Tag Archives: film noir

Compulsion
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Richard Murphy based on the novel by Meyer Levin
1959/USA
Darryl F. Zanuck Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box]Jonathan Wilk: In those years to come, you might find yourself asking if it wasn’t the hand of god dropped these glasses… And if he didn’t, who did?[/box]

This is a superb  treatment of the Leopold and Loeb case, also adapted for Hitchcock’s Rope.

Arthur A. Straus (Bradford Dillman) and Judd Steiner (Dean Stockwell) are two highly intelligent and privileged law students.  Artie also happens to be a psychopath and Judd gets his kicks from playing at a master-slave relationship with him.  They decide to commit the “perfect murder” simply to see if they can get away with it.  Their crime of choice is kidnapping a child, murdering the boy, and throwing his body into a ravine.  They follow up by sending his parents a ransom note.

The boys are not as smart as they think they are and the body is found before they can collect on the ransom.  Artie has more fun by insinuating himself with the police and sending them on wild goose chases after teachers, servants, etc., ruining several careers in the process.  D.A. Harold Horn has strong suspicions about some glasses found at the scene though and eventually the killers are brought to justice.  The remainder of the film is devoted to their trial at which liberal defense attorney Jonathan Wilk (Orson Welles) – a stand-in for Clarence Darrow who defended Leopold and Loeb – admits their guilt but makes an impassioned argument against the death penalty.

Orson Welles does not make his appearance until the last third of this film.  The first part of the story is devoted to the awful but fascinating characters of the murderers, compellingly played by Dillman and Stockwell.  Dillman’s is a fairly straightforward psychopath but Stockwell gets to show a more rounded portrayal as a twisted young man who just might have a conscience buried somewhere inside.  Welles’s anti-death penalty monologue ending the film was the longest in film history and is very moving.  Fleischer also makes this compelling to look at. Highly recommended.

Dean Stockwell, Orson Welles, and Bradford Dillman jointly won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival.  The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or.

The story has also been made into the movies Rope (1948), Swoon (1992) and Murder by Numbers (2002)

Trailer – cinematography by Willaim C. Mellor

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

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!

The Sniper
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Written by Harry Brown, Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt
1952/USA
Stanley Kramer Productions/Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics DVD

[box]Tagline:Hungrily, he watched her walk down the street…and then he squeezed the trigger![/box]

Returned war vet Eddie Miller (Arthur Franz) is one sick puppy.  By day he is a mild-mannered delivery driver for a San Francisco dry-cleaning company.  By night, he obsesses over the wrongs done to him by women and the high-powered rifle he keeps locked in his bureau drawer. He knows he is twisted, even holding his right hand over a hot plate to prevent himself from using the rifle.  His efforts to get caught and get help come to nothing however.

Then Eddie begins shooting brunettes.  The ironically named Police Lt. Frank Kafka (Adolphe Menjou) is on the case but the killings continue despite the best efforts of the police department.  Can Eddie be stopped? With Frank Faylen as a police inspector, Richard Kiley as a police psychiatrist/profiler, and Marie Windsor as one of the victims.

The film begins with a title card explaining the research done into the social problem of the sex criminal and urging understanding to combat its growth.  It is a mixture of a psychological thriller with a police procedural.  Unfortunately, the story grinds to a halt during many of the police segments.  There is one particularly ludicrous lineup parading offenders from peeping toms to poison pen writers before the eager press.  The officer resembles no one more than Howard Cosell!  All the writers can come up with to “solve” the problem is to lock up any one exhibiting signs of perversion in an asylum for life.

That said, the negatives are overcome by the very strong and suspenseful scenes with the sniper. The location photography in San Francisco is also quite evocative and beautiful. On balance, I would recommend the film.

Menjou appears clean-shaven and in a rumpled suit.  If not for his voice, he would be unrecognizable.  One of the little ironies in the back story of the production is the pairing of director Dmytryk, one of the Hollywood Ten, with Menjou, one of the foremost red-baiters in Hollywood during the McCarthy era.

Edna and Edward Arnhalt were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Story.

Trailer – cinematographer Burnett Guffey