Tag Archives: Hollywood

Double Indemnity (1944)

Posted on July 6, 2013 | 13 comments

Double Indemnity
Directed by Billy Wilder
USA/1944
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing
#172 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Phyllis: We’re both rotten.

Walter Neff: Only you’re a little more rotten.[/box]

You have to hand it to Billy Wilder.  He was a true original and yet his films established many new genres.  Some critics believe this movie was the first “true” film noir.  Wilder claimed it was intended to be a “documentary”.  Whatever it is, it is a masterpiece.

Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) spots Phyllis Deitrichson’s (Barbara Stanwyck) anklet and it is lust at first sight.  Neff is trying to renew an auto policy but Phyllis convinces him that what she needs is an accident policy on her husband … and a fatal accident.  But can the pair collect when Walter’s friend, claims adjuster Barton Keyes (Edward J. Robinson), smells a fraud?

[box] Walter Neff: Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money – and a woman – and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?[/box]

This film is just loaded with everything it takes to make a movie great.  The direction, acting, cinematography, screenplay, and music are all brilliant.  The care with which the first few minutes are handled, with MacMurray taking his time to settle in with the dictaphone are masterful and this is before the plot starts rolling.  Barbara Stanwyck is the perfect amoral femme fatal, but it strikes me that the fatal flaw here is within Walter.  Once again the sin of pride rears its ugly head and Phyllis merely gives Walter the opportunity to prove he his smarter than Barton Keyes, which has been his motive all along.  But Walter isn’t smarter; he is only taller.

The special edition DVD was loaded with two commentaries and a documentary.  One of the folks on the documentary said that “I did it for the money and the woman…and I didn’t get the money or the woman” is film noir in a nutshell.

Double Indemnity was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.  It failed to win any, largely because Paramount was promoting its other 1944 classic Going My Way.  The story goes that Wilder was so miffed when Leo McCarey got up to claim his Best Director prize, he put his foot in the aisle to trip him.

This is truly not to be missed.

Trailer

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In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Posted on July 3, 2013 | 4 comments

In the Heat of the Night
Directed by Norman Jewison
1967/USA
The Mirisch Corporation
Repeat viewing
#453 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 8/10; I say 9/10

 

[box] Gillespie: Whatcha hit him with?

Tibbs: Hit whom?

Gillespie: “Whom”? “Whom”? Well, you a northern boy? What’s a northern boy like you doing all the way down here?[/box]

And the List serves up another practically perfect movie …

Philadelphia homicide detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Portier) comes to Sparta, Mississippi to visit his  mother but finds he is not allowed to leave when a major investor is murdered. First, Virgil is suspected as the murderer.  Then, in spite of himself, Police Chief Gillespie (Rod Steiger) has to acknowledge that he needs Virgil’s expertise to solve the case.  But in a South still transitioning from segregation, the townspeople don’t want Virgil mixing in their affairs and are a constant danger.

This movie could have easily descended into preachiness.  Instead, the strong performances by the two leads and the deft screenplay make this an entertaining police procedural first and a message film second.  (Does anybody else but me grin throughout most of the Portier-Steiger exchanges?)  I also like the fact that Gillespie is an outsider like Virgil and that Virgil himself is almost steered wrong by his own personal feelings.  And you can’t miss when the great Ray Charles is singing over the credits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRe-9YOKSuY

Trailer

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Raw Deal (1948)

Posted on July 3, 2013 | 2 comments

Raw Deal
Directed by Anthony Mann
1948/USA
Edward Small Productions (as Reliance Pictures Inc.)
First viewing

 

 

[box] Joseph Emmett Sullivan: [referring to Ann] Keep your eye on Miss Law & Order here. She might go soprano on us.[/box]

I love it when a movie I have never heard of shows up and becomes a new favorite.  This fabulous B-noir is available now on Netflix Instant streaming and is not to be missed by fans of the genre.

Joe (Dennis O’Keefe) is itching to get out of prison for a breath of fresh air and to collect $50,000 owed to him by crime boss Rick (Raymond Burr).   At the same time, good-girl Ann (Marsha Hunt) has been visiting Joe and encouraging him to work for parole.  Rick has financed the escape with the thought that Joe will almost certainly be killed in the attempt and faithful moll Pat (Claire Trevor) is there to help with the getaway.

When Joe is forced to find a hideout, Pat and he run to Ann’s apartment and eventually flee with her as a kind of hostage.  The story follows the trio on the run as they evade the police and eventually confront Rick and his thugs.  The escape is complicated by the growing feelings between Ann and Joe and Pat’s jealousy.

 

Publicity still

I loved everything about this picture.  The story has unexpected twists and turns, with great noir dialogue and a poignant voice-over narration by Claire Trevor.  All the acting is good but my favorite is Raymond Burr in a chilling turn as the villain.  The cinematography by noir great John Alton is fantastic as is the unique theramin-dominated score.  My highest recommendation.

Clip – Raymond Burr and John Ireland – inspiration for the Big Heat?

Clip – showdown in the fog with theramin

 

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99 River Street (1953)

Posted on July 3, 2013 | Leave a comment

99 River Street
Directed by Phil Karlson
1953/USA
Edward Small Productions
First viewing

[box] Ernie Driscoll: There are worse things than murder. You can kill someone an inch at a time.[/box]

I could not get behind this odd and violent noir effort from B-picture specialist Phil Karlson.

Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) is an ex-boxer who was barred from the ring after suffering repeated blows to his eye during a championship bout.  His wife has lost all use for him now that he his driving a cab and is having an affair with thug Victor Rawlins (Brad Dexter) who recently pulled off a diamond heist.  Unfortunately for her, his fence doesn’t like dealing with women and is not happy that Victor murdered a man in the process.

During Ernie’s very bad day, he discovers the affair.  Then his friend Linda James (Evelyn Keyes) deceives him into helping her with a murder cover up.  Finally, Victor offs his wife and dumps her body in Ernie’s cab.  Ernie proves his continued ability with his fists by pummeling his many antagonists.  Linda gets off easy when she uses her seductive ways to help Ernie beat the murder rap.

This two-fisted thriller just wasn’t for me.  It’s pretty brutal with sound effects heightening all the many punches and the plot is all over the place.  For example, Ernie has an arrest warrant out against him for assault during the “murder cover-up” episode and this is never referred to again during the second half of the movie.  The film also features some of the most totally unnecessary voice-over coverage of a fist fight in cinema history.  Everything is pumped up to the max and made as lurid as possible.  It is, however, a relatively highly rated film and could be a fun watch for those in the mood for it.  The trailer gives a very good feeling of what is in store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNrKueIJbko

Trailer

 

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I Want to Live! (1958)

Posted on July 2, 2013 | 2 comments

I Want to Live! 
Directed by Robert Wise
1958/USA
Figaro
First viewing

 

 

[box] Carl G.G. Palmberg: Life’s a funny thing.

Barbara Graham: Compared to what?[/box]

This noir biofilm won Susan Hayward an Academy Award.

Hayward portrays Barbara Graham as a jazz-loving wise-cracking good-time girl.  The film covers Graham’s life as she starts out a good-hearted call girl, then suffers hard times as the wife of a junkie, and finally gets involved with some hardcore criminals.  A robbery goes wrong and a 63-year-old woman is murdered.  The criminals claim that Graham was along for the crime and actually committed the murder.  Graham denies that she was even present but her belligerent demeanor, shady past, and lack of proof of her alibi convict her. She becomes the third woman to be executed in the gas chamber in California.

Director Robert Wise mounted a very stylish production of the story, with superb framing and brilliant use of black and white cinematography. The final minutes of the film depict in minute detail the preparation for Graham’s execution down to the stethoscope strapped to her body before her walk to the chamber.  Hayward is heartbreaking as she faces her death through a series of last-minute stays.  The jazz score by Johnny Mandel is fantastic.

Although the film strongly suggests Graham was innocent, as she never ceased asserting, the audience does not witness the crime.  Other accounts have concluded that overwhelming evidence pointed to her guilt.

Trailer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Angel Face (1952)

Posted on July 2, 2013 | 6 comments

Angel Face
Directed by Otto Preminger
1952/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing
#244 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box]Frank Jessup:  I’d say your story was as phony as a three dollar bill.[/box]

This is another great noir I’m catching up on late.  Not only does the female lead put the “fatal” in femme fatale, but it has a fascinating production history.

Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) is a confused rich girl.  She idealizes her father (Herbert Marshall) and hates her wealthy stepmother (Barbara O’Neill).  Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) is a working stiff who can’t win.  His troubles begin when the ambulance he drives is called to the Tremayne house because of a gas leak in Mrs. Tremayne’s bedroom.  Frank consoles the weeping Diane and when she follows him to a coffee shop he steps out on his girlfriend Mary with her.  So begins the cycle that lands Frank on trial for a murder rap and married to pathologically lovelorn Diane.

I enjoyed this very much.  It features uniformly good acting, wonderful cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr., a nice pace, lush Dimitri Tiomkin score, and an awesome ending.

I love my DVD commentaries and this one contained the very juicy back story to the film.  Jean Simmons left England to be with beau Stewart Granger.  Howard Hughes was smitten with her, so RKO bought up her seven-year contract with the Rank organization.  Hughes was interested in more than a professional relationship and creeped Simmons out so much that she sued RKO to get out of the deal.  The case settled with Simmons agreeing to make three movies for the studio.  Since Hughes was famous for dragging out productions indefinitely, the settlement specified that the three movies had to be made within three years.  Eighteen days were left on the settlement when production on Angel Face began.

Hughes borrowed Preminger from Fox because he was known for being able to work fast. Preminger brought the equally speedy Stradling with him.  Before shooting started, Hughes attempted to change Simmons hair style so many times that she cut her hair short and wore wigs throughout the filming.  There is a scene where Mitchum slaps Simmons to snap her out of hysterics.  Preminger made the actors do the scene over and over until Mitchum hauled off and slapped Preminger.  Preminger rode Simmons so hard that Mitchum finally had to threaten to walk off the project.  The commentator opined that this conflict probably got a more engaged performance out of Mitchum.  Simmons, who was only 23, gave a wonderful performance despite her travails.

Every commentary I hear about Hughes’ years at RKO makes me like him less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBo5WvyBBl4

Trailer

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Kansas City Confidential (1952)

Posted on July 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Kansas City Confidential 
Directed by Phil Karlson
1952/USA
Associated Players and Producers
First viewing

 

[box] Tim Foster: What makes a two-bit heel like you think a heater would give him an edge over me?[/box]

Tough-as-nails heist noir about a “perfect” armored-car robbery.  A man meticulously plans the robbery and ensures that his team is always masked and do not know each other’s identity.  The heist involves a mock florist’s van and the innocent driver of the real van, a small-time ex-con, is hauled in and given the third degree.  The driver (John Payne) makes it his mission to round up the true criminals.  His quest takes him to a resort in Mexico.  With Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, and Neville Brand as robbers, Preston Foster as an ex-Police Chief, and Coleen Gray as the chief’s law-student daughter.

Although this is far from the “perfect” noir, I enjoyed it very much.  If some of the dialogue and acting is a bit over-earnest, the story is clever.  Karlson has a distinctive style reminiscent of Sam Fuller’s but a little bit more orthodox.  Very nice to meet up with a woman studying for the Bar Examination in a 1952 movie!

Clip – job interview sequence

 

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The Enforcer (1951)

Posted on June 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Enforcer
Directed by Bretaigne Windust (credited) and Raoul Walsh (uncredited)
1951/USA
Warner Brothers presents A United States Picture
First viewing

 

[box] Joseph Rico: I’m forgetful. Sometimes I meet a guy and then I never see him again. I got a big turnover in friends.[/box]

 

This is a “B” movie with an “A” star – Humphrey Bogart.

Bogart plays District Attorney Martin Ferguson.  Ferguson is about to try Alberto Mendoza (Everett Sloane), boss of a contract murder organization, for murder.  His only witness is Joseph Rico, Mendoza’s former right hand man.  Rico gets cold feet at the last minute and becomes unavailable.  Ferguson has a nagging feeling that there was something overlooked during the investigation.  He decides to go over the record piece by piece starting from the beginning starting a long flashback.  With Zero Mostel in an early role as a gang member.

This is an OK programmer about on par with a very good TV police procedural. Raoul Walsh took over from ailing director Windust but insisted Windust take the credit.  It was Bogart’s last film for Warner Bros.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFOXasBlU4A

Trailer

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Call Northside 777 (1948)

Posted on June 29, 2013 | 2 comments

Call Northside 777
Directed by Henry Hathaway
1948/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing

 

 

[box] Tomek Zaleska: Sure, I could say I did it. Then maybe have a chance of getting out, like you say. And if I confessed, who would I name as my partner, Joe Doaks? I couldn’t make it stick for one minute. That’s the trouble with being innocent – you don’t know what really happened.[/box]

This is an enjoyable film noir/docu-drama based on a true story and filmed on location in Illinois.  The performances are all good and fairly understated and the story is photographed with style.

James Stewart plays Chicago reporter P.J. McNeil, who is assigned to look into a classified ad that offered $5,000 for information on the murder of a policeman 11 years earlier.  The mother of Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte) published the ad in hopes of proving the innocence of her son.  Although McNeil is quite sceptical, his editor (Lee J. Cobb) asks him to dig further.  Slowly, McNeil becomes convinced of Wiecek’s innocence as well and ends up championing his case despite many difficulties in tracking down evidence.

In a departure from his usual gangster roles, Richard Conte gives a sensitive portrayal of the convicted man.  According to the commentary on the DVD, James Stewart sought out his role after the box-office failure of his previous two movies, Magic Town and It’s a Wonderful Life.  Stewart was turning 40 and decided his persona of a gangling, sincere young man no longer suited him.  This was the film that formed his character for the darker roles he would play in the Mann and Hitchcock films of the 1950’s.

There’s an interesting tie-in to Antonioni’s Blow-Up in this picture.

Trailer

 

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No Way Out (1950)

Posted on June 28, 2013 | 2 comments

No Way Out
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1950/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing

 

[box] Edie Johnson – Mrs. John Biddle: Yeah I’ve come up in the world. I used to live in a sewer and now I live in a swamp. All those babes do it in the movies. By now I ought to be married to the governor and paying blackmail so he don’t find out I once lived in Beaver Canal.[/box]

This is an interesting cross between a film noir and a message picture featuring Sidney Portier’s debut as a 22-year-old and dynamite performances by Richard Widmark and Linda Darnell.  It was quite a departure for director/screenwriter Mankiewicz who made this between his Academy Award winning turns in Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve.

Dr. Luther Brooks (Sidney Portier) is a newly licensed physician working at a county hospital.  He has the misfortune to be assigned to duty on the prison ward when Ray (Richard Widmark) and Johnny Bidell are brought in with gunshot wounds suffered in a shootout with police.  Ray is almost psychotically racist.  Brooks believes Johnny may have a brain tumor and does a spinal tap.  When Johnny dies during the procedure Ray accuses him of murdering his brother and plots revenge.  Brooks is desperate to get an autopsy done on Johnny to prove his diagnosis but Ray refuses.  Brooks then turns to Johnny’s estranged wife Edie (Linda Darnell) to try to get her consent.  Ray is one evil SOB and manages to terrorize everyone he can get his hands on.  With Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as Brooks’ brother and sister-in-law.

This suffers from a little preachiness but is basically a gripping revenge tale.  Widmark makes a great psychopath and he is made even more repellant than usual by his racist rants.  Linda Darnell is quite good and Sidney Portier was solid right from the beginning.  This also features some beautiful cinematography by Milton R. Krasner.  Apparently the film flopped on release and then was buried for years because television didn’t want to touch it.   (Widmark must use the “n” word 100 times.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAb2zHuE9vw

Trailer

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