Tag Archives: Hollywood

Hangover Square (1945)

Hangover Squarehangover_square-1945 poster
Directed by John Brahm
1945/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

First viewing

 

 

George Harvey Bone: All my life I’ve had black little moods.

The story is set in London, Laird Cregar plays George Harvey  Bone, a gifted young composer who is subject to strange blackouts when he hears discordant sounds.  He has no memory of what occurs during these episodes but the viewer knows that he becomes a vicious murderer.  When he consults a Scotland Yard psychiatrist (George Sanders) about his problem, the psychiatrist advises him to relax and take a break from his hard work on a piano concerto. Unfortunately, during his first night on the town George meets a beautiful but devious music hall singer (Linda Darnell) who manipulates him to get songs for her act.

Hangover Square 1

This was Laird Cregar’s last performance.  He is fine in the role though he might mug a bit much.  The movie is otherwise chiefly notable for its fantastic high-contrast cinematography, the score by Bernard Hermann, and a couple of impressive set pieces – a Guy Fawkes Day bonfire and the concluding concerto performance.

The DVD I rented was packed with extras.  There were two full-length commentaries and a documentary on Cregar.  Cregar certainly had a sad story.  He was a big and heavy man who went on a drastic weight loss regime in hopes of winning leading man roles.  He lost over 100 pounds for this film and had bariatric surgery shortly after it wrapped.  Five days later he died of a massive heart attack.  He was 31 years old.  One of the interviewees in the documentary speculated that Cregar probably never would have been a leading man no matter what he weighed but that he could have had a career similar to that of Vincent Price.

Trailer

 

 

Out of the Past (1947)

Out of the Pastoutofthepast poster
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
1947/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing

#198 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 8.1/10; I say 10/10

 

Jeff Bailey: You can never help anything, can you? You’re like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.

This visually beautiful film has a classical film noir plot involving a protagonist who is doomed by his obsession with a femme fatale and haunted by an inescapable past.  The laconic Robert Mitchum is perfect as the fatalist hero of the tale and Jane Greer is one of the most perfidious shady ladies in all of noir.

I love this movie and have seen it at least ten times.  With the last viewing I think I have at last figured out the confusing second half of the movie.  This only added to my enjoyment but folks that have not seen the movie may not want to know the part between the spoiler alert notices.

The rather mysterious Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) runs a gas station in a small town in the Sierra Nevada.  He is in love with a local girl named Ann.  One day, a thug named Joe Stephanos comes looking for Jeff.  Joe’s boss Whit Sterling wants to see him.  Jeff and Ann drive to Lake Tahoe.  On the way, Jeff tells Ann his story.  The first part of the picture is thus one long flashback with voice-over narration.

Jeff – real name Markham – used to be a private detective.  Whit (Kirk Douglas) hired him to find Kathie Moffet, a woman that shot Whit and made off with $40,000 of his money. Whit wanted Kathie back, with or without the money.

Jeff trailed Kathie to the Mar Azul cafe in Acapulco and was immediately obsessed with her to the exclusion of his job or the consequences.  They began an affair and Kathie agrees to go away with him.  She admited shooting Whit but denied taking his money.  The couple returned to the U.S. and begin living in San Francisco.  Whit hired Jeff’s partner Jack Fisher to track them down.  When Fisher caught up with them, he attempted to blackmail the couple.  Kathie shot Fisher dead and fled in Jeff’s car.  A bank book she left behind showed that she had a balance of $40,000.

Out of the Past 2

SPOILER ALERT

Segue to the present, a few years later.  Jeff arrives at Whit’s mansion at Lake Tahoe. Kathie has returned to the fold.  Whit tells Jeff that an accountant named Leonard Eels is blackmailing him with records that will show Whit owes the IRS $1 million.  Whit asks Jeff to go to San Francisco to retrieve the records.  Jeff is suspicious but agrees.

Jeff goes to see Eels’ secretary and girlfriend Meta Carson (Rhonda Fleming).  The plan is that Jeff will pose as Meta’s cousin and meet her at Eels’ place after which they will steal the records from the office.  Jeff senses a frame up and attempts to tip off Eels that he is in danger.  He follows Meta and sees her steal the records from the office.  When Jeff returns to Eels’ apartment, he finds Eels murdered.  Jeff hides Eels’ body in an empty apartment.

He returns to Meta’s apartment and overhears Kathie calling Eels’ building and asking the superintendent to check on Eels.  Kathie is shocked when the superintendent does not find a body.  Jeff confronts her and she says she is afraid of Whit and acting under his orders.  Jeff tells her Eels escaped.  She says Whit made her sign an affidavit saying that Jeff killed Fisher.   The affidavit is now locked in Eels’ safe.  She says she still loves Jeff and tells him where he can find the tax records so that they will be able to blackmail Whit into giving them money and letting them go off together.  Jeff melts.

Jeff finds the records and mails them somewhere.  In the meantime, Kathie learns from Joe Stefanos that he did kill Eels.  Jeff finds Joe and Kathie together.  He reveals that he has the records in a safe place and says that he will hand them and Eels’ body over in exchange for the affidavit and $50,000.  Whit’s henchmen are now very suspicious as it looks like the only way Jeff could have found out about the affidavit was from Kathie. Kathie and Joe say they are going to get the affidavit but instead give Jeff the slip.

Jeff takes a deaf-mute kid that works for him and goes fishing in the High Sierras.  Somehow Joe and Kathie locate the kid and get Jeff’s whereabout’s from him. Joe goes off to shoot Jeff but the kid sees him first and causes Joe to falls into the river and be killed.

Jeff goes back to Tahoe and confronts Kathie.  He finds out Whit knew nothing about the plot for Joe to kill him and that Kathie told Whit that he killed Fisher.  Jeff again agrees to turn the records over to Whit for money and the affidavit.  When Whit and Kathie are alone, Whit becomes furious, hits Kathie, and threatens to kill her if she does not do exactly what he says.

Out of the Past 4

Jeff returns to Bridgeport and sees Ann.  He again professes his love for her.  Later, Jeff goes to Tahoe to finalize the deal and finds that Kathie has murdered Whit.  Kathie wants Jeff and herself to have a fresh start in Mexico.  This time, she will be in total control.  She is willing to threaten Jeff with being framed for the murders of Fisher, Eels, and Whit to get what she wants.  While Kathie is finishing her packing, Jeff calls the police.  Kathie shoots Jeff when their car runs into a police roadblock and dies herself when the car crashes during a shoot-out with the police.

END SPOILER ALERT

Out of the Past 3

Clearly, I had been missing a lot for a long time!  This viewing made Kathie seem much more evil than before and Whit not quite so bad.  I was wondering whether Whit would have gone after Jeff at all if he had known Kathie killed Fisher.

Probably 75% of my enjoyment of this film lies in it exquisite compositions and chiaroscuro lighting.  I don’t seem to have the words to explain the shots but I know that I am enraptured by them. The music is also very beautiful and the dialogue is a kind of hard-boiled poetry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7oTM9oaDmI

Clip – Jeff first sets eyes on Kathie

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Directed by Lewis Milestone
1946/USA
Hal Wallis Productions

First viewing

 

[box] Sam Masterson: Don’t look back, baby.  Don’t ever look back.[/box]

There are some fine performances in this noirish melodrama about childhood secrets.

The film opens in 1928 in Iverstown with rebellious young Martha Ivers and Sam Masterson in a freight car preparing to run away to join the circus.  Detectives soon apprehend the girl and return her to her hated aunt (Judith Anderson).  The aunt is waiting along with Martha’s tutor and his timid son Walter O’Neill.  Sam briefly sneaks into the house to say goodbye to Martha.  When the aunt attacks Martha’s cat, Martha grabs a poker out of her hands and strikes her, killing her.  Walter is a witness and backs up Martha’s lie about a mysterious intruder.  His father does the same and the O’Neills have a lifetime grip on Martha and her money.  Martha goes on to marry Walter.

Segue to 1946 and Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) wrecks his car while driving through Iverstown.  He must stick around to have it fixed and soon meets sultry ex-con Toni (Lizabeth Scott) who has just been paroled from jail.  Sam catches up with District Attorney Walter when Toni is picked up for a parole violation.  Walter (Kirk Douglas) is terrified that Sam will blackmail Martha (Barbara Stanwyck) and him for the aunt’s death and is also jealous of his wife’s continued love for Sam.  He has Sam roughed up to encourage him to leave town but Sam does not scare easily.

Although I thought the story did not quite hold together, I enjoyed this, largely for the performances.  Barbara Stanwyck is my favorite actress of classic Hollywood and she is very good here as the wounded but steely Martha.  Van Heflin has more to do than in other films I have seen him in and is excellent.  Lizabeth Scott was OK but too obviously a stand-in for Lauren Bacall for her own good.  It was Kirk Douglas in his film debut that was the most interesting.

Douglas’s Walter is repeatedly referred to by Sam as looking like “a scared little boy.”  He is evidently a chronic alcoholic and spends much of his screen time drunk.  I could almost see Douglas smoothing out the lines of his face through sheer willpower as he tried to act weak and cowardly.  He couldn’t quite manage it.  That aggressive, macho Douglas persona was not to be repressed.  This is not to say Douglas was bad, far from it.  His star quality shines through and he is compelling.  It was just a whole lot of fun to see him play against type and to try to remember that he was supposed to be afraid of Sam and not the other way around.

Trailer

 

The Phenix City Story (1955)

The Phenix City Story
Directed by Phil Karlson
1955/USA
Allied Artists Pictures

First viewing
#297 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Albert L. Patterson: Rhett, I’m not stickin’ my neck out. Why should I? Phoenix City has been what it is for 80, 90 years. Who am I to try to reform it?[/box]

This semi-documentary film tells the story of a crusade to fight a vice racket that had run Phenix City, Alabama for the better part of a century.  While it is well-regarded, I could not get past some pretty bad acting and overblown writing.

The film was made during the murder trial for the assassination of Alabama Attorney General-elect Albert Patterson.  The version I watched began with a segment in which newsman Clete Roberts interviews many of the real participants in the events portrayed.  Rhett Taylor (Edward Andrews) is the boss of an organized crime racket that runs gambling, prostitution, and other criminal activities in Phenix City, which is near a U.S. Army Base.  He holds on to power through brutal strong arm tactics, including open murder, while the police look the other way.  Former Senator and local lawyer Albert Peterson (John McIntyre) is content to defend Taylor’s men in court, figuring that nothing can be done about the situation.  Peterson’s son John (Richard Kiley) comes home from service as an Army lawyer in Germany and soon is determined to fight the mob, spurred on by the violence and injustice he sees.  After several more murders, Albert is persuaded to run for Alabama Attorney General on a reform ticket.

The male leads in this are pretty good but a lot of the acting, particularly by the women, is terrible. Even the men over-emote at times.  I was just not impressed.

Clip – in the vice den

The Spiral Staircase (1945)

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

 

[box] Constable: She’s dead!

Dr. Parry: Well, in that case, Constable, I certainly can’t do her any harm.[/box]

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.

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzVqyZH8tvI

Re-release trailer

 

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

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

 

The Big Steal (1949)

The Big Steal
Directed by Don Siegel
1949/USA
RKO Radio Pictures

First viewing

 

 

[box] 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?[/box]

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.

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

Force of Evil (1948)

Force of Evil
Directed by Abraham Polonsky
1948/USA
Enterprise Productions/Roberts Pictures, Inc.

First viewing
#204 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Wally: What do you mean “gangsters”? It’s business.[/box]

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.

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

Cat People (1942)

Cat People
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
1942/USA
RKO Radio Pictures

First viewing
#154 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

 

[box] Irena Dubrovna: I like the dark. It’s friendly.[/box]

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 …

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 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

 

Criss Cross (1949)

Criss Cross
Directed by Robert Siodmak
1949/US
Universal International Pictures

First viewing

 

[box] Steve Thompson: She’s all right, she’s just young.

Mrs. Thompson: Huh! Some ways, she knows more than Einstein.[/box]

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.

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