Johnny Eager

Johnny Eager is a 1941 film noir directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Robert Taylor, Lana Turner and Van Heflin. Heflin won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film was one of many spoofed in Dead Men Dont Wear Plaid 1982.

Johnny decides to use Liz as leverage against her stepfather. When she comes to see him, he has Julio Paul Stewart, one of his underlings, burst in and pretend to try to kill him. During the faked struggle, Julio drops his gun. Lisbeth picks it up and shoots Julio when he seems to have the upper hand. Johnny then hustles her out of the room before she can realize that the gun is full of blanks and Julios blood is actually ketchup. Later, Johnny threatens to expose her as a murderer unless Farrell removes the injunction. Farrell gives in.Johnny is depicted as a man without a conscience. When childhood friend Lew Rankin Barry Nelson gets fed up with his subordinate role in the gang and starts plotting against him, Johnny murders him without the slightest qualm. He lies to his devoted girlfriend Garnet Patricia Dane to get her to go to Florida while he romances Liz. Mae Glenda Farrell, a prior girlfriend, asks him to help get her incorruptible policeman husband transferred back to his old precinct because his long commute is straining their marriage. Johnny not only lies, claiming he no longer has any influence, he also hides the fact that he got the man transferred in the first place because he would not look the other way. When Jimmy Courtney Robert Sterling, Lizs high society former boyfriend, becomes alarmed because Liz is going to pieces due to a guilty conscience, he offers Johnny all his money to leave the country and take Liz with him. Johnny cannot figure out his angle, why he would do such a selfless thing. In fact, the only soft spot Johnny seems to have is for his intellectual, alcoholic righthand man, Jeff Hartnett Van Heflin, and even he is not sure why. Jeff has an insight, telling his boss that even Johnny Eager has to have one friend. ........

Source: Wikipedia