I Wake Up Screaming

[ken123]

Is one of my favorite film noir, with a great performance by Laird Cregar as " Ed Cornell ", a very zealous cop. I would like to hear comments, either pro or con.

[pktrekgirl]

I love this film, and it is one of my favorite noirs as well.

I loved Betty Grable and Victor Mature and thought they both did a swell job. I'd not seen much of the work of either of them (I don't get FMC and they both did a fair amount of work for FOX), but this film got me interested in both of them, and I've been more active about looking for their films since.

This one is definitely toward the top of my list.

[Dewey1960]

I really love this film too. Interesting to note that Laird Cregar's character, the jealous and zealous cop Ed Cornell was named after...that's right, Cornell Woolrich. The orginal story's author, Steve Fisher was a well-known pulp mystery writer at the time, thus a literary contemporary of Woolrich's. The naming of the cop was absolutely intentional (although who knows how friendly that intention was, given Woolrich's rather unusual sexual obsessions). I also think it's interesting how quickly Betty Grable's character recovers emotionally from the shock of her sister (Carole Landis) being murdered. All in all a great noir classic, coming at the very beginning of the cycle.

[Moraldo Rubini]

It's a swell noir movie. Great casting; and I believe the only time I've seen Laird Cregar. He's wonderfully creepy. I'm hankering to see Hangover Square.

It's funny to hear "Over the Rainbow" popping up on the soundtrack throughout the picture. Love the gratuitous bathing suit scene that seemed designed as much for Victor Mature as for Betty Grable.

Wanted to mention that the DVD of I Wake Up Screaming features a very entertaining and informative audio commentary by noirist Eddie Muller. It's on my Top 10 List of commentaries.

Enjoy!


How does Carole Landis keep her hat on in a convertible?

[Fossy]

A magnificent performance by Laird Cregar. One might even say he "outborrised" Boris Karloff.

Just eight years later Carole was involved in her own Noir. Although accusations of murder were made at the time, the official verdict was suicide.

[RedRiver]

I watched this cute little B feature a second time. While the light, off-handed way in which it's presented prevents comparison with the great, "serious" crime stories, it's that very straight-forwardness that appeals to me. It's a small, unpretentious mystery, not terribly creative, but not claiming to be. Kind of like DEADLINE AT DAWN.

The story moves well. The characters go through their paces with charm and energy. The settings are so small and enclosed, there's no way your focus can be disturbed. You see only what the director wants you to notice. It's efficient, if not inspired, filmmaking.

Like other posters, I find the light, giddy music a little distracting. It's almost constant. The bathing suit scene is gratuitous. But that's OK. Some movies show people walking down the street, driving by the ocean, admiring a sunset. May as well have Betty Grable in a swim suit!

If my comments have a negative tone, it's only because of some limitations This is a good movie. OUT OF THE PAST is a great movie. There's a difference.

[JackFavell]

Gratuitous bathing suit scene with Victor Mature? I'm there.


If you are comparing it to Deadline at Dawn, that counts as a good review for me. I loved DAD. It was quirky and unpretentious.

[RedRiver]

Victor REALLY Mature!

[Maricatrin]

I wouldn't class it as one of my favorites, but I liked it fine. Betty Grable and Victor Mature are likeable leads, but Laird Cregar was almost too creepy for me.

I do wonder as to why they chose that particular title ... it could have applied to the part where Mature wakes up and finds Cregar in his bedroom, only Victor doesn't scream. (If it had happened to me, they would have heard me four blocks away.)

[RedRiver]

I wonder about that too. Was there a line somewhere?

[moira finnie]

I do wonder as to why they chose that particular title ... it could have applied to the part where Mature wakes up and finds Cregar in his bedroom, only Victor doesn't scream. (If it had happened to me, they would have heard me four blocks away.)

I wonder about that too. Was there a line somewhere?

I think the lurid title came from Steve Fisher's 1941 novel of the same name, and reflects the pulp origins of the author, who wrote for Black Mask, Dime Detective, Sure-Fire Detective Magazine, and other pulps of the period, often using different names. The authors and the editors of these magazines and the publishing houses that cranked out doom-laden paperbacks knew that assigning some catchy, bloodcurdling title to their stories helped boost sales and readership. Other Fisher stories include some doozies bearing names such as "Satan's Angel", "No Gentleman Strangles His Wife" (I like that one!), "Hell’s Scoop" and "The Sheltering Night", but he really hit pay-dirt with the attention-grabbing "I Wake Up Screaming". Fisher had become a Hollywood screenwriter by the time he wrote this book, (he reportedly assisted Dwight Taylor in writing the screenplay) though the original was set in LA, not New York City, centering around a bet among a bunch of cynics with studio connections who decide to do Pygmalion, Tinsel-Town style.

I think that the "I Wake Up Screaming" phrase may come from the nightmares that one sister has about her sibling's demise. In the story the girls are watched and visited surreptitiously by some of the men in their thrall, sometimes unbeknownst to the girl and there is a scene when the surviving sister is awakened suddenly. I don't remember any direct reference to the title in the dialogue of the movie either. The older, more stable sister (played quite nimbly by Betty Grable in a nice bit of casting in the movie), is not known to the men who have bet on making the murdered girl more than a starlet in the book either.

There is definitely something creepy but haunting about the Laird Cregar character. His performance, the glorious black and white cinematography of Edward Cronjager, the music by Cyril Mockridge (using themes from 20th Century Fox's Alfred Newman, as well as the evocative "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), and the real creepiness of Betty Grable and Carole Landis' interchangable looks all added to the movie's impact for me. I have always felt that Cregar gave his deranged detective a poignant madness, full of longing and confused if moralistic and ultimately violent tendencies. His menacing quality, thanks to his bulk and his sensitive face, as well as dialogue such as "I'll follow you into your grave! I'll carve my name on your tombstone!" when threatening to pin the rap on Victor Mature, really made this movie hard to shake off after watching it for the first time. Wasn't it the breakthrough role for Laird Cregar, after he came to the attention of Hollywood studios when he gave tour de force performances as Oscar Wilde on stage in Los Angeles? Btw, the Cregar character was named Ed Cornell in the story, reportedly as a kind of inside joke referring to über-noir writer (and a professional acquaintance of Fisher) Cornell Woolrich, whose borrowed style helped to give Fisher's tale its darkly brooding but somewhat twisted romantic air. (I've read a couple of Fisher's other stories and they are not quite as powerful). Btw, the original setting in Hollywood was changed to New York in large part because 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck had banned "inside Hollywood" tales at the time. I wonder if this ban was in response to such fluff as Star Dust (1940), which helped launch Linda Darnell's career?

[RedRiver]

Thanks, Dewey. I mean Moira! I love titles like this. The more sensational, the better. The book may not be good. But the title and the cover art will get you every time!

[Maricatrin]

I think that the "I Wake Up Screaming" phrase may come from the nightmares that one sister has about her sibling's demise. In the story the girls are watched and visited surreptitiously by some of the men in their thrall, sometimes unbeknownst to the girl and there is a scene when the surviving sister is awakened suddenly.

Good detective work; the mystery sounds about solved.

A scene I found darkly amusing was when Betty is saying to the police that if they want to look for likely suspects they should locate a creepy, mysterious stranger who was stalking her sister. And then, lo and behold, the very same creep walks in as the police station's "head man!" A pretty bad moment...

[Rita Hayworth]

Maybe, I should check this film out ... interesting reading materials from all Silver Screen Oasis members that contributed to it.

[moira finnie]

Maybe, I should check this film out ... interesting reading materials from all Silver Screen Oasis members that contributed to it.

Here it is, King (beware of the loud beginning...it's hard on the ear drums but quiets down soon). This film is also on DVD and shows up once in awhile on the Fox Movie Channel.

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