Noirvember: Dead Reckoning (1947)

If you're a younger film fan, or maybe just a casual film fan, and you can't quite understand why Humphrey Bogart was such a big star for a while then, forgive me, I would have to insist that you just haven't watched a Humphrey Bogart movie. The man is riveting, and often also feels like the personification of cool, and he had the added benefit of being placed in some great features. While not at the very top of any ranked list, Dead Reckoning is a very enjoyable noir that pairs our leading man alongside the lovely Lizabeth Scott. 

Bogart is Rip Murdock, a military man who ends up on a personal quest when he finds out about the death of a fellow serviceman. Not only that, he discovers that the man may not be who he thought he was, and he was suspected of murder. His quest leads him to meet Coral Chandler (Scott) and Martinelli (Morris Carnovsky), a criminal masquerading as a legitimate businessman.

Mainly written by Oliver H. P. Garrett and Steve Fisher, with various people responsible for the main story and adaptation, and directed by John Cromwell, there's nothing here behind the cameras to mark out Dead Reckoning as an above-average noir. It looks good enough, the screenplay has some excellent lines of dialogue sprinkled throughout, and the plot is both slippery and fairly easy to predict. That doesn't make it special though.

Bogart, however, Bogart makes it special. As does Scott. The two leads work well, particularly when sizing one another up and trying to maintain a relationship that is mutually beneficial, and Bogart feels completely at ease in a role that plays to his strengths. He's confident, smart and quick enough to recognise when he's being conned, and he's willing to risk letting someone inside his exterior armour if they can prove that they're not working an angle on him. Scott plays the ambiguity of her character all the way to the end, as expected, allowing viewers to constantly wonder about her role in the murder being investigated. Carnovsky doesn't need to be ambiguous. He's very enjoyable as a charming and unflappable antagonist, and Marvin Miller is also good value as his main henchman, Krause. Others worth keeping an eye out for are William Prince (in the small, but vital, role of Johnny Drake), George Chandler, James Bell, and Charles Cane.

More of a comfort viewing than many other noirs, thanks to the charisma quotient and the perfect pacing that helps the 100-minute runtime breeze by easily enough, this may not be considered essential, but it's one I will highly recommend to those who want to spend some time in the company of some star performers shining brightly in material that seems to have been nicely tailored around them.

8/10

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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 

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Scared Stiff (1953)

A remake of The Ghost Breakers, with the same director, and one of the same writers, behind the camera, Scared Stiff is a lot of fun, but only IF you can tolerate the whacky antics of Jerry Lewis, here doing his loud manchild schtick.

Lizabeth Scott plays  Mary, a woman who has just inherited a property on a small island near Cuba. That's all well and good, but the property is said to be highly haunted. Heading that way, she ends up joined by Larry Todd (Dean Martin) and his friend, Myron (Lewis). Todd is a nightclub singer who thinks he has shot a gangster. Myron seems to have no  main job role, other than to annoy his friend. Hijinks ensue.

I've always had a soft spot for Scared Stiff, having seen and enjoyed it before The Ghost Breakers, and I think it remains a great vehicle for Martin and Lewis. Their very first scenes play out in typical fashion, and the film premise allows them a good bit of room to play around (most notably in the amusing scene that has Lewis dressed up and miming to a Carmen Miranda song). Both the laughs and the spooky trappings are generally heightened here, compared to the 1940 movie, but it works well because the leads are equally bigger “personalities” than Hope and co. 

Walter DeLeon doesn’t need to change too much of the core of his script, and I am not sure if the way the material is adapted for the stars falls to him or co-writer Herbert Baker, who had already worked with Martin and Lewis, but it’s nicely transposed to something the same as The Ghost Breakers . . . but different.

Marshall directs the material as well as he did previously, with the longer runtime reflecting the extra moments that allow Martin and Lewis to step aside from the main thrust of the plot to get up to some of their familiar antics.

Maybe a bit harder to recommend than the previous version of this film, because it depends more on how you feel about the leads (particularly Lewis), but Scared Stiff stands up as a spooky comedy that delivers a wonderful mix of haunted house tropes and chuckles in the third act. I still like it, I still rate it as one of the better Martin and Lewis pairings, and I still urge others to at least check it out. 

7/10

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