Christa Faust's Blog, page 9
April 18, 2011
Cry Tough and Down Three Dark Streets
CRY TOUGH may be my favorite film this year. Not because it's a work of cinematic genius or anything like that. Just because it hits all my sweet spots and then some. Nymphomania! Judo! Stag films! Gas masks and stingy brim hats! And this exchange: "What's shakin'?" "The bacon. But this bacon is taken."
Gorgeous young John Saxon plays a Puerto Rican ex-con who comes home to his old New York neighborhood and tries to go straight, but winds up seduced back into a life of crime. He falls for a hot Cuban nymphomaniac (Linda Cristal) who hates the idea of marriage and doesn't want to be tied down to just one man. (My kinda gal!) After pulling a few violent jobs for a slippery, effeminate crime boss, he's poised to take over the dirty business, but all he really wants is his disapproving father's love and acceptance. Dad's declaration that Saxon is dead to him sends the kid into a self-destructive downward spiral. No sappy, happily-ever-after in this one.
It's set in my old hood, in the "teeming tenements" of New York City during the hottest part of the sweltering summer. I loved the steamy rooftop love scene on what we used to call "tar beach." I loved the fact that the crooks had no guns, only switchblades. I loved the death-curse of the bloody chicken head. I loved the weird, homoerotic scene where Saxon confronts the naked crime boss in the bathtub. I loved all the meaty Latina dancers in tight skirts. In short, I loved this movie. It was dirt cheap, shot for peanuts and a bit heavy handed in its attempt to be socially relevant but that didn't stop me from loving every minute of it.
John Saxon was there in person to introduce the film. I had no idea that he had been a model for pulp covers and magazines as a teenager. I also dug his story about coming to Hollywood from Brooklyn and meeting fellow New Yorker Tony Curtis, who told him "Don't let 'em bug you about your accent. You talk how you wanna talk."
The second feature was DOWN THREE DARK STREETS.
This documentary-style procedural starred Broderick Crawford as an FBI agent who steps in to investigate three separate but possibly related cases after his partner is murdered. A widow is receiving phone calls from a mystery man who says he'll kill her daughter if she doesn't turn over her late husband's insurance money. A homicidal gangster is on the loose and his saucy girlfriend is the only one who knows were he's hiding out. A kid gets mixed up with a gang of car thieves who threaten his blind wife if he doesn't go along with their racket. Crawford solves the cases, including his partner's death, using cutting-edge scientific techniques (like semantics!) and his own intuitive ability to see into the inner workings of the criminal mind. CSI, 1954!
Tons of great vintage LA locations, including a climactic scene up at the Hollywood sign. The droning narration might have been a downside to some, but I liked the wordy explanations and all the dated "science." Not a good film by any stretch but fun to watch. I especially liked the blind girl IDing the bad guy (Claude Akins!) by feeling his cauliflower ear.
There was one funny glitch in this print. As I mentioned yesterday, both these prints are brand spanking new, so new that there was no time to check them out in advance. In fact, there was some worry that the prints might not make it to Hollywood in time for the show. But they did and our viewing was the first time anyone had seen them. I have no idea what the back story was behind these two print or where the negatives came from, but at one point the extortionist gives the widow a note composed of cut out letters an the note is in Italian! Wonder what happened there…?
I'll be back on Wednesday for the final show in this year's Noir City series, GASLIGHT and MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS.
Gorgeous young John Saxon plays a Puerto Rican ex-con who comes home to his old New York neighborhood and tries to go straight, but winds up seduced back into a life of crime. He falls for a hot Cuban nymphomaniac (Linda Cristal) who hates the idea of marriage and doesn't want to be tied down to just one man. (My kinda gal!) After pulling a few violent jobs for a slippery, effeminate crime boss, he's poised to take over the dirty business, but all he really wants is his disapproving father's love and acceptance. Dad's declaration that Saxon is dead to him sends the kid into a self-destructive downward spiral. No sappy, happily-ever-after in this one.
It's set in my old hood, in the "teeming tenements" of New York City during the hottest part of the sweltering summer. I loved the steamy rooftop love scene on what we used to call "tar beach." I loved the fact that the crooks had no guns, only switchblades. I loved the death-curse of the bloody chicken head. I loved the weird, homoerotic scene where Saxon confronts the naked crime boss in the bathtub. I loved all the meaty Latina dancers in tight skirts. In short, I loved this movie. It was dirt cheap, shot for peanuts and a bit heavy handed in its attempt to be socially relevant but that didn't stop me from loving every minute of it.
John Saxon was there in person to introduce the film. I had no idea that he had been a model for pulp covers and magazines as a teenager. I also dug his story about coming to Hollywood from Brooklyn and meeting fellow New Yorker Tony Curtis, who told him "Don't let 'em bug you about your accent. You talk how you wanna talk."
The second feature was DOWN THREE DARK STREETS.
This documentary-style procedural starred Broderick Crawford as an FBI agent who steps in to investigate three separate but possibly related cases after his partner is murdered. A widow is receiving phone calls from a mystery man who says he'll kill her daughter if she doesn't turn over her late husband's insurance money. A homicidal gangster is on the loose and his saucy girlfriend is the only one who knows were he's hiding out. A kid gets mixed up with a gang of car thieves who threaten his blind wife if he doesn't go along with their racket. Crawford solves the cases, including his partner's death, using cutting-edge scientific techniques (like semantics!) and his own intuitive ability to see into the inner workings of the criminal mind. CSI, 1954!
Tons of great vintage LA locations, including a climactic scene up at the Hollywood sign. The droning narration might have been a downside to some, but I liked the wordy explanations and all the dated "science." Not a good film by any stretch but fun to watch. I especially liked the blind girl IDing the bad guy (Claude Akins!) by feeling his cauliflower ear.
There was one funny glitch in this print. As I mentioned yesterday, both these prints are brand spanking new, so new that there was no time to check them out in advance. In fact, there was some worry that the prints might not make it to Hollywood in time for the show. But they did and our viewing was the first time anyone had seen them. I have no idea what the back story was behind these two print or where the negatives came from, but at one point the extortionist gives the widow a note composed of cut out letters an the note is in Italian! Wonder what happened there…?
I'll be back on Wednesday for the final show in this year's Noir City series, GASLIGHT and MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS.
April 17, 2011
Framed and Mr. Soft Touch
A Glenn Ford double bill, with his son Peter as a special guest, signing his book GLENN FORD: A LIFE
This show was packed to the rafters, a sold-out crowd full of famous names and classic stars who came out for this tribute to the brooding, magnetic and dangerously sexy "Man Who Tamed Gilda!" And allegedly knocked her up too, according to the explicit diaries he left behind.
Our first feature was FRAMED.
This film ran neck in neck with BRUTE FORCE and KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE for the most overtly "noirish" offering this year. Everything about FRAMED, from the tough, punchy title to the classic unhappy ending was pitch perfect. Ford's character starts off fucked from frame one and it all goes down hill from there.
Ford plays a hunky drifter who barrels into town behind the wheel of a truck with no breaks, right into the treacherous arms of a scheming blonde femme fatale, played by Janis Carter. Carter is having an affair with married Barry Sullivan, who coincidentally plays yet another bank employee. But unlike his beleaguered hero in LOOPHOLE, this time he's the frame-er rather than the frame-ee. He and Carter cook up a scheme to fake his death and make off with the cash he embezzled from the bank. All they need is a body. A man with the same height and build, someone with no friends or family. A man like Ford. But once our femme fatale gets a taste of the man who tamed Gilda, she gets other ideas and throws a monkey wrench (literally) into Sullivan's plans.
FRAMED was my kind of movie. Nothing new or terribly original, but still a blast from start to finish. Highly recommended.
Between the flicks, host Alan Rode talked with Glenn's son Peter about his father and his biography. I could have listened to Peter's facinating and racy stories all night. He sold out of his book last night, so I wasn't able to score a copy, but after hearing him speak, I'm going to have to hunt one down.
Next up, the quirky MR. SOFT TOUCH
In this one, Ford plays a war hero named "Joe Miracle" (get it?) who comes home to find that gangsters have taken over his nightclub. He steals back the money that he thinks is rightfully his and goes on the lam, hiding out in a shelter for homeless families. He ends up falling for a saintly, partially deaf social worker, played by Evelyn Keyes. Wackiness ensues, and Ford winds up dressed like Santa Claus. No, I'm not kidding.
This film had some noirish elements and a down ending, but it can't really be classified as pure Film Noir. It has elements of comedy and romance. The dark ending was sweetened and tempered with a pinch of redemption. It even threatened to veer into sappy cute-kid tearjerker territory, but thankfully never really did. Overall, this flick is smart and genuinely funny with a strong, crackling script and a cast of bizarre and memorable secondary characters. Definitely worth watching.
There was some drama over whether or not the newly struck prints of DOWN THREE DARK STREETS and CRY TOUGH were going to make it to Hollywood in time for tonight's show. Lucky for us, they did, and your plucky ringside reporter will be there, bringing you the blow-by-blow from my usual seat.
This show was packed to the rafters, a sold-out crowd full of famous names and classic stars who came out for this tribute to the brooding, magnetic and dangerously sexy "Man Who Tamed Gilda!" And allegedly knocked her up too, according to the explicit diaries he left behind.
Our first feature was FRAMED.
This film ran neck in neck with BRUTE FORCE and KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE for the most overtly "noirish" offering this year. Everything about FRAMED, from the tough, punchy title to the classic unhappy ending was pitch perfect. Ford's character starts off fucked from frame one and it all goes down hill from there.
Ford plays a hunky drifter who barrels into town behind the wheel of a truck with no breaks, right into the treacherous arms of a scheming blonde femme fatale, played by Janis Carter. Carter is having an affair with married Barry Sullivan, who coincidentally plays yet another bank employee. But unlike his beleaguered hero in LOOPHOLE, this time he's the frame-er rather than the frame-ee. He and Carter cook up a scheme to fake his death and make off with the cash he embezzled from the bank. All they need is a body. A man with the same height and build, someone with no friends or family. A man like Ford. But once our femme fatale gets a taste of the man who tamed Gilda, she gets other ideas and throws a monkey wrench (literally) into Sullivan's plans.
FRAMED was my kind of movie. Nothing new or terribly original, but still a blast from start to finish. Highly recommended.
Between the flicks, host Alan Rode talked with Glenn's son Peter about his father and his biography. I could have listened to Peter's facinating and racy stories all night. He sold out of his book last night, so I wasn't able to score a copy, but after hearing him speak, I'm going to have to hunt one down.
Next up, the quirky MR. SOFT TOUCH
In this one, Ford plays a war hero named "Joe Miracle" (get it?) who comes home to find that gangsters have taken over his nightclub. He steals back the money that he thinks is rightfully his and goes on the lam, hiding out in a shelter for homeless families. He ends up falling for a saintly, partially deaf social worker, played by Evelyn Keyes. Wackiness ensues, and Ford winds up dressed like Santa Claus. No, I'm not kidding.
This film had some noirish elements and a down ending, but it can't really be classified as pure Film Noir. It has elements of comedy and romance. The dark ending was sweetened and tempered with a pinch of redemption. It even threatened to veer into sappy cute-kid tearjerker territory, but thankfully never really did. Overall, this flick is smart and genuinely funny with a strong, crackling script and a cast of bizarre and memorable secondary characters. Definitely worth watching.
There was some drama over whether or not the newly struck prints of DOWN THREE DARK STREETS and CRY TOUGH were going to make it to Hollywood in time for tonight's show. Lucky for us, they did, and your plucky ringside reporter will be there, bringing you the blow-by-blow from my usual seat.
April 16, 2011
The Houston Story and New Orleans Uncensored
A double bill from William "The Tingler" Castle, starting with THE HOUSTON STORY.
Ambitious Gene Barry masterminds a scheme that involves secretly siphoning off other people's oil and hijacking their equipment. He gets financing from the mob and finds himself in a love triangle with a sexy nightclub singer and an earnest, good-girl waitress. And, because crime doesn't pay, we get another unhappy ending.
What this movie really needed was a gimmick. Electrified seats. A floating skeleton. A sexy nurse. Because it wasn't an outright bad movie, just kind of forgettable and it slid right off my brain without a trace. The only details that stuck with me were Barbara Hale's leopard print bathing suit and the glowing fake city backdrop behind a rooftop confrontation and murder. I've decided that I need a window in my office that overlooks that kind of fake night time cityscape, complete with little blinking neon signs that say generic things like "Theater" and "Shoes."
My big problem with this film is the fact that it was allegedly set in Houston, yet there wasn't a single person with a southern accent. Not one. It should have been called "THE BURBANK STORY."
NEW ORLEANS UNCENSORED on the other hand, was a lot more like it. And not just because it featured my time travel boyfriend Mike Mazurki as a thug named "Big Mike." (!!!)
It stars Arthur Franz (loved him in THE SNIPER) as a straight-shooting ex Navy boxer who gets a job on the docks and finds himself hip-deep in corruption and mixed up with a ruthless gangster and his bombshell girlfriend.
Unlike THE HOUSTON STORY, which could have been anywhere, this one is all about the setting. Castle used real New Orleans longshoremen as extras and cast locals in many of the smaller roles. He shot tons of great street scenes, and not just the usual French Quarter locations either. There's a scene at Pontchartrain Beach, plus plenty of seedy back alleys and rough industrial areas that you don't normally see in the Hollywood fantasy version of the Big Easy.
This isn't a good movie either, but I loved every minute of it. I loved the "expert" who comes on screen at the beginning to explain that in real life, the New Orleans docks are squeaky clean and there is absolutely no corruption like the kind in the movie. I loved the "oscillator" that the hero uses to track the stolen shipment and the huge round antenna on top of the police prowler to pick up the signal. I loved the boxing gym and "Scrappy" the ex-pug with the bum heart. I loved Beverly Garland. I loved the wild fist-fights on the docks. I loved the two guys wrestling on the beach. All this and Big Mike? I'm sold.
Tonight it's a Glenn Ford double bill with FRAMED and MR. SOFT TOUCH.
Ambitious Gene Barry masterminds a scheme that involves secretly siphoning off other people's oil and hijacking their equipment. He gets financing from the mob and finds himself in a love triangle with a sexy nightclub singer and an earnest, good-girl waitress. And, because crime doesn't pay, we get another unhappy ending.
What this movie really needed was a gimmick. Electrified seats. A floating skeleton. A sexy nurse. Because it wasn't an outright bad movie, just kind of forgettable and it slid right off my brain without a trace. The only details that stuck with me were Barbara Hale's leopard print bathing suit and the glowing fake city backdrop behind a rooftop confrontation and murder. I've decided that I need a window in my office that overlooks that kind of fake night time cityscape, complete with little blinking neon signs that say generic things like "Theater" and "Shoes."
My big problem with this film is the fact that it was allegedly set in Houston, yet there wasn't a single person with a southern accent. Not one. It should have been called "THE BURBANK STORY."
NEW ORLEANS UNCENSORED on the other hand, was a lot more like it. And not just because it featured my time travel boyfriend Mike Mazurki as a thug named "Big Mike." (!!!)
It stars Arthur Franz (loved him in THE SNIPER) as a straight-shooting ex Navy boxer who gets a job on the docks and finds himself hip-deep in corruption and mixed up with a ruthless gangster and his bombshell girlfriend.
Unlike THE HOUSTON STORY, which could have been anywhere, this one is all about the setting. Castle used real New Orleans longshoremen as extras and cast locals in many of the smaller roles. He shot tons of great street scenes, and not just the usual French Quarter locations either. There's a scene at Pontchartrain Beach, plus plenty of seedy back alleys and rough industrial areas that you don't normally see in the Hollywood fantasy version of the Big Easy.
This isn't a good movie either, but I loved every minute of it. I loved the "expert" who comes on screen at the beginning to explain that in real life, the New Orleans docks are squeaky clean and there is absolutely no corruption like the kind in the movie. I loved the "oscillator" that the hero uses to track the stolen shipment and the huge round antenna on top of the police prowler to pick up the signal. I loved the boxing gym and "Scrappy" the ex-pug with the bum heart. I loved Beverly Garland. I loved the wild fist-fights on the docks. I loved the two guys wrestling on the beach. All this and Big Mike? I'm sold.
Tonight it's a Glenn Ford double bill with FRAMED and MR. SOFT TOUCH.
April 15, 2011
Caught and Beware My Lovely
I missed the Wednesday night feature, but even the endless construction fuckstickery can't keep me away for long, so I was back in my usual seat last night for a Robert Ryan double bill. This was one I couldn't miss.
Some people think of Bogey as the ultimate Film Noir anti-hero, but for me it's always been Robert Ryan. Even when he plays a sympathetic role, like the washed up boxer in THE SET UP, he brings this tortured complexity to the character, like there's some unknowable darkness lurking just beneath the surface. When he's bad, he's even better. I loved his relentless, vengeful veteran in ACT OF VIOLENCE. And how hot is the scene where trampy Gloria Grahame asks him what it's like to kill a man in ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW? ("He dared me. Like you are now.") Ryan gives unspoken depth to even the most generic characters and hamfisted dialog. I'll pretty much watch him in anything.
So when I saw that Noir City was showing two Ryan films I'd never seen, I was over the moon. First up, CAUGHT.
Ryan plays a sadistic, controlling millionaire with a bum heart who seduces and marries a sweet department store model (Barbara Bel Geddes) just to prove a point to his shrink. She quickly gets sick of his abuse and runs off to work as a receptionist in a pediatrician's office. The saintly doc (James Mason) falls for her and complications ensue.
The story is pretty silly but Ryan is dynamite as the psycho husband. However the best part of this one is the end, so people who still haven't seen this film and don't want to read spoilers better skip this next paragraph.
SPOILERS!!!
Okay, so the model gets knocked up by the mean husband, who threatens to have her declared an unfit (slutty) mother if she tries to divorce him. Dr Nice Guy still loves her anyway of course, and holds her hand while she's being rushed to the hospital with "complications." She's in shock because she thinks she murdered the hubby (turns out he's fine) and the baby dies. Typical Noir ending right? Wrong! See, the baby's death is a HAPPY ending!!! Dr Nice Guy assures her that the baby's death was for the best, because now she's free from hubby's tyranny and she and the doc can live happily ever after. WOW! I thought I was the only one on earth who would think that not having to raise a baby would be a good thing. Never mind the fact that if the baby was a girl and you were married to James Mason, you might have problems 14 years down the line. "Lolita…" (insert your own James Mason voice here.)
Right, BEWARE MY LOVELY.
A widow (Lupino) hires a transient handyman (Ryan) to help her out over the holidays. The handyman turns out to be a psycho on the lam after murdering his previous employer. He locks the widow in the house, tormenting her, threatening to rape and/or kill her one minute and helping her trim the Christmas tree the next.
With a couple of powerhouse actors like Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan trapped in a classic Film Noir scenario that Eddie Muller called "Adam and Eve in a can," you'd think this one would be a knockout. I thought it was fun and entertaining, but unfortunately, it's not quite as good as it could have been. I love both these actors and as I said, I'll happily watch Ryan do anything, but this film has some problems. It's got good stuff too (Lupino with scissors! Ryan in really tight pants!) but I was bothered by Lupino's utter helplessness for the majority of the film. It just didn't seem like it should have been all that hard for her to get out of the house. The period setting also seemed a little odd (1918) especially considering that the plot could have just as easily taken place in any decade. Ryan's psycho handyman was pretty by-the-numbers, but it's him, so I didn't care. I really liked the scene where Ryan puts on her dead hubby's army coat. Maybe I would have liked to see a little more spunk from Lupino and a little more of a realistic trapped feeling inside the house, but the print was gorgeous and I just can't get enough of Ryan's face. Ida is pretty easy on the eyes too. Glad I caught this one on the big screen.
Also, am I crazy or was that Noir City regular William Tallman who played Lupino's dead husband, visible only in photographs?
Tonight, THE HOUSTON STORY and NEW ORLEANS UNCENSORED.
Some people think of Bogey as the ultimate Film Noir anti-hero, but for me it's always been Robert Ryan. Even when he plays a sympathetic role, like the washed up boxer in THE SET UP, he brings this tortured complexity to the character, like there's some unknowable darkness lurking just beneath the surface. When he's bad, he's even better. I loved his relentless, vengeful veteran in ACT OF VIOLENCE. And how hot is the scene where trampy Gloria Grahame asks him what it's like to kill a man in ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW? ("He dared me. Like you are now.") Ryan gives unspoken depth to even the most generic characters and hamfisted dialog. I'll pretty much watch him in anything.
So when I saw that Noir City was showing two Ryan films I'd never seen, I was over the moon. First up, CAUGHT.
Ryan plays a sadistic, controlling millionaire with a bum heart who seduces and marries a sweet department store model (Barbara Bel Geddes) just to prove a point to his shrink. She quickly gets sick of his abuse and runs off to work as a receptionist in a pediatrician's office. The saintly doc (James Mason) falls for her and complications ensue.
The story is pretty silly but Ryan is dynamite as the psycho husband. However the best part of this one is the end, so people who still haven't seen this film and don't want to read spoilers better skip this next paragraph.
SPOILERS!!!
Okay, so the model gets knocked up by the mean husband, who threatens to have her declared an unfit (slutty) mother if she tries to divorce him. Dr Nice Guy still loves her anyway of course, and holds her hand while she's being rushed to the hospital with "complications." She's in shock because she thinks she murdered the hubby (turns out he's fine) and the baby dies. Typical Noir ending right? Wrong! See, the baby's death is a HAPPY ending!!! Dr Nice Guy assures her that the baby's death was for the best, because now she's free from hubby's tyranny and she and the doc can live happily ever after. WOW! I thought I was the only one on earth who would think that not having to raise a baby would be a good thing. Never mind the fact that if the baby was a girl and you were married to James Mason, you might have problems 14 years down the line. "Lolita…" (insert your own James Mason voice here.)
Right, BEWARE MY LOVELY.
A widow (Lupino) hires a transient handyman (Ryan) to help her out over the holidays. The handyman turns out to be a psycho on the lam after murdering his previous employer. He locks the widow in the house, tormenting her, threatening to rape and/or kill her one minute and helping her trim the Christmas tree the next.
With a couple of powerhouse actors like Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan trapped in a classic Film Noir scenario that Eddie Muller called "Adam and Eve in a can," you'd think this one would be a knockout. I thought it was fun and entertaining, but unfortunately, it's not quite as good as it could have been. I love both these actors and as I said, I'll happily watch Ryan do anything, but this film has some problems. It's got good stuff too (Lupino with scissors! Ryan in really tight pants!) but I was bothered by Lupino's utter helplessness for the majority of the film. It just didn't seem like it should have been all that hard for her to get out of the house. The period setting also seemed a little odd (1918) especially considering that the plot could have just as easily taken place in any decade. Ryan's psycho handyman was pretty by-the-numbers, but it's him, so I didn't care. I really liked the scene where Ryan puts on her dead hubby's army coat. Maybe I would have liked to see a little more spunk from Lupino and a little more of a realistic trapped feeling inside the house, but the print was gorgeous and I just can't get enough of Ryan's face. Ida is pretty easy on the eyes too. Glad I caught this one on the big screen.
Also, am I crazy or was that Noir City regular William Tallman who played Lupino's dead husband, visible only in photographs?
Tonight, THE HOUSTON STORY and NEW ORLEANS UNCENSORED.
April 12, 2011
They Won't Believe Me and A Woman's Secret
First of all, sorry for the delay on this post. Blame the ongoing construction fuckstickery in my tiny house. But never mind all that. On to the movies.
We started off the night with the brilliantly titled THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME.
Robert Young as a womanizing studmuffin? Does Marcus Welby have to choke a bitch? This one took a some serious suspension of disbelief for me, but once I got over trying to figure out why Jane Greer and Susan Hayward wanted to nail Robert Young, I liked this one way more than I thought I would. And although it's not on this poster, I loved the tagline host Alan Rode shared with the audience during his introduction: "When a man goes to the devil, he usually takes a woman with him. This man took three!"
Young is a married Lothario who gets himself tangled up with a pretty young reporter (Greer) and a gold digging tramp (Hayward) while his rich wife (Rita Johnson) tries to bring him to heel. The plot hinges on a clever, surprising twist and I don't want to give it away but it involves post-mortem mistaken identity. It also had an (almost) Noir ending. Weirdly abrupt, but still decidedly unhappy. Sort of. Of course Blackmoore and I still found ourselves wanting to make with the rewrites, at least to draw out the tension and pacing in that final scene. Damn know-it-all writers. But even as is, this one is definitely worth hunting down a copy if you can.
And I have to ask: am I the only one who thought the way they played up the wife's relationship with her "special friend" the Palomino stallion was a little bit weird?
The second feature was A WOMAN'S SECRET.
Sexy, kittenish Gloria Grahame vs. busty redheaded Maureen O'Hara in a lingerie catfight? What's not to like? The whole rest of this movie.
O'Hara plays a has-been singer who lost her voice to laryngitis and Grahame is her foxy, fixer-upper protégé. The movie starts with Graham being shot (but not killed) and O'Hara confessing to the crime, then works backwards from there. If it had any balls, it could have been a B-movie ALL ABOUT EVE but unfortunately, it's really more of a sappy love triangle (sort of) with a meddling inspector's wife who reads too much Miss Marple thrown in for comedy relief. Even young Gloria Grahame at her eyebrow-raising, trampy best couldn't save this one.
You could have programmed SECRET along with the Joan Crawford bomb THIS WOMAN IS (not really) DANGEROUS and called it "Chick Flick Noir." That way, you'd know which night to skip.
Tomorrow night, I'm back in the saddle for more Joan Crawford in FEMALE ON THE BEACH and more comedy Noir with HAZARD.
We started off the night with the brilliantly titled THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME.
Robert Young as a womanizing studmuffin? Does Marcus Welby have to choke a bitch? This one took a some serious suspension of disbelief for me, but once I got over trying to figure out why Jane Greer and Susan Hayward wanted to nail Robert Young, I liked this one way more than I thought I would. And although it's not on this poster, I loved the tagline host Alan Rode shared with the audience during his introduction: "When a man goes to the devil, he usually takes a woman with him. This man took three!"
Young is a married Lothario who gets himself tangled up with a pretty young reporter (Greer) and a gold digging tramp (Hayward) while his rich wife (Rita Johnson) tries to bring him to heel. The plot hinges on a clever, surprising twist and I don't want to give it away but it involves post-mortem mistaken identity. It also had an (almost) Noir ending. Weirdly abrupt, but still decidedly unhappy. Sort of. Of course Blackmoore and I still found ourselves wanting to make with the rewrites, at least to draw out the tension and pacing in that final scene. Damn know-it-all writers. But even as is, this one is definitely worth hunting down a copy if you can.
And I have to ask: am I the only one who thought the way they played up the wife's relationship with her "special friend" the Palomino stallion was a little bit weird?
The second feature was A WOMAN'S SECRET.
Sexy, kittenish Gloria Grahame vs. busty redheaded Maureen O'Hara in a lingerie catfight? What's not to like? The whole rest of this movie.
O'Hara plays a has-been singer who lost her voice to laryngitis and Grahame is her foxy, fixer-upper protégé. The movie starts with Graham being shot (but not killed) and O'Hara confessing to the crime, then works backwards from there. If it had any balls, it could have been a B-movie ALL ABOUT EVE but unfortunately, it's really more of a sappy love triangle (sort of) with a meddling inspector's wife who reads too much Miss Marple thrown in for comedy relief. Even young Gloria Grahame at her eyebrow-raising, trampy best couldn't save this one.
You could have programmed SECRET along with the Joan Crawford bomb THIS WOMAN IS (not really) DANGEROUS and called it "Chick Flick Noir." That way, you'd know which night to skip.
Tomorrow night, I'm back in the saddle for more Joan Crawford in FEMALE ON THE BEACH and more comedy Noir with HAZARD.
April 10, 2011
Loophole and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Granite-faced Charles McGraw is back for more, this time as an obsessed insurance investigator in LOOPHOLE.
When nearly fifty Gs go missing during a routine audit, bank teller Sullivan is falsely accused of masterminding the brazen heist. He struggles to find the real perp and prove his innocence, all the while being hounded and stalked by tenacious pit-bull investigator McGraw. McGraw owns this picture, though Mary Beth Hughes is also fantastic as the steely femme fatale behind the real bank robber, a middle-aged teller who was able to pass himself off as one of the bank examiners to make off with the dough. I really would have loved to see a scene between McGraw and Hughes, maybe something along the lines of the "dollar sign for a heart" scene with Sterling Hayden and Marie Windsor in THE KILLING. The abrupt, brickwall everything's-all-better-now ending was the only wrong note in an otherwise great B thriller packed with historic Los Angeles locations and street scenes. Loved it.
But as much as I enjoyed LOOPHOLE, KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE may be my favorite so far this year.
Seems strange for a Film Noir festival, but so far this year we've only had two outright down endings out of a dozen flicks. First one was BRUTE FORCE and last night we finally got another. You know, the everybody's fucked kind of ending that us Noir junkies crave. I'm not giving anything away by saying that, because the film starts off with Cagney dead and all his accomplices on trial. Then we flash back to a violent jail break that features luscious Barbara Payton in male drag (!!!) and the plot doesn't take its foot off the gas for 102 minutes. There's a brutal supermarket heist, crooked cops, a snake-oil spiritualist, a shyster lawyer, a millionaire's horny, thrill-seeking daughter and Cagney at his cheerfully sadistic best. Ward Bond and Barton MacLane, who also played cops in THE MALTESE FALCON are sensational as the corrupt inspectors who try to shake Cagney down and wind up getting shaken down themselves. Both blatantly sexy and brutally violent, this movie was a knockout from start to finish. Hunt this one down any way you can. You won't be sorry.
When nearly fifty Gs go missing during a routine audit, bank teller Sullivan is falsely accused of masterminding the brazen heist. He struggles to find the real perp and prove his innocence, all the while being hounded and stalked by tenacious pit-bull investigator McGraw. McGraw owns this picture, though Mary Beth Hughes is also fantastic as the steely femme fatale behind the real bank robber, a middle-aged teller who was able to pass himself off as one of the bank examiners to make off with the dough. I really would have loved to see a scene between McGraw and Hughes, maybe something along the lines of the "dollar sign for a heart" scene with Sterling Hayden and Marie Windsor in THE KILLING. The abrupt, brickwall everything's-all-better-now ending was the only wrong note in an otherwise great B thriller packed with historic Los Angeles locations and street scenes. Loved it.
But as much as I enjoyed LOOPHOLE, KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE may be my favorite so far this year.
Seems strange for a Film Noir festival, but so far this year we've only had two outright down endings out of a dozen flicks. First one was BRUTE FORCE and last night we finally got another. You know, the everybody's fucked kind of ending that us Noir junkies crave. I'm not giving anything away by saying that, because the film starts off with Cagney dead and all his accomplices on trial. Then we flash back to a violent jail break that features luscious Barbara Payton in male drag (!!!) and the plot doesn't take its foot off the gas for 102 minutes. There's a brutal supermarket heist, crooked cops, a snake-oil spiritualist, a shyster lawyer, a millionaire's horny, thrill-seeking daughter and Cagney at his cheerfully sadistic best. Ward Bond and Barton MacLane, who also played cops in THE MALTESE FALCON are sensational as the corrupt inspectors who try to shake Cagney down and wind up getting shaken down themselves. Both blatantly sexy and brutally violent, this movie was a knockout from start to finish. Hunt this one down any way you can. You won't be sorry.
April 9, 2011
Journey into Fear and The Bribe
Last night's offering was a foreign intrigue double bill. First up, the atmospheric and delirious thriller JOURNEY INTO FEAR.
This movie makes absolutely no sense, but I couldn't have cared less. It was a weird, wild ride and I enjoyed every minute of it. If you're looking for a tightly constructed plot, this one isn't for you, but if you want shady characters, exotic women and shadowy, noirish atmosphere you'll get it. In spades.
An engineer, played by Joseph Cotten, is in Istanbul with his sweet clueless wife on some sort of gun-related business (this wasn't exactly clear to me) when he discovers that Nazi agents are after him. He goes on the lam, pursued by a creepy, fat and bespectacled assassin. He finds himself mixed up with all sorts of weird and wonderful characters, including sexy dancer Delores Del Rio. How about this astounding leopard costume?
Director (or partial director, since many scenes were apparently reshot/recut by the studio) Orson Welles also plays a small role as Colonel Haki, the Turkish head of intelligence who is trying to help our beleaguered hero while lusting after his wife. Really there's no point even trying to summarize the plot on this one, but it's definitely worth watching for all the wonderful, quirky characters.
Second in line was THE BRIBE, staring Robert Taylor and Ava Gardener.
In addition to the foreign intrigue angle, the other thing these two films had in common was the fact that both featured shady, slovenly fat men who were far more memorable than the bland, hunky heroes. While JOURNEY's fat hit man was silent and menacing, Charles Laughton's "pie-shaped" henchman is full of slippery, scheming double-talk as he tries to convince cop Taylor and his married lover Gardner to betray each other. Again, the plot is almost beside the point. Something to do with stolen airplane engines being exported and sold on a sultry and obviously fictional Central American island called "Carlota." But again, I really didn't care. Taylor was pretty wooden, especially in contrast to Laughton and Vincent Price, but I still enjoyed the hell out of this film. I especially loved the final chase through the carnival crowd and the big shoot out amid exploding fireworks. Recommended.
Next in line, more McGraw (and can you ever really get enough McGraw?) with LOOPHOLE and KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE.
This movie makes absolutely no sense, but I couldn't have cared less. It was a weird, wild ride and I enjoyed every minute of it. If you're looking for a tightly constructed plot, this one isn't for you, but if you want shady characters, exotic women and shadowy, noirish atmosphere you'll get it. In spades.
An engineer, played by Joseph Cotten, is in Istanbul with his sweet clueless wife on some sort of gun-related business (this wasn't exactly clear to me) when he discovers that Nazi agents are after him. He goes on the lam, pursued by a creepy, fat and bespectacled assassin. He finds himself mixed up with all sorts of weird and wonderful characters, including sexy dancer Delores Del Rio. How about this astounding leopard costume?
Director (or partial director, since many scenes were apparently reshot/recut by the studio) Orson Welles also plays a small role as Colonel Haki, the Turkish head of intelligence who is trying to help our beleaguered hero while lusting after his wife. Really there's no point even trying to summarize the plot on this one, but it's definitely worth watching for all the wonderful, quirky characters.
Second in line was THE BRIBE, staring Robert Taylor and Ava Gardener.
In addition to the foreign intrigue angle, the other thing these two films had in common was the fact that both featured shady, slovenly fat men who were far more memorable than the bland, hunky heroes. While JOURNEY's fat hit man was silent and menacing, Charles Laughton's "pie-shaped" henchman is full of slippery, scheming double-talk as he tries to convince cop Taylor and his married lover Gardner to betray each other. Again, the plot is almost beside the point. Something to do with stolen airplane engines being exported and sold on a sultry and obviously fictional Central American island called "Carlota." But again, I really didn't care. Taylor was pretty wooden, especially in contrast to Laughton and Vincent Price, but I still enjoyed the hell out of this film. I especially loved the final chase through the carnival crowd and the big shoot out amid exploding fireworks. Recommended.
Next in line, more McGraw (and can you ever really get enough McGraw?) with LOOPHOLE and KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE.
April 8, 2011
The Threat and This Woman is Dangerous
I love Charles McGraw. That profile, that voice. If I could go back in time and do a film adaptation of MONEY SHOT, I'd want McGraw to play Malloy. And THE THREAT is all about McGraw doing what he does best.
Cold blooded killer Kluger (McGraw) busts out of jail to get revenge on the cop and the DA who put him there. But instead of killing them on the spot, he kidnaps them and, along with his stripper ex-girlfriend (Virginia Grey) drags them out into the desert for a little fun and games while they wait for the plane that may or may not be coming to fly them to Mexico.
A tense, claustrophobic premise shot for peanuts, this one is all about the actors. Which is both good and bad. McGraw is sensational and his henchmen are also pretty memorable. Michael O'Shea is a fine actor, but (through no fault of his own) I'll always think of him as the comedian in LADY OF BURLESQUE and had a hard time taking him seriously in this. Virginia Grey was kind of hot and cold for me, sometimes grating and shrewishly over-the-top but other times intriguingly brittle and skittish. I loved her big moment at the end, which I won't give away. The other thing I loved about her in this movie was a small detail that may have been unintentional but was really a nice touch. She was kidnapped on her way home from work (at the strip club) and for the whole film she's in the same outfit. She's got this safety pin holding her cheap blouse closed because one of the buttons is missing. Now maybe this flick was so low budget and on such a tight schedule that the missing button was a behind the scenes wardrobe malfunction and they didn't have time to fix it, but I'd like to think this it was a deliberate choice on her part. Because it seems so real and natural, like maybe she was planning to fix it when she got home that night but never made it. Which I guess makes your mom right, that you should always dress nice and wear pretty underwear in case you get hit by a car. Or in case your homicidal ex breaks out of jail and kidnaps you on your way home from work.
I heard a rumor that there was a remake of this one getting tossed around a few years ago. Guess it never went anywhere, but if anyone out there on the interwebs knows more about it, please share with the rest of the class.
Then there was THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS
On paper this one looks fantastic. Joan Crawford, Mistress of the Bitch Eyebrows, plays a gangster (!!!) who needs to pull off one last heist before she goes blind in order to pay for the operation to restore her sight. She falls for the eye doctor along the way and dreams of going straight, but her current squeeze slash partner-in-crime has other ideas and hires a sleazy private dick to follow her around. The dick offers Joan a "special deal" to keep his mouth shut, but she's a lady, dammit, so the spurred squeeze comes gunning for the surgeon.
Sounds great, huh. Except it isn't. Not by a long shot. For one thing, someone should be sued for false advertising. This woman isn't dangerous at all, except by association. Unless you count slapping the horny P.I. Once. Other than that, she mostly just moons over the hunky doctor and makes salad dressing and sappy pronouncements about light and roses and having a man's strength to lean on. Actually, she doesn't really make the salad dressing, the doc's cute-as-a-button daughter makes it while Joan smiles indulgently and radiates wannabe mommyness. She keeps threatening to go back to the homicidal ex, but doesn't. You get the idea that she's planning something, but it's never really clear what or why. Not what I'd call dangerous.
This movie was more of a melodramatic romance, and not a very good one. If this were Noir, ruthless Joan would try to go straight, willing to do anything (including murder) to hide her criminal past, but it would all inevitably go to shit and come crashing down around her. This is the first film from this years festival that I flat-out didn't like. It had moments that were fun. I liked David Brian as the boyfriend. All the crime-related stuff was entertaining, like the heist and the fights between the boyfriend and his brother, and I thought the big final shoot out in the operating room was the best scene in the film, but as soon as it went back to the romance angle, I found myself looking at my watch. Joan herself allegedly hated this film, and I can see why. Skip this one and watch POSSESSED instead.
Tonight, JOURNEY INTO FEAR and THE BRIBE.
Cold blooded killer Kluger (McGraw) busts out of jail to get revenge on the cop and the DA who put him there. But instead of killing them on the spot, he kidnaps them and, along with his stripper ex-girlfriend (Virginia Grey) drags them out into the desert for a little fun and games while they wait for the plane that may or may not be coming to fly them to Mexico.
A tense, claustrophobic premise shot for peanuts, this one is all about the actors. Which is both good and bad. McGraw is sensational and his henchmen are also pretty memorable. Michael O'Shea is a fine actor, but (through no fault of his own) I'll always think of him as the comedian in LADY OF BURLESQUE and had a hard time taking him seriously in this. Virginia Grey was kind of hot and cold for me, sometimes grating and shrewishly over-the-top but other times intriguingly brittle and skittish. I loved her big moment at the end, which I won't give away. The other thing I loved about her in this movie was a small detail that may have been unintentional but was really a nice touch. She was kidnapped on her way home from work (at the strip club) and for the whole film she's in the same outfit. She's got this safety pin holding her cheap blouse closed because one of the buttons is missing. Now maybe this flick was so low budget and on such a tight schedule that the missing button was a behind the scenes wardrobe malfunction and they didn't have time to fix it, but I'd like to think this it was a deliberate choice on her part. Because it seems so real and natural, like maybe she was planning to fix it when she got home that night but never made it. Which I guess makes your mom right, that you should always dress nice and wear pretty underwear in case you get hit by a car. Or in case your homicidal ex breaks out of jail and kidnaps you on your way home from work.
I heard a rumor that there was a remake of this one getting tossed around a few years ago. Guess it never went anywhere, but if anyone out there on the interwebs knows more about it, please share with the rest of the class.
Then there was THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS
On paper this one looks fantastic. Joan Crawford, Mistress of the Bitch Eyebrows, plays a gangster (!!!) who needs to pull off one last heist before she goes blind in order to pay for the operation to restore her sight. She falls for the eye doctor along the way and dreams of going straight, but her current squeeze slash partner-in-crime has other ideas and hires a sleazy private dick to follow her around. The dick offers Joan a "special deal" to keep his mouth shut, but she's a lady, dammit, so the spurred squeeze comes gunning for the surgeon.
Sounds great, huh. Except it isn't. Not by a long shot. For one thing, someone should be sued for false advertising. This woman isn't dangerous at all, except by association. Unless you count slapping the horny P.I. Once. Other than that, she mostly just moons over the hunky doctor and makes salad dressing and sappy pronouncements about light and roses and having a man's strength to lean on. Actually, she doesn't really make the salad dressing, the doc's cute-as-a-button daughter makes it while Joan smiles indulgently and radiates wannabe mommyness. She keeps threatening to go back to the homicidal ex, but doesn't. You get the idea that she's planning something, but it's never really clear what or why. Not what I'd call dangerous.
This movie was more of a melodramatic romance, and not a very good one. If this were Noir, ruthless Joan would try to go straight, willing to do anything (including murder) to hide her criminal past, but it would all inevitably go to shit and come crashing down around her. This is the first film from this years festival that I flat-out didn't like. It had moments that were fun. I liked David Brian as the boyfriend. All the crime-related stuff was entertaining, like the heist and the fights between the boyfriend and his brother, and I thought the big final shoot out in the operating room was the best scene in the film, but as soon as it went back to the romance angle, I found myself looking at my watch. Joan herself allegedly hated this film, and I can see why. Skip this one and watch POSSESSED instead.
Tonight, JOURNEY INTO FEAR and THE BRIBE.
April 7, 2011
The Two Mrs. Carrolls and The Dark Mirror
Seeing double again with this double shot of over-the-top melodrama. First up THE TWO MRS CARROLS.
Bogart plays a possessive, psycho artist who poisons his first wife in order to marry Barbara Stanwyck. When homewrecking vixen Alexis Smith enters the picture, Stanwyck suddenly falls victim to a mysterious, debilitating case of "nerves," causing headaches and dizziness. Clearly, history is about to repeat itself, only a blackmailing chemist throws a monkey wrench into Bogie's plans.
This is one I've seen before and for some reason, I liked it less the second time. Barbara Stanwyck is one of my personal favorite actresses and the one I'd want to play me in the time-travel movie of my life. But she's playing my least favorite kind of role in this one, the sweet, treacly, good-girl victim. On the other hand, there's some great banter in this film, particularly Bogart's first meeting with sexy Smith, and I also liked the character of Smith's bitchy mom. Bogart's scenery-chewing performance comes off as camp and silly, but it's actually pretty creepy in a meta kind of way when you consider that when this film was being shot, he was going through his divorce with the explosively violent Mayo "Sluggy" Methot, order to marry 20 year old Lauren Bacall.
Next in line was The DARK MIRROR.
Love that tag line! Olivia DeHavilland plays a double role as good and evil twins in this twisty psychological thriller. A doctor is murdered and one of the twins is suspected, but no one can tell them apart so there's no way to prove which one did it. A doctor who specializes in twins agrees to study the two women and see if he can use science and psychology to determine which one is the killer. Of course the good twin falls for the doc and you don't have to have a PhD to see where this is headed.
This film was also intensely melodramatic and over-the-top, but I liked it much better than the first. Weird, misogynistic and dated "science" notwithstanding, it was a blast from start to finish. I loved the fact that the twins wore goofy necklaces that spelled out their names and I thought Thomas Mitchell was wonderful as the put-upon police detective. I even loved the ending, though I'm not going to give it away in this post. But this one is available on DVD, so feel free to play along at home.
Tonight, it's a no-holds-barred cage match between Charles McGraw and Joan Crawford with THE THREAT and THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS.
Bogart plays a possessive, psycho artist who poisons his first wife in order to marry Barbara Stanwyck. When homewrecking vixen Alexis Smith enters the picture, Stanwyck suddenly falls victim to a mysterious, debilitating case of "nerves," causing headaches and dizziness. Clearly, history is about to repeat itself, only a blackmailing chemist throws a monkey wrench into Bogie's plans.
This is one I've seen before and for some reason, I liked it less the second time. Barbara Stanwyck is one of my personal favorite actresses and the one I'd want to play me in the time-travel movie of my life. But she's playing my least favorite kind of role in this one, the sweet, treacly, good-girl victim. On the other hand, there's some great banter in this film, particularly Bogart's first meeting with sexy Smith, and I also liked the character of Smith's bitchy mom. Bogart's scenery-chewing performance comes off as camp and silly, but it's actually pretty creepy in a meta kind of way when you consider that when this film was being shot, he was going through his divorce with the explosively violent Mayo "Sluggy" Methot, order to marry 20 year old Lauren Bacall.
Next in line was The DARK MIRROR.
Love that tag line! Olivia DeHavilland plays a double role as good and evil twins in this twisty psychological thriller. A doctor is murdered and one of the twins is suspected, but no one can tell them apart so there's no way to prove which one did it. A doctor who specializes in twins agrees to study the two women and see if he can use science and psychology to determine which one is the killer. Of course the good twin falls for the doc and you don't have to have a PhD to see where this is headed.
This film was also intensely melodramatic and over-the-top, but I liked it much better than the first. Weird, misogynistic and dated "science" notwithstanding, it was a blast from start to finish. I loved the fact that the twins wore goofy necklaces that spelled out their names and I thought Thomas Mitchell was wonderful as the put-upon police detective. I even loved the ending, though I'm not going to give it away in this post. But this one is available on DVD, so feel free to play along at home.
Tonight, it's a no-holds-barred cage match between Charles McGraw and Joan Crawford with THE THREAT and THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS.
April 4, 2011
Whiplash and The Hunted
A boxing artist! An ice skating femme fatale! This show, featuring two rare titles not available on DVD, was one I'd been looking forward two since the line up was announced.
First up WHIPLASH.
You'd think that an artist would be reluctant to risk damaging his hands in the ring. Not "Mike Angelo," who gets tangled up with a mysterious dame and allows a sadistic, wheelchair-bound fight manager to bully him into taking up boxing. Throw in an alcoholic doctor and a saucy, wise-cracking party-girl and you've got WHIPLASH.
This one was a hoot, with a dynamite supporting cast including Zachary Scott as the sadistic manager and a witty and memorable performance from Eve Arden as the party-girl neighbor. Hardly genius but still good fun. And am I the only one who was a little disturbed by the creepy sand sculpture of two knocked-out boxers that the artist made for the neighborhood kids?
According to Muller, this may have been the last time this film will ever be projected on a big screen, which makes me doubly glad I was there. Because as much as I may bitch and moan about the snickering hipsters, nothing beats seeing films like these on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen.
Now, on to THE HUNTED.
This straight-shooting, Poverty Row cheapie is saved from mediocrity by the mesmerizing Belita, a British Olympic figure skater who did only a handful of pictures before ditching the acting racket and disappearing, Garbo-style, into the French countryside. She is absolutely stunning and owns every shot she's in. She gives off this fierce, precocious sexual power not unlike Lauren Bacall. Although, according to Bacall's bio, director Howard Hawks really had to coach the sexy out of the nervous young actress. She even claims that her trademark smoldering "look," with her chin down and eyes up, originally came about as a trick to stop herself from shaking. I might be wrong, but watching THE HUNTED, I got the feeling that Belita was different. She strikes me as the kind of dame who was behind the wheel of her own sexual power all along.
The story (penned by Steve "I WAKE UP SCREAMING" Fisher) is by the numbers, but still entertaining and hits all the classic Noir notes. Cop falls for a hot dame. Dame gets mixed up in a diamond heist and winds up serving four years in Tehachapi. When she gets out, the dick's still soft on her, even though she threatened to kill him repeatedly. When another guy she threatened winds up dead, it's up to the love-struck dick to figure if the dame is really a murderer or the victim of a set up. Oh, and did I mention there's an ice skating number?
Although this flick serves up everything us Noir junkies crave, rainy streets and fedoras and dangerous sex and even a Charles McGraw cameo, there was one major issue that made me shake my fist at the screen. No it wasn't the May/December angle (the dick's in his 50s and the sexy skater her early 20s) or the ice skating (which was kind of hot in a pervy, trying-to-look-up-her-skirt-the-whole-time kind of way.) It was the ending.
I'm very torn as I compose these posts, because there are tons of things I want to say about the movies, but I bite my tongue in order to avoid spoilers. Which sucks, because many of these films are so rare that the majority of my readers may never have a chance to see them. But in this case, I have to make an exception. If you haven't seen THE HUNTED and don't want me to ruin it for you, now would be a good time to go get a sandwich.
SPOILERS!!!
The problem with us writers is that we want to rewrite the world. Sitting there in the Egyptian with fellow author Stephen Blackmoore, we looked at each other when the credits rolled and both came out with the same idea for how this flick should have ended.
Seriously, what the fuck was up with that happy ending? Everything else in this film is so studiously Noirish that pulling the punch at the end and letting them live happily ever after just pissed me off. I can't help but wonder if that was a studio mandated rewrite. Because it's so clear the way this story should have ended.
To make a long story short, Belita cold-cocks the dick and goes on the lam, and it seems clear that she really is a murderer. The enraged, broken-hearted dick hunts her down, but just before he finds her, the real killer confesses. I think the dick should have killed her and just as she dies in his arms, he spots the newspaper declaring her innocence. That's how it goes in Noir City. Or how it should go, anyway. What happens instead is this weird, baffling sequence where she shoots him in the shoulder (he's fine, really) and then when he finds out she's innocent, he blames the shooting on a random stranger and they live happily ever after. Bah fucking humbug.
Your not-so-humble narrator gets a couple days off, but I'll be back at it on Wednesday for THE TWO MRS CARROLLS and THE DARK MIRROR.
First up WHIPLASH.
You'd think that an artist would be reluctant to risk damaging his hands in the ring. Not "Mike Angelo," who gets tangled up with a mysterious dame and allows a sadistic, wheelchair-bound fight manager to bully him into taking up boxing. Throw in an alcoholic doctor and a saucy, wise-cracking party-girl and you've got WHIPLASH.
This one was a hoot, with a dynamite supporting cast including Zachary Scott as the sadistic manager and a witty and memorable performance from Eve Arden as the party-girl neighbor. Hardly genius but still good fun. And am I the only one who was a little disturbed by the creepy sand sculpture of two knocked-out boxers that the artist made for the neighborhood kids?
According to Muller, this may have been the last time this film will ever be projected on a big screen, which makes me doubly glad I was there. Because as much as I may bitch and moan about the snickering hipsters, nothing beats seeing films like these on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen.
Now, on to THE HUNTED.
This straight-shooting, Poverty Row cheapie is saved from mediocrity by the mesmerizing Belita, a British Olympic figure skater who did only a handful of pictures before ditching the acting racket and disappearing, Garbo-style, into the French countryside. She is absolutely stunning and owns every shot she's in. She gives off this fierce, precocious sexual power not unlike Lauren Bacall. Although, according to Bacall's bio, director Howard Hawks really had to coach the sexy out of the nervous young actress. She even claims that her trademark smoldering "look," with her chin down and eyes up, originally came about as a trick to stop herself from shaking. I might be wrong, but watching THE HUNTED, I got the feeling that Belita was different. She strikes me as the kind of dame who was behind the wheel of her own sexual power all along.
The story (penned by Steve "I WAKE UP SCREAMING" Fisher) is by the numbers, but still entertaining and hits all the classic Noir notes. Cop falls for a hot dame. Dame gets mixed up in a diamond heist and winds up serving four years in Tehachapi. When she gets out, the dick's still soft on her, even though she threatened to kill him repeatedly. When another guy she threatened winds up dead, it's up to the love-struck dick to figure if the dame is really a murderer or the victim of a set up. Oh, and did I mention there's an ice skating number?
Although this flick serves up everything us Noir junkies crave, rainy streets and fedoras and dangerous sex and even a Charles McGraw cameo, there was one major issue that made me shake my fist at the screen. No it wasn't the May/December angle (the dick's in his 50s and the sexy skater her early 20s) or the ice skating (which was kind of hot in a pervy, trying-to-look-up-her-skirt-the-whole-time kind of way.) It was the ending.
I'm very torn as I compose these posts, because there are tons of things I want to say about the movies, but I bite my tongue in order to avoid spoilers. Which sucks, because many of these films are so rare that the majority of my readers may never have a chance to see them. But in this case, I have to make an exception. If you haven't seen THE HUNTED and don't want me to ruin it for you, now would be a good time to go get a sandwich.
SPOILERS!!!
The problem with us writers is that we want to rewrite the world. Sitting there in the Egyptian with fellow author Stephen Blackmoore, we looked at each other when the credits rolled and both came out with the same idea for how this flick should have ended.
Seriously, what the fuck was up with that happy ending? Everything else in this film is so studiously Noirish that pulling the punch at the end and letting them live happily ever after just pissed me off. I can't help but wonder if that was a studio mandated rewrite. Because it's so clear the way this story should have ended.
To make a long story short, Belita cold-cocks the dick and goes on the lam, and it seems clear that she really is a murderer. The enraged, broken-hearted dick hunts her down, but just before he finds her, the real killer confesses. I think the dick should have killed her and just as she dies in his arms, he spots the newspaper declaring her innocence. That's how it goes in Noir City. Or how it should go, anyway. What happens instead is this weird, baffling sequence where she shoots him in the shoulder (he's fine, really) and then when he finds out she's innocent, he blames the shooting on a random stranger and they live happily ever after. Bah fucking humbug.
Your not-so-humble narrator gets a couple days off, but I'll be back at it on Wednesday for THE TWO MRS CARROLLS and THE DARK MIRROR.
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