Noir Films

[CineMaven]

Who am I to be judgmental. I'm a grown-up now. One gal's Sugar Daddy is another gal's...Sugar Daddy.

I just want more sugar than daddy.

D'oh!

[ChiO]

(from ChiO's Rules of Noir):

43. There are no bugles in Film Noir. Bungles, yes; bugles, no.

[RedRiver]

Man
Woman
Birth
Death
Infinity

[CineMaven]

[ChiO]

Few things are more exhilarating than stumbling upon Noir treasure: HIGHWAY 301 (Andrew Stone 1950).

You know it's going to be good when it opens with a stentorian voice-over narrator introducing the Governor of Virginia, who proceeds to endorse the film's message that crime does not pay. You know it's better when the narrator then introduces the Governor of Maryland, who proceeds to endorse the film's message that crime does not pay. You know it's the best when the narrator then introduces the Governor of North Carolina, who proceeds to endorse the film's message that crime does not pay.

It's the Tri-State gang on a rampage! (Based on a real case, so they say, but who cares.) George Legenza is the brains and the muscle of the gang. He's cold and calculating. His most exercised muscle is in his trigger finger. The body-count keeps growing due to his penchant for killing, including women associated with the gang who cross him. The biggest heist in history -- $2 million in an armored car -- goes awry. Two million, alright...in cut money going to the U.S. Mint to be burned. The botched job leads to a break for the police, and the full force of the law is put into tracking them down. And they are tracked down and fall, one by one.

The Warners backlot has seldom looked so nightmarish. Legenza, portrayed by real-life Bad Boy Steve Cochran with an intensity that is a cross between George Raft and Lawrence Tierney at their most malevolent, exudes a pervasive menace. Every encounter he has convinces you that someone -- and probably not him -- is about to die. Stone's direction is crisp, not flashy, but with a few nice jarring touches -- alternating close-ups of Legenza and one of the women with faces filling the screen as he tries to convince her that she has nothing to worry about from him (don't believe it, sweetheart!), filming Legenza through the cracked windshield of an overturned car as he tries to evade the police. Stone also wrote the screenplay, which is very nicely hardboiled.

This would make a swell double feature with GUN CRAZY, after which it was shortly released and of which it is the inversion. But the intermission might be a problem. Annie Laurie Starr would sneer at the gals hanging with this gang, and Legenza would probably plug Bart Tare in the back (after reassuring him that they're in it together for keeps).

For those who really like their boys bad (yes, I'm talkin' to you CM & JF), this one would either cure you from the affliction or truly tickle your fancy (just before the slug hits you in the back).

You cannot be kind to congenital criminals like these. They would show you no mercy. Let them feel the full impact of the law. The End.

[JackFavell]

Uh oh! I know who would throw over both Jack LaRue AND Ricardo Cortez for Steve Cochran....

[RedRiver]

His most exercised muscle is in his trigger finger

That's number two on my list.

[JackFavell]

Gasp!

[CineMaven]

Few things are more exhilarating than stumbling upon Noir treasure: HIGHWAY 301(Andrew Stone 1950). The Warners backlot has seldom looked so nightmarish. Legenza, portrayed by real-life Bad Boy Steve Cochran with an intensity that is a cross between George Raft and Lawrence Tierney at their most malevolent, exudes a pervasive menace. Every encounter he has convinces you that someone -- and probably not him -- is about to die. For those who really like their boys bad (yes, I'm talkin' to you CM & JF), this one would either cure you from the affliction or truly tickle your fancy (just before the slug hits you in the back)...

Cautionary tale...hell. You've just whet my appetite. Where can I find more than just six minutes of this film?

His most exercised muscle is in his trigger finger...

Mmmmm, what a lovely way to die...

Uh oh! I know who would throw over both Jack LaRue AND Ricardo Cortez for Steve Cochran....

Uhmmmm...I plead the fifth.


STEVE COCHRAN

TAKING THE FIFTH: n. the refusal to testify on the ground that the testimony might tend to incriminate the witness in a crime, based on the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution which provides that "No person....shall be compelled to be a witness against himself," applied to state courts by the 14th Amendment.

Yes, I confess. Steve Cochran makes me weak.

[ChiO]

CM wrote: Where can I find more than just six minutes of this film?

I take it, then, that you saw the 6-minute Steve Cochran Teaches a Gal Some Manners scene on YouTube.

The entire 83-minutes of this delightful little romp is available at Warner Archives.

[CineMaven]

I take it, then, that you saw the 6-minute Steve Cochran Teaches a Gal Some Manners scene on YouTube.

Actually I didn't watch the whole thing. (Practiced delayed gratification). I saw just about 2.5 minutes of it then stopped b'cuz I wanted to see the whole film without this clip providing any spoilers. "Steve Cochran Teaches A Gal Some Manners" ey? Getting better and better. Warner Archives...here I come.

[RedRiver]

For you, Theresa, we have the discounted version. WALLY COX SHOWS A MAVEN WHAT A REAL MAN IS!

[CineMaven]

Uhmmmm...

[RedRiver]

Your Honor, I'd like a moment to confer with my client.

[ChiO]

Upon seeing the title, THE BEAT GENERATION (Charles Haas 1959), and that it was produced by Albert Zugsmith (HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL! (1958), COLLEGE CONFIDENTIAL (1960), SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE (1960)), one might expect a teen/beatnik exploitation movie. But he also produced: WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956), THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957), THE TARNISHED ANGELS (1957), and a little something called TOUCH OF EVIL (1958). And what one gets with THE BEAT GENERATION is a Film Noir disguised as a teen/beatnik exploitation movie.

Married women in L.A. are being raped in their homes by a young smooth-talking coffee shop devotee, Stan Hess (Ray Danton). He shows up at a home, identifies himself as Arthur Garrett, says her husband helped him by loaning him $10 and he wants to write a check in repayment. Once in, he feigns a headache, pulls out some aspirin and asks for a glass of water. When she's getting that, he puts on leather gloves, takes her from behind, and assaults her. The detectives on the cases are Dave Culloran (Steve Cochran) and Jake Baron (Jackie Coogan). Culloran is suspect of the women, blaming the victim...until his wife, Frances (Fay Spain), becomes a victim. Now he is conflicted between women as tramps and his wife, who is near-virginal (but, we learn in a nearly off-hand comment by Baron that Culloran had been married before...to a tramp).

Hess asks his pal Art Jester (James Mitchum), to follow his modus operandi to confuse the cops. His target is Georgia Altera (Mamie Van Doren). The assault does not come to fruition because her ex-husband, Harry (Ray Anthony, married to Ms. Van Doren at the time), happens to pop in before Jester can surprise her. Georgia is uncooperative with Culloran because she hates Harry, is intrigued by (translation: hot for) Jester, and -- after all -- was not a victim. This confirms Culloran's thesis that women are tramps. But, as Baron points out, is that any different than "Garrett"'s attitude toward women? Hmmmm.

As if this isn't enough, Frances is pregnant. Who's the father? Culloran says he doesn't care because terminating the pregnancy " is against the law. It's against the law in every state." Frances says she doesn't care because she can't love this child. Until she talks to Mrs. Baron's across-the-street neighbor, a Roman Catholic priest (William Schallert). Now she will have the baby. But her husband is never around because he's obsessed with catching the Aspirin Kid. Culloran's conflicts -- the status of women generally, the status of his wife vis-a-vis women as a class and as a victim and as a mother, his status as a cop vs, protecting his wife's status (which is what?), his status relative to the lunatic rapist -- keep his wife off-balance and keep this movie alive and moving.

What a wonderful amalgam of adult melodrama, noir and beatnik exploitation. The exploitation aspect is relatively minimal, fortunately, until, unfortunately, the last 15-20 minutes. Prior to that, the few coffeehouse scenes are parody played straight. Near the end, the parody turns into slapstick and, given contemporary eyes, Camp, which distracts from the major narrative thread's continuing Noir theme. One of the more interesting subtexts is that the only woman who isn't a victim of sexual assault is the woman who is not married (Georgia Altera), she is saved from the assault by her ex-husband (the others' husbands weren't around when the assaults happened, but the ex- is), and she is the only one who is openly sexual. There's some discussion points.

For fun, some of the other cast members are: Sid Melton, Vampira, Maxie Rosenbloom, Louis Armstrong, Charles Chaplin, Jr., and (you may not recognize the name, but you would the face and body) Norman Grabowski.

For CineMaven's eyes only: The ending is an underwater fight between Danton and Cochran. Both are clothed, but it may be of interest because they're wet. There is, however, a much earlier scene of the Culloran and Baron families enjoying a day at the beach. Both Cochran and Coogan are in swim trunks. Coogan is also wearing a shirt. Just so you know.