Prime Time: The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)

NOTE - please be wary of the horrible colourised version on Prime Video. I am reviewing the film, but went out of my way to find the original B&W presentation after quickly realising how awful the Prime Video version looked.

Written by Seton I. Miller and Philip MacDonald, The Man Who Cheated Himself is one of many typical noir films you can stumble across once you've made you way through most of the more well-known titles. It has a director (Felix E. Feist) who seems to be a safe and competent pair of hands, there's at least one star name (Lee J. Cobb) to help hold your attention, and the thrills and tension are couched in a feeling of familiarity and cosy expectation that things will somehow work out alright in the end . . . for someone.

Cobb plays Lt. Ed Cullen, a man who is about to work more closely with his newly-promoted brother, Andy (John Call). Andy is doubly happy, having done well at work just before his wedding to Janet (Lisa Howard). Ed has his own looming happiness whenever Lois Frazer (Jane Wyatt) separates from her husband, Howard (Harlan Wade), but things abruptly change when Howard returns home to catch his wife being unfaithful to him. Some bullets fly and Ed has to take charge, getting rid of the body and ensuring that everything looks good enough for when the main investigating officer turns up. And wouldn't you know it . . . Andy ends up on the case.

I'm not sure if I'll remember this a year from now. I'm not even sure if I'll remember it next month. I had fun with it while it was on though. It's all about the situation, watching Ed alternate between relaxing and tensing up as he tries to stay one step ahead of the investigation, and there are particularly enjoyable scenes featuring Charles Arnt and Marjorie Bennett as two people who may have inadvertently witnessed some corpse disposal. It's just a shame that things never get more intense, and the third act feels a bit padded out, making the 81-minute runtime feel surprisingly overlong. Feist does well enough with the material, but he undermines everything slightly by refusing to add any edge to any scenes.

Cobb is a great choice for the main role, a man forced to make one bad choice after another, yet also doing his best to protect everyone he cares about. Call has to play his part with a bit more sappiness and innocence throughout the first half, especially in scenes that allow him to be loved up and happy alongside the lovely Howard, but he's easy enough to keep rooting for as he skirts closer and closer to a danger he is often oblivious to. Wyatt is just fine, but it's a shame that there are only two quick moments that allow her to show any sharp edges.

Like so many others of this ilk, there are obvious reasons why this isn't included alongside the classics of the era. It's still worth a watch though, especially when you have worked your way through many of the more obvious noir titles from the '40s and '50s. 

7/10

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Mubi Monday: Rope (1948)

Alfred Hitchcock once said something about how an explosion will give audiences a fright but showing a ticking bomb under the chair of some unsuspecting potential victim would have them on edge right up until the explosion. I'm paraphrasing but I remember the essence of his message. He liked to scare people, but he equally enjoyed making them tense.

Rope starts with a murder, committed by Phillip (Farley Granger) and Brandon (John Dall). The body is hidden in a chest and, for the rest of the movie, there it stays while the two murderers host a small dinner party, all the while hoping that nobody suspects that they're sharing a room with a hidden corpse. The one person who may suspect is Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), an old schoolteacher they believe would actually enjoy their whole plan. Of course, they cannot tell him what they have done. The only thing they can do is enjoy watching Cadell mull over how strange the evening is.

As famous for the way it was shot as for the content, Rope is a film unfairly viewed by some (including Hitchcock himself, and I should mention that it was he who directed it) as nothing more than a gimmicky experiment. There's no denying that the lengthy takes, the logistics of how every shot was set out, and the manipulation of the main environment (including a wonderful display showing the city skyline turning from day to night), is technically impressive, but that's only part of the reason to enjoy the film. The script, by Arthur Laurents (from a play by Patrick Hamilton), is a lot of fun, allowing viewers to watch two nasty individuals grow increasingly edgy as their own arrogance starts to bite them on the backside.

Granger is the more agitated of the pair, tense from the very beginning and only getting worse when alcohol is added to the mix. Dall gets to have more fun, unflappable throughout, even as it looks more and more unlikely that their "perfect crime" will be discovered. Stewart, despite the fact that he didn't think himself suited to this role, is his usual good self, a smart and sophisticated man who is equally happy chatting to the other guests as he is joking with the maid (Edith Evanson). Joan Chandler and Douglas Dick are both enjoyable enough as the other, younger, guests,  and both Cedrick Hardwicke and Constance Collier are very good as the two older attendees, with Collier a particular delight.

Although it would be easy to confuse Rope with the attitudes of the two main characters - smug, self-absorbed, interested in creating something audacious and impressive just for the same of being able to say it was done - I think it holds up as a fine piece of thrilling cinema. Few other films spend the entire runtime showing you that ticking bomb under the chair. This one does, and to great effect. The ticking bomb just happens to be in the shape of a stashed corpse.

8/10

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Noir November: Gun Crazy (1950)

It's fun, it's fast-paced, it rarely lets up on the excitement once it moves into a higher gear, but Gun Crazy is also no different from so many other movies that we've seen before it, or since.

Peggy Cummins and John Dall play the two lovebirds, Annie and Barton, who bond over a shared love of, and skill with, firearms. Building a relationship on such a combustible foundation would seem like a sign of some shaky times ahead and, sure enough, it's not long until Annie is convincing Barton that the life they really want is one that they should take, as opposed to working hard for. Leave the daily grind to the other chumps, that's her view. They can keep moving, committing robberies here and there to earn enough money until they plan that one big score that will set them up for the rest of their lives. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Written by MacKinlay Kantor and Dalton Trumbo (using Millard Kaufman's name during the period that saw him blacklisted), this starts off as a fairly standard, genteel even, tale of boy meets girl. Okay, there's an opening sequence that shows a young Barton already obsessed, and skilled, with guns, but as soon as he reappears in adult form he seems to be a well-adjusted young man hoping to keep on the straight and narrow. It only takes a few main scenes, however, to move the film from sweetness to harder, "Bonnie & Clyde" territory. The main problem when that happens is that you know exactly where things have to go by the final reel. Also, the character played by Cummins is, by necessity, not all that likable.

Despite being stuck with a slightly loathsome character, Cummins does well in her portrayal of the scheming, cold-blooded Annie. Dall isn't quite as good, but he's stuck playing the sap for the majority of the movie. Anabel Shaw is very sweet in her few scenes, playing Barton's sister, and both Harry Lewis and Nedrick Young fill out the sparse supporting cast nicely, both playing friends of Barton who realise that they may have to get him arrested, once his exploits become nationwide news.

Director Joseph H. Lewis keeps everything rattling along enjoyably enough, but it's a film that seems to fall in between two stools. Fans of hard-boiled crime flicks may well find this one a bit lighter than they're used to, while anyone suckered in by the opening scenes may be disappointed when the movie veers away from romance to crime (although, to be fair, the title of the film is a pretty big clue).

I still think that it's a film worth your time. It just won't ever be a top priority while there are so many other, better noirs to work your way through.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Collection-Asphalt-Jungle-Murder/dp/B000244F2S/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1416355286&sr=1-2&keywords=gun+crazy