Robert Ryan, like no other actor in Hollywood, had the ability to portray a string of unlikable characters, yet, in his behavior, audiences respond with a head nodding understanding. Like, “Hey, I know a guy like that.” Growing up in Chicago, Ryan was a child of privilege, whose family’s construction business grew as they helped build the city of Chicago into a modern metropolis. It must have been a lonely childhood after his only sibling died of influenza. Educated by Jesuits, Ryan developed a life long love of literature, and in 1931 he graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Literature. He wasn’t all brains, because, while in college he was an undefeated boxing champion for all four years. Things were tough for everyone in the middle of the Depression, especially for young college graduates. Without asking for assistance from his family, Ryan spent two years working in the engine room of a freighter going around the world. Upon his return he worked on a ranch out West. After helping in the family business for a while, he started to take acting classes and came to California in the late 1930s. Except for a hitch in the Marines as a Drill Instructor during WWII, Ryan’s life from 1940 until his death in 1973 was dedicated to acting, the peace movement and civil rights. He especially enjoyed live theater, but it’s the films he made that paid the bills and for which we remember him. In 1952 alone, three noirs with Ryan were released – Clash By Night, On Dangerous Ground and Beware, My Lovely. All three of his protagonists are alienated men, isolated from the every day give and take of human discourse that gives life a semblance of meaning and coherence. It’s only his Howard Wilton in Beware, My Lovely that is beyond any capacity for personal redemption, for Howard is a homicidal paranoiac. It’s Christmas time 1918. World War I has just ended, and Howard Wilton is a handyman. One day he finds his employer lying dead on the floor of a closet. Having strang...