| Breakdown | |
| Director: | Edmond Angelo |
| Producer: | Edmond Angelo |
| Based On: | the play The Samson Slasher by Robert Abel |
| Starring: | Ann Richards William Bishop Anne Gwynne |
| Music: | Paul Dunlap |
| Cinematography: | Paul Ivano |
| Editing: | Robert M. Leeds |
| Studio: | Pegasus Productions |
| Distributor: | Realart Pictures Inc. |
| Runtime: | 76 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Breakdown is a 1952 American crime film noir directed by Edmond Angelo starring Ann Richards, William Bishop and Anne Gwynne. It was the last film of Richards before she retired.[1]
The film was also known as Decision.
Framed for murder, heavyweight boxer Terry Williams (Bishop) is sent to prison, but is released after a few years on good behavior. He becomes a championship contender and then, on the eve of the big fight, finds the man who can prove that he was framed for the crime for which he served time.
Pegasus Productions was a company headed by Max Gifford which announced they were going to make three films. One of these was The Slasher based on a play by Robert Abel. Abel had been a prize fighter for four years.[2] He had written a play The Big Shot which was produced on stage in Los Angeles in January 1951, directed by Edmund Angelo.[3] [4]
Abel then wrote The Slasher and Angelo signed to direct. His wife Ann Richards played the female lead.[5] It was Richards' first film in three years.[6] She had retired to have children but came out of retirement to help her husband.[7] The film was then known as Decisions.[8]
Filming started 1 December 1951 at Republic Studios. Shooting went for eleven days.[9]
Pegagus' second production was to be You're Not So Dangerous and was to star Richards as a social worker confused for a gangster's moll.[10] However it appears to have not been made.
Variety called Breakdown a "so-so secondary action-meller of only spotty entertainment values."[11]