star of this race-against-the-clock programmer is an unglamorous, lunch-bucket L.A. rarely captured on film.
Cast

Dan Duryea
Bill Cannon

Mary Anderson
Mary Cannon

Gordon Gebert
Bobby

Ross Elliott
Jim

Melinda Casey
Nancy Cannon

Judy Brubaker
Babs Kimball

Marcia Mae Jones
Peggy (as Marsha Jones)

Marsha Jones
Peggy

Roy Engel
Pete

Jean Harvey
Christine