Category Archives: 1950

Night and the City (1950)

Posted on June 24, 2015 | Leave a comment

Night and the Citynight and city poster
Directed by Jules Dassin
Written by Jo Eisenger from a novel by Gerald Kersh
1950/USA
Twentieth Century-Fox Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Googin the Forger: If you ain’t got socks you can’t pull ’em up, can you?

This bleak and beautiful film noir got Jules Dassin out of the U.S. before he had his passport snatched.

The city is London.  Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) wants somehow to be a “big man”. Unfotunately for him and those who love him, he is a bad liar, a chronic whiner, and not too bright.  He is the despair of his girlfriend Mary (Gene Tierney), who he routinely cadges money from or outright robs.

Mary works as a singer in a gyp joint called the Silver Fox that is owned by Phillip Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan).  Harry freelances as a bar tout luring tourists to be fleeced at Phil’s place.  The morbidly obese Phil is obsessed with his wife Helen (Googie Withers), who treats him with contempt.  Helen is just waiting to get a license to open a competing nightclub so she can leave Phil.

night-and-the-city

Harry thinks his big break has come when he runs into Gregorius, the father of local crime boss and wrestling promoter Kristo (Herbert Lom).  Gregorius is a classical Greco-Roman wrestler who sees his sport as an art and is thoroughly disgusted by the exhibitions put on at his son’s ring.  Harry believes that Kristo will let him compete in the wrestling business because he will not do anything against his father.  He needs money though.  This he gets from Helen by promising to get her her nightclub license.

This is the blackest of noirs and the world comes crashing down around the ears of everybody concerned.  With Hugh Marlow as a token nice guy and Mike Mazurki as a wrestler called The Strangler.

night and cityThis is quite good and strikingly shot.  Francis L. Sullivan is the standout for me.  I had only seen him in his Dickens roles previously. There he was amusing.  Here he is both sinister and tragic.  Gene Tierney has a comparatively tiny part for a big star.  Widmark is excellent as always as a man who never really grew up.

According to the commentary, Darryl F. Zanuck was the lone producer in Hollywood who did not support the black list.  Among other things, he sent Jules Dassin to film this movie on location in London.  It was so far along by the time he was accused of affiliation with the Communist Party that the powers that be did not cancel the project.  Dassin was ultimately reported to HUAC in 1951 by directors Edward Dmytryk and Frank Tuttle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crLKNVvft_0

Trailer

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Posted in 1950, Films Noir

All About Eve (1950)

Posted on June 23, 2015 | 10 comments

All About Eve1950_eva_al_desnudo_-_all_about_eve_-_esp
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1950/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection
#237 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

Birdie: What a story! Everything but the bloodhounds snappin’ at her rear end.

Writer/director Mankiewicz had a special gift for creating memorable women.  His actresses’ performances take his characters up another notch.

The film is bookended with scenes at an awards banquet honoring Eve Harrington for her acting.  The opening is narrated in voice over by critic Addison De Witt (George Sanders) who informs us that the story will tell us all about Eve and how she got to this point.

Margo Channing (Bette Davis) is a big Broadway star.  She will soon turn 40.  She is currently playing the role of a much younger woman in a play written by Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlow) and directed by her lover Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill) who is eight years her junior.  These circumstances cause her to have a gigantic chip on her shoulder with regard to her age.  This and Margo’s outsized personality mean she is not the easiest person in the world to get along with.  This can be attested to by her best friend Karen Richards (Celeste Holm) and her dresser and best friend Birdie (Thelma Ritter).

As the story starts, Karen stops to chat with the bedraggled Eve (Anne Baxter) whom she has seen standing by the stage door after every night’s performance.  Karen admires Eve’s devotion and takes her back stage.  All our characters are gathered in Margo’s dressing room.  They are moved by Eve’s tale of woe and flattered by her starstruck adoration of Margo and the theater in general.  Margo is so touched that she takes Eve in as a sort of second companion and dog’s body.

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Eve proves to be quite an efficient and devoted worker.  Before long, she seems too efficient, setting up romantic surprises for Bill before Margo can think to do these things herself.  Things come to a head at the birthday party Eve has arranged for Bill.  Margo gets drunk and acts like a haridan.  Everyone’s sympathy is with Eve.

It turns out Eve as a special knack at bringing out the worst in other women in order to garner sympathy for herself.  Before long she has wangled a job as Margo’s understudy. Then, with help from Addison, she aims for higher things.

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This is a superbly written look at the peccadillos of the theatrical crowd. The only minor complaint that could be made would be the dated sexual politics behind the resolution of Margo’s character arc.  The film is a great classic and earned all those Oscars for a good reason.  It is truly a must-see.

All About Eve won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Supporting Actor (Saunders); Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White; and Best Sound, Recording.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Actress (Davis); Best Actress (Baxter); Best Supporting Actress (Holm); Best Supporting Actress (Ritter); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

It was the first of only two films to ever be nominated for so many awards.  The only other film with 14 nominations is Titanic (1997).  It also holds the record for the number of female acting nominations in one film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skZDG3Ffw8A
Trailer

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1950

Harvey (1950)

Posted on June 21, 2015 | 6 comments

Harvey
Directed by Henry Koster
Written by Mary Chase and Oscar Brodney from Chase’s play
1950/USA
Universal International
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Elwood P. Dowd: Well, I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it.[/box]

I hadn’t seen this in quite awhile and had forgotten just how funny and charming it actually is.  This is one of my very favorite James Stewart performances and the supporting cast matches him every step of the way.

Elwood P. Dowd (Stewart) is a gentle soul whose only aim is to please.  He receives a lot of support from alcohol and his friend Harvey, a six-foot three-inch invisible rabbit (really a legendary creature called a pookah). Elwood has a standard way of introducing himself. He presents his card and then introduces Harvey.

Elwood is a great trial to his sister Vita Louise (Josephine Hull) and her ungainly aging daughter Myrtle Mae.  This is especially true since Vita is trying to introduce Myrtle Mae to local society and get her married off. Eventually, they have had enough and attempt to get Elwood committed to a sanitarium.

This is easier said than done.  Elwood happily goes along with whatever he is told to do. However, when Vita confesses to the doctor that she has seen Harvey too, he is convinced that they have committed the wrong patient.  While the orderly (Jesse White) is forcibly wrestling Vita into submission and putting her in a bath, Elwood gets away. Numerous people try to track him down only to come under his spell in the process. With Cecil Kellaway as the sanitarium owner.

This movie is hilarious.  I can’t think of a single flaw.  It is whimsical without being frantic or stupid.  I have tried not to spoil any of the gags.  How I envy anyone seeing it for the first time!

Josephine Hull won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  James Stewart was nominated for Best Actor.

Trailer

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Posted in 1950, Movie Reviews

In a Lonely Place (1950)

Posted on July 28, 2014 | 3 comments

In a Lonely Place 
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Written by Andrew Solt and Edmund H. North from a story by Dorothy B. Hughes
1950/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Santana Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant Video
#242 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Dixon Steele: I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.[/box]

This is one of the must-see movies in the film noir canon,with one of the all-time great screenplays and a career performance by Humphrey Bogart – a classic of American cinema.

Dixon Steele (Bogart) is a genius screen writer with a bit of a drinking problem and a hair-trigger temper.  His first instinct when he gets angry is to slug someone.  He hasn’t written any hits since returning from the war, which has evidently scarred him in some way.  His agent has gotten him a commission to adapt a pot-boiler novel for the screen.

After displaying his character traits by getting into a brawl with a jerk at his favorite bar/restaurant , Dix asks air-head cigarette girl Mildred, who has read the book, to tell him the story at his apartment.  The star-struck lass agrees, breaking a date with her steady to do so.  They run into Dix’s new neighbor Laurel (Gloria Grahame) when they get to the complex.  Mildred stays for awhile, relating the truly vapid plot, and Dix sends her off with $20 to the nearest taxi stand.

Mildred is found suffocated and dumped in a gully.  Dix’s wartime buddy Brub Nicolay (Frank Lovejoy) just happens to be working as a detective in the homicide bureau and comes to bring Dix, the prime suspect in to Headquarters.  Dix is amazingly flippant about the whole affair.  Laurel, who saw Mildred arrive and depart the apartment, is called in later to establish his alibi.

Dix and Laurel are immediately attracted.  The lonely Dix feels that he has at last met his match and they fall deeply in love.  Laurel inspires him to get back to work on his writing. Dix is thinking marriage.  Sadly, however, love does nothing to change Dix’s volatile nature and the tension surrounding the investigation causes him to lash out more than usual. Various incidents begin to trouble Laurel so much that she begins to think he might be guilty of the murder.  When Dix insists on an early elopement, Laurel has a heartbreaking decison to make.

I feel so much pity for the characters in this movie.  Bogart, with his sad eyes, is absolutely convincing as a witty and sensitive man with a huge character flaw that seems beyond his control.  Gloria Grahame is heartbreaking as Laurel, who I think makes the only sane decision a woman could despite loving all the better parts of Dix.

The screenplay is by turns witty and satiric and incredibly moving.  The movie also looks gorgeous.  The pathos is heightened by the George Antheil score.  Absolutely recommended.

Trailer – cinematography by Burnett Guffey

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1950, Movie Reviews

House by the River (1950)

Posted on July 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

House by the River
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Mel Dinelli from a novel by A.P. Herbert
1950/USA
Fidelity Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box] In my opinion, there were only two directors in Hollywood who made films without regard to box-office success: Von Stroheim and myself. – Fritz Lang[/box]

Fritz Lang made the most of a shoestring budget in this Gothic thriller.

Stephen Byrne (Louis Hayward) is an unsuccessful writer and a bit of a pig.  He seems to spend most of his time drinking and womanizing to the distress of his beautiful wife Marjorie (Jane Wyatt). One day, he decides to have his way with her maid and kills her in the struggle. His lame brother John (Lee Bowman) arrives in the immediate aftermath of the crime and Stephen persuades him to assist in dumping the body in the river to avoid hurting Marjorie, whom Stephen says is expecting their baby.  They then report that the maid has disappeared, taking Jane’s jewelry with her.

Stephen talks to reporters and the publicity boosts sales of his novel.  He has been told that he should write about what he knows and begins writing his masterpiece “The River.” At the same time, he becomes becomes obsessed that the body or some other incriminating evidence will surface and starts spending long drunken nights on the river. He also starts treating Marjorie worse than ever and is driving her straight into the arms of John.

Without seeing the credits, I doubt that anyone one could guess that this was filmed at Republic studios.  The set decoration looks lavish and, of course, Lang fills his frames with many great Expressionist touches.  Louis Hayward may not be much of a romantic leading man but he certainly did make a vile villain!

Clip – the murder – cinematography by Edward Cronjager

 

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Posted in 1950, Movie Reviews

The Underworld Story (1950)

Posted on July 23, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Underworld Story
Directed by Cy Endfield
Written by Harry Blankfort and Cy Endfield; story by Craig Rice
1950/USA
FilmCraft Productions
First viewing/Warner Archive DVD

 

[box] Catherine Harris: Did you ever rob graves, Mr. Reese?

Mike Reese: No future in it.[/box]

This indictment of the media is uneven but interesting.

Mike Reese (Dan Duryea) is a reporter who will stop at nothing for a story or a buck.  He is fired from his big city newspaper when an article he wrote (but begged the editor not to publish) resulted in a gangland killing.  The paper’s owner E.J. Stanton (Herbert Marshall) has been battling city boss Carl Durham (Howard da Silva) and believes Reese must have ties to the man. Reese is nothing if not adaptable and goes to Durham to get a loan to start over.  With the money, he buys a half interest in a struggling small town newspaper owned by Cathy Harris (Gale Storm).

E.J. Stanton’s daughter-in-law is promptly murdered.  The audience learns immediately that his son murdered her but is framing the Negro maid Molly (Mary Anderson) for the crime.  The other characters are in the dark.  The tortured Stanton goes along with this to avoid scandal.  Cathy went to school with Molly and believes she could not have committed the crime.  Reese proceeds to cash in by turning Molly over the police for the reward money and then whipping the town up into establishing a defense fund for her, which he intends to split with the defense attorney.

The town big shots, including Stanton, scheme to drive Reese out of town.  Reese fights back against increasingly menacing threats,

First, the good.  By now, readers know how I feel about Duryea and he does not disappoint.  Howard da Silva is perfect as the affable but ruthless Durham.  Stanley Cortez’s cinematography is outstandingly Expressionistic.  On the other hand, most of the other performances are over the top and the story slides into preachy melodrama at points.  And why, oh why, would they cast a white actress as the black maid?  Just because she is sympathetic and educated?

 

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Posted in 1950, Movie Reviews, Noir Month

Woman on the Run (1950)

Posted on July 20, 2014 | Leave a comment

Woman on the Run
Directed by Norman Foster
Written by Alan Campbell and Norman Foster; original story by Sylvia Tate
1950/USA
Fidelity Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box] Eleanor Johnson: [In the dark shadows of roller coaster on the deserted beach at night] I don’t like this place.
Danny Leggett: It’s a good spot. I used to come here with my girl when I was a kid. It’s more frightening than romantic. It’s the way love is when you’re young… life is when you’re older.[/box]

This is a fairly routine programmer with a few thrills at the end.  We also get some nice location shots of 1950 San Francisco.

Frank Johnson is walking his dog when he witnesses a gangland shooting.  For some never explained reason, he slips away while being interviewed by the police.  Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith) is irked and goes to fetch Frank’s wife Eleanor (Ann Sheridan).  She acts as if she couldn’t care less that her husband might become the target of the killers and is able to offer very little information about him.  During the night she escapes her well-guarded apartment with the help of reporter Dan Leggett (Dennis O’Keefe).

Dan is Eleanor’s constant companion as she searches San Francisco for her husband who needs his heart medicine.  During the search, she finds out a lot of things about Frank that she didn’t know, including that he might actually love her.  Inspector Ferris is on her trail throughout.  As she gets closer to finding her husband, Eleanor faces trouble from more than the cops.

I watched this one over a couple of days on my iPad, not perhaps adequate for a fair appraisal for this relatively highly rated movie (7.3/10 on IMDb),  This is more of a woman’s picture/thriller than it is a film noir.  Even the final roller coaster scene did not lift it far above average for me.  The performances are all fine.

I couldn’t find a decent clip.  The complete movie is also currently available on YouTube. This is another one that was recently restored but is still awaiting a home video version of the new print.

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Posted in 1950, Movie Reviews, Noir Month

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Try and Get Me! (1950)

Posted on July 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

Try and Get Me! (AKA “The Sound of Fury”)
Directed by Cy Enfield
Written by Joe Pagano from his novel “The Condemned”
1950/USA
Robert Stillman Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

 

[box]The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it.  ― Terry Pratchett, Jingo [/box]

Though it drifts over the top in places, this “B” film noir has an irresistible raw energy.

Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy) has had no luck finding a job in California.  He can scarcely afford to give a quarter to his son for a movie and there is another baby on the way.  At the bowling alley he gets to talking with Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges) a preening stud who is obviously quite fond of himself.  Jerry says Howard can earn big bucks simply by driving his car.  Of course, it’s a getaway car – Jerry makes his living by sticking up small businesses on the interstate – but Howard is so desperate by this time that he takes the job.  He starts hitting the bottle to cope with his guilt.

Things go south when Jerry wants to hit the big time by kidnapping a millionaire’s son. The crime doesn’t go as billed and Howard descends into an alcoholic miasma of guilt and fear.  Then things get much, much worse.  With Richard Carlson as a muckraking journalist.

The story is based on the same true incident that inspired Fritz Lang’s Fury (1936). Unfortunately, by 1950 the public was not as receptive to messages about the dangers of mob rule and yellow journalism.  HUAC particularly denounced this movie as being un-American and Endfield was blacklisted and driven to England to find work.

The movie starts out with an unrelated scene of a blind fundamentalist preaching fire and brimstone on the street while people run as if fleeing a natural disaster. Groups of people in motion are used throughout building up to the impressive climax with hundreds of extras.  I thought this was quite effective.  Although both actors overdo it when the going gets especially tough, Lovejoy is convincing and Bridges has the ego-maniac character perfected.  The film does suffer from the inclusion of the character of Dr. Simone, a European scientist, who delivers several speeches making explicit the message inherent in what we can see for ourselves.

BAFTA nominated Try and Get Me!/Sound of Fury as Best Film from Any Source and for the UN Award.

Clip – the kidnapping (spoiler) – cinematography by Guy Roe

 

 

 

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Posted in 1950, Movie Reviews, Noir Month

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Panic in the Streets (1950)

Posted on July 15, 2014 | 2 comments

Panic in the Streetspanic in the streets poster
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by Richard Murphy and Daniel Fuchs; story by Edna and Edward Anhalt
1950/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant Video

[box] Nancy Reed: If there’s a plague here, you’re the most important guy in this town.[/box]

Elia Kazan does some beautiful work on location in New Orleans in his lead up to On the Waterfront.

As the story begins, Blackie (Jack Palance) and Raymond Fitch (Zero Mostel) are playing cards with a stowaway who was introduced to the others by his cousin Poldi.  The stowaway is winning.  He feels sick and decides he has had enough.  Blackie does not care to lose though and sends Fitch and Poldi off to drag him back.  He resists and Blackie shoots and kills him.  An autopsy reveals that the man would have died of pneumonic plague in about 12 hours anyway.

Panic in the streets 3

Public Health Officer Clint Reed (Richard Widmark) is called in.  He orders the body cremated and all the man’s possessions to be destroyed.  The stowaway was carrying no identification. He tells the city authorities and police that all the people that had any contact with the man must be located and treated within 48  hours and that the press must not be notified.  The rest of the story is devoted to a breakneck chase to track down the killers with almost nothing to go on.  With Paul Douglas as the lead.cop and Barbara Bel Geddes as Reed’s wife.

panic in the streets 1

This was Jack Palance’s (then Walter Jack Palance) screen debut and he makes a fine and scary villain.  Zero Mostel is also wonderful as a cowering , seedy hood.  The direction is amazing.  I don’t know how Kazan got some of the shots, such as the one tracking through a very crowded and narrow working man’s bar.  You can feel the heat, humidity, and decay of New Orleans throughout.  It’s very nice to see Widmark as a hero for a change.  The tension never lets up in this noir classic.  Recommended.

Panic in the Streets won an Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.

John Landis on “Panic in the Streets” – Trailers from Hell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaVjDUjvMCc

Trailer sans commentary – cinematography by Joseph MacDonald

 

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Posted in 1950, Noir Month

The Breaking Point (1950)

Posted on July 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Breaking Point
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Ranald MacDougall from the novel To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
1950/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Warner Archives DVD

 

[box] Harry Morgan: You know, my wife dyed her hair.

Leona Charles: Coincidentally I’ve been thinking of letting mine grow out. Speaking of coincidences, I live in Number Seven. My friends just kick the door open.[/box]

This remake of Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not” is more faithful to the novel than the more famous original starring Bogart and Bacall.  It feels more like a Hemingway story and features an early performance by the fascinating Patricia Neal.

Fishing boat owner Harry Morgan (John Garfield) is having a very bad season and will have his boat taken for non-payment of his gasoline bill if he doesn’t come up with some money soon.  His loyal wife Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter) and daughter are supportive and important to him.  He hopes that a charter to fish for marlin off Mexico will save his boat.  Floozy Leona Charles (Neal) goes along with the much older fisherman for the ride.  But both Harry and Leona are left high and dry when the fisherman leaves by plane without paying Harry.

Desperate, Harry reluctantly agrees to go along with the sleezy Duncan’s (Wallace Ford) brokerage of a deal to smuggle Chinese immigrants to the U.S from Mexico.  Harry ends up on the short end of that transaction, too.  Meanwhile, the bored Leona has fun by trying to add Harry to her list of conquests.  Finally, Harry must resort to an even more risky endeavor to stay in the fishing business.

Nobody plays tough but doomed better than John Garfield.  He is just great in this very bleak movie.  I haven’t seen enough of Patricia Neal – really just Hud and The Day the Earth Stood Still – and she makes a mesmerizing temptress.  I liked the interplay between her character and the wife a lot.  Most of this takes place in broad daylight on the sea or near it but in feeling it could not be more noir.  Recommended.

Clip – John Garfield and Patricia Neal get better acquainted

 

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Posted in 1950, Movie Reviews