Daily Archives: June 24, 2015

The Gunfighter (1950)

Posted on June 24, 2015 | 2 comments

The Gunfighter
Directed by Henry King
Written by William Bowers and William Sellers; story by Bowers and André de Toth
1950/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Jimmy Ringo: How come I’ve got to run into a squirt like you nearly every place I go these days? What are you trying to do? Show off for your friends?[/box]

This is a very solid Western character study of a gunman who can’t seem to put down his guns.

When Jimmy Ringo (Gregory Peck) rides into a town, people come from miles around just for a peek at the notorious gun slinger.  He can’t even have a drink without some young runt who wants get famous needling him to provoke a fight.  When he kills the latest one in self-defense, he is forced to hit the trail again.  Now the brothers of the dead man are after him.  He manages to buy some time by leaving them stranded without horses.

Ringo’s next stop is the town of Cayenne where his wife, from whom he has been separated for many years, is living incognito as a schoolteacher.  Unbeknownst to him, Mark Strett (Millard Mitchell), an old friend, is the town’s mayor.  Mark has managed to go straight after being the same band of outlaws as Ringo in his younger days.  

Ringo’s appearance causes the same commotion in Cayenne as elsewhere.  All the young boys, including Ringo’s own son, play hooky from school and settle down outside the barroom door where Ringo waits.  His wife refuses to see him.  Another young punk is after him.  Marshall Mark does his best to keep law and order.

Eventually, the wife succumbs and there is a brief reunion.  Ringo wants to take his family somewhere far away where he is not known and live a normal life.  His wife thinks there is no such place and she may be right.  In the meantime, the brothers are closing in on Cayenne.

Fans of Gregory Peck should love this thoughtful Western.  The original story was written with John Wayne in mind and I think he would have been great in it.  Peck is good, mustache and all, though, and the film has a nice melancholy feel to it.

My husband and I are having a disagreement about who is riding off into the sunset at the end of the story.  Does anybody other than my husband think it was Ringo?

The Gunfighter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z6Obp0rcuo

Clip

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Posted in 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