Summer of Darkness Week 3 6/15 - 6/21
The theme for this week was The Set-Up: Film Noir and Its Influences.
Crossfire - 1947 - Edward Dmytrik
Opening on a silhouette of violence, this tale of betrayal, anti-semitism, and murder play out amoungst a group of army buddies. After a night of drinking a man ends up beaten to death. The police have not motive but they know he was talking with the army boys at a bar before he was killed. They also know one of the men, Mitchell, is missing. Though the course of a two sided investigation by the police captain Finlay and Mitchell's sagent Keeley they determine that a fellow soldier that was out with the group that night did the killing because he is a racist.
Border Incident - 1949 - Anthony Mann
Bookended with voiceover naration telling us that the event depicted are true, from the files of the boarder patrol. Mexico and the US team up to stop illegal smuggling of workings into the US. Both sides send in undercover agents to find out the people behind the smuggling.
Between the documentary style beginning and ending, Mann delivers raw noir. Not just with the low key lighting and abundance of shadows, but also with the bleak hopeless story. Even after a bloody ending, the film leaves you with the feeling that none of it will make a difference in the long run.
Tomorrow Is Another Day - 1951 - Felix Feist
Bill Clark is jailed at 13 for killing his abusive father. He gets out 18 years later and has trouble rejoining society. He meets a girl, they get in some hot water with the cops, go on the lam and end up in California. Story ends with a whimper, the final act of betrayal has no consequence.
This movie tries to do the lovers on the run motif but it falls flat. Steve Cochran plays Bill with a childishness that kills all attempts at romance. I think he was going for a social immaturity from being locked up during the formative years, but while that is there he goes too far.
Crack-Up - 1946 - Irving Reis
Art forgery, train wrecks, and murder. George Steele (Pat O'Brien), an art expert, breaks into the museum, acting quite intoxicated, claiming to have been in a train crash. Is he going crazy or is someone out to make it look that way?
Deadline at Dawn - 1946 - Harold Clurman
A sailor on his last day of leave wakes up after a night of hard drinking to find he has a wad of cash in his pocket that he accidently stole from a woman whoes radio he fixed. After wandering the city for the day he ends up in a dance hall. He meets one of the girls and asks her to eat with him. After sandwiches at her place, he tries to give her the money after explaining what happened. She talks him into returning the money but when they go to the woman's apartment they find her dead. With four hours before he has to catch a bus, they begin to search for the killer meeting an assortment of cards along the way.
Interesting take on the innocent man trying to prove his innocence before time runs out in that for most of the movie the cops are not involved. Instead the clock is a bus that is leaving at 6 a.m.. Also he has the help of a group of characters starting with the love interest but expanding to include people who want to help him and people that are only out to find the killer, even if that is him. The performances are mostly good (more on that in a moment) but the look and sound are disappointing. The score is light and airy, not fitting of a life and death race against the clock. The look of the film would be unremarkable but for all of the mentions of how hot it is in the city. Nothing of this heat come through in the visuals. For an unfair comparison, Spike Lee was able to get the New York heat in every frame of Do The Right Thing where as here it is all talk.
This was my first time seeing Susan Hayward and she is a revelation. A beauty to be sure but rather than being the femme fatale of the picture she gets to be the stand in for a private eye. Hayward gets most of the snappy lines, comes up with the plans, and is always the smartest person in the room. Looking at IMDB this was just before her career really took off and she started getting Oscar nominations. I look forward to seeing more of her work.
Gilda - 1946 - Charles Vidor
Three people with no past, just futures. Of course that cannot be true, this is noir. Your past will always come back. Gilda make a memorable entrance but it quickly becomes clear she is kind of a terrible person. Lucky for her that her husband, Ballin (George Macready) and her ex from long ago Johnny (Glenn Ford) are both pretty awful as well.
Hayworth's first scene, as immortalized in The Shawshank Redemption, is impactful but the movie never established why anyone would put up with her. And the story nibbles around ideas that would have been much more interesting. Germans in post war Argentina is a better base for window dressing than a tungsten cartel.
Nobody Lives Forever - 1946 - Jean Negulesco
John Garfield is Nick Blake a con-man fresh out of the army. He finds out his girls has been two timing him and decides to go out to Los Angles to relax for a while. As soon as he arrives he hears about a score, a widow with a couple million dollars, and decides to go for it. He fall for the mark and tries to end the scam but his partners have other ideas.
The coincidences of characters recognizing each other killed any chance to suspend disbelief. When you have people in LA that came from New York and are getting recognized from when they were in Miami, it gets too silly for me to stay engaged.
Mystery Street - 1950 - John Sturges
The Havard forensics lab helps Ricardo Montalban sovle the murder of a pregnent prostitute. If not for the focus on forensic science instead of gumshoe instinct it would be completely forgettable. There is some nice camera work during the ending chase as well.
Hollow Triumph a.k.a. The Scar - 1948 - Steve Sekely
Fresh out of jail, John Muller (Paul Henreid) thinks it is a good idea to knock off a big time casino. His boys disagree but after some cajoling they agree to go along. Things go poorly, two of his men are caught and he goes on the run. While making a delivery to a medical building he his told he looks exactly like a psychiatrist, except for a scar on the check. Muller comes up with a plan to take the psychiatrist's place, allowing him to hide in plain sight. To that end he romances the doctor's secretary (Joan Bennett) and gives himself a scar. But Muller messes up a few details.
Beautiful lighting and cinematography. Light and, more importantly, shadows are a constant theme. Bennett is great as a world weary woman that has picked up more than a few skills in her time working with a shrink. And that poetic ending
Best of the Week: Deadline at Dawn - 1946 - Harold Clurman
Crossfire - 1947 - Edward Dmytrik
Opening on a silhouette of violence, this tale of betrayal, anti-semitism, and murder play out amoungst a group of army buddies. After a night of drinking a man ends up beaten to death. The police have not motive but they know he was talking with the army boys at a bar before he was killed. They also know one of the men, Mitchell, is missing. Though the course of a two sided investigation by the police captain Finlay and Mitchell's sagent Keeley they determine that a fellow soldier that was out with the group that night did the killing because he is a racist.
Border Incident - 1949 - Anthony Mann
Bookended with voiceover naration telling us that the event depicted are true, from the files of the boarder patrol. Mexico and the US team up to stop illegal smuggling of workings into the US. Both sides send in undercover agents to find out the people behind the smuggling.
Between the documentary style beginning and ending, Mann delivers raw noir. Not just with the low key lighting and abundance of shadows, but also with the bleak hopeless story. Even after a bloody ending, the film leaves you with the feeling that none of it will make a difference in the long run.
Tomorrow Is Another Day - 1951 - Felix Feist
Bill Clark is jailed at 13 for killing his abusive father. He gets out 18 years later and has trouble rejoining society. He meets a girl, they get in some hot water with the cops, go on the lam and end up in California. Story ends with a whimper, the final act of betrayal has no consequence.
This movie tries to do the lovers on the run motif but it falls flat. Steve Cochran plays Bill with a childishness that kills all attempts at romance. I think he was going for a social immaturity from being locked up during the formative years, but while that is there he goes too far.
Crack-Up - 1946 - Irving Reis
Art forgery, train wrecks, and murder. George Steele (Pat O'Brien), an art expert, breaks into the museum, acting quite intoxicated, claiming to have been in a train crash. Is he going crazy or is someone out to make it look that way?
Deadline at Dawn - 1946 - Harold Clurman
A sailor on his last day of leave wakes up after a night of hard drinking to find he has a wad of cash in his pocket that he accidently stole from a woman whoes radio he fixed. After wandering the city for the day he ends up in a dance hall. He meets one of the girls and asks her to eat with him. After sandwiches at her place, he tries to give her the money after explaining what happened. She talks him into returning the money but when they go to the woman's apartment they find her dead. With four hours before he has to catch a bus, they begin to search for the killer meeting an assortment of cards along the way.
Interesting take on the innocent man trying to prove his innocence before time runs out in that for most of the movie the cops are not involved. Instead the clock is a bus that is leaving at 6 a.m.. Also he has the help of a group of characters starting with the love interest but expanding to include people who want to help him and people that are only out to find the killer, even if that is him. The performances are mostly good (more on that in a moment) but the look and sound are disappointing. The score is light and airy, not fitting of a life and death race against the clock. The look of the film would be unremarkable but for all of the mentions of how hot it is in the city. Nothing of this heat come through in the visuals. For an unfair comparison, Spike Lee was able to get the New York heat in every frame of Do The Right Thing where as here it is all talk.
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| She's the best! |
Gilda - 1946 - Charles Vidor
Three people with no past, just futures. Of course that cannot be true, this is noir. Your past will always come back. Gilda make a memorable entrance but it quickly becomes clear she is kind of a terrible person. Lucky for her that her husband, Ballin (George Macready) and her ex from long ago Johnny (Glenn Ford) are both pretty awful as well.
Hayworth's first scene, as immortalized in The Shawshank Redemption, is impactful but the movie never established why anyone would put up with her. And the story nibbles around ideas that would have been much more interesting. Germans in post war Argentina is a better base for window dressing than a tungsten cartel.
Nobody Lives Forever - 1946 - Jean Negulesco
John Garfield is Nick Blake a con-man fresh out of the army. He finds out his girls has been two timing him and decides to go out to Los Angles to relax for a while. As soon as he arrives he hears about a score, a widow with a couple million dollars, and decides to go for it. He fall for the mark and tries to end the scam but his partners have other ideas.
The coincidences of characters recognizing each other killed any chance to suspend disbelief. When you have people in LA that came from New York and are getting recognized from when they were in Miami, it gets too silly for me to stay engaged.
Mystery Street - 1950 - John Sturges
The Havard forensics lab helps Ricardo Montalban sovle the murder of a pregnent prostitute. If not for the focus on forensic science instead of gumshoe instinct it would be completely forgettable. There is some nice camera work during the ending chase as well.
Hollow Triumph a.k.a. The Scar - 1948 - Steve Sekely
Fresh out of jail, John Muller (Paul Henreid) thinks it is a good idea to knock off a big time casino. His boys disagree but after some cajoling they agree to go along. Things go poorly, two of his men are caught and he goes on the run. While making a delivery to a medical building he his told he looks exactly like a psychiatrist, except for a scar on the check. Muller comes up with a plan to take the psychiatrist's place, allowing him to hide in plain sight. To that end he romances the doctor's secretary (Joan Bennett) and gives himself a scar. But Muller messes up a few details.
Beautiful lighting and cinematography. Light and, more importantly, shadows are a constant theme. Bennett is great as a world weary woman that has picked up more than a few skills in her time working with a shrink. And that poetic ending
Best of the Week: Deadline at Dawn - 1946 - Harold Clurman
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