Noir-vember: He Ran All The Way (1951)

Based upon a novel of the same name, written by Sam Ross, He Ran All The Way is a very enjoyable and brisk noir that should appeal to those who have enjoyed the similar, and better-known, (The) Desperate Hours (released later, 1955, and remade in 1990). This is the kind of noir that maintains a decent bit of grit, but also has you hoping for some turn in the third act that might allow some of the characters to change their apparent fate.

John Garfield plays Nick Robey, a young man who takes part in an armed robbery and shoots a policeman. Desperate to evade the authorities, Nick ends up ducking into a busy swimming pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters). There's a bit of a connection, but only while Nick needs to stay hidden in the crowd. Once out of the pool, however, Nick gets the idea to escort Peg home, aiming to lay low there a while until the heat dies down. That gets a bit trickier when Peg's parents (played by Wallace Ford and Selena Royle) enter the home. They also have another young boy in tow (Tommy, played by Robert Hyatt). It's not long until everyone figures out just what Nick is up to, but maybe Peg won't mind the opportunity to help a man she sees to have taken a liking to.

Adapted into screenplay form by Hugo Butler and Guy Endore (although the bulk of the work was done initially by an uncredited Dalton Trumbo), He Ran All The Way doesn't waste much of the relatively short 77-minute runtime. We see Nick getting himself into seriously hot water and the rest of the film shows us his attempt to get out of that situation. Sometimes he looks unwilling to harm people he has just met, sometimes he looks ready to dispose of anyone he even suspects of getting between him and his pending freedom.

Garfield is suitably on edge for most of the runtime, initially sympathetic, but soon hardening as he feels the world closing in around him. Winters is wonderful in her role, soft and naive and loving without ever seeming like a world-class dope. Both Ford and Royle do well in their supporting roles, as does Hyatt, and together they represent a very typical family unit that you don't want to see kept in a dangerous situation any longer than necessary.

I've not seen any of the other films directed by John Berry, and no other titles immediately jump out at me, but his handling of this material makes me think I could do a lot worse than check out more of his output from the 1940s and 1950s (aka his most prolific period). If there's anything else like this gem in the mix then I'll be a happy viewer.

7/10

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Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

While it may come along at the very end of the classic film noir cycle, Odds Against Tomorrow is highly recommended to fans of those movies. It’s about one great big score, of course, it’s about tension between the robbers, and it’s a heavy-handed, but well-intentioned, condemnation of racism.

Ed Begley plays an ex-cop, Burke, who thinks he has a foolproof robbery plan. He cannot do it alone though, so he enlists the assistance of Slater (Robert Ryan). He also needs a black man in the team, as the plan relies on a guard opening the door to the African American gentleman delivering some food, so he brings in Ingram (Harry Belafonte). Both Slater and Ingram have debts to pay off, which means both are highly motivated to get the job done right, but Slater continues to be perturbed while he has to work alongside a black man.

Based on a novel by William P. McGivern, Odds Against Tomorrow was adapted into film form by Nelson Gidding and Abraham Polonsky (blacklisted at the time, therefore credited as John O. Killens). While the robbery itself makes up the third act of the movie, as you would expect, the majority of the runtime is a look at two damaged characters who don’t see themselves as having any other choices on their path through life. Luck hasn’t been with them, which hasn’t stopped them gambling, so this big score is needed to set them free from misery of their own making.

Both Ryan and Belafonte are excellent in their lead roles, both carrying different weights on their shoulders as they resolve to do whatever it takes to improve their lot in life. Ryan allows the prejudice to emanate from his character in waves, no edges softened or ugliness hidden, and that makes him even more unsavory than your typical noir lead, but he’s counter-balanced by the pragmatism of the very charismatic, but hot-headed, character played by Belafonte. Begley is also very good, spending a lot of his time as a buffer between the two men that he needs to stay focused on the job in hand. Will Kuluva and Richard Bright provide extra “motivation”, and there’s time for some solid work from Shelley Winters, Gloria Grahame, and Kim Hamilton, among others.

It is far from the best of film noir, in many ways, but it also has a hell of a lot to enjoy. The direction from Robert Wise is as solid and straightforward as usual (Wise is a name I always feel is far-too-rarely mentioned when discussing the absolute greats of cinema, he has at least three masterpieces to his name in three different genres), the pacing allows viewers to enjoy the fleshing out of the characters as they also see the robbery plan being hatched, and the friction between Ryan and Belafonte keeps simmering away until the point when it inevitably rises up to worsen a bad situation.

The very end may be a bit eye-rollingly clumsy, like a moral punchline underlining a central message of the movie, but it doesn’t undo everything that came along before it. All in all, wonderful stuff.

8/10

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Prime Time: Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)

There are some titles that just grab you. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? is one of them. When I saw this during some time spent once again browsing the internet for my next viewing choice, I knew I had to check it out. Seeing the cast also helped, with roles here for Shelley Winters, Ralph Richardson, and Lionel Jeffries, as well as quite a few other familiar faces.

Winters plays the titular character, although her name is actually Mrs. Forrest. Having survived both her husband and her young daughter, Mrs. Forrest isn’t in possession of every single one of her marbles, but that doesn’t stop her from doing some good deeds, with an annual tradition being her meal and party for a group of randomly-selected orphans from a nearby home. But the latest visitors feature a young girl (Katy, played by Chloe Franks) who seems to resemble Mrs. Forrest’s daughter, which ensures that Mrs. Forrest keeps trying to give her extra attention. Something doesn’t seem right, and Katy’s bother, Christopher (Mark Lester), suspects that Mrs. Forrest is a witch who means to harm the children.

Directed by Curtis Harrington, who seemed to spend the ‘60s and ‘70s helming many films in this vein (his previous feature is titled What’s The Matter With Helen?), and written by David Osborn, Robert Blees, and Jimmy Sangster, this is a mix of character study, melodrama, and psychological thriller that manages to do a good job with every individual aspect being blended into the narrative. It’s also quite different from what you might expect, with viewers being wrong-footed by the first half of the movie before realising exactly who might end up being painted as heroes and villains.

Winters is very good in her role, playing a typically warm-hearted and loving matriarchal figure. She gets to overact occasionally, but that really helps with what is sometimes a twisted panto atmosphere. Lester and Franks are both very good, making great use of their angelic little faces as they scheme to escape someone they view as a major threat, and both Richardson and Jeffries excel in small roles that still give them enough time to make their usual strong impressions. The other person to mention is Michael Gothard, a member of the household staff who plans to get himself a much bigger payday than usual from his vulnerable employer.

There are many other ways this could have gone. The whole thing could have been much darker, it could have been played comedically, it could have been a more straightforward game of cat and mouse (and it’s worth noting the extra satisfaction of seeing Winters cast in a central role in something that seems to subvert The Night Of The Hunter), but I am pleased with the strange delight that we got. I may not recommend it to many people, but I hope others give it a try, and some may enjoy it as much as I did.

7/10

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Noir November: The Night Of The Hunter (1955)

Let me start with a sentence that some may view as slightly contentious. I've never viewed The Night Of The Hunter as a flawless classic. It's a fantastic film, certainly, and an absolutely stunning work of art, but there are just too many minor niggles that stop it from being a perfect movie experience, in my view. The child actors aren't the best, especially in the first half of the movie, there are a number of moments that don't feel right, even within the fairytale construction of the film, and the end coda is a clumsy way of sending viewers away without too many troubles plaguing their thoughts.

Once everyone has stopped scowling at me for that opening paragraph we can move swiftly along. Trust me, the rest of this review is pretty glowing, which is why I wanted to get those negative comments out of the way right at the beginning (like ripping off a band-aid).

A man (Peter Graves) commits a robbery, killing two men in the process, and gets home to his two children (John, played by Billy Chapin, and the younger Pearl, played by Sally Jane Bruce) just before the authorities catch up to him. He doesn't have much time, but he's able to hide the stolen loot and swear the kids to secrecy. While spending time in prison, awaiting his execution, the criminal lets slip one or two words in his sleep that give his cellmate, a "preacher" named Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), the seed of an idea. When released, Powell heads out to befriend Graves' widow (Shelley Winters), thinking that he can find out where that money was put. If only things were that easy. She really has no idea where the money is, but it's not long until Powell realises that the kids might. And so begins a battle of wills between one mean sonofabitch and two children who want to keep a promise that they made to their father.

The one and only movie directed by Charles Laughton alone (although he directed some scenes in The Man On The Eiffel Tower),The Night Of The Hunter takes a number of separate elements that shouldn't work and brings them together to make something truly beautiful and haunting. More a series of gorgeous tableaux than traditional movie moments, light and shadow are controlled to illustrate this twisted Grimm-like story in a way not unlike shadow puppet theatre, or even deceptively simple illustrations in a book for children (the kind that hide horrible details in the background, available to all who look closely enough). A lot of praise must go to cinematographer Stanley Cortez for the overall look of the thing.

Adapted from the novel by Davis Grubb, the screenplay by James Agee is uneven, yet full of a number of quotable moments. Laughton helped to whip the script into final shape, but this is also a film in which the words are given more import by the actors speaking them, and the context of each line.

So let me get back to those actors. I'm not going to spend too much time discussing the supporting cast, although Lillian Gish, Evelyn Varden, Don Beddoe, James Gleason and the aforementioned Graves all do just fine, and I'm not going to discuss the kids either, who do much better when reacting than they do when trying to simply act. Winters is very good, especially considering that her role is perhaps the most difficult one to get right. She's a caring mother, yet also a woman needing comfort. She begins to be changed by Powell as soon as they start a relationship together, and although that passage of time is slightly rushed it still remains fairly convincing, mainly thanks to the performance from Winters. But the film belongs to Mitchum, clearly revelling in a turn that could easily be argued as the best in his entire career. Whether he's explaining his LOVE/HATE tattoos, charming people with lies and tales of morality, or just threatening small children without a second thought, he's consistently great, and certainly one of the greatest onscreen villains in cinema history.

There are many people who will give this movie the extra point that I have denied it. While I myself hold off from classifying it as an outright flawless classic, it's hard to argue too strenuously against those that do. Whether you like, love, or REALLY love it, this is a film that fully deserves the reputation it has gained over the years.

9/10

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Elvis (1979)

Even as we hurtle forward through time and the 20th century recedes further and further behind us, I am happy to think that there are still many, many people familiar with the work and the sheer star power of Elvis Presley. Personally, I think of him as the single greatest and most iconic solo entertainer of the last century though I am sure that many others disagree and would put forward their own choices.

A TV movie based on the life of Elvis would seem to be a bit redundant. Fans already seem to know everything about him and his life has been picked apart and dissected ever since his premature death in 1977. But this movie was released in 1979. The details of Elvis Presley's life may have been known to many but there was still a certain element of mystery to the man, a mixture of facts with anecdotes with legends with gossip. I don't know exactly how accurate this movie is but it covers a lot of ground and shows Elvis as a great man who also had his share of personal demons (haunted by the stillbirth of his twin brother, always striving to do right by his beloved mother, hugely talented and yet plagued by insecurity).

The film begins with Elvis (played brilliantly by Kurt Russell) waiting to go onstage for his now rightly famous concert at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. He's been out of the spotlight for some time and he's very, very nervous. While wondering just how he will get on, he begins to think back over his life and viewers are taken along on a journey that shows how a young boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, eventually became the king of rock 'n' roll.

This movie, originally a TV movie shown in the USA that was then given a theatrical release in other areas, is important for a number of reasons. The main reason being that it was the first film to pair up Kurt Russell with director John Carpenter (who actually makes a cameo appearance in the movie as the camera moves through a casino setting in the first 5 minutes or so). The two men would go on to make a number of better films, a few of which I'd call solid classics actually, but this is a very good start to their working relationship.  It's also important because Carpenter was given a directorial gig and he delivered, in spades. He might have then gone on to work predominantly with material that wasn't as crowdpleasing but his work attitude has always been just as dependable.

Writer Anthony Lawrence does a great job of picking out moments to focus on while sketching the bigger picture around Elvis but both he and Carpenter are helped massively by a fantastic cast and, of course, the great selection of Elvis songs to use throughout the movie. Russell is, as I have already mentioned, brilliant in the lead role. Shelley Winters is also very good as his mother, probably the biggest single influence in his entire life (well, not counting the wealth of traditional music that he absorbed and incorporated into his work). Season Hubley is very good as young Priscilla, Robert Gray is great as the ever-reliable Red and Charles Cyphers and Pat Hingle both do great as, respectively, Sam Phillips and Colonel Tom Parker. Bing Russell, father of Kurt, plays the father of Elvis and does a fine job while Ed Begley Jr, Joe Mantegna and many others fill out the big supporting cast.

It's not quite the best TV movie ever that I remember it being from my youth but Elvis holds up as a superior biopic that manages to entertain and inform from start to finish.

7/10

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