Noir Films

[JackFavell]

I watched the trailer last night. Dang, Signe Hasso's quite the tough!

[movieman1957]

The Bride and I watched "Nightfall." Pretty good little film. I really liked Aldo Ray. This may be the film where I've liked his performance the best. I thought it well paced and I thought the back story was played well.

I think this is the first noir I've seen by Tourneur. (Frankly, I've no idea if there are others.) I do enjoy his work with McCrea and thought maybe this is why Ray is such a sympathetic character. One can even like James Gregory here. The film carries some fun dialog. I love Anne Bancroft's look but who gets that dressed up at 3 in the morning for traveling. I guess no one would expect her to throw on a pair of pants and a shirt. Ah, the 50's.

One thing I thought might carry some weight in the film but was never made anything of was in the very opening scene when the newspaper stand turns on a light Ray reacts as if there was something in his background that causes the reaction rather than just the light. Maybe it was my projecting an idea. Either way nothing came of it.

One thing that distracted me a little was the song for the film. It took a while but the opening phrase in the the theme is the same as the opening as "The Apartment."

Enjoyed it. Thanks to you all for the suggestion.

[CineMaven]

"NIGHTFALL" "DANGEROUS PARTNERS"??? I'm in! Where do I find 'em?

[ChiO]

I think this is the first noir I've seen by Tourneur.

Say it ain't so! Never seen OUT OF THE PAST? If so, remedy that immediately!

And as far as I'm concerned, CAT PEOPLE and THE LEOPARD MAN (based on a Cornell Woolrich story after all) qualify as film noir. Certainly THE FEARMAKERS (returning WWII veteran - Dana Andrews - finds that a polling company fabricates its polling results in order to achieve the will of other powerful forces and to undermine American ideals. Who woulda thought?) And you got your BERLIN EXPRESS and EXPERIMENT PERILOUS.

Time's a'wastin'!

Note: NIGHTFALL surpasses the last three mentioned above, so be forewarned. But I still like them. Do you wonder if the Coen brothers borrowed NIGHTFALL's climax for FARGO?

[RedRiver]

NIGHTFALL was one of the first Tourneur films I saw. Back when there were still classic movies on TV! Boy, do I miss those days. It's extremely well done. After seeing OUT OF THE PAST, then this winner, I knew this was a director to reckon with. Though my favorite just might be I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE!

Am I correct that this story is from a David Goodis book? Our library has quite a few of his titles. DARK PASSAGE, STREET OF NO RETURN, some others I haven't read. Worth looking into!

[ChiO]

Based on the novel of the same name by David Goodis.

Screenplay by Sterling Silliphant, who has a pretty impressive resume, including 5 AGAINST THE HOUSE and THE LINEUP, and an Oscar for IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.

[RedRiver]

Not to mention practically ALL the early 60's TV dramas worth remembering. I rarely see a good show that DOESN'T have Siliphant's name in the credits!

[movieman1957]

ChiO, I did see "Out of The Past" sometime ago. At that time I couldn't tell you who Tourneur was. Going back to correct that error and learn a thing or two.

Theresa: "Nightfall" came out of a Columbia Noir package that "Pushover" was included in. I got mine from Netflix.

[CineMaven]

Theresa: "Nightfall" came out of a Columbia Noir package that "Pushover" was included in. I got mine from Netflix.

Thanxx for the info MM.

[ChiO]

A good marriage is like a good martini. Just a few simple ingredients and a rare occurrence.

All the best parts of my life, I've forgotten.

In NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP (Roy Ward Baker 1952), a has-been alcoholic composer (Gary Merrill) awakens on his sofa from a booze-inspired nightmare. It's 5 o'clock and he doesn't know if it's A.M. or P.M., how long he's been out, and what transpired before his black-out. Pacing in his living room, he talks to his dog about the possibilities. Perhaps a murder? That was, after all, the subject of the nightmare. In a flashback, there is his argument with his wealthy, mothering, shrewish wife (June Vincent). In another flashback, there is his rendezvous with his mothering former mistress (Hildegard Knef). In another flashback, there is his meeting with a movie star (Linda Darnell) who worships him because he had discovered her, though he had forgotten that until she causes that flashback.

Finally, he walks upstairs to discover....

Nightmares, amnesia and murder are the basis of many a film noir. Good grief, there's BLACK ANGEL (Roy William Neill 1946), FALL GUY (Reginald LeBorg (1947), FEAR IN THE NIGHT (Maxwell Shane 1947), and NIGHTMARE (Maxwell Shane 1956), and those are just the ones based on Cornell Woolrich stories. And the "I knew you from before?" aspect with the actress adds a touch of LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (Max Ophuls 1948). This movie, however, stands on its own. Where those movies - especially the Woolrich-inspired ones - focus on the alienation of a person due to personal flaws, this seems to me to come from the other direction, that there is society pushing the composer to become alienated. In any case, time well-spent watching a scratchy print.

Screenplay by Elick Moll (STORM CENTER) and Frank Partos (STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR; THE UNINVITED; THE SNAKE PIT), who also collaborated on THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL.

Also with Hugh Beaumont and a brief uncredited appearance by Mae Marsh.

Cinematography (oh, to have seen a good print, but it was still impressive) by the great Lucien Ballard.

[ChiO]

You put the "sin" in "sincerely." - WIFE WANTED (Phil Karlson 1946)

Jeffrey Caldwell recruits a fading movie star, Carole Raymond, to be his real estate partner, seeing her with her connections to wealth as a rainmaker. He also operates a lonely-hearts club with his partner (I'm not his secretary!), Nola Reed. Unbeknownst to Carole, the real estate biz is basically a front. The club gets folks into compromising positions and uses that for blackmail. Nola is dubious of Carole, thinking she's probably too bright and puts the scheme in jeopardy.

The death of a blackmailee is tied both to the real estate operation and the club. Carole is the last person known to have been with him. Ace reporter Bill Tyler is assigned to the story. He pretends to be a lonely and wealthy sheep rancher from Utah, and gets involved with Carole. They fall for each other and blah, blah, blah, together they bring down the nefarious operation.

No great shakes as Cinema, but interesting and fun in several respects. The fading movie star Carole is portrayed by Kay Francis, here in her last film. She was also co-producer of the movie. Caldwell is played by Paul Cavanagh, a B-movie sophisticate regular. Veda Ann Borg is marvelous as the nasty, cynical Nola. Tyler is the instantly recognizable Robert Shayne aka Inspector Henderson in Superman. And to carry through on that theme, John Hamilton (uncredited) aka Perry White, has one line as a Judge.

This was Phil Karlson's eleventh feature as director. That would be his eleventh film in two years -- all at Monogram. I kept wondering if the snappy pace of this movie was primarily a function of personal style or of the budget and shooting schedule. He certainly maintained, and used to his advantage, that pace and tone in his great films noir to come. Here, it seemed that a screenplay was written, then every transition and extraneous line and set-up was eliminated. It becomes almost surreal. And that's not a bad thing.

[JackFavell]

Glad to hear Veda Ann Borg got a good review, ChiO, she's a great favorite of mine as a supporting actress. I just wish your tastes didn't run to the quite so obscure, so I could actually see some of these films.

[ChiO]

Here's a clip from WIFE WANTED (from early in the movie). Couldn't find anything from NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP.

WIFE WANTED is available from Warner Archives.

[youtube][/youtube]

[JackFavell]

I look up pretty much every movie you review on Netflix and Youtube...but most of them lately haven't been available. And a clip just makes me hungrier to see it!

[ChiO]

Night. Payroll heist. High-speed chase on rain slick streets. Shoot out. One gang member killed. One shot in shoulder. He and the surviving gang members escape. Newspaper blows down the street.

The company's insurer picks its ace investigator (Gene Raymond) and he is...ASSIGNED TO DANGER (Budd Boetticher 1948).

The dead man is traced to a gang leader (Robert Bice), recently released from prison. His gal (Noreen Nash) is known to have recently purchased an isolated lodge in near a small secluded spa town. Our investigator, undercover of course, finds her and secures lodging even though she tries to shoo him away. The gang is there. She's not just a gal, she's the leader's wife! And sister of the dead gang member! The leader wants to eliminate our investigator, but, thinking he's a doctor, the gang decides that he can patch up the leader. And if he botches it, then he too will be a dead man. Over it all is the hulking presence of her mute caretaker (Gene Evans) - formally, the lodge's caretaker, but informally a protective presence because he's taken a shine to her. So has our investigator, and she with him. "Why did you wait for him while he was in prison?" "Because...he's my husband."

The gang decides it's time to move. Our investigator says that in his medical opinion they should wait. They do, but only until morning. During the night, the leader expires - the hulking presence decided the leader wasn't good for his wife and suffocates him - so our investigator and his love decide to make their escape. The attempt is discovered! While searching the woods for them, the hulking presence grabs a gun and draws the gang's attention and their fire. Dead hulking presence. But our investigator gets the gun, captures the gang, and he and now-his-gal drive them to the local police station.

And love is in the air.

This was Boetticher's first movie after his military service. He'd received directing credit for three movies before this, all at Columbia. This one, however, was for Eagle-Lion, which had arisen out of, in part, PRC and is my favorite film noir studio even though it only lasted for three years (1947-49). In 1948 alone it released CANON CITY (Crane Wilbur), THE AMAZING DR. X (Bernard Vorhaus), RAW DEAL (Anthony Mann), HE WALKED BY NIGHT (Alfred Werker/Anthony Mann), HOLLOW TRIUMPH (Steve Sekely/Paul Henreid) and BEHIND LOCKED DOORS (Budd Boetticher). All but the last were shot by John Alton.

Like Anthony Mann, Boetticher's Westerns are certainly informed by a general film noir sensibility and his Poverty Row roots. And, as in his Westerns to come, the protagonist is a lone duty-bound man and, by gum, he's going to perform that duty whatever the odds.

That blowing newspaper in the film's opening - shades of a tumbleweed.

The first 9.5 minutes of the movie, which is only 66 minutes (no dialogue
until about 2.5 minutes into it - that's screenwriting!).
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