The Spiral Staircase (1945)

Posted on June 24, 2013 | 4 comments

The Spiral StaircaseSpiral Staircase Poster
Directed by Robert Siodmak
1945/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing

 

Constable: She’s dead!
Dr. Parry: Well, in that case, Constable, I certainly can’t do her any harm.

A very noir filmmaking team at RKO (director Siodmak, cinematographer Musuraca, and composer Webb) put together this glossy thriller.

It is sometime near the turn of the last century and a serial killer is on the loose in a small town.  This maniac has been focusing on women with some kind of physical infirmity and pretty mute Helen (Dorothy McGuire) seems a likely next victim.  Young Dr. Parry (Kent Smith) has taken a professional and romantic interest in Helen and thinks she can be cured of her traumatic loss of speech.

The story is confined to one dark and stormy night at the Warren household, where Helen works as a companion to the invalid matriarch (Ethel Barrymore).  The house is filled with creepy characters not the least of which is the cantankerous and vaguely ominous Mrs. Warren.  Other suspicious types include her womanizing obnoxious son Steve  (Gordon Oliver and pedantic stepson Professor Warren (George Brent) who hate each other and who each have a yen for the professor’s secretary Blanche (Rhonda Fleming).  Then we have the dipsomaniac cook Mrs. Oates (Elsa Lanchester) and her menacingly silent handyman husband.  Poor Helen has a rough time of it, complicated by her inability to call for help.

Spiral Staircase 1

This is a fun thriller with a nice score and beautiful art direction and cinematography.  Dorothy McGuire has an expressive face though I kept thinking that it was really well suited for comedy.  I jumped a couple of times but I wondered if another actress would have made for a scarier movie.  This may be the only role I have seen Ethel Barrymore in. She was very good and kept you guessing.

Re-release trailer

 

4 Comments

Posted in 1945, Noir Month

Tagged , ,

The Man from Laramie (1955)

Posted on June 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Man from Laramiethe-man-from-laramie-poster
Directed by Anthony Mann
1955/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/William Goetz Productions
First viewing
#295 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

Will Lockhart: You’re just a hard, scheming old woman, aren’t you?
Kate Canady: Ugly, too.

This is a Technicolor Cinemascope Western set in the wide open spaces of New Mexico.  Its “noir” elements come from the revenge obsession of its protagonist and a psychopathic bad guy.

Will Lockhart (James Stewart) rides into town with a mule train bearing supplies from Laramie.  His secret mission is to avenge the death of his brother, a cavalryman who was killed in a massacre by Apaches armed with repeating rifles.  Will suspects that the rifles were supplied by white men.

On his way out of town, Will decides to load up his empty wagons with salt from a lagoon. He is soon set on by Dave Waggoman (Alex Nichol) of the Barb Ranch, who believes he owns everything within a 300 mile radius.  Dave takes sadistic glee in hog-tieing Will, burning his wagons and shooting his mules.  He is only restrained by the arrival of ranch foreman Vic Hansbro (Arthur Kennedy).   Dave is the son of patriarch Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp) and Vic has been raised as his brother and charged with responsibility of keeping crazy Dave under control.

Each attack on Will makes him more determined to stay in town.  The rest of the film follows Will’s revenge quest, his numerous reverses, and the Cain and Abel struggle between Dave and Vic.  With  Cathy O’Donnell as Vic’s fiancée, Aline MacMahon as a neighboring rancher, and Jack Elam as the town drunk.

Man from Laramie 1

There were several moments during this movie when I had to scratch my head as things just did not compute.  It seemed like portions were cut out and there was no exposition to prepare for some of the plot developments.  This also featured more gratuitous and graphic violence  than the modern-day noirs I have been viewing.  There was nothing wrong with any of the performances or the directing but it wasn’t a comfortable experience for me.  The music is very nice except for the truly lame theme song.

Clip – attack on the mule train

Leave a comment

Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1955, Noir Month

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Posted on June 23, 2013 | 4 comments

The Asphalt JungleAsphalt Jungle Poster
Directed by John Huston
1950/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Loew’s
Repeat viewing
#224 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

Doc Riedenschneider: One way or another, we all work for our vice.

This is the granddaddy of all caper films and an essential film noir.  The excellent ensemble cast is matched only by the outstanding cinematography, screenplay and direction.  A true classic.

Courtly master safecracker Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) has just been released from prison and has a plan for a “perfect” jewel heist that should net half a million dollars. He just needs $50,000 to pull off the crime.  He goes to bookmaker Cobby who connects him with corrupt attorney Lon Emmerich (Louis Calhern).  Emmerich agrees to front the capital needed to hire a robbery team and fence the jewels. The team consists of “box man” Louis (Anthony Caruso), driver Gus (James Whitmore), and hooligan/gun man Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden). Everybody involved has a dream or vice to motivate them to participate.  Needless to say, film noir is short on fairy tale endings, unless, of course, you are a police commissioner.  With Jean Hagen as Dix’s girl and Marilyn Monroe as Emmerich’s mistress.

Asphalt Jungle 1

I just love this movie.  I really enjoy seeing the mechanics of a well planned heist and this is one of the best.  I also like the economical way Huston gives us the back stories of not one but about six doomed noir protagonists.  Although our heroes, including many of the police, are flawed they are mostly sympathetic on some level.  This makes the movie’s ending a bit sad but not depressing or dispiriting to me.

This was probably the role of Louis Calhern’s career and one of Sterling Hayden’s best.  It also contains my favorite Sam Jaffe performance.  If you have never seen Jean Hagen in anything other than Singin’ in the Rain, this will show you her excellence in a dramatic role. The cinematography is fantastic with lots of shiny city streets and unique camera angles.  Highly recommended.

Trailer

 

4 Comments

Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1950, Noir Month

Tagged , , ,

The Big Steal (1949)

Posted on June 22, 2013 | 2 comments

The Big Stealbig-steal-movie-poster-1949
Directed by Don Siegel
1949/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing

 

 

Lt. Duke Halliday: [to Joan] I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t like to turn around, Chiquita. Besides that there’s a guy behind me with a gun. Remember?

In the build up for my repeat viewing of Out of the Past, I thought I’d take a look at Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer’s other pairing.  While this one is pleasant enough, it doesn’t hold a candle to the 1947 classic and barely earns a noir classification in my book.

Mitchum plays Lt. Duke Halliday.  Duke is being framed by Jim Fiske (Patrick Knowles) for robbing a $300,000 Army payroll.  He chases Fiske to Mexico.  En route he runs into Army detective Capt. Blake (William Bendix) and steals his credentials.  When Duke catches up to Fiske he meets Joan Graham (Greer), to whom Fiske owes money.  Most of the movie is taken up Duke and Joan chasing Fiske with Blake in close pursuit.  With Ramon Navarro as a Mexican police official and John Qualen as a fence.

BIG-STEAL--1-

This is a cross between a romantic comedy and a caper action film.  Most of it takes place outdoors in the bright Mexican sunshine.  There is no femme fatale and no doomed protagonist.  There is a bit of noir photography toward the end and plenty of subterfuge.  It fits my broad definition of film noir as it is included in the Keaney Film Noir Guide.  It’s OK for a Saturday afternoon entertainment but nothing very memorable.  Jane Greer somehow has lost the luminous beauty she has in Out of the Past.  Part of it is undoubtedly the lighting.  She also is not flattered by dark lipstick.

The production history set forth in the commentary is pretty interesting.  Howard Hughes bought RKO the same year this was made.  Robert Mitchum, the studio’s biggest star, was arrested for possession of marijuana shortly before this was to go into production. Hughes decided to bet on Mitchum’s continued popularity and left him in the film. However, Lizbeth Scott, who was slated to play the Greer role, did not want her name linked with Mitchum’s and pulled out.  Several other actresses then refused the role.

Greer had previously been Hughes’ girlfriend but was now married.  Hughes had called her into his office and told her she would sit out her contract and not work again for the studio. He was forced to eat his words to get his movie made.  The movie started production and then Mitchum was sentenced to 60 days jail time.  Some of the contortions forced on the filmmakers undoubtedly affected the outcome of the finished film.  For example, Bendix and Mitchum share almost no screen time and there are less action scenes than had been planned.

Clip

2 Comments

Posted in 1949, Movie Reviews, Noir Month

Tagged , ,

Force of Evil (1948)

Posted on June 21, 2013 | 6 comments

Force of EvilForce of Evil Poster
Directed by Abraham Polonsky
1948/USA
Enterprise Productions/Roberts Pictures, Inc.
First viewing
#204 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Wally: What do you mean “gangsters”? It’s business.

This dynamite noir was the only film directed by screenwriter Abraham Polonsky before he was blacklisted by the Hollywood studios when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Joe Morse (John Garfield) is a corrupt Wall Street lawyer.  His client Ben Tucker is a crime lord who seeks to organize the numbers racket into a combine by breaking the many small “banks” that take bets.  At the same time Joe is trying to cash in, he is also trying to protect his brother Leo, who runs one of the very banks that will be put out of business.  Along the way, Joe befriends and attempts to seduce Leo’s sweet young secretary, Doris.  Joe rapidly finds out that business and family loyalty do not mix.  As this is a noir, he also learns that he is not as smart or in control of the situation as he thinks.   With Thomas Gomez as Leo Morse, Roy Roberts as Ben Tucker, Marie Windsor as Ben’s wife, and Beatrice Pearson as Doris.

Force of Evil 1

This indictment of greed has a lot going for it.  The screenplay is very literate, though the romantic bits are perhaps a bit cute for their own good.  The ending monologue as Joe walks down the stairs to the river is almost poetic.  The cinematography by sometime Hitchcock D.P. George Barnes is wonderful.  There is a gunfight in a darkened room that is just exquisite. All the actors acquit themselves well.   Recommended.
In 1994, Force of Evil was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Trivia:  Beatrice Pearson shares my own maiden name.  This is one of only two films she made.

Sidney Pollock introduces Force of Evil on TCM

6 Comments

Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1948, Noir Month

Tagged , ,

Ossessione (1943)

Posted on June 20, 2013 | 5 comments

OssessioneOssessione Poster
Directed by Lucino Visconti
1943/Italy
Industrie Cinematografiche Italiane (ICI)
Repeat viewing
#165 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

 

“Love, when you get fear in it, it’s not love any more. It’s hate.” ― James M. Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice

This neo-realist work was Lucino Visconti’s first feature film and the second screen adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, made after Le Dernier Tournant (1939) and before the 1946 Hollywood version.  It stays fairly close to the story but with a flavor more of tragedy than of noir.

Handsome drifter Gino Costa (Massimo Girotti) lands at a sort of Italian truck stop/store on the back of a pickup and stays for lunch after he spots Giovanna (Clara Calmai), the young wife of the portly middle-aged owner Giuseppe Bragana.  A passionate love affair ensues and, as Giovanna cannot bear to leave the security of the store and Gino tries but fails to live without her, they resort to murdering the husband. Gino’s guilt and fear, and Giovanna’s continued refusal to leave the store, threaten to destroy their relationship.

Ossessione 1

I find this to be grittier, and thus more faithful to the novel, than the Hollywood version.  At the same time, there is a very Catholic sense of guilt and sin permeating the film – none of that hard-bitten wisecracking type dialogue here.  The ending seems more operatic than ironic.  I actually far prefer this version to the Hollywood version.  The acting is better and I like all the details of everyday life and the emotional subtleties of the story.  The only thing I would change about this would be to cut about 20-30 minutes.  It clocks in at over 2 hours and drags in places.

Clip

5 Comments

Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1943, Noir Month

Tagged , ,

Cat People (1942)

Posted on June 20, 2013 | 6 comments

Cat PeopleCat People Poster
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
1942/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing
#154 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

 

Irena Dubrovna: I like the dark. It’s friendly.

I’ve been reading about this film so long it’s a wonder I haven’t seen it until now.  It was certainly not a disappointment.

Simone Simon plays Serbian expatriate Irena Dubrovna, who has a fascination with cats.  She meets architect Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) near the panther cage at the zoo and they fall in love and marry.  Irena tells Oliver of her village’s legend about evil people who turn into vicious cats when aroused.  She fears that her mother was one of these and that if her passions are raised by lovemaking, jealousy, or anger she also will turn into a cat.  Oliver is at first remarkably patient.  Irena agrees to see psychiatrist Dr. Judd (Tom Conway) but he makes little progress.  In the meantime, Oliver grows closer to co-worker Alice Moore who admits her love for him.  Irena’s fears are soon to be tested …

Cat People 4

This is a beautiful and chilling film.  It gave me the creeps even though I should have known better.  Master of noir shadows Nicholas Masuraca lights the whole thing with incredible skill and director Jacques Tourneur creates hides his scares in those shadows masterfully.  I also thought the story was touching.  Simon , who looks a bit like a kitten, is sympathetic as well as sensuously menacing.  Highly recommended.

Re-release Trailer

 

6 Comments

Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1942, Noir Month

Tagged , ,

Criss Cross (1949)

Posted on June 19, 2013 | 2 comments

Criss CrossCriss Cross poster
Directed by Robert Siodmak
1949/US
Universal International Pictures
First viewing

 

Steve Thompson: She’s all right, she’s just young.
Mrs. Thompson: Huh! Some ways, she knows more than Einstein.

This goes back to the roots of the classic film noir story line with its tortured leading man and femme fatale.  With Burt Lancaster and Dan Duryea in the cast I had high hopes going in and got the added benefit of an excellent performance by a young and lovely Yvonne DeCarlo.

Lancaster plays Steve Thompson, a young man who has travelled the country seeking to get over his divorce from wife Anna (De Carlo).  The fickle finger of fate has no mercy, however, and when Steve returns to town Anna makes a point of looking him up.  Steve is rehired for his old job at an armored car company and they see each other for a while.  Suddenly, Anna tires of being warned off Steve by all his friends (who think she is bad, bad news) and decides to marry gangster Slim Dundee (Duryea), again breaking Steve’s heart.

But some people can’t learn and when Anna tires of the abusive Slim, Steve is ready to take her in his arms.  When the two are caught together, Steve concocts a story that he actually was trying to get in touch with Slim about an armored car hold up.  This being noir things do not end well.  The interest is in seeing how events unfold.

Criss Cross 1

I enjoyed this very much although it didn’t meet the expectations I had for more of a heist movie based on the trailer.  Most of the film is occupied with the on again, off again romance.  Lancaster is always good and De Carlo was a revelation.  I don’t know if I’ve seen her before except as Lily Munster.

There is also the thrill of recognizing an uncredited Tony Curtis as De Carlo’s dance partner in an early scene!

Trailer

2 Comments

Posted in 1949, Noir Month

Tagged , , ,

Throne of Blood (1957)

Posted on June 19, 2013 | 4 comments

Throne of Blood (“Kumonosu-jô”)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
1957/Japan
Toho Studios/Kurosawa Production Company
Repeat viewing
#320 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 8.1/10; I say 9/10

 

[box] And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,/ The instruments of darkness tell us truths,/ Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s/ In deepest consequence. (Macbeth, 1.3.132) [/box]

Kurasawa’s stylized Noh-inspired adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth has always seemed to me somehow the most “foreign” of his films.  The images are so beautiful that I can come back again and again despite the somewhat distancing acting and pacing.

The story takes place in 14th Century Japan.  The great Toshiro Mifune plays Washizu, the Macbeth counterpart, with full-throttle bravado, exaggerating each emotion in what I assume is the best Noh style.  Washizu and Miki, the Banquo counterpart, are returning to Spider’s Web Castle after victory in battle when they encounter an evil spirit in the forest. The spirit predicts that Washizu will be named master of the North Garrison that day and later will become Lord of the Castle.  She predicts that Miki will now be named commander of the First Fortress and that his son will later be Lord of the Castle.  The scene with the spirit is particularly creepy and effective.

Washizu and Miki are astonished when the Lord of the Castle appoints them to the positions predicted by the spirit.  Not content to let fate take its course, Washizu’s cold and cruel wife Asaji, brilliantly played by Isuzu Yamamoto, spurs her husband on to murder the current Lord.  The couple plots to frame a courtier named Noriyasu (Takashi Shimura) but fool almost no one.  The childless Washizu has a final opportunity to claim the Lordship and salvage the situation by naming Miki’s son as his heir but this too is foiled by Asaji’s announcement that she is pregnant.

Wasaji’s doom is sealed when he is convinced to murder his former friend Miki and his son.  Mifune’s horrified reaction to the vision of Miki’s ghost is unforgettable.  Wasaji’s hired man lets Miki’s son escape and the son and Noriyasu join forces with the castle’s enemies against Wasaji.  In the meantime, Asaji’s baby is stillborn and she goes mad from guilt over the murders.

By this time, Wasaji’s own men are losing faith in their commander.  Wasaji goes back to the forest to consult the evil spirit.  The spirit advises that he cannot be defeated until the trees of the forest advance on Spider Web Castle.  Various warrior spirits appear to admonish Wasaji about the toll in blood his rise has cost.  Wasaji rallies his worried men by telling them about this latest prediction.  But when they see Noriyasu’s troops advancing on the castle under a protective cover of trees, Wasaji’s troops turn on him, killing him in a hail of arrows.

The end of Throne of Blood is one of the most spectacular in film history.   The images of the huge trees moving through the fog and Mifune staggering, terrified, as one arrow after another pierces his body are mind-blowing.

The commentary on the Criterion DVD says that this is a film about fate.  I see it more as a film about human nature.  Nothing about the prediction said that Wasaji had to use bloodshed to ascend to the throne.  It was his own ambition and hubris that spelled his doom.  Perhaps that is the way evil spirits get the better of us all.

Japanese trailer (with subtitles)

 

4 Comments

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

Tagged , ,

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Posted on June 18, 2013 | 2 comments

Where the Sidewalk Endswhere-the-sidewalk-ends-movie-poster
Directed by Otto Preminger
1950/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing

 

Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon: One false move and you’re over your head.

This film reprises Otto Preminger’s Laura pairing of Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney in a much grittier tale.

Dana Andrews plays Mark Dixon, a New York City detective who compensates for his father’s criminal past by overzealousness verging on police brutality.  After many warnings about the rough stuff, he is demoted.  Shortly thereafter, a gambler is murdered at a floating crap game organized by crime boss Tommy Scalise (Gary Merrill).  The victim was last seen in a fist fight with Ken Paine, the no-good estranged husband of Morgan Taylor (Gene Tierney).  Dixon is convinced Scalise or his henchmen murdered the man to retrieve his winnings but the police pin the blame on Paine and send Dixon to Paine’s apartment to pick him up.  There, Dixon gets into an altercation with Paine and Paine is killed when he hits his head in a fall.  Will Dixon somehow escape judgement?

Where_the_Sidewalk_Ends 1

The best thing about this as far as I was concerned was Gary Merrill’s performance as a sarcastic thug.  He should have done more of that.  I just can’t buy Dana Andrews as a tough guy.  Gene Tierney looks beautiful but makes some pretty hokey romantic dialogue sound even hokier.  I may be having a bad day.  This has a high IMDb user rating of 7.6 and is probably worth a shot.

Trailer

 

2 Comments

Posted in 1950, Noir Month

Tagged , ,