Saturday matinee double feature

One British, one American.

This film has to been seen for what it is, a nice little film from 1953, and not try to compare it to today's films or the classics of yesteryear from the big studios.

There are some wonderful little touches in the film, if you really want to see them. Stanley Holloway as Charley Porter and how he says "'night Charlie!" while wiping the beer froth from his mouth as he leaves the pub. Donald Sinden who plays Jim Carver shows a young man that still holds memories of his past in the war (this film was done only 8 years after the end of WW2). A lovely touch is when he's back in France, with the sound of the tanks and then the tractor. Jim Carver was a tank sergeant. When you see the film, you'll see what I mean.

This film was done in a very innocent time, and yet not long after a violent nasty war. It deals with the past well and Odile Versois's character Martine Berthier, is wonderful to see. How she views things is a delight.

Look out also for Shirley Eaton (later to be a James Bond Girl), she's not credited in the film, yet is seen several times ... Train Station, and the Ferry.

What the movie lacks in believability it makes up for in sheer visual imagination. That opening sequence is a real grabber. Just what the heck is going on with the fuzzy focus and dreamlike images. People are going here and there in front of a bank of mirrors. Then, all of a sudden, someone hands Vince a drill. But Vince doesn't stick it into a chunk of wood. Instead he plunges it into a man's heart! Good thing Vince wakes up in bed, maybe sweaty, but at least inside a focused reality. Must have been a bad dream, but then why the bloody wrist and where did that weird key come from. From what we see, it's almost like he's come back from a strange parallel world.

So did Cliff actually kill someone or was it just a bizarre subconscious. Good thing he's got Mr. sober-sides Cliff as a cop brother-in-law. Maybe Cliff can figure it out since it's driving Vince nutty. Trouble is Cliff thinks his in-law really did kill someone, but in the interest of family harmony resists turning him in. So how will all this weirdness turn out, and what's suddenly the big deal about a candle.

Kelley really nails his part as the hapless Vince. Catch his many shaded expressions as he suffers through the nightmare. Paul Kelly too nails his part with a no-nonsense demeanor that keeps things anchored. But the real star is the production itself that manages to dangle us between two worlds with the many off-center effects. Sure, too much storyline stretches over the edge. Still, it's pretty gripping stuff, straddling the murky line between noir and horror. The premise was loaded enough to get re-made a few years later, Nightmare (1956). But this one, I think, is better. So don't let it slip by.

Midweek movie, courtesy Torquaymada and SDA

One of our readers recommended this movie, tracked down by PD.

Abbe Lane appears at 10:35, singing One at a Time, as she continued her ongoing struggle to remain inside her clothing, a trait which endeared her to the lascivious Xavier Cugat standing behind her there, band leader and hubby, 32 years her senior.  

Here they are on WML. Wiki calls her 'sultry'.  The heat certainly rose when she was about.  One more factoid - they did divorce when she was 32, tick tock tick tock, they'd had no children, have a look at this though:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-04-25-9304250212-story.html

She's still living.  Enough of that, this is an Untouchables precursor, so let's roll the film:

https://youtu.be/L6CxQMzhLj4

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047934/reviews/?ref_=tt_ql_urv

"Because this film starred Dennis O'Keefe (who was wonderful in his Film Noir appearances), I was sure to see it. And fortunately, the overall effort was exciting and engaging--making it a decent later example of the genre. While not as bloody and earthy as many Noir films, due to the head of the mob priding himself on being a well-spoken gentleman, nevertheless is a decent film of this type."

Woman on the Run [1950]

From one review:

Considering that this film is in the public domain AND I've never heard of it, I naturally assumed it would be a pretty crappy example of Film Noir. However, I was very pleasantly surprised and recommend you give this film a try. It's very well written and gives Ann Sheridan perhaps her best film role as a very noir-like 'dame'! In addition to her lovely performance, you have ubiquitous Robert Keith (a face you'll recognize but a name you will not) and Dennis O'Keefe.

Wonder who's running from whom?

Midweek movie

 Wasn't even ready for this - time zips by.  Try this one, maybe a double feature this evening, maybe not.

Hmmmm:

Before he can finish placing his help-wanted ad over the phone, the perfect candidate shows up at the office of Johnny Strange and fills the position of secretary without even giving Johnny a chance to say yes. She immediately takes the call from a new client, a mysterious woman with a Spanish accent. When Johnny meets her, the client is dressed all in black and wearing a heavy veil that conceals her face. She takes him to a house with a corpse lying in it, and asks him to take care of it. Before Johnny can call the police she knocks him unconscious with a bookend.

Yep, that sounds the ticket.  More as soon as I write it.  :)

Satmat one

Thinking there might just be one … see what I can find:

A review:

"Husbands can get lost so easily," someone tells Jeanne Crain's character in the 1953 Fox thriller "Dangerous Crossing," and boy, do those words ever prove prophetic! 

Here, Crain plays Ruth Stanton, a wealthy heiress who departs on a honeymoon cruise after a whirlwind courtship. When her husband (Carl Betz, who most baby boomers will recognize as Dr. Alex Stone from the old "Donna Reed Show") disappears from the ship before they even leave the NYC harbor, Ruth becomes distraught...especially since no one on board, including the ship's doctor (sympathetically played by Michael Rennie), will believe the story that her husband ever existed! 

What follows is a tale of escalating suspense and paranoia, with no one on the ship seemingly worthy of Ruth's--or our--complete trust. 

While not precisely a film noir, "Dangerous Crossing" certainly does have its noirish aspects, and the scene in which Ruth searches the boat for her husband at night, in a dense mist, the only background sound being the intermittent blare of the ship's foghorn, is one that all fans of the genre should just love. 

Jeanne, very much the star of this film and appearing in virtually every scene, looks absolutely gorgeous, of course (the woman had one of the most beautiful faces in screen history, sez me), and her thesping here is top notch. She is given any number of stunning close-ups by veteran cinematographer Joseph Lashelle, who years before had lensed that classiest of film noirs, 1944's "Laura." 

In one of the DVD's surprisingly copious collection of extras, it is revealed that the picture took only 19 days to produce, at a cost of only $500,000; a remarkably efficient production, resulting in a 75-minute film with no excess flab and a sure-handed way of delivering shudders and suspense. Very much recommended.

Thur-mat too

A review

"Husbands can get lost so easily," someone tells Jeanne Crain's character in the 1953 Fox thriller "Dangerous Crossing," and boy, do those words ever prove prophetic! 

Here, Crain plays Ruth Stanton, a wealthy heiress who departs on a honeymoon cruise after a whirlwind courtship. When her husband (Carl Betz, who most baby boomers will recognize as Dr. Alex Stone from the old "Donna Reed Show") disappears from the ship before they even leave the NYC harbor, Ruth becomes distraught...especially since no one on board, including the ship's doctor (sympathetically played by Michael Rennie), will believe the story that her husband ever existed! 

What follows is a tale of escalating suspense and paranoia, with no one on the ship seemingly worthy of Ruth's--or our--complete trust. While not precisely a film noir, "Dangerous Crossing" certainly does have its noirish aspects, and the scene in which Ruth searches the boat for her husband at night, in a dense mist, the only background sound being the intermittent blare of the ship's foghorn, is one that all fans of the genre should just love. 

Jeanne, very much the star of this film and appearing in virtually every scene, looks absolutely gorgeous, of course (the woman had one of the most beautiful faces in screen history, sez me), and her thesping here is top notch. She is given any number of stunning close-ups by veteran cinematographer Joseph Lashelle, who years before had lensed that classiest of film noirs, 1944's "Laura." 

In one of the DVD's surprisingly copious collection of extras, it is revealed that the picture took only 19 days to produce, at a cost of only $500,000; a remarkably efficient production, resulting in a 75-minute film with no excess flab and a sure-handed way of delivering shudders and suspense. Very much recommended.

Tue-mat

The film itself is reviewed below the video. My interest, other than the film, is why the reviews were so wildly divergent in tone … I’m intrigued in fact … just who are the dismissers and detractors? Why? And those extolling the film … just what connects them? This is one of the main reasons I plan to watch this.

It might be … not saying it is but it might be … American versus European watchers. Or it might be the big conspiracy to build back better … if the baddies are nazis, then it is lefties reviewing and dismissing. If the opposite … well … the opposite. One thing for sure is there is quite some disagreement over the movie … or is that film?

Foreign Intrigue (1956)

An underrated transition film, a low budget affair that is pure European color and style. Visually, it almost presages the Euro-American "Charade" which was decidedly more up budget. Here, the director, an unknown Sheldon Reynolds, takes advantage of all the empty spaces and long pauses the pace required. The lighting is flat, almost anti-noir, with widescreen grandness and yet an oddly impersonal intimacy. Not to be contradictory--the scenes are generally quiet, with close conversations, but everything is filmed from a certain, and constant, distance.

It is this steady, quiet pace that makes the film work. And Robert Mitchum. He needs no explanation. The first of the two or three main women he connects with is a bit false, but the main one is a caricature of the Nordic beauty, and with sincere energy and charm. At times it really does look like she is smiling at Mitchum, not his character, as if she can't believe she's touring Stockholm, etc., with this famous man, and the movie gets away with it. Mitchum for his part keeps his cool, except for the necessary fist fight once or twice.

It's 1956, and international intrigues like this are slowly rising into a genre of their own. People come and go, scenes are not what they seem at first, people have false identities and foreign accents. The big theme (too big to believe, but that's okay, it's supposed to be) is that realignment of global power after WWII. The real thing, made up of shadowy individuals who seem to be above nationality, and only know about intrigue, money, and winning at any cost.

I don't want to pump this up too much. It's slow at times, and the acting not always right on. The effects (the atmosphere, the fights, etc) are sometimes so archly false you can't quite accept it even as theatrical, but just a cheap. But that's the exception. Fall into the pace of it and it's not bad at all.

She dun him wrong, he dun her wrong back

Just getting these films lined up for our Mid Week Movie series here and realising this is a no-win situation. Films I liked long ago I now look back at and think red flag, bells clang clang clang.

For example, The Night of the Hunter with Robert Mitcham.  That's a fun film to you?  Or Pitfall [1948]? Creepy!  Or Fallen Angel, with Linda Darnell? Any woman acting that way, I'd say goodbye, sweets.  Any bar owner so obsequious - yuk.

The one I did have lined up next is a great film but is spoiled by silly sound fx - just shows that for a film to be good, all the elements must come together. Saw someone comment that the supporting cast is often as important as the stars and frankly, I prefer a film with no stars and just very good actors overall.

There are actors too we don't like and that's maybe taking things too far when most of Hollywood have private lives like Barbara Stanwyck - I mean, if we're going to do the holier-than-thou, I'm no great shakes myself. Just didn't like her acting, nor Bette Davis.  Would never watch Joan Crawford for any reason. On the other hand - the ingenue Lilian Gish?  Too fake.

I suppose what I like in a film is when ordinary people are caught up in events and adjust to them ... sort of like today, 2021 ... we could make a film about 2020/21.  Any films from the noir era you quite like?

Saturday movie

As usual, a reader review at IMDb:

"Black Angel" is an unjustly forgotten film noir based on Cornell Woolrich's novel. Dan Duryea, tagged in the preview as "he's no angel again!", adds yet another complex, dark portrayal to his gallery of ambiguous bad guys as Martin Blair, the estranged husband of murder victim Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling). Mavis is a devious singer who is blackmailing her married lover, Kirk Bennett (John Phillips). 

Saturday movie

Strange Saturday afternoon - political things have dried up, think I might bring the film forward and run it now, then about 7 p.m. start the other things again, if anything comes through.

All right - this was the version of 'Pimpernel' Smith sent by Distant Relative:

There is another version here, some minutes longer, so who knows why that would be?  Something about Leslie Howard first:

#  Leslie Howard was a great friend of Humphrey Bogart. After Bogart's first stay in Hollywood ended in failure, he returned to Broadway, where he played Duke Mantee opposite Leslie Howard in The Petrified Forest. ... Bogart always remained grateful to Howard, and named his daughter Leslie in tribute to him.

Uh huh, now the gay thing, which I thought was possible, given that the man who brings the film describes him as his 'darling'.  I looked it up and it seems that perhaps he was bi but he certainly had no issue with congress with the female [species].

Thursday thriller

If the world today is fixated on women and girls, with men filling the bit roles along the way, this film is about the fourth completely forgotten demographic in 2023 ... a boy ... and not only a boy but a 1950s boy. Did the 1950s actually have boys?  I ask for a friend.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0050947/reviews/?ref_=tt_ql_2

This thriller was the first film directed by Clive Donner and it is a very good start to his long career. A jewel robbery in Hatton Garden in London is planned and a policeman's uniform is required for the heist. The girlfriend of one of the gang persuades a teenage boy, Freddie, who is infatuated with her, to borrow his own father's uniform. 

The robbery takes place but soon things start to unravel. The secret place of the title is an actual hiding place but it could refer to Freddie's heart and the turmoil that occurs in it. Freddie is played really well by Michael Brooke, who captures the intensity and confusion of a teenager who doesn't quite understand the world but he is also caring and eventually quite heroic. 

The other main members of the cast are excellent too; Belinda Lee, Ronald Lewis, Michael Gwynn and George A. Cooper. A young David McCallum also appears in an unheroic part. There are also several child actors in brief moments who are just so right that one suspects they were just local kids recruited for the film.

Most of it is shot on location in London, still showing signs of the war with bombed out buildings and empty spaces. As a Londoner it is interesting to see familiar places filmed 60 years ago. 

There is no background music where you might expect some, such as the tense robbery scene and the chase at the end but both sequences work really well. The photography of the chase at the end around a half built building is very noir, great use of light and shadow.

An engrossing film, and as in the film, a gem to be re-discovered.

Midweek matinee too

Review

Although it's two hours long and there is nothing much resembling today's blood and guts-action-a-minute thrillers, this 1960s crime story still entertains, thanks to an interesting cast.

Sure, they could have chopped off 15 minutes of this to make it a bit tighter but watching Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers and Ross Martin isn't all bad, especially Remick, a gorgeous woman with one of the sweetest, softest voices I've ever heard. Powers, 19 when she filmed this, was easy on the eyes, too. Martin is effectively creepy as the asthmatic killer and Ford is good as the no-nonsense FBI man after him. I look at Ford as one of the better and underrated actors of his generation.

The DVD also shows off some nice film noir-type photography to its best. The clothing, cars and hairstyles might be a little out-of-date but the dialog isn't, and it's refreshing to watch a crime film without today's profanity laced through it. 

Overall, it''s solid film-making.

M'aidez Mat 1

Female reviewer Blanche

The career that James Mason had before being discovered by Hollywood was quite prolific. Thanks to TCM, audiences have had the opportunity to see some of his British films. This one, "They Met in the Dark," is a 1943 noir, and has both elements of drama and humor. 

The film begins with a trial, after which, found guilty of treason, Richard Heritage (Mason) is stripped of rank and thrown out of the Navy. He sets out, with one of his crew who believes in him, to prove his innocence. He backtracks, repeating his actions from the day he was arrested.

He finds one woman (Patricia Medina) dead, another woman (Joyce Howard) positive that he had something to do with it, and a talent agent (Tom Walls) who has some interesting acts on his roster as well as a sophisticated singer (Phyllis Stanley).

Mason is handsome, elegant, and vital in the lead role. He handles the lighter moments very well and has lots of charm. It's easy to see why he eventually went to Hollywood. Stanley does some nice singing, and Ronald Chesney plays a great harmonica.

Different and enjoyable, with a good plot and British atmosphere that will keep the viewer interested.

Male reviewer Robert Temple

This is an entertaining if uninspired wartime espionage yarn. It contains a fine and energetic performance by James Mason, full of vigour and fully believing in what he is doing. He even manages to deliver convincingly the inane line to Joyce Howard, the heroine, 'I love you', despite the fact that he barely knows her and could not possibly love her. The romantic elements of this story are too ludicrous for comment. 

This is the third and mercifully the last of the story ideas of Basil Bartlett which were filmed. (His 'Secret Mission' was so terrible it was one of the worst films ever made.) Sir Basil was the stepfather of my friend Annabel. Sorry, Annabel. 

There is a strong Czech component to the film. The director, Karel Lamac, was a Czech refugee, and apart from Mason, the main performance is by the talented Czech refugee actor, Karel Stepanek, who does extremely well, as usual, and raises the tone considerably. 

Joyce Howard's fluttery helplessness and bone-headed character may have been typical of women in 1943, but God have mercy on us poor viewers. 

A spectacular element in this film, which makes it worth seeing, is the incredible harmonica playing by Ronald Chesney, who only appeared in three films and is featured a lot here. Larry Adler eat your heart out (if Larry were still here, that is). 

Alvar Liddell, the famous wartime radio announcer, makes his first film appearance here, for all of ten seconds. At least Finlay Currie got 20 seconds. 

Someone savagely cut this film prior to release, as chasms occur in the continuity of fairly mammoth proportions. It is 95 minutes and must have been 110 when the director delivered it. This will keep an undemanding viewer entertained on a rainy afternoon. 

I had to get the DVD from Germany (where it is known as 'Spionagering'), turn off the dubbed German soundtrack, and listen to the original, which is preserved. The things one does to see these rarities!

Saturday double feature

Railroaded! [1947]

 

One of the user comments:

An almost amazing movie, well made, beautifully photographed, held back by a stiff script but still it manages. And it has a dark current that makes it both creepy and contemporary. Director Anthony Mann seems to have made a dozen great films that are just under the radar, noirs and westerns that have some edge to them to keep them from falling into the abyss of their genres.

This is Mann at his mature earliest. He had made a few films in the earlier 40s, but this, along with "Desperate," marks his coming into his own. Yes, you might find too much of a formula at work here, but it's not derivative, just a little stilted in the dialog. And yes, you might ask, near the beginning, why the cops couldn't see how easy the frame up would be (anyone could have stolen the truck and committed the crime), but remember, this one fact was supported by several others, including an eyewitness confirmation. So, once over these humps, you are for a good ride.

Sat-mat

Review

Night Editor is directed by Henry Levin and adapted to screenplay by Hal Smith from the radio program of the same name - by Hal Burdick - and the short story, Inside Story, written by Scott Littleton. It stars William Gargan, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell, Coulter Irwin and Charles D. Brown. Cinematography is by Burnett Guffey and Philip Tannura, and music is credited to Mischa Bakaleinikoff, though it's believed that Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco did the work.

"You are just no good for me. We both add up to zero"

A raging "B" pic out of Columbia? Absolutely! This is something of a film noir lovers delight. There is no getting away from the fact it has one of those endings that has proved to be divisive, so how it stacks up for first time viewers now may make or break your opinion of it...

Story finds copper Tony Cochrane (Gargan) having a love affair with viper like Jill Merrill (Carter), this in spite of the fact he has a gorgeous loving wife and a son who worships him. During one of the illicit couple's love trysts they witness a violent murder, and fearing scandal Cochrane fails to uphold the law. From such decisions does life often spiral out of control...

Okies. So we got hot and sweaty scenes, flashbacks, wet streets lit by lamps, alleyways, barely lighted rooms - particularly the station offices - symbolic and metaphorical sequences (oh my those crashing waves), but it's the barbed dialogue, the blend of sex and violence, and a femme fatale of considerable greatness, that ultimately makes this soar.

Personally I hate the ending, but as stated before, I do know noir lovers who find it cheeky and enjoyable. Yet even with my irritation at the finale - and of Carter's hair style (which pushes Phyllis Dietrichson for most unflattering look), there's just so much good here for noir lovers not to enjoy greatly. 7.5/10

Past midnight

Two topics I need to write on before I forget in one case and before it's posted in the other.  That one first.

1.  I'm increasingly not buying

They can't have it both ways - if we're increasingly sceptical of events of late, then why would we baulk at criticising one seeming piece of bollox, just because it feeds our own narrative, when we'd baulk at clear opposition bollox?  If something is BS or at least implausible as presented, then there's a good chance it's bollox.

I'm in bed and across the room is a book of quotations and one quote is that when a scientist tries to influence us by his manner, then we distrust him.  Same goes for journos.  I've come to distrust anyone opening with journalistic patter, a spiel.  I want the facts, without the padding, padding being something I've been guilty of myself.

This item [not up yet] supposedly has a CCP official saying that vaxxing the military is killing them and that they're essentially dead unless they get the antidote.  Now don't get me wrong - he may have said that, after all, we did view the Event 201 Conference.  It might even be true what he said.  So what's my issue?

Impact

https://youtu.be/_r1W4K4nGVY

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041503/reviews/?ref_=tt_ql_urv

Beware - spoilers!!!

Saturday movie

Why pass over the 1978 Michael Winner version of The Big Sleep in a complete volte-face?  It was this evening's movie most of today but looking through it, nah, didn't have enough going for it.  It had Robert Mitchum in his decrepit years, had Sarah Miles but it lacked the Bogie-Bacall chemistry and the film-noir look.  And though Britain's a wonderful place, it's not really Chandleresque.

So here's Rebecca:

A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence..

Straight to a watcher review:

Midweek Movie

The best film noir, to me, apart from the cinematography, is that where an ordinary innocent who might perhaps be feisty or disobedient, something at least which could move a plot along, is suddenly caught up and often is on the run.

Friday film

As one reviewer pointed out: “ This is very much the sort of quintessential forties film noir that fanciers of the genre get nostalgic for, with just the right balance of grit and glamor, low-budget ambiance and surehanded Hollywood artistry.”

It’s not easy getting the casting right, the director et al … it’s a balancing act, not always coming off, trying to make that twist just that bit more twisted in the trope.  Personally, I prefer relatively ego-free Bs … they’re not Zs by any means and not blockbusters where you have to dress up and go to the cinema to see A listers “starring” and knowing it.

 

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0038360/reviews/?ref_=tt_ql_2

Featuring the softer sider of Dan Duryea, a satisfyingly menacing Peter Lorre, and a bunch of other people I never heard of before. 

No seriously, you have Broderick Crawford here in a very bit part as a cop, and everybody else is pretty obscure. And Universal really had to limp along in that state from 1936 when the Laemmles lost control and took virtually everybody with name recognition working for the studio with them, into the 1950s. And yet this one works.

Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) is a songwriter who has been on a drunken jag since his wife singer Mavis Marlowe found fame and dumped him. One night, on what would have been their wedding anniversary, he attempts to see her, is bounced out of the building by the doorman, gets plastered, and is taken home by his good friend Joe, and locked in his room. As he is thrown out, Martin sees a mysterious character (Peter Lorre) admitted to see Mavis by the doorman. 

Later, Kirk Bennett, who has had an affair with Mavis, comes up to her apartment to tell her he can't pay her blackmail anymore (to keep quiet about his affair). He finds her body, manages to touch everything, and then panics and leaves but is spotted by Mavis' maid as she returns from her night out.

Bennett is arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to die for Mavis' murder. All the while his cheated-upon wife Catherine stands by him. Then - rather late it seems - she goes to confront Martin, whom she thinks is the killer. When she finds that Martin was locked in his room, out stone cold drunk at the time of the murder, she relents.

The two oddly decide to pair up, present themselves as a musical team, and try to investigate shady nightclub owner Marko (Peter Lorre) and solve the murder and save Kirk.

The thing is, while Catherine and Martin are posing as a musical team, they actually start making beautiful music together. Martin is on his longest dry stretch in years, and with Catherine rather ambivalent, you can't help but wonder, given Duryea's usual screen persona, is he really that motivated now to find the real killer and send Kirk Bennett back into his wife's arms? 

Watch and find out. This one has an ending worth waiting for - I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. Don't let the somewhat slow middle deter you. Highly recommended.