Category Archives: Noir Month

Act of Violence
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Written by Robert L. Richards and Collier Young
1948/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Warner Noir Collection Vol. 4

[box]Frank R. Enley: You don’t know what made him the way he is – I do![/box]

This is a tense thriller with a social conscience that presages the many good things director Zinnemann (High Noon, From Here to Eternity, The Nun’s Story) was to give us in the future.   It benefits from two fantastic perfomances by its leading men.

Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan) is an embittered war veteran with a limp.  His former buddy Frank Enley (Van Heflin) has graduated to be a man with a beautiful young wife (Janet Leigh) and toddler and a model citizen of Santa Lisa, California.  They are heading for a showdown.

Over the opening title credit, we see Joe packing his pistol and heading from New York to Santa Lisa.  He arrives in town to find a Memorial Day celebration, with Frank as keynote speaker.  We learn that Joe bears Frank a grudge from some misdeed done while the two were in a German prison camp.  The extent of the wrongdoing is only gradually revealed. Frank’s whole story comes out during an emotional confession to his wife.

The rest of the film’s 82-minute running time is devoted to Joe’s relentless pursuit and Frank’s increasingly frantic efforts to escape.  Finally, he ends up on the wrong side of the tracks in Los Angeles being aided by a kind barfly (Mary Astor) and her extremely shady associates.  But Joe and Fate are waiting for him back in Santa Lisa.

This is one terrific movie.  Zinneman saves the credits until the end, highly unusual in 1948, in order to build suspense from the very first second.  It doesn’t stop until those credits roll at the end.  I love the way the palette goes from bright when we first meet Frank and his family to increasingly darker hues as the extent of Frank’s predicament is revealed.  Heflin and Ryan are two of the greatest actors of the 40’s and 50’s and these performances show why. Mary Astor is touching in what may have been her lifetime best performance.  The tension is heightened by Branislau Kaper’s edgy score.  Highly recommended.

Opening credits – credits roll over action (Robert Ryan) – Cinematography by Robert Surtees

He Walked by Night
Directed by Alfred L. Werker (with an uncredited Anthony Mann)
Written by Crane Wilbur, John C. Higgins and Harry Essex
1948/USA
Bryan Foy Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

Narrator: [Referring to the composite sketch] They showed that picture to the inmates of jails and prisons, to men with a wide acquaintance among the cat burglars and the violence boys, informers, con men, and sharpshooters – those on the fringe of crime and those deep in the rackets. Many wanted to help – nobody could! No one in the Underworld recognized that mysterious face. He was as unknown as if he had lived in the 16th Century.

This police procedural gave Jack Webb the idea for “Dragnet” but transcends the genre with an unforgettable performance by Richard Basehart and dark L.A. streets lit by noir master cinematographer John Alton.

The plot is based on an actual case  A narrator matter-of-factly recounts the methods employed by the police to apprehend cop-killer Roy Martin (Basehart).  The chase is complicated by the fact that sweet-faced Martin has no record and considerable skill with radios that keeps him one step ahead of the police.  With Whit Bissell as a policeman and Jack Webb in the forensics lab.

The story might be a 1950’s CSI episode but for the considerable artistry with which it is told.  There are several awesome set pieces as when Martin extracts a bullet from his own chest and a chase through the storm drains of Los Angeles reminiscent of The Third Man but filmed a year earlier.  This is a movie that improved with a re-watch.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcgLaG9uo58

Clip – making the composite

The Blue Dahlia
Directed by George Marshall
Written by Raymond Chandler
1946/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/TCM Dark Crimes DVD

Leo: Just don’t get too complicated, Eddie. When a man gets too complicated, he’s unhappy. And when he’s unhappy, his luck runs out.

Raymond Chandler famously wrote his original screenplay for The Blue Dahlia at home during shooting while he was on a drunken bender.  The plot doesn’t make much sense but the hard-boiled dialogue makes it nearly as enjoyable as The Big Sleep, which was released the same year.

Three buddies, ace Navy pilot Lt. Cmdr. Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd), Buzz Wanchek (William Bendix) and George Copeland (Hugh Beaumont), have just been discharged from the Navy.  Buzz is volatile by nature and also has a steel plate in his skull.  “Monkey music” (basically any fairly loud music with a beat) causes his head to throb and he goes into a frenzy.  Buzz and George head off to a shared bachelor pad and Johnny goes to the apartment of his wife Helen.  There, he finds a noisy, drunken party and Helen in the arms of Eddie Harwood (Howard DaSilva) owner of the Blue Dahlia nightclub.  After taking a slug at Harwood and breaking up the party, Johnny tries to start over with his alcoholic wife but when she admits their son died while she was drunk driving, Johnny pulls a gun on her, then drops it and storms out of the apartment.  Their argument is overheard by house detective “Dad” Newell (Will Wright).

After this, the viewer needs a high tolerance for coincidences and a keen state of alertness.  Helen calls Buzz and George at their apartment to report that Johnny has left her.  Buzz takes off for the apartment where no one is home.  He goes to the bar where he meets a lush, who is of course Helen, and who invites him up to her place.  While they are in it, Helen calls Harwood to say that Johnny is out of the picture but Harwood wants to call off the relationship.

Johnny leaves the apartment in driving rain and is picked up by good Samaritan Joyce Harwood (Veronica Lake), who naturally just happens to be the estranged wife of the man Helen has been having an affair with.  Joyce is immediately smitten with Johnny but he still considers himself a married man.  They end up spending the night in the same hotel and in the morning she hears Helen’s murder reported on the radio and sees Johnny behaving suspiciously.

Many double and triple-crosses follow, along with a number of fistfights and shoot-outs.  All the characters aside from the military men seem to have their hands out for a bribe.  Red herrings abound until the murderer emerges at the very end.

The U.S. Navy vetoed Chandler’s chosen ending so the plot makes even less sense than it would have originally.  But The Blue Dahlia illustrates that plot is less important that attitude, dialogue, and strong performances.  You don’t get much more hard-boiled than this.  And the supporting performances are wonderful.  I am more impressed with Bendix with each role I see him in.  He is just a volcano of explosive energy.  And Howard Da Silva shines as a mild-mannered, self-controlled gangster.  Ladd is no Bogart but I think he is even more convincing when it comes to fisticuffs. Recommended.

Raymond Chandler was nominated for an Academy Award for his original screenplay for The Blue Dahlia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPaRNkckW0

Trailer – cinematography by Lionel Linden

Lady on a Train
Directed by Charles David
Written by Edmund Beloin, Robert O’Brien and Leslie Charteris
1945/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Deanna Durbin Sweetheart Collection DVD

I couldn’t go on forever being Little Miss Fixit who burst into song. — Deanna Durbin

Lady on a Train is a beautifully photographed mystery spoof and one of Deanna Durbin’s better pictures.

Nikki Collins (Durbin) is reading a lurid mystery aboard her train from San Francisco to New York when she sees through the window a man being bludgeoned with a club in a nearby building .  Novel in hand, she goes to the police to report a murder but no one will believe her.  She turns to crime novelist Wayne Morgan but he is in thrall to his jealous girlfriend and is no help either.  Then a newsreel reports the accidental death of a shipping magnate by falling off a ladder.  This is the same man as the murder victim and Nikki is determined to investigate with or without Ward.

Nikki manages to enter the magnate’s isolated mansion where the will is being read. Everyone assumes she is Margo Martin, the victim’s night club singer girlfriend, who turns out to be the sole heir of his estate.  At the reading, she meets brothers Jonathan (Ralph Bellamy) and Arnold (Dan Duryea) Waring and Mr. Saunders (George Coulouris), manager of the Circus Club where Margo works.  She also manages to nab a pair of bloodstained slippers.  Nikki now has to avoid her own murder at every turn.  Her further investigations at the Circus Club, with the eventual aid of Wayne, give her an opportunity to sing.

The film was directed by Durbin’s husband and she never looked lovelier.  The entire movie benefits from the beautiful shadows and lighting created by noir cinematographer Elwood Bredell (Phantom Lady, The Killers).  While this is basically a comedy and lacks the angst characteristic of film noir, there are plenty of thrills.  The only downside is that Durbin’s trained soprano does not really suit songs like “Night and Day”. She is downright sexy while singing “Give Me a Little Kiss” though and there is even a little naughty double entendre at the very end.  I enjoyed this one.

Lady on a Train was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound, Recording.

Deanna Durbin sings “Night and Day” – cinematography by Elwood Bredell

The Mask of Dimitrios
Directed by Jean Negulesco
Written by Frank Gruber based on a novel by Eric Ambler
1944/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Warner Archive DVD

Mr. Peters: [Repeated with small variations throughout the story] How little kindness there is in the world today!

This solid noir thriller moves Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet into starring roles and features the film debut of Zachary Scott as the mysterious title character.

The story begins in Istanbul in 1938 with the discovery of a body stabbed and thrown in the Bosporus.  The police identify it as the remains of master criminal Dimitrios Makropoulous (Scott) based on an identifying label.  At a reception that evening, Colonel Haki, head of the police, gets into a conversation with mystery writer Cornelius Leyden (Lorre) and begins to tell him Dimitrios’ history as a robber, killer, assassin and spy.  Leyden is curious and is taken to view the body.  He is so fascinated that he takes off on a journey throughout the Balkans to learn more about him.  Each witness he contacts makes the criminal seem ever more clever and despicable.

He is soon followed every step of the way by the menacing “Mr. Peters” (Greenstreet), a former associate of Dimitrios.  Later, Peters reveals that, between some undisclosed information Peters has and some also mysterious knowledge that Leyden has, the two can make a fortune.

This is an unusual setting for a movie of its period it and the filmmakers make the most of the shadows and sinister exoticism of the locale.  Scott is already outstanding at portraying a devious but charming lout and Greenstreet is at his oily and pontifical best. Lovers of Peter Lorre should check this out since the film gives him the rare chance to play a relatively balanced protagonist.

Trailer – cinematography by Arthur Edeson

The Spell of Amy Nugent (AKA “Spellbound” and “Passing Clouds”)
Directed by John Harlow
Written by Miles Malleson and Hugh Benson based on the play “Necromancer” by Robert Benson
1941/UK
Pyramid Amalgamated Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video

And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? — Isaiah 8:19 ESV

According to the British Film Noir Guide, this is one.  It’s more of a ghost story and a pretty bad one to boot.

Mrs. Baxter is a pillar of society.  She is trying to arrange a marriage between her son Laurie and family friend Diana Hilton.  Laurie, however, is in love with Amy Nugent, daughter of the local shopkeeper.  The difference in class horrifies his mother but Laurie is determined to go through with the wedding.  Before this can happen, Amy dies of a sudden illness.

Laurie, an Oxford scholar preparing for his exams and a leading track star, is devastated. He is ripe when one of his mother’s friends leaves behind a book on spiritualism.  He visits the friend’s house where he meets a medium named Mr. Vincent.  The medium does conjure up Amy.  Laurie’s Oxford tutor is a skeptic but Laurie will not listen,  Finally, he brings in Mr. Cathcart, a believer who fled the movement.  Laurie sinks deeper under the spell of Mr. Vincent.  Can Cathcart or Diana break it before Laurie goes insane?

Derek Farr

At first, I thought this movie was going somewhere interesting with Amy’s demise.  Not so. In addition, at only 82 minutes, the film drags.  I thought Derek Farr over did it as Laurie.   I suppose some of the lighting is noirish but low-key lighting is suitable for horror as well and does not turn a ghost story into a film noir, in my book.