For It Is Man's Number: film noir

Showing posts with label film noir. Show all posts

Tuesday, 5 November 2024

Noirvember: The Mob (1951)

Let’s start at the end with this one. If you somehow caught the final scene of this film when it was on TV then you could be forgiven for thinking it was an episode of Police Squad. It ends on a light note that I could easily see being played out by Leslie Nielsen and company while some major perp figured out that they could escape as everyone stayed in a freeze-frame position. That’s quite a difference when compared to how it all starts, but I feel that it’s only fair to warn people who may want their film noirs to be hard-boiled from start to finish.

Based on a novel, Waterfront, by Ferguson Findley, this is the tale of a tough cop (Johnny Damico, played by Broderick Crawford) who is tasked with going undercover to gain entry to, and climb, the criminal underworld career ladder. Damico needs to get to the top man, but that might only happen if he stays alive long enough.

One of the earlier films to be directed by Robert Parrish, who wore a number of hats during his time in the movie business, The Mob is a serviceable screenplay from William Bowers that is elevated by some choice cast members doing their bit to help everything move along quickly and entertainingly enough.

Crawford may not be the best lead, but he definitely has the attitude for the role. He convinces as someone tough and fearless enough to do what he has been asked to do, and there’s never any doubt about him keeping his moral compass pointing in the right direction. A couple of the main heavies are played by Neville Brand and Ernest Borgnine, both fantastic in their roles, and the latter having the added bonus of just having that Borgnine presence (of course). Betty Buehler, Lynn Baggett, and Jean Alexander portray a variety of women who are slightly connected to a couple of the main characters, and Richard Kiley, Otto Hulett, and Matt Crowley play important roles in guiding the fate of our lead.

There are enough good moments throughout to make this worth a viewing, but the teeth of the film are filed down more when they should be getting sharper. The third act feels far too safe and tame, and also slightly rushed when the very last scenes start to play out, despite the 87-minute runtime that should be more than enough for this kind of thing.

Good enough for crime film fans, but far from essential viewing. At least you can keep your eyes peeled for that briefest appearance of a young Charles Bronson though. That’s a small bonus.

6/10

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Friday, 1 November 2024

Noirvember: 5 Against The House (1955)

Isn't it always the way. You come up with a jape that involves the perfect robbery, with a casino as your main target, and then someone thinks it's a serious idea, meaning they want to see it all played out for real. That's the basic premise of 5 Against The House, a lightweight and fun noir that props up a weak cast of males with a supporting turn from the lovely Kim Novak.

Al, Brick, Ronnie, and Roy are all university students, and all making their way through the education system after already doing their bit for Uncle Sam in the military. While having a fun time at a casino, our leads see an attempted robbery. This leads to Al (Guy Madison) thinking about how the attempt could have been successful. It's all fun and games, until Brick (Brian Keith) keeps chewing over the idea like a toothpick. Al just wants a nice life, and hopes to marry his swell gal, Kay (Novak), but the gang are about to be drawn into a criminal plan that Brick now thinks is foolproof.

Based on a story by Jack Finney, this is a surprisingly tame and sweet noir from director Phil Karlson, who has more than one or two superior gems tucked away in his lengthy filmography (including Kansas City Confidential and the excellent Scandal Sheet). The screenplay, credited to Stirling Silliphant, William Bowers, and John Barnwell, seems to make the mistake of assuming that all of the cast members are charismatic enough to carry viewers through some dull patches (sadly, that's not the case), but it is helped by the many moments that involve one or more interaction from Madison, Keith, or Novak. Alvy Moore and Kerwin Mathews are Roy and Ronnie, respectively, but they never feel like a vital part of the main group.

If you don't like the criminal plot at the heart of things then maybe you'll like the student shenanigans when our leads are trying to convincingly act like they're not too old to be getting up to such hijinks, or maybe you'll like the look at PTSD affecting one of the main characters (which is interesting to see as a main plot point, considering how long it took to really start acknowledging it as an issue). Sadly, however, you may just find that the film jumps between different tones without settling on anything that keeps you truly satisfied. I enjoyed the strange mix, but I can see many others being very disappointed.

Novak shines in a role that could otherwise have been easy to overlook, and she almost completely steals the movie away from everyone else. Keith is an enjoyable force to be reckoned with though, and makes the arc of his character more interesting and entertaining with the force of his presence, which allows Madison to impress opposite him by simply remaining calm and stoic. Moore adds some levity, Mathews adds not very much, and there's a selection of nondescript, but dependable, supporting players filling out the rest of the cast.

I'm unlikely to ever revisit this one (never say never though), and I'm not going to rush to recommend it to others seeking some darker film noir thrills, but I had a good enough time with it, there are a few decent set-pieces, and anyone already a fan of any of the leads should at least watch it once.

6/10

Tuesday, 28 November 2023

Whirlpool (1950)

If you ever find yourself in the world of film noir then you should be wary of doctors/therapists who take an interest in you while you are not an official patient on their books. You should also be wary of José Ferrer. I knew that Whirlpool would be a film in which Gene Tierney found herself in trouble when she ended up in conversation with a therapist played by José Ferrer.

Tierney plays Ann Sutton, a woman who is married to one Dr. William Sutton (Richard Conte). Although all appears well on the surface, Ann has at least one big problem. She’s a kleptomaniac, which viewers are shown in the very first scenes of the movie. While in trouble with store detectives and management, Ann ends up spared further embarrassment by David Korvo (Ferrer). Korvo recognises the ailment, and offers to help Ann with his hypnotherapy. Before you know it there’s a dead body, Ann as a main suspect, and Korvo evading suspicion with what seems to be a cast-iron alibi.

Based on an original work by Guy Endore, Whirlpool is your typical bit of hokum that uses hypnosis as a central plot point for some twists and tension. The script, written by Ben Hecht (prolific and brilliant) and Andrew Solt (less prolific, but with a couple of greats in his catalogue of work), is easier to digest thanks to the perfectly-judged tone and the performances of the leads.

Director Otto Preminger may have a number of superior films to his credit (including at least one featuring one of the cast members featured here), but that doesn’t make this unworthy of your time. It’s wonderfully entertaining throughout, and some of the conversations are both beautifully written and impeccably delivered.

If I ever see Tierney give a performance that I don’t love them I advise people to check that I am still alive. She is one of my favourite stars of yesteryear, and this is another winning turn from her, moving between moments of confidence and moments of paralyzing neuroses and fear. Ferrer is an absolute charmer for most of the runtime, nice enough to make you think he is a villain while also nice enough to make you think he might just be nice. His line delivery, especially during his first extended conversation with Tierney, is like music to my ears, and I periodically chastise myself when I remember that I haven’t seen enough of his movie performances from this period. Conte plays his part as expected, Charles Bickford is perfectly fine as the sympathetic, slightly bemused, individual investigating the murder, and Barbara O’Neil does well enough as a woman who may be pivotal to revealing the murderous face being hidden behind a mask of civility.

It’s a bit silly, and maybe a bit too lightweight for those wanting their noir more gritty and dark, but Whirlpool is also just great entertainment. It’s a star vehicle, and anyone who appreciates the talents of the leads will find plenty to enjoy here. I know I did.

7/10

Friday, 24 November 2023

Kiss Of Death (1947)

This classic film noir stars Victor Mature as Nick Bianco, a criminal viewers first see being caught red-handed for a robbery that will land him in prison for a fairly lengthy sentence. Tough and ready to take the punishment handed to him, Nick sneers when offered the chance of leniency in exchange for information. That eventually changes, however, when he wants a chance to see his young children. Passing along such valuable information will make him less of a friend to the dangerous Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark), which will put him in great peril if the word ever gets out.

Based on a novel by Eleazar Lipsky, Kiss Of Death is directed well by Henry Hathaway, who is fortunate enough to marry a solid script, written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer, to a pretty perfect cast. It also helps that, despite the 99-minute runtime, this thing seems to move with the speed and momentum of a racecar. It is, like many of the best noirs, a journey towards an inevitable final destination, but it's brilliantly paced, moving between some very different relationships between some of the main characters and a number of dark and deadly criminal acts.

Hathaway is also fortunate enough to get a brilliant feature debut performance from Widmark, who steals the show as the grinning and unhinged Udo, a character who emanates real menace while smiling at everyone around him. Easily up there alongside any of his future performances, and that is really saying something, Widmark portrays someone I would seriously consider as one of the most memorable villains in the history of film noir. Thankfully, the rest of the cast do well enough in their roles to avoid being completely overshadowed, with Mature excelling in his stoic turn, all too ready to spit in the eye of the authorities until he realises just how much he has to lose. There’s also Brian Donlevy being great as the Assistant D.A. who can offer some glimmer of hope to our lead, and Coleen Gray offers hope of a different kind, even if she seems a bit too sweet and naive in her very first scene (although it soon becomes clear that she knows exactly what situation she might be getting herself into, and her positivity might help to improve the situation for everyone she cares about).

There’s not a lot else for me to say about this film. I loved it, and I was thoroughly impressed by the presence of Widmark, yet equally impressed by those around him not being any less watchable (albeit in very different ways). There are a few different moments here that feel like classic noir key texts, with a major incident at about the halfway mark that is both darkly comedic and also genuinely distressing, and the cast are giving it their all in every scene.

Remade a couple of times, most notably with Nic Cage in a prominent role in the 1990s (more on that very soon), Kiss Of Death is a superbly entertaining character study of a man looking to change his fortunes at the risk of crossing a man even more entrenched in his life of criminality. I was tense, I was captivated, and I was kicking myself for not having seen this before today.

9/10

Thursday, 23 November 2023

Dark Passage (1947)

This is much more like it. As much as I enjoyed them, I had inadvertently spent the past couple of days watching some film noirs that felt decidedly lighter than other films in that style. Dark Passage feels like it has everything you could want from a classic noir. A majorly flawed, perhaps truly dangerous, lead. At least one potential femme fatale. Supporting characters looking to profit from a bad situation. And Bogart and Bacall guaranteeing at least one or two moments that show a marked rise in temperature.

Based on a novel by David Goodis, this is written and directed by Delmer Daves, a solid director with a number of treats tucked away in his filmography (including this very title). It starts with a man escaping from prison, seeming to be undone by bad luck before a beautiful woman (Irene Jansen, played by Lauren Bacall) helps him reach somewhere he might be able to safely shelter for a while. The man, although unseen for most of the first half of the movie, is Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart), and he was in prison for the crime of murdering his wife. He claims that he's innocent though, but to stay out of prison he's going to have to go to some extreme lengths, including having his face changed (which explains the decision made to show the first half of the movie from his POV). But a different face is only worth a damn if nobody else is keeping a close eye on Vincent's movements.

This is excellent stuff throughout, thanks to a lovely script, excellent cast, and the fact that viewers are pretty sure from the earliest scenes that they are really watching an innocent man growing increasingly desperate as he starts to look more guilty. The first half of the film may irritate some people, it’s a bit gimmicky, although it makes sense when we get to the midway point, but it is probably the best way to let things unfold without using any other tactic that could take you out of the movie completely. It helps that Bogart is our guide, that iconic line delivery helping us know where this will all be leading eventually.

While this isn’t the best work delivered by either star, both Bogart and Bacall are as good as expected in the lead roles. They always have brilliant onscreen chemistry, even when one of them isn’t visible onscreen, and both feel capable of handling their turbulent journey towards what they hope could be a happy ending. Agnes Moorehead is enjoyable in a supporting role, perhaps with a key to our lead’s proof of innocence, and Clifton Young plays someone who is set to really throw a big spanner in the works when he figures out how he could earn himself an easy payday. Bruce Bennett also has a small role, although he doesn’t get to do much, and Tom D’Andrea and Houseley Stevenson get to steal a couple of scenes as, respectively, a cabbie and a doctor who could turn out to be life-changing allies.

Although not a title I had heard mentioned in too many conversations about the classic film noirs, Dark Passage certainly already has enough fans that will be rolling their eyes and wondering what took me so long. There are one or two scenes that already felt familiar to me, due to them influencing other works (I would assume Spielberg is a fan, considering a certain sci-if title he made that feels indebted to this at times . . . or maybe that is just me), and I will happily rewatch this any time. In fact, I suspect I may enjoy my second watch a bit more as I settle into it while knowing what to look out for as the plot starts to unfold. Superb stuff.

9/10

Tuesday, 21 November 2023

Drive A Crooked Road (1954)

Although a fairly lightweight film noir (which viewers may already suspect is the case when they see Mickey Rooney in a lead role), Drive A Crooked Road is an enjoyable, if predictable, bit of entertainment that benefits from a couple of the main performances being much better than I expected.

Rooney plays Eddie Shannon, a car mechanic/occasional racer who spends a lot of his workday being ribbed by his workmates about his lack of experience with women. That looks set to change when he meets Barbara (Dianne Foster), who seems to take a real liking to him. Barbara then introduces Eddie to one or two others (including Steve, played by Kevin McCarthy) and it isn’t long until Eddie is being invited to assist with a criminal plan that will rely on his outstanding driving skills.

While it isn’t a big surprise to see that this was directed by Richard Quine (a dependable helmer with a few gems in his filmography), it is slightly more unexpected to see that Quine worked on the screenplay with Blake Edwards, adapting a story by James Benson Nablo. It is also unexpected to realise that the screenplay isn’t very good. This is a film that works because of the main characters, not because of any great plotting or snappy dialogue. I enjoyed it, but it isn’t a classic noir I would rush to recommend to others.

Rooney is fun in his role, a sweet sap you just know is going to be manipulated by those around him. He still feels more like Rooney than a fully-developed character though (a style that suited him well throughout most of his career). Foster does well in the lone central female role, believable as a potential femme fatale or as someone just as manipulated as Eddie, depending on how you view the journey of her character. But it’s McCarthy who lifts the movie, entering the action like a breath of fresh air, believably persuasive and charming before showing himself as equally believable when threatening or mistreating those who try to go against him.

While the runtime is a shade over 80 minutes, I expected this to be even shorter. It’s barely a film, often feeling more like a 4-page comic book storyline, but there’s enough to enjoy for those who aren’t looking for any kind of gold-plated classic. I had fun with it, largely due to the performance of McCarthy, and I suspect other film fans will get some enjoyment from it, even if it’s more disposable and forgettable than many other crime films from the period.

6/10

Thursday, 16 November 2023

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Although it can be daunting to have an ever-growing “to watch” list, with every main movie title reminding me of at least three or four other movies I have still to get around to, I love any time when the film conversation flows around certain genres or topics in a way that leads to me being encouraged to check out something considered a classic by many. And that is how I came to belatedly watching The Asphalt Jungle recently.

It’s a simple tale. A group of people are put together to commit a robbery, but the job is endangered by the potential for misfortune and treachery. People start to suffer, but the moral core of the film means that viewers will be expecting a downbeat finale from the very opening scenes.

Based on a novel by W. R. Burnett, this is a screenplay co-written by Ben Maddow and director John Huston that nicely blends the prep and execution of the crime with moments showing us some more background of some of the key players. Huston keeps things paced perfectly, and benefits from an excellent cast.

Sterling Hayden is the nominal lead, Dix Handley, and he tries hard to keep a cool head, even as others start to panic. Sam Jaffe is the man with the expertise required to pull off the robbery, allowing himself to trust in the men who make up the brawn surrounding his brain. James Whitmore and Anthony Caruso play Gus and Ciavelli, respectively, the other two men making up the core team. Everyone does good work, but Hayden and Jaffe stand out, helped by the fact that we get to spend a bit more time with their characters. There’s also a great selection of supporting players, allowing us to enjoy great performances from Louis Calhern and Jean Hagen, the former as slippery and untrustworthy as the latter is sweet and dependable. I could reel off many other names, each deserving a mention for their part in making this a consistently gripping tale, but you should just see them all for yourself. Oh, and Marilyn Monroe shines in one main scene (the merest hint of what was to come with her star ascending).

It goes without saying that Huston is a great director for this material, and those familiar with any of his films will know what to expect here. The Asphalt Jungle shows a number of people who end up stuck between a rock and a hard place, some holding on to their own moral code while others are willing to make bigger sacrifices if it gets them an escape route, and it may well have you rooting for one or two people that you wouldn’t normally root for.

A classic, but most people know that already.

9/10

Tuesday, 14 November 2023

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

Friday, 10 November 2023

Pickup On South Street (1953)

Every time I see a Samuel Fuller movie I am reminded of the fact that I want to see ALL the Samuel Fuller movies. Having started my journey through his work with two titles that are arguably his most well-known, I keep forgetting how many more I have to experience. I’ve yet to find a bad one, and I encourage everyone to explore his brilliant filmography.

Pickup On South Street is the tale of a pickpocket (Skip McCoy, played by Richard Widmark) who inadvertently dips the wrong purse. Little does he realise that he has ended up with some film that was being handed over to communist villains by a blissfully ignorant young woman (Candy, played by Jean Peters). The police want to get their hands on the film before it can be passed on, and they enlist the help of a wise informant named Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter). While Skip is used to staying one step ahead of the police, he has rarely been in such demand. Candy wants to negotiate with him, while others start planning a less pleasant way to retrieve the valuable stolen item.

Zipping along for the entire 80-minute runtime, and anchored by two fantastic lead performances, this is arguably one of the very best film noirs from writer-director Fuller. And if you remember all of the praise I JUST wrote at the start of this review (and how could you forget it already, unless you are a goldfish, and if you are a goldfish . . . how the hell are you even reading this review?) then you will know that it must be working hard to reach a very high bar. It’s a fun film, thanks to the characters and the dialogue, but it also builds the tension on the way to a brilliant and satisfying third act.

Widmark is a great actor, and was used especially well in a number of film noirs, so I expected to enjoy his portrayal of Skip. What I didn’t expect was for it to easily rank up there as one of his best ever performances. Mixing in just the right amounts of cheek, charm, selfishness, and a wobbly moral compass needle, Skip is one of the great anti-heroes, with strong emphasis on the “anti” part. Although it is hard to equal him, Peter acquits herself very well in the role of Candy, a woman who shows some real mettle when she discovers that she has been used as a mule for something she wouldn’t willingly want any part of. Very easy to like, and working well with Widmark, Peters does well to keep the film from being stolen away completely by her leading man. Ritter is a lot of fun in her role, and she uses her few scenes to cast a long shadow over the whole film, and there are various “cops and robbers” played by the likes of Murvyn Vye, Milburn Stone, Willis Bouchey, and Richard Kiley, who all do well enough in their roles.

Fuller yet again manages to mix the drama and thrills with little details that lend an authenticity to everything, as was his greatest strength, but the fluctuating relationship between Skip and Candy is the strong heart of the movie. Everyone involved does very good work, whether in front of the camera or behind it, and the end result is guaranteed entertainment for fans of film noir.

9/10

Thursday, 9 November 2023

The Suspect (1944)

Charles Laughton stars in this enjoyable film that shows a man having his head turned by a bright young woman who helps motivate him to become more distant from the wife he is stuck in a loveless marriage with. But that is just the first step down a slippery slope, of course.

Based on a novel by James Ronald, this works as well as it does because it features a fantastic, and winning, central performance from Laughton, playing Philip Marshall. He seems to be a decent man, with his marriage to Cora (Rosalind Ivan) being the only part of his life that he cannot view positively, and his life starts to improve when he meets a young woman named Mary (Ella Raines). All seems well, but people start to gossip about the situation. Cora knows things cannot go on as they are, but it seems unlikely that Philip will be able to go back to the life he used to lead. It’s not long until the plot is punctuated by death, blackmail, and the probing questions of one Inspector Huxley (Andrew Ridges).

Adapted into screenplay form by Bertram Millhauser and Arthur T. Horman, two men with a number of gems tucked away in their respective filmographies, The Suspect works as well as it does because of the way it keeps a key moment offscreen. There isn’t really any ambiguity here, but those wanting to root for the main character can convince themselves for the first half of the movie that there’s still a small shadow of doubt over their guilt. Of course, that is all down to the performances as much as it is down to the script, and the cast is pretty perfect throughout.

Laughton is someone I have only seen in one or two main roles so far, but I have liked everything I have seen from him (and it’s still very sad to know that his one credited directorial effort, The Night Of The Hunter, was received so poorly that it put him off from trying more work behind the camera). Every little detail, from his measured and polite way of speaking to his consideration for others, makes Laughton’s character someone that viewers will be rooting for. Raines is also very good, a delightful presence without any plans to manipulate or scheme her way into a better position. Her innocence is another great choice, underlining the sweetness of the relationship that develops between Mary and Philip. Ivan is a bit over the top, but she has fun as the complaining wife, and Ridges is the typical Inspector trying to work hard to find evidence of guilt in someone he already knows is guilty of a crime. There are a few other enjoyable supporting turns, but I will just highlight Henry Daniell, who causes all kinds of problems as the drunken and abusive neighbour living next door to our lead, and often making life miserable for his own wife, played equally well by Molly Lamont.

Director Robert Siodmak is a safe pair of hands for this material, at the very least, and helmed a number of classics (major and minor) during this time. He does well by his cast, does well by the script, and generally doesn’t do anything that interferes with the gentle unfolding of the tale. There are one or two key scenes that could have been made more suspenseful, but I like the choices made. The focus stays on Laughton and his chance at happiness. Even the very last scenes have a bittersweetness, because the darkness has allowed someone to spend time watching a beautiful star twinkle and shine.

8/10

Wednesday, 8 November 2023

Prime Time: Too Late For Tears (1949)

Another slightly lighter film noir, but not any worse for it, Too Late For Tears is a very enjoyable film that I have since discovered already has a decent fanbase already. I am, once again, late to the party, but I would argue that this remains a lesser-known title, partially due to the lack of many immediately recognizable names attached to it.

Lizabeth Scott plays Jane Palmer, a woman who sees a great opportunity to become temporarily wealthy when a bag full of money ends up in the car being driven by her husband, Alan (Arthur Kennedy). It’s the kind of monetary amount that must be needed by someone though, and those people will want to get it back. Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) thinks he can handle the situation, seeking to intimidate Jane before realising that she may be tougher than she looks, and there’s also a man named Don Blake (Don DeFore) asking questions. Jane has to fend off these men, as well as questions from her sister-in-law, Kathy (Kristine Miller), and she soon shows that she’ll do whatever it takes to keep that money for herself.

While he does have a couple of great movies in his filmography, director Byron Haskin isn’t someone too familiar to me. The same can be said of writer Roy Huggins (despite me enjoying Pushover, also written by him, last week, and noticing that he helped to create a couple of iconic TV properties). Regardless of my own familiarity with their names, both me work together well to serve up an entertaining noir that keeps us in close proximity to an enjoyably devious central character who keeps getting cornered in ways that make them increasingly dangerous to those doing the cornering. While the runtime is just a bit longer than the average you’d expect for this type of thing, it never feels slow or plodding.

Scott is a formidable presence onscreen, her head turned so quickly by the money that you just know she had already spent a long time looking to pounce on any slight chance to change her life. She’s convincingly manipulative and tough, becoming bolder with each success. Duryea is a typical tough guy, but less typically worried when he realises exactly who he is dealing with, and his menacing turn becomes a bit more nuanced as the plot continues to twist and unfold. DeFore is a bit more pleasant, and gets to share a number of scenes with Miller, a ray of light in the murky noir haze, that show both of them hoping to find out exactly what has gone on between Jane and Alan (who is AWOL for most of the movie, leaving Kennedy only required for a few scenes in the opening act).

Making great use of the tropes, with a particularly memorable femme fatale at the heart of everything, Too Late For Tears is a gripping thriller that manages to sustain an impressive amount of tension for most of the runtime. Absolutely recommended to fans of noir.

8/10

Thursday, 2 November 2023

Noirvember: Pushover (1954)

A man and a woman meet in the kind of encounter that could lead to the 1950s version of a rom-com. She is having car trouble. He can offer her somewhere to stay while it gets fixed. But she may have another man in her life. And, as viewers find out in the next scene, her latest admirer is actually a cop.

Directed by Richard Quine, Pushover is an enjoyable film noir that pairs up Fred MacMurray (as Paul Sheridan, the cop) and Kim Novak (as Lona McLane), allowing them to struggle against their attraction as if both were magnets trying to join together as opposing forces keep showing how they should stay apart. McLane is a woman who is due a visit from her fella, a criminal who has hidden the money from a recent bank robbery somewhere, and Sheridan is one of the cops trying to ensure his arrest, but love complicates the whole situation. And greed. Love and greed. A classic film noir combination.

While not as dark and gritty as many other film noirs, Pushover is an excellent depiction of a man making one bad decision and then seeing events spiral way out of his control, causing the kind of damage that he soon realises there’s no coming back from. Apparently based on a couple of different source texts (“The Night Watch”, by Thomas Walsh, and “Rafferty”, by William S. Ballinger), the script by Roy Huggins continually builds momentum as everyone is dragged towards a tense finale. Quine ensures that everyone can see the pieces moving into place, and he does so without anything feeling rushed or illogical.

MacMurray does a great job of being the dependable guy we’ve seen him play in so many other movies (a man without malicious intent who is changed by the unfolding chain of events that he kickstarted), and Novak is already a shining star in her first credited feature role. If anyone is going to get themselves in big trouble then doing so for Novak feels like pretty good motivation. Philip Carey, Allen Nourse, and E. G. Marshall make up other members of the force who are focused on cracking the case, and all of them do well in very stereotypical roles, and Dorothy Malone stands out as a woman who inadvertently puts a spanner in the works of the unstoppable scheme.

This is never going to crack a list of top 10 film noirs, I doubt it would even crack a top 50, but Pushover is well worth your time. The leads have great chemistry, the supporting characters are all memorable in the right ways, and the tension keeps getting ratcheted up nicely as soon as one small error creates a tragic butterfly effect. I REALLY liked this, and hope others check it out.

8/10

Friday, 25 November 2022

Noirvember: Key Largo (1948)

If you are going to swim in the murky waters of noir at any point then you are going to encounter either Humphrey Bogart or Edward G. Robinson, both men having started in some absolutely classic movies. Key Largo is a film that has them both cast in main roles, which makes it pretty much essential viewing. I had already seen it decades ago, but it was one I had been meaning to revisit for decades.

Bogart plays Frank McCloud, a man who has decided to pay a visit to the family of an old war buddy. He knows the hotel they run, situated in Key Largo, and that is where he ends up. Unfortunately, the hotel has been taken over by a gang of crooks, headed up by the notorious Johnny Rocco (Robinson). Frank needs to figure out a way to get out of there, but he also needs to help Nora (Lauren Bacall) and her father-in-law, James (Lionel Barrymore), who were, respectively, the wife and father of his old buddy.

Clocking in at about the 100-minute mark, Key Largo is a film that has a hell of a lot going on, yet never feels rushed. You get some great scenes for some of the supporting characters (a real highlight being Gaye, a drunk ex-nightclub singer, played by Claire Trevor), a sub-plot about some other fugitives on the run, giving an excuse for some vigilant police in the area, and a literal storm brewing that works for the plot and the atmosphere in equal measure.

The screenplay, by Richard Brooks and director John Huston, capably adapts the play by Maxwell Anderson and allows it to feel like a showcase for the actors, yet also allows it to feel less stagey than it so easily could have been. A handful of scenes showing events happening outside the hotel help, as does the brilliant finale.

Huston knows what he’s doing here, and he certainly already had a well-established working relationship with Bogart by this point, so it’s no surprise to find that this is consistently competent throughout, at the very least. I would still think of it as a slightly lesser-recognised film noir, however, especially when it comes to titles that could be named by more casual film fans, and that’s why many might be surprised by just how great this is. Because it is. I would personally sit it alongside many other titles that might usually be ranked ahead of it.

Bogart is his usual greatness, cool and calm under pressure, while Robinson is a hugely entertaining villain, purporting to be cheery and unperturbed even as problems keep arising that may upset his grand plan. Bacall is mesmerising yet again, and mentioning the chemistry between her and Bogart is like mentioning how we stay alive by breathing the air around us, and Barrymore works well in between the main characters, playing someone who is trying to hang on to pride while also trying to just get things back to normality. I have already mentioned Trevor as a highlight, she deservedly won an Academy Award for her performance, and there is also very good work from Thomas Gomez, Harry Lewis, John Rodney, and Monte Blue (the first two playing crooks, the latter two playing law enforcement).

My main criticism of the film would be in reference to the first 10-15 minutes. It’s an unsteady start, with Bogart entering the hotel akin to that familiar moment when strangers walk into a pub and somehow make every head turn as the jukebox dies, but once everyone is settled into the situation then it quickly improves, and it just keeps getting better and better, all the way to those superb final scenes.

I love it. I suspect those who have seen it will agree with me, but I also suspect that more people need to see it.

9/10

Thursday, 17 November 2022

Noirvember: The Kneeling Goddess (1947)

The mistake that many film fans can make is to think they have seen everything. Nobody actually means that literally, but I can guarantee that you have heard those words, “seen them all”, while talking to someone who has asked you to recommend some movies to them, whether they were looking for films from a specific genre or just anything on Netflix. Many people may feel they have seen every film noir, but they most probably haven’t. They may have seen all of the top-tier film noirs, but there are many other gems to discover. The lesser titles can provide a lot of fun, and there’s a large world cinema pool to explore. Which brings me to The Kneeling Goddess AKA La diosa arrodillada, my first foray into some classic Mexican noir.

Arturo de Córdova plays Antonio, a man who is slowly and surely bewitched by the beautiful Raquel (María Félix), an artist’s model. Initially aiming to divorce his wife, Elena (Rosario Granados), Antonio ensures that Raquel will stay in his mind when he buys a statue that she modeled for, The Kneeling Goddess. Being driven mad by his conflicted feelings, Antonio plans some foul play, but will he get rid of Raquel or Elena? And will everything go to plan?

There are about four or five names here in the writing department, including Edmundo Báez, Alfredo B. Crevenna, Tito Davison, José Revueltas, Ladislas Fodor, and director Roberto Gavaldón, but there’s no obvious impact on the quality of the final product. The plotting and dialogue are both what you would expect, with the film basically having the most fun when adding more problems for the struggling Antonio to bear on his thin shoulders.

Gavaldón keeps everything enjoyably clear throughout, both visually and in terms of who may be privy to secrets that others don’t know about, with the exception of one key sequence, a set-piece that is revisited during a deliciously tense and dark finale. This may not have people literally living in the shadows, but they certainly do feel as if a lot of light is blocked out by some looking misdeeds from their past.

Córdova is good enough in his role, even as he has to, at one point, show a swift descent into drunken depression. Granados, given the smallest of the three main roles, is very effective in eliciting sympathy for her innocent character. Everything revolves around the character of Raquel though, and Félix is perfectly cast. She’s alluring one moment, distant and calculating the next, and starts to look like a deadly spider somehow becoming stuck in her own web at times. Whether Raquel has planned a long con or has just made herself as potentially vulnerable as Antonio is a question that makes the middle section of the movie more interesting than it otherwise would be.

Some may roll their eyes at my naïveté, but I was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns that this took in the second half. I didn’t expect things to play out as they did, although it was easy to see where it would end up as the final scenes began to play out. It’s a film full of melodrama, barely-restrained lust, and excellent, if obvious, mise-en-scéne showing the mindsets of the characters, and I had a great time with it. It may be my first classic Mexican noir, but it won’t be my last.

8/10

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Wednesday, 16 November 2022

Prime Time: Scandal Sheet (1952)

Similar to at least one or two other fantastic film noirs, Scandal Sheet is based on a novel, “The Dark Page”, by Samuel Fuller, and there’s an extra edge to it that allows the whole thing to feel like a Fuller movie, despite him not being involved in the direction, or even in adapting it from page to screen.

Broderick Crawford plays Mark Chapman, a man who has changed the fortunes of the newspaper he is in charge of, mainly by choosing to capitalize on scoops and any chance to sensationalize the worst crimes they cover. Steve McCleary (John Derek) and Julie Allison (Donna Reed) both work for the paper, which puts their own relationship through some ups and downs, and they seem more than up to the task when they’re tasked with investigating the murder of Charlotte Grant (Rosemary DeCamp). We viewers know something that they don’t know, however, and that is the identity of the murderer. It’s their boss, Chapman.

Written by Ted Sherdeman, Eugene Ling, and James Poe, three writers with numerous separate credits that you should check out, Scandal Sheet manages to bounce along between the main plot points with a lightness of touch offsetting the more unpleasant aspects. Maybe it’s due to the behaviour of the newspaper staff seeming somehow more repugnant than the people they are trying to bring to justice, clarified in an opening scene that shows McCleary and a photographer (Biddle, played by Harry Morgan) deceiving a grieving woman into giving them some juicy info. Or maybe it’s just the pacing, with momentum building throughout the second half of the movie towards a very satisfying final sequence, punctuated by a wonderfully cynical “punchline”.

Director Phil Karlson may not always be on top form, but his work is well worth your time when he is, as is the case here. Helped by the script, and some great leads, Karlson delivers something fun, but not without moments of tension to remind everyone that the main characters are getting closer to danger as they get closer to discovering the murderer they are trying to track down. The busy newspaper office environment helps, lulling you into a false sense of security before scenes set later on in the evening, when the rest of the staff have gone home, leaving only the people most heavily involved in trying to crack the case.

Derek and Reed are good enough in their lead roles, although the latter is the one who shines much brighter than the former, and you become more invested in their safety as they become more determined to solve the murder. Crawford is excellent, a brooding presence always doing his best to stay one step ahead of his employees. Having maintained a facade for many years, he becomes meaner and more desperate as the net closes in around him (metaphorically). DeCamp is very good in the one or two scenes she has, and Morgan is a welcome addition (although that’s more to do with Morgan as an onscreen presence, rather than his character). There is also a great turn from Henry O’Neill, playing a down-on-his-luck/alcoholic former reporter named Charlie Barnes who may end up inadvertently discovering the truth before anyone else.

Like many (the best?) film noirs, this gets everything done within a relatively brisk runtime - about 82 minutes - and has a brilliantly bittersweet resolution. It has also made me want to hunt down the source material, and any more writing from Sam Fuller that I can check out.

8/10

Wednesday, 9 November 2022

Prime Time: Crime Of Passion (1956)

If you are looking for a great film starting Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr, or Fay Wray, then I could point you to at least a dozen better viewing options. But if you are looking for a not necessarily great film starring all four of these people then you may, like me, find plenty to enjoy in Crime Of Passion, a light noir that is elevated by the cast.

Stanwyck is Kathy, a successful woman who leaves her newspaper job to become the happy housewife of a policeman named Bill Doyle (Sterling Hayden). Unfortunately, it turns out that the role of happy housewife isn’t really enough for her, especially as she sees her husband unable to climb further up the career ladder. Sharing her frustrations, and her hopes, with Tony Pope (Raymond Burr), Kathy also starts to consider that being nice to Tony, who already IS higher up that career ladder, might be a way to help Bill. But Tony is married to Alice (Fay Wray), which means that Kathy’s plan could potentially destroy a number of lives.

Directed by Gerd Oswald, this is a perfectly decent movie in a safe pair of hands. Oswald had a good run at this time (other movies from him including A Kiss Before Dying and Screaming Mimi) and would then go on to direct various episodes for numerous TV shows. As enjoyable as this is, it feels like a film directed by someone ready for a long career in TV (although he did deliver some more feature films towards the end of his career, after work on the likes of Gentle Ben, Bonanza, Daniel Boone, etc).

Writer Jo Eisinger has another couple of greats to their name (namely Gilda and Night And The City), but they seem happy to write this as something that simply simmers away while the cast enjoy themselves in their roles. Nothing ever becomes too explosive, nor is it ever too tense (even when things happen in the finale that change everything for the main characters), but it is never dull or unenjoyable, thanks to the excellent lead turn.

She may not be subtle for most of her scenes, particularly in the second half of the film, but Stanwyck is hugely entertaining here. The film seems to take a perverse pleasure in showing the contentment/boredom creating a rot that eats away at her character from the inside. Hayden gives another one of his stoic and dependable roles, the kind of thing he easily did so well, and he remains someone to root for, even if others are due to pay a hefty price while he dutifully gets on with his job and life in a way that suits him best. Burr is amusingly shady, the script helping to ring alarm bells in the minds of viewers as soon as he appears, while Wray plays the kind of sweet and content housewife that Stanwyck’s character never really wants to become.

It’s not really cinematic, there are no major twists and turns in the plot, and the title tells you exactly where things are going, but I still liked this. There’s a good enough framework here, nicely fleshed out and given a nice sheen by the cast, and any fans of the stars should have some fun.

6/10

Tuesday, 1 November 2022

Noirvember: Escape In The Fog (1945)

It’s odd when you decide to spend some time wallowing in film noir and then find that your first viewing choice doesn’t feel as fully noir-ish as expected. Never mind though. I am not one to insist that films always stick within very rigid parameters, and I enjoyed Escape In The Fog enough, even if it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

Nina Foch stars as Eileen, a woman who starts this movie having a disturbing nightmare about a man being the victim of an attempted murder. Things start to take a turn for the strange when she meets a man, Barry (William Wright), who may actually be the man she just saw in her dream. It turns out that Barry is an agent, about to undertake a dangerous mission, unbeknownst to Eileen, and it isn’t long until a dark dream becomes a tense reality.

Directed by Bud Boetticher (billed here as Oscar Boetticher Jr.) and written by Aubrey Wisberg, Escape In The Fog is a spy thriller that tries to give the melodrama an edge with the atmosphere and palpable sense of danger throughout. Viewers are present while the villains make their plans, keeping us one or two steps ahead of the leads, and there’s fun to be had in watching the moving parts all interconnect and work together like some precision-engineered machine components.

Foch is perfectly fine in her role, and Wright is quite the dapper chap, but the more entertaining performances come from the supporting players, and mainly from the bad guys. Konstantin Shayne, Ivan Triesault, and (in particular) Ernie Adams are more entertaining to watch than the heroes. It’s also worth mentioning a small bit of scene-stealing from Shelley Winters in one all-too-brief moment.

Sadly, beyond the dialogue and cast, nothing really stands out here. The direction, soundtrack, even what you might expect from a third act, it all falls a bit flat. The plotting runs out of steam by the last 5-10 minutes, or so it seems, with an ending that feels more arbitrary than logical and satisfying. Maybe I blinked and missed a key moment, but there were surely a number of better ways this could have ended.

At least it is a slight film though, the runtime only clocks in at just over an hour, and it isn’t pretending to be anything more. Those involved were aiming to provide some fanciful thrills, and they do. Just.

Not recommended, but not one I could ever actively dislike. It is an easy one to add to your viewing schedule if you want to fill an hour though.

5/10

Monday, 5 September 2022

Mubi Monday: Brute Force (1947)

Director Jules Dassin has a number of classic films scattered throughout his filmography, he is certainly someone that you should become familiar with if you’re exploring cinema, but it took me far too long to get to this one, despite having owned it on shiny disc for years.

Brute Force is a bleak and nihilistic look at prison life, showing the battles between the inmates and the guards, the battles between inmates and other inmates, and the battles that men have with their own willpower. Although you get an interesting mix of cast members, the focus is on a prisoner named Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) and Captain Munsey (Hugh Cronyn), the former wanting to escape prison life and the latter wanting to be promoted to the position of warden.

Based on a real-life incident, a futile battle between prisoners and guards at Alcatraz after a failed escape attempt, the screenplay by Richard Brooks has numerous moments of unflinching violence throughout. I am not going to say that this remains as powerful today as it would have been when first released, but it certainly still packs a punch. There are familiar prison movie tropes, but it’s arguably more interesting because of the bleak perspective. Even the presence of Sir Lancelot, a calypso musician given numerous small movie roles at this time, doesn’t lighten the mood.

Lancaster and Cronyn are superb in their roles, portraying the typical unbreakable prisoner and unrelenting prison guard that we have seen in so many other prison movies. Neither are good men, but Cronyn’s character has the power, and the sadism, making him the ultimate enemy of those onscreen. As for the rest of the cast, they’re all excellent, and everyone gets a moment to shine (even if they’re reminiscing about how they ended up doing time because of a woman . . . yeah, all these poor prisoners were just suckers for a pretty lady, apparently). Jack Overman, Jeff Corey, John Hoyt, and Art Smith were favourites of mine, but you also have Yvonne De Carlo, Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, and many others to enjoy.

Dassin does his usual great job as director. The pacing is perfect, the thin line between what is depicted onscreen and what is heavily implied is always judged well (although I am sure that was also helped by knowing what would be permitted by the censors), and the weighty exploration of morality, and the different codes applied to different groups of people, is never allowed to slow down a film which rattles along like an unstoppable locomotive heading towards a “track ends” sign.

Not a film to watch when you want something to cheer you up, Brute Force is nevertheless a classic that easily stands the test of time. It’s smart, it still packs a punch, and the ending is unforgettable.

9/10

Friday, 12 November 2021

Noir-vember: The Lineup (1958)

A spin-off from a TV series that was itself based on a popular radio show, The Lineup is a solid little noir that takes a little while to find its feet, allowing viewers to see a little bit of actual police work, but finally settles in and buckles up for a speedy journey along some dangerous roads on the way to a superb, and inevitable, confrontation.

It all begins with a crash, one that results in death and the discovery of some smuggled heroin. The police eventually accept that a number of people entering America are unwitting drug mules, with the heroin often inside some souvenir. Viewers are then introduced to the decidedly dangerous Dancer (Eli Wallach) and Julian (Robert Keith). Driven around town by Sandy (Richard Jaeckel), these two men are going to be responsible for collecting drugs and delivering them to their next destination. Things don't go to plan, as is so often the case in any crime movie, and Dancer and Julian end up trying to make use of an unsuspecting mother and daughter (played respectively by Mary LaRoche and Cheryl Callaway).

Directed by Don Siegel, who is probably best known for his work with Clint Eastwood, this is an enjoyably unflinching slice of crooked unpleasantness. Written by Stirling Silliphant, a writer with a hell of a lot of entertaining hits in his filmography, everything works when viewers are eventually shown that Dancer and Julian are the main characters. Their actions allow us to see the criminal operation that has been described in dialogue between different authority figures, and they don’t have any edges softened as they start to interact with innocent people who don’t deserve to be drawn into their plans. It may not be as good as any one of the movies Siegel made during the last full decade of his career, but The Lineup definitely benefits from his ability to make slick entertainment featuring some tense set-pieces that give most of the screentime to people you wouldn’t ever want to meet in a dark alley.

Wallach and Keith are excellent, generally cool and business-like, but also able to act relatively normally when they are trying to put someone at ease in their company. LaRoche and Callaway are also very good, completely oblivious for a while to the danger they are in without seeming annoyingly stupid. Everyone else does what is asked of them, and Emile Meyer and Marshall Reed as the main cops trying to crack the case, but the film is at its best whenever Wallach and Keith are front and centre, which is fortunately for most of the runtime.

Get through those meandering early scenes, tolerate the supporting characters that you won’t really care for, and the film turns into something much better (about 15 minutes in, although I wasn’t clock-watching). It’s not one of the greats, lacking any real twists and turns on the way to the tense final sequence, but it’s certainly one I would recommend.

7/10

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Wednesday, 10 November 2021

Prime Time: Another Man's Poison (1951)

Based on a play, “Deadlock”, by Leslie Sands, Another Man’s Poison is a film that feels very much like it is based on a play. I don’t mean that in a bad way though. It’s just a film with no need for too many bells and whistles, thanks to a cast all working well with a script, written by Val Guest, that allows them to have a lot of fun exchanges.

Bette Davis plays a mystery writer named Janet Frobisher, and we find out quite early on in the movie that she has just killed her husband. Apparently. Her husband hasn’t been behaving very well, and the fact that nobody in the local area has ever really seen him should make it easier to get away with his murder. Things get much more intriguing when George Bates (Gary Merrill) turns up on Janet’s doorstep. He is on the run after a crime, committed with Janet’s husband, and decides that he can stay there for a while, pretending to be the previously-unseen Mr. Frobisher. Tension increases when Chris (Barbara Murray) and Larry (Anthony Steel) turn up. Chris is Janet’s assistant, while Larry is her significant other, and also engaging in a bit of infidelity with Janet. It’s only a matter of time until the wheels fall off.

Directed by Irving Rapper, this is a film that keeps adding one amusing detail on top of the other on the way to a third act that makes room for a couple of extra twists and turns. I can see people loving or hating the very final moments, which would taint your view of the entire film, but I watched events unfold with a wry grin and an amused groan. Despite it being a bit mishandled, it’s a wonderful punchline after the time spent watching people generally be horrible to one another.

Davis is superb in her role, clearly relishing a script that plays to her best ability to deliver wonderful barbs while taking no shit from anyone. It may not manage to barge into any Top 10 list of her work, but I would say it deserves to loiter just at the edges. Merrill is enjoyably antagonistic, playing his character as someone who enjoys having the upper hand and gets understandably irritable when things start falling apart. Murray and Steel both provide solid support, with Murray the most sympathetic and likeable character in the movie. Last, but by no means least, we have Emlyn Williams as a nosey neighbour, and veterinarian, named Dr. Henderson. Williams manages to avoid being too big a pain in the butt because viewers know that his nosiness and prying could end up saving someone from a dire situation.

It’s no unmissable classic, which might explain why I had never heard of it before (I discovered this while browsing my streaming service options), but Another Man’s Poison is fun for fans of Davis, fans of thrillers with moments of delicious dark comedy, and anyone who just fancies a hugely enjoyable 90 minutes in the company of actors doing their best by a script that rewards their efforts.

7/10