Crashout
Directed by Lewis R. Foster
Written by Hal E. Chester and Lewis R. Foster
1955/USA
Standard Productions
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Van Morgan Duff: [to Quinn] I never did like you. You talk too fast and too much.[/box]

Noir Month ended with this violent prison break story.

Thirty-five convicts escape from prison.  Six of them survive to make it to a hideout near the prison known by their “leader” Van Morgan Duff (William Bendix).  All are serving life sentences for murder except Joe (Arthur Kennedy), who has been sentence to ten to twenty years for embezzlement.  Duff is wounded during the escape and close to death. He bribes the others to fetch a doctor and help him on the road by promising to share a large robbery take that he has hidden in the mountains.

The six are hardened criminals, with episodic soft spots in a couple of them.  The group does not hesitate to kill witnesses in acts of shocking brutality for the time.  Later, friction sets them against each other.  With Luther Adler, William Talman, Gene Evans, and Marshall Thompson as the the other convicts and Beverly Michaels and Gloria Talbot as women who cross the mens’  path.

There are few surprises in this routine jailbreak story except for the graphic (for the time) violence throughout.  The acting helps it along, though.  When will noir characters learn that you can’t trust a criminal even if he is a co-conspirator?  Especially if he is a co-conspirator.

Some 1941 comedies coming up!

The Well
Directed by Leo C. Popklin and Russell Rouse
Written by Russell Rouse and Clarence Green
1951/USA
Cardinal Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video

[box] “I later heard somewhere, or read, that Malcolm X telephoned an apology to the reporter. But this was the kind of evidence which caused many close observers of the Malcolm X phenomenon to declare in absolute seriousness that he was the only Negro in America who could either start a race riot-or stop one. When I once quoted this to him, tacitly inviting his comment, he told me tartly, “I don’t know if I could start one. I don’t know if I’d want to stop one.” ― Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X[/box]

I had some trepidation going in but I ended up really enjoying this independent “message” film.

As the film opens, we see a five-year-old African-American girl picking flowers in a meadow.  Suddenly, she slips into an overgrown hole, which turns out to be a long disused well.  When the girl does not arrive at school, the alarm is raised.  This is an ordinary small town with an integrated school where the races apparently live in peace.

Several people saw her in the company of a white stranger in a grey suit. A florist says the man talked to her outside the shop and then went in and bought her a bunch of violets. When finally located, he turns out to be Claude Packard (Harry Morgan), the nephew of a prominent contractor in town.  Claude says he stopped in town to visit his uncle on the way elsewhere to look for work in the mining industry.  He saw the little girl looking longingly in the florist’s window and bought her the flowers on an impulse.  He then helped her across the busy street and walked with her for a couple of blocks after which he lost track of her.  He never did see his uncle, who was away from the office.  The sheriff does not buy this story and arrests Claude.

Then the rumors start.  The African-American community becomes convinced that the sheriff will release, or has already released, Claude because he is white.  The whites think that Claude is being framed.  Then the girl’s parents get into a mild altercation with the contractor during which he slips and is hurt.  Things spiral out of control with fights breaking out all over town and increasingly outlandish rumors spreading like wildfire. Finally, the mayor calls the state militia in fear of a race riot.

As quickly as it started, the trouble stops when a boy’s dog smells the little girl in the well and alerts his master.  The last third of the film is devoted to the suspenseful and detailed rescue attempt.

The racial tensions explored in this film are really well done.  There is only one short “speech” made and that is just about how dangerous race riots are and how people on all sides of them get hurt.  We mainly just see the events.  And then, when that part is done, the rescue is really exciting.  The story gets down into the nitty gritty of how heavy equipment is used to dig a parallel shaft and the dangers to both the rescuers and the girl in doing this.  Recommended.

The Well was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Story and Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

Confidential Report (AKA “Mr. Arkadin”)
Directed by Orson Welles
Written by Orson Welles
1955/France/Spain/Switzerland
Filmorsa/Cervantes Films/Sevilla Films, Mercury Productions/Bavaria Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

Gregory Arkadin: A scorpion wanted to cross a river, so he asked the frog to carry him. The frog refused because the scorpion would sting him. That would not be logical, explained the scorpion, because if he stung the frog they would both drown. So the frog agreed to carry the scorpion. Half way across, the frog felt a terrible pain – the scorpion had stung him. There is no logic in this, exclaimed the frog. I know, replied the scorpion, but I cannot help it – it is my nature.

Like Lady from Shanghai, the plot Orson Welles’ film is all over the place.  Unlike that film, Confidential Report is not rescued by the acting and only partially redeemed by the style.

The story is mostly told in flashback as Guy Van Stratten relates his experiences with Arkadin to the dying Jacob Zouk (Akim Tamiroff), an old associate of the billionaire. Cigarette smuggler van Stratten (Robert Arden) and his girlfriend are on the docks at Naples when they witness the shooting of Bracco.  They are on hand to hear his dying words which are the names of two people that he says will be the couple’s fortune – Gregory Arkadin (Welles) and Sophia.

After he is released from jail on his smuggling conviction, Van Stratten proceeds to Spain where he hopes to meet Arkadin.  He figures the best way is through Arkadin’s daughter Raina, with whom he soon falls in love.  Arkadin is obsessed with Raina (Paola Mori, Welles’s then wife) and monitors her with spies at all times.  Finally, Arkadin offers van Stratten a huge fee to compile a report on himself, claiming he suffers from amnesia and can remember nothing prior to his arrival in Zurich with one suit and 200,000 Swiss Francs.

Van Stratten then travels the world looking for clues to Arkadin’s identity and interviewing his former associates.  As those associtates start mysteriously dropping like flies it is clear Van Stratten is in great danger.  With Mischa Auer as the ringmaster of a flea circus, an unrecognizable Michael Redgrave as a very weird antique store owner, and Katina Paxinou as Sophia.

This is one of those multi-lingual films in which many of the characters are dubbed into English, a feature that does not improve one’s perception of the acting.  Robert Arden’s von Stratten does not appear to be dubbed by another actor, but his may be the worst performance in the film.  Anger seems to be his favorite emotion to the exclusion of any subtlety.  The story is confusing and episodic with many Wellesian anecdotes and tongue-in-cheek pronouncements.   Even I thought the movie had its moments though, and many like it much more than I.

The film has been re-constructed several times.  I watched the Criterion Collection’s “Comprehensive Version”.

Orson Welles dubbed the voices of several of the supporting male characters.

Clip – A Georgian toast to friendship

Cry of the City
Directed by Robert Siodmak
Written by Richard Murphy from the novel “The Chair for Martin Rome” by Henry Edward Helseth
1948/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Twentieth Century Fox Cinema Archives DVD

[box] “It’s about time law enforcement got as organized as organized crime.” – Rudolph Giuliani [/box]

Robert Siodmak again shows why he was the master of film noir style.

Police detective Lt. Candela (Victor Mature) and Martin Rome (Richard Conte) both grew up in Italian families on the mean streets of New York.  As the story begins, Rome is in the hospital being treated for bullet wounds incurred in a shoot-out during which a police officer was killed.  He is visited by his girl, the Madonna-visaged Tina (Debra Paget in her screen debut).  Later, a shady attorney shows up and tries to get him to confess to a jewel heist in exchange for a large pay-off.  Rome refuses and the attorney threatens to finger Tina as the female accomplice involved in the heist.  Lt. Candela is on the case trying to locate the girl.  His friendly relationship with Rome’s family helps and he also tries to straighten out Rome’s younger brother Tony.

Martin is so concerned about Tina that he escapes from the prison hospital even though he is still gravely injured.  He promptly bumps off the lawyer.  He is in such bad condition that he turns to ex-girlfriend Brenda (Shelley Winters) for help in getting a shady doctor. Brenda also locates the real accomplice in the jewel heist, the scary Swedish masseuse Rose Given (Hope Emerson).  The rest of the film is devoted to Lt. Candela’s relentless pursuit of Tony.

I thought the crime story was pretty routine.  It is done with such pure noir style that the film is worth a watch, though.  I liked the parallels drawn between Candela and Rome, down to similar injuries by the end of the film.  Hope Emerson is awesome as the masseuse!

Clip – Shelley Winters – cinematography by Lloyd Ahern (sorry about print quality of clip – DVD print is beautiful)

Murder by Contract
Directed by Irving Lerner
Written by Ben Simcoe
1958/USA
Orbit Productions/Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics I DVD

[box] Claude: The way i see it, Harry, everybody lives off everybody else.[/box]

This quirky little film is worth a look.

Claude (Vince Edwards) has his eye on a house that costs $23,000.  He has $523 in the bank and makes about $75 a week on his job.  He does the math and decides to try out for a job as a contract killer, a career to which he turns out to be ideally suited.  He has no record, doesn’t write anything down,  and has a distaste for guns.  He is soon impressing his boss with his efficiency.

After several successful jobs, Claude is sent to Los Angeles for a contract on a witness who is set to testify against his boss.  He is met at the railway station by two minders who never leave his side.  He takes his time planning the hit.  First he wants to see the Pacific Ocean, go to the zoo, etc.  This makes the minders very nervous but they have no choice but to go along.

When Claude finally gets around to casing the house where his victim lives he learns there are a couple of complications.  First, the victim is a woman.  Claude thinks he should double his fee.  Second, the house is heavily guarded by police and the victim is so terrified she never takes a step out the door.

This shoestring budget noir was shot in seven days.  Although it is played very straight, the situations are so far-fetched that they made me smile.  The incongrously peppy music, Vince Edwards’s code of conduct, the whining minders,  everything contributes to a good time.

Trailer – cinematography by Lucien Ballard

Martin Scorsese on Murder by Contract