711 Ocean Drive (1950)
711 Ocean Drive is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Joseph M. Newman and starring Edmond O’Brien, Joanne Dru and Otto Kruger.
Director – Joseph M. Newman
Writers – Richard English, Francis Swann
Cast –
Edmond O’Brien as Mal Granger
Joanne Dru as Gail Mason
Otto Kruger as Carl Stephans
Barry Kelley as Vince Walters
Dorothy Patrick as Trudy Maxwell
Don Porter as Larry Mason
Howard St. John as Lieutenant Pete Wright
Robert Osterloh as Gizzi
Sammy White as Chippie Evans
Cleo Moore as Mal’s date (uncredited)
Watch “711 Ocean Drive” (1950)
Plot
Telephone technician Mal Granger, with knowledge of telephones and electronics, is hired by gangster Vince Walters to expand Walters’ legitimate business that is a front for an illegal bookmaking operation. The expansion is a great success, and Granger also develops a better system for gathering information at racetracks. Granger wants a cut of the action and threatens to leave unless Walters makes him a 20% partner. Walters accedes to the demand.
When Walters tries to collect from a bookie, the bookie kills first Walters, then himself. Granger takes control of the wire service and the racket, making him a target for Lieutenant Wright of the Los Angeles police.
East Coast mobster Larry Mason is sent by boss Carl Stephans to persuade Granger to join his syndicate. Granger and Mason’s wife Gail are attracted to each other.
Granger decides to accept a 50/50 split with his new partners. Some of the independent bookies do not like the new arrangement (and the extra 20% “protection” fee) and refuse to go along. They are roughed up by Syndicate goons.
Granger’s assistant Trudy discovers that he is being shortchanged. Granger complains and is told that the shortfall is the result of “necessary expenses.” He vows to get his money.
Granger and Gail pursue their attraction. After Mason beats Gail, Granger hires a hitman named Gizzi to kill Mason with a rifle. After the hit, Gizzi decides to blackmail Granger, who agrees to pay $25,000 at a rendezvous at the Malibu Pier, but there Gizzi announces he intends to become Granger’s silent partner. Granger uses his car to crush Gizzi to death against the pier’s railing, then sends the man’s body over the side.
Using his telephone know-how, Granger places a call to Wright that makes it appear he is in Palm Springs and thus has an alibi for the murder. Wright tapes the call and hears a streetcar whistle; there are no streetcars in Palm Springs, so the police deduce he was actually in town. The police eventually match the paint from Granger’s damaged car to Gizzi’s murder.
Granger decides to retire and escape to Guatemala with Gail, but first he sets out to collect what is owed to him. With the help of Gail and Chippie, he taps into a phone line at a mob betting parlor in Las Vegas and pulls off a pass-post swindle, intercepting and taping race results to be rebroadcast after a two-minute delay, giving Gail and Chippie time to place substantial bets on the foregone winning horses. Chippie, however, is recognized by a man who bears a grudge against Granger. He tells Stephans, who has Chippie brought to him, and learns where Granger can be found. Stephans passes the information along to Wright, content to let the police rid him of a troublesome colleague.
With the police closing in, Granger and Gail flee to Boulder Dam, trying to cross the state line to get out of Wright’s jurisdiction, but encounter a roadblock. They join a tour group and descend into the dam. Gail collapses from fatigue while running, Granger is shot and apparently killed before he can find his way to the Arizona side.