Category Archives: Noir Month

Films noir watched in June and July 2013

Cry Danger (1951)

Posted on July 16, 2014 | Leave a comment

Cry Danger
Directed by Robert Parrish
Written by William Bowers and Jerome Cady
1951/USA
Olympic Productions Inc./Wiesenthal-Frank Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box] Darlene LaVonne: You drinkin’ that stuff so early?

Delong: Listen, doll girl, when you drink as much as I do, you gotta start early.[/box]

This is an OK revenge noir.

Rocky (Dick Powell) has served a five-years of a life sentence for a robbery he did not commit. He was paroled when Delong, a Marine, supported his alibi after returning from overseas. We soon learn that Delong (Richard Erdman) was not really one of those that was with Rocky that fateful night but testified in order to get a share of the $100,000 take, which was never found. Cobb of the LAPD (Regis Toomey) believes Rocky will lead him to the money as well.

Rocky has made it his mission to clear himself and his friend Danny, who is still in the clink, of the rap. With Delong, his new constant companion, in tow he rents a run-down trailer in the same trailer park where Danny’s wife Nancy (Rhonda Fleming) lives. Rocky and Nancy have a past and it is clear that Nancy still carries a torch.

Rocky looks up Castro (William Conrad) and demands a share of the loot. The rest of the movie is taken up with double-crosses and Castro’s attempts to rub Rocky out.

The highlight of the movie is Erdman’s Delong who is a one-legged wry alcoholic and not such a bad guy. The other performances are nice and the film is an entertaining watch, if not more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs0AUdZG1zE

Trailer – cinematography by Josef F. Biroc

Panic in the Streets (1950)

Posted on July 15, 2014 | 2 comments

Panic in the Streets
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.

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.

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

2 Comments

Posted in 1950, Noir Month

Caught (1949)

Posted on July 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

Caught
Directed by Max Ophüls
Written by Arthur Laurents from a novel by Libbie Block
1949/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Enterprise Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

Leonora Eames: What’sa matter with George?
Maxine: Well, he’ll never be able to buy you a mink coat.

I still don’t know quite how I feel about this uneven morality play.

Maude Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes) is a young woman who spends her time flipping through Vogue and dreaming of having the finer things in life. Her roommate tells her the only way to do that is to marry rich and that Maude needs to go to charm school to do so. Charm school leads Maude to change her name to Leonora and to get some modeling work. This pays off with an invitation to a party on the yacht of multi-millionaire Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan).

Unfortunately for Leonora, she gets Ohlrig’s attention and he marries her to spite his psychiatrist. It turns out that he is one tough and arrogant bastard who treats Leona like a possession, and not his favorite possession at that. She finally escapes and goes to work in a doctor’s office. There she falls in love with pediatrician Dr, Larry Quinada (James Mason). But Ohlrig has a secret hold on her and is too determined to continue his torture to let her go without a fight.

This movie has some of my favorite actors. Unfortunately, Robert Ryan is a very odd choice as a millionaire, however menacing, and James Mason is wasted as a straight forward romantic lead. Barbara Bel Geddes, on the other hand, is absolutely delightful, especially in the lighter moments of the film. Ophül’s direction is also quite innovative and stylish. The script sells its “money isn’t everything” message too hard and descends into mawkishness at points.

Trailer – Introducing James Mason in his first American performance

Clip – Barbara Bel Geddes on catching a man – cinematography by Lee Garmes

The Bigamist (1953)

Posted on July 14, 2014 | 2 comments

The Bigamist
Directed by Ida Lupino
Written by Collier Young based on a story by Lawrence B. Marcus and Lou Schor
1953/USA
The Filmmakers
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video
#270 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Harry Graham: How can a man call a woman his wife for eight years – someone who you love, who loves you – how can you call her and tell her that you must have a divorce? Worse than that, you’ve been unfaithful – you’re going to be a father. How can you hurt someone so much?[/box]

This is an OK melodrama/noir, although if I had to pick one Ida Lupino-directed movie for the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” list, I would certainly have gone for The Hitch-Hiker.

As the story begins, traveling salesman Harry Graham (Edmond O’Brien) and his wife Eve (Joan Fontaine) are applying to adopt a baby and talking with social worker Mr. Jordan (Edmund Gwenn). Harry looks very uncomfortable when he is signing the paperwork that will allow Jordan to investigate every aspect of their lives. Privately, Jordan has his doubts about Harry.

Jordan tracks down the office Harry uses when he is away in Los Angeles and finally locates him in a house he occupies with wife Phyllis (Lupino) and their infant son. Harry tells the sad story of how he came to be in this situation and we move into flashback. Naturally, one of the things that drove Harry into Phyllis’s arms was Eve’s emasculating work in his business. It’s all more complicated that that, though. Harry claims that he just could not bear to hurt anyone. It looks to me that he could not admit or take the consequences of his wrong-doing.

This is a solid movie and O’Brien is always great in these kind of “deer trapped in the headlights” roles. The film also has a bit of fun with actor Gwenn’s role in Miracle on 34th Street. It lacks the sheer style and drama of Lupino’s other 1953 film The Hitch-Hiker, however.

Trailer

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Noir Month

Tagged film noir

Fallen Angel (1945)

Posted on July 14, 2014 | 4 comments

Fallen Angel
Directed by Otto Preminger
Written by Harry Kleiner from a novel by Mary Holland
1945/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] June Mills: “Then love alone can make the fallen angel rise. For only two together can enter Paradise.”[/box]

This was billed as Alice Faye’s first turn as a dramatic actress but actually proved to be a breakout performance by the 22-year-old Linda Darnell in her new incarnation as a “bad girl”. Boy, does she sizzle!

Con-man Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) arrives in the California beach town of Walton (think Pismo Beach) with a dollar in his pocket. He stops in a diner for a cup of coffee and is immediately obsessed by sullen beauty Stella (Darnell), who has already captivated every other guy hanging around the place. He interests her too but she insists on a ring and a home with someone who can provide for her. He decides the best way of getting the money is to steal it and proceeds to woo good-girl heiress June Mills (Faye) to get access to her safe deposit box.

June is an easy mark. Even after Eric skips out on their wedding night to see Stella, she forgives and supports her man. He needs all the support he can get when Stella turns up murdered. With Charles Bickford and Bruce Cabot as Stella’s admirers, Percy Kilbride as the owner of the diner, John Carradine as a phony medium, and Ann Revere as June’s sister.

This is probably more of a true film noir than Preminger’s Laura of the previous year. It is highlighted by some subtle and fluid long takes and beautiful lighting. I love Darnell in this kind of role in which she gets to be very sexy and deeply cynical all at the same time.

Clip – cinematography by Joseph LaShelle

Trailer

4 Comments

Posted in Movie Reviews, Noir Month

Tagged film noir

Gilda (1946)

Posted on July 13, 2014 | 4 comments

Gilda
Directed by Charles Vidor
Written by E.A. Ellington, Jo Eisenger and Marion Parsonnet
1946/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#201 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Johnny Farrell: Statistics show that there are more women in the world than anything else. Except insects.[/box]

Gilda is an example of how style, attitude, sharp dialogue, and a beautiful woman can triumph over plot in film noir.

Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) is somehow reduced to cheating at dice with American sailors on the streets of Buenos Aires when an elegant gentleman with a hidden stiletto blade rescues him from a mugging. Â Their conversation afterwards reveals that both are brothers under the skin who “make their own luck.” Â They meet again when Johnny appears at a fancy illegal gambling den and starts to win big at blackjack by cutting cards.

It turns out his rescuer, Ballin Mundson, owns the place. Â Two security men haul Johnny in for cheating but Johnny convinces Mundson that he needs him on his side. Â Before long Johnny is managing the casino. Â When MundsonÂ takes a vacation he gives Johnny the combination to his safe.

Mundson returns with an American bride, the beautiful Gilda (Rita Hayworth), who makes her own luck as well. Â Johnny knows Gilda well enough to hate her intensely and she seconds the emotion. Â She constantly tries to provoke Johnny with apparent infidelity to his boss and he just as ruthlessly attempts to control her. Â This is a dangerous game as Mundson is deadly and madly jealous. Â With Joseph Calleia as an Argentine police detective and Stephen GerayÂ as a philosophical men’s room attendant.

The hard-boiled remarks never stop in this classic of the film noir genreÂ and cinematographer Rudolph MatÃ© makes Hayworth look desirable enough to drive any man to his doom. Â This makes for a really entertaining experience good enough for many repeat viewings. Â The story is strangely forgettable, however. Â We never learn what Gilda did to Johnny to warrant his overblown enmity and the ending wraps up things entirely too neatly with characters that reverse course on a dime.

Trailer -Â Rudolph MatÃ©, cinematographer

“Put the Blame on Mame”

4 Comments

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

Ministry of Fear (1944)

Posted on July 12, 2014 | Leave a comment

Ministry of Fear
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Seton I. Miller from a novel by Graham Greene
1944/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Willi Hilfe: We thought you’d been killed.

Stephen Neale: Not quite.[/box]

The look and feel of the piece scream Fritz Lang but under a screenwriter who was also the producer, the director wasn’t quite able to work his magic on the story.

As the film opens, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) waits anxiously to be released from an insane asylum where he has been sentenced for his involvement in the mercy killing/suicide of his terminally ill wife. Anxious rejoin the land of the living, Stephen is attracted by a charity fete put on by “The Mothers of Free Nations” before he can board the train to London. There a fortune teller mysteriously gives him the winning weight of a cake that is being raffled off.

Neale boards the train and is robbed of his prize by a “blind man” who is in turn blown up by a Nazi rocket. When he reaches London, Stephen, who fears any further interaction with the police, heads straight to the headquarters of “The Mothers”. The Austrian refugee siblings (Carl Esmond and Marjorie Reynolds) who run the charity offer to help him to track down the spy ring responsible for the deadly pastry. Murder and mayhem follow. With Dan Duryea in a small role as a sinister tailor.

Ministry of Fear is simply dripping with Lang’s signature style and noir flourishes that make it a visual joy. Unfortunately, the script is not in the same league. The story is confusing, the pace slows to a crawl at points, and much of the acting is dragged down by indecision as to what accent should be used in this very studio-bound “London”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JsdMhwxaBw

Trailer – cinematography by Henry Sharp

House of Strangers (1949)

Posted on July 12, 2014 | 1 comment

House of Strangers
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Philip Yordan from a novel by Jerome Weldman
1949/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Max Monetti: Always looking for a new way to get hurt from a new man. Get smart, there hasn’t been a new man since Adam.[/box]

This unsung but hard-hitting drama features one of Edward G. Robinson’s very finest performances, and that’s really saying something.

Italian immigrant Gino Manetti (Robinson) started in America as a barber and rose to be a wealthy banker by lending to immigrants on the Upper East Side of New York without collateral but at usurious rates. He is the undisputed patriarch to his wife and four sons. Three of his sons work at the bank and he treats them like servants, insulting them freely in the process. Eldest son Joe (Luther Adler) works as a teller and tries to caution his father about the need to keep books, but Gino only tells him to “go back to his cage”. Gino’s fourth son Max (Richard Conte) is a criminal lawyer and Gino treats him with some respect.

Max is engaged to marry the beautiful and very traditionally Italian Maria (Debra Paget). When the fiery Irene Bennett (Susan Hayward) hires him to do some legal work, the attorney-client relationship quickly turns into a stormy love affair. Max is distracted from his romantic woes when the bank examiners find numerous criminal problems lurking in what passes for the books. Rankling from years of abuse, the other brothers refuse to lift a finger for their father and Max ends up taking the rap as a result of his overzealous defense of Gino in court. At the urging of Gino, Max spends his seven-year prison sentence plotting revenge. With Efram Zimbalist, Jr. as Tony Manetti.

House of Strangers is marred a bit by the extraneous Conte-Hayward love affair which distracts from the compelling family drama at the core of the film. Otherwise it is practically perfect. Robinson grew up with Italians and spoke the language fluently. He is the quintessence of stubborn manhood as he terrorizes the dinner table with his loud opera records and orders. He makes his character so downright human though that it is hard to hate him quite as much as the film means us to do. Conte makes a dynamic and cynical foil and Adler, better known as a stage actor, really shines. According to the commentary, Mankiewicz contributed a lot to the screenplay and the crackling dialogue seems to bear that out. Recommended.

Also according to the commentary, House of Strangers received very limited distribution due to complaints by both Amadeo Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, and Spyros Skouras, president of Twentieth Century Fox, who thought it was aimed at them.

Edward G. Robinson won the award for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance in House of Strangers.

Trailer – Milton R. Krasner, cinematographer

1 Comment

Posted in Movie Reviews, Noir Month

Pitfall (1948)

Posted on July 8, 2014 | 1 comment

Pitfall
Directed by Andre de Toth
Written by Karl Kamb based on the novel The Pitfall by Jay Dratler
1948/USA
Regal Films
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box]John Forbes: How does it feel to be a decent, respectable married man?[/box]

When it’s 1948 and you step out on your wife with a lady who has caught Raymond Burr’s eye, you’ve got to know you are in serious trouble. Dick Powell is terrific as the guy who slipped into the Pitfall.

John Forbes (Powell) is bored with his job as an insurance man and his wife Sue (Jane Wyatt) who keeps him on his daily routine. He can’t even claim he misses the excitement of combat since he spent the war in Denver, Colorado.

His company used private eye J.B. (‘Mack’) MacDonald (Burr) to investigate whether any of the money embezzled from a policy holder can be recovered. Mack comes in to report that some of the money was used to buy expensive gifts for the embezzler’s fiancee Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott), a very attractive blonde. Mack is smitten and offers to go back and collect the property himself. But Forbes says it’s a job for a company man.

Forbes visits Mona and coldly starts inventorying the gifts. But Mona teases him for being so straight-laced, one thing leads to another, and the two end up taking a ride on the boat Mona’s man bought for her. Forbes can’t get her out of his mind and before we know it they are sitting in a bar kissing.

Problem is Mack can’t get her out of his mind either and spends his most of his time tailing Forbes and Mona. Mona discovers Forbes’s wife and son early on and calls off the relationship. But by now Mack is convinced that the only thing standing between him and Mona’s arms is Forbes. He hounds the pair of them right into catastrophe for all concerned.

Raymond Burr was a master at playing these borderline psychotic villains and is the highlight of the film. But Dick Powell gives a touching and nuanced performance as a man whose Past lasted only twenty-four hours and will haunt him for the rest of his life. Wyatt is also very good, especially toward the end of the film. The print available to me was pretty fuzzy so I really can’t comment on the camera work. I liked this a lot.

Trailer – even in 1948 they were giving away spoilers in the trailer!

1 Comment

Posted in Movie Reviews, Noir Month

Tagged film noir

Phantom Lady (1944)

Posted on July 7, 2014 | 5 comments

Phantom Lady
Directed by Robert Siodmak
Written by Bernard C. Schoenfeeld based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich
1944/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/TCM Dark Crime Collection DVD

[box] [first lines] Ann Terry: [to bartender] Give me a nickel, please.[/box]

And now for some real film noir complete with Dutch angles and lots of shiny low-key photography! The film has some problems but none that stop it from being really enjoyable.

After an argument with his wife, engineer Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis) goes out to a bar. He has an extra ticket to a hit Broadway show and invites a lady he meets there to accompany him. This lady is almost catatonic with depression but agrees to go with him on the condition that he ask her no questions including what her name is. She is wearing a very distinctive hat that happens to be identical to one worn by an entertainer in the show.

Henderson arrives home to find his wife murdered and his apartment occupied by Inspector Burgess (Thomas Gomez) and his men. But Henderson has an alibi for the time of the crime – he was with the lady. He doesn’t know her name of course but there were plenty of witnesses that can be located that saw them together – the bartender, the entertainer who kept glaring at the lady, a drummer who was making eyes at her, etc. But none of these will admit to having seen her. Henderson is tried and convicted for murder.

Now the story begins in earnest. Henderson’s secretary Carol (Ella Raines) is convinced her boss is innocent. She starts visiting the witnesses and questioning them. They start being murdered one by one and Carol’s life appears to be in great danger. Then Inspector Burgess,who privately believes Henderson is innocent as well, starts to help her. Finally Henderson’s best friend Jack Marlow (Franchot Tone) arrives from South America and becomes Carol’s constant companion as she tries to track down the maker of the hat. With Elisha Cook Jr. as the drummer and Faye Helm as the lady.

Curtis displays precious little emotion as the condemned man but Ella Raines makes up for that in spades. She is wonderful both as Carol and as a kind of trashy alter ego who seduces the drummer in a great scene. Siodmak was a master at this kind of thing and keeps the suspense high despite a script that reveals a major plot twist far too early. It looks simply gorgeous. This is noir at its most alluring. Recommended.