The Long Wait is a 1954 Mickey Spillane adaptation but it’s not a Mike Hammer film. Between 1947 and 1952 Spillane wrote half a dozen Mike Hammer books which sold in immense quantities. Spillane went on to be one of the biggest selling novelists in history.
And in 1951 he wrote the noir novel The Long Wait. I haven’t read the novel but apparently several structural changes were needed to make it work as a movie.
The movie opens with a guy getting smashed up when a car plummets down a hillside and bursts into flames. We will later find out that the guy, played by Anthony Quinn, is Johnny McBride. McBride ends up with severe burns to his hands and total amnesia.
He tries to make a new life for himself but he can’t settle down. He’s quick-tempered and brooding. Then he comes across a clue that suggests that he hails from a town named Lyncastle. He heads for Lyncastle in hopes of rediscovering his identity and his past.
This turns out to be a big mistake. Johnny didn’t know he was wanted for murder. He also didn’t know that a big-time racketeer named Servo wanted him dead.
He knows he has to find Vera. He doesn’t remember her but he does know that she was his girl in his old life.
He soon finds himself with way too many blondes in his life (of course some would say you can’t have too many dangerous blondes in your life). Any one of these blondes could be Vera. He doesn’t remember what Vera looked like.
All the blondes seem to like Johnny a lot. Blondes just seem to find him very attractive. Dames in general seem to find him very attractive. Of course Johnny is played by Anthony Quinn, an actor with plenty of charisma and animal magnetism, so we don’t find this too difficult to believe.
Johnny finds out a few things about that murder. He doesn’t know for sure whether he committed the murder or not but he’s starting to have a sneaking suspicion he may have been framed. Lyncastle isn’t quite the idyllic place it seems to be on the surface. Racketeer Servo owns almost the whole town. There’s endemic corruption.
People start shooting at Johnny, which naturally leads him to believe he’s on to something.
The plot is very contrived indeed. I don’t mind that too much. To me film noir is a bit like melodrama. It doesn’t deal with reality, but with a kind of heightened or exaggerated reality. In the world of film noir once fate decides to destroy a man there’s no escape and if some coincidences are needed to bring that about they can be accepted. The plot is contrived but it does come together at the end.
There’s enough in this movie to qualify it as a true film noir. An ambiguous protagonist caught in a web. A whole raft of femmes fatales. An atmosphere of existentialist angst. Corruption. And lots of sexual tension.
And visual style. There are some absolutely superb visual moments in this film, especially in the latter stages. There are some wonderful combinations of inventive staging and noirish lighting (by cinematographer Franz Planer). There are also nicely staged action sequences. The late scene in the abandoned power station is one of the best visual set-pieces in all of film noir. It really is magnificent.
Anthony Quinn has the necessary star quality and the right tough guy vibe. Peggie Castle is truly excellent as Venus, the most glamorous of the blondes. There’s an excellent supporting cast.
Victor Saville does a very very fine job as director. This is a supremely well-crafted movie.
For my money The Long Wait is the best film adaptation of a Mickey Spillane novel. Gripping, tightly plotted with some decent suspense, terrific atmosphere and lots of noirness. Very highly recommended.
The Classic Flix Blu-Ray release looks lovely. You get the movie on 4K as well - I have no interest in 4K so I’ll be using the 4K disc as a drinks coaster. But the Blu-Ray does look great. There’s an excellent audio commentary by Max Allan Collins.
Classic Movie Ramblings
Movies from the silent era up to the 1960s
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Friday, November 29, 2024
Vice Squad (1953)
Vice Squad (AKA The Girl in Room 17) is a 1953 crime film. It’s included in one of Kino Lorber’s film noir boxed sets so you know there’s very little chance it will be a film noir. It isn’t. It’s a straightforward police procedural.
You might assume that this is a B-movie but the 88-minutes running time is a clear indication that that is not technically the case although it’s clearly a rather low-budget production. It’s a United Artists release.
Captain ‘Barnie' Barnaby (Edward G. Robinson) is chief of detectives. His day begins with a cop getting shot when a car is stolen, but circumstances suggest there might be more to it. There’s a witness but he’s smart enough not to talk to cops without having his lawyer present.
Barnie receives some information about a planned bank robbery. He stakes out the bank.
Meanwhile he works on that reluctant witness. Barnie uses the standard police methods, denying the witness his legal rights, detaining him illegally, harassing him and framing him for crimes he did not commit. It’s all in a day’s work for this cop.
Barnie also thinks he might get some information from Mona Ross (Paulette Goddard). Mona runs an escort service. It seems to be semi-legal, with the girls being no officially call girls. She still gets regular harassment from the cops. The arrangement seems to be that she’s allowed to stay in business as long as she acts as a snitch for the cops.
Barnie’s stakeout goes badly wrong, putting members of the public in danger. Two of the gang members make their getaway with a girl as hostage.
My problem with this movie is that we’re supposed to accept Barnie as a noble cop hero but he tramples all over citizens’ legal rights, intimidates a witness into giving phoney evidence and abuses his powers in every way imaginable. Almost everything he does is unethical, illegal, immoral and unconstitutional. We’re supposed to think this is OK, that it’s perfectly acceptable for cops to be above the law.
Of course viewers today may be tempted to see this as a deliberate attempt at moral ambiguity, with the cops breaking the law just as much as the crooks. You do have to be careful not to read things into old movies, things that may never have been intended. On the other hand you also have to be careful not to assume that movie-makers of the past were incapable of making movies that worked on more than one level, or that dealt with moral murkiness.
I think it’s reasonable to assume that screenwriter Lawrence Roman (and the author of the original novel Leslie T. White) did have some awareness that the cop hero here is in danger of becoming morally compromised.
This gives the movie perhaps a very slight noir flavouring.
Edward G. Robinson didn’t want this part but he needed the money. At times he’s good, at other times he seems to be just phoning it in.
Paulette Godard is the standout performer here, showing some enthusiasm and flair.
The supporting players are all quite competent. Lee van Cleef makes an appearance in a minor supporting role.
There’s a reason you’ve never heard of director Arnold Laven. He spent most of his career in television. He does a fairly sound job here. Cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc manages some noirish atmosphere.
So Vice Squad is a flawed but interesting police procedural. Recommended.
Kino Lorber have provided a very nice Blu-Ray transfer. Gary Gerani’s audio commentary is a worthwhile extra.
You might assume that this is a B-movie but the 88-minutes running time is a clear indication that that is not technically the case although it’s clearly a rather low-budget production. It’s a United Artists release.
Captain ‘Barnie' Barnaby (Edward G. Robinson) is chief of detectives. His day begins with a cop getting shot when a car is stolen, but circumstances suggest there might be more to it. There’s a witness but he’s smart enough not to talk to cops without having his lawyer present.
Barnie receives some information about a planned bank robbery. He stakes out the bank.
Meanwhile he works on that reluctant witness. Barnie uses the standard police methods, denying the witness his legal rights, detaining him illegally, harassing him and framing him for crimes he did not commit. It’s all in a day’s work for this cop.
Barnie also thinks he might get some information from Mona Ross (Paulette Goddard). Mona runs an escort service. It seems to be semi-legal, with the girls being no officially call girls. She still gets regular harassment from the cops. The arrangement seems to be that she’s allowed to stay in business as long as she acts as a snitch for the cops.
Barnie’s stakeout goes badly wrong, putting members of the public in danger. Two of the gang members make their getaway with a girl as hostage.
My problem with this movie is that we’re supposed to accept Barnie as a noble cop hero but he tramples all over citizens’ legal rights, intimidates a witness into giving phoney evidence and abuses his powers in every way imaginable. Almost everything he does is unethical, illegal, immoral and unconstitutional. We’re supposed to think this is OK, that it’s perfectly acceptable for cops to be above the law.
Of course viewers today may be tempted to see this as a deliberate attempt at moral ambiguity, with the cops breaking the law just as much as the crooks. You do have to be careful not to read things into old movies, things that may never have been intended. On the other hand you also have to be careful not to assume that movie-makers of the past were incapable of making movies that worked on more than one level, or that dealt with moral murkiness.
I think it’s reasonable to assume that screenwriter Lawrence Roman (and the author of the original novel Leslie T. White) did have some awareness that the cop hero here is in danger of becoming morally compromised.
This gives the movie perhaps a very slight noir flavouring.
Edward G. Robinson didn’t want this part but he needed the money. At times he’s good, at other times he seems to be just phoning it in.
Paulette Godard is the standout performer here, showing some enthusiasm and flair.
The supporting players are all quite competent. Lee van Cleef makes an appearance in a minor supporting role.
There’s a reason you’ve never heard of director Arnold Laven. He spent most of his career in television. He does a fairly sound job here. Cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc manages some noirish atmosphere.
So Vice Squad is a flawed but interesting police procedural. Recommended.
Kino Lorber have provided a very nice Blu-Ray transfer. Gary Gerani’s audio commentary is a worthwhile extra.
Labels:
1950s,
crime movies,
film noir,
police procedurals
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Blonde for a Day (1946)
Blonde for a Day is a 1946 private eye thriller featuring Mike Shayne.
The Mike Shayne Private eye thrillers of Brett Halliday (a pseudonym used by Davis Dresser) began publication in 1939 and were successful enough to attract the attention of Hollywood. 20th Century-Fox made seven Mike Shayne B-movies between 1940 and 1942, all with Lloyd Nolan as Shayne. PRC then made five more films in 1946 and 1947 with Hugh Beaumont taking over the lead role.
The 20th Century-Fox and PRC films are best regarded as two distinct franchises with rather different flavours. The Fox movies tend to be lighthearted semi-comic crime films. The PRC movies have a slightly tougher grittier feel. For my money Lloyd Nolan’s interpretation of the role is a bit too whimsical. Hugh Beaumont takes a more no-nonsense approach to the role which I much prefer.
Blonde for a Day is number three in the PRC series. Crusading reporter Tim Rourke (Paul Bryar) has been publishing hard-hitting exposés on a crime syndicate. His editor, Walter Bronson (Frank Ferguson) fears he’s going too far. Tim figures he’ll soon be out of a job. And gambling boss Hank Brenner (Mauritz Hugo) might be tempted to try to shut him up for good. Tim sends a wire to his old buddy, San Francisco PI Mike Shayne, asking for some help.
Somebody does go gunning for Tim Rourke.
Mike finds evidence in Tim’s apartment that he was visited by two blondes on the day of the shooting. One of the blondes might possibly have been Bronson’s wife. She’s been carrying a torch for Tim for a while.
So there are two possible motives for the shooting, the gambling exposés and the fact that Tim has been a bit too friendly with the boss’s wife. We will later find out that there’s a blackmail angle as well.
There have been other murders, and a blonde is suspected.
There’s a plethora of blondes in this movie. Blondes always mean trouble.
One of those blondes turns up dead.
Hugh Beaumont can trade wise-cracks effectively and he makes Shayne seem like just enough of a tough guy to be a convincing PI. Kathryn Adams, who was married to High Beaumont at the time, is good as Shayne’s feisty likeable secretary/girlfriend Phyllis (and she gets a chance to show that she can throw a pretty good punch). Cy Kendall is solid as the perpetually grumbling Detective Lieutenant Pete Rafferty.
The supporting players are all perfectly adequate.
Compared to major studio B-pictures PRC’s productions were very low budget but that works to the advantage of these PRC Mike Shayne films. They lack glamour but they have a slightly seedy feel and after all the world of the private eye is pretty seedy.
Don’t expect a spectacular action finale. Not on a PRC budget.
This is a solid unassuming B-movie that moves along nicely and it delivers entertainment value. Recommended.
I’ve reviewed the first two PRC Mike Shayne movies, Murder Is My Business (1946) and Larceny in Her Heart (1946). I’ve also reviewed some of the Fox Shayne movies, including the best of them, Blue, White and Perfect (1942) and Sleepers West (1941) which is not too bad.
The Mike Shayne Private eye thrillers of Brett Halliday (a pseudonym used by Davis Dresser) began publication in 1939 and were successful enough to attract the attention of Hollywood. 20th Century-Fox made seven Mike Shayne B-movies between 1940 and 1942, all with Lloyd Nolan as Shayne. PRC then made five more films in 1946 and 1947 with Hugh Beaumont taking over the lead role.
The 20th Century-Fox and PRC films are best regarded as two distinct franchises with rather different flavours. The Fox movies tend to be lighthearted semi-comic crime films. The PRC movies have a slightly tougher grittier feel. For my money Lloyd Nolan’s interpretation of the role is a bit too whimsical. Hugh Beaumont takes a more no-nonsense approach to the role which I much prefer.
Blonde for a Day is number three in the PRC series. Crusading reporter Tim Rourke (Paul Bryar) has been publishing hard-hitting exposés on a crime syndicate. His editor, Walter Bronson (Frank Ferguson) fears he’s going too far. Tim figures he’ll soon be out of a job. And gambling boss Hank Brenner (Mauritz Hugo) might be tempted to try to shut him up for good. Tim sends a wire to his old buddy, San Francisco PI Mike Shayne, asking for some help.
Somebody does go gunning for Tim Rourke.
Mike finds evidence in Tim’s apartment that he was visited by two blondes on the day of the shooting. One of the blondes might possibly have been Bronson’s wife. She’s been carrying a torch for Tim for a while.
So there are two possible motives for the shooting, the gambling exposés and the fact that Tim has been a bit too friendly with the boss’s wife. We will later find out that there’s a blackmail angle as well.
There have been other murders, and a blonde is suspected.
There’s a plethora of blondes in this movie. Blondes always mean trouble.
One of those blondes turns up dead.
Hugh Beaumont can trade wise-cracks effectively and he makes Shayne seem like just enough of a tough guy to be a convincing PI. Kathryn Adams, who was married to High Beaumont at the time, is good as Shayne’s feisty likeable secretary/girlfriend Phyllis (and she gets a chance to show that she can throw a pretty good punch). Cy Kendall is solid as the perpetually grumbling Detective Lieutenant Pete Rafferty.
The supporting players are all perfectly adequate.
Compared to major studio B-pictures PRC’s productions were very low budget but that works to the advantage of these PRC Mike Shayne films. They lack glamour but they have a slightly seedy feel and after all the world of the private eye is pretty seedy.
Don’t expect a spectacular action finale. Not on a PRC budget.
This is a solid unassuming B-movie that moves along nicely and it delivers entertainment value. Recommended.
I’ve reviewed the first two PRC Mike Shayne movies, Murder Is My Business (1946) and Larceny in Her Heart (1946). I’ve also reviewed some of the Fox Shayne movies, including the best of them, Blue, White and Perfect (1942) and Sleepers West (1941) which is not too bad.
Labels:
1940s,
B-movies,
crime movies,
private eye movies
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Nightmare (1956)
Nightmare is a 1956 film noir written and directed by Maxwell Shane. It is based on a Cornell Woolrich novella and it’s very difficult to make a bad movie when you have a Woolrich story as your source material.
What’s interesting is that Shane’s first feature film, Fear in the Night (1946), was based on the same Cornell Woolrich novella. A decade after that film Shane decided that he could do a much better job with the material and Nightmare is certainly more ambitious and more accomplished. Nightmare would be Shane’s final feature film so his directing career began and ended with the same story.
For his 1956 remake Shane switched the scene of the action to New Orleans which was a rather good move. For some reason New Orleans had been under-used as a noir location but it’s the perfect setting for a movie with a slightly spooky mysterious vibe.
It also offered the opportunity to give the movie a more jazz-fuelled feel.
Stan Grayson (Kevin McCarthy) is a jazz musician and he’s just had a terrible nightmare about killing a man in a strange mirrored room. In the struggle (in the nightmare) Stan rips off one of the buttons of his victim’s coat. What worries Stan is that when he wakes up he is clutching that button. He also has a key which he has never seen before. Could Stan be a murderer? But why would he have killed a man he has never seen before?
Stan decides to ask his brother-in-law Rene Bressard (Edward G. Robinson) for advice. Rene is a Homicide cop. Rene assures Stan that he’s just suffering from overwork. Then Rene, his wife Sue, Stan and Stan’s singer girlfriend Gina (Connie Russell) go on a picnic. Trying to avoid a downpour they are led by Stan to an empty house. Stan has never been to this house but he knows how to get there and he knows where the spare key is hidden. There’s a mirrored room in the house - the room from Stan’s dream. And that mysterious key fits the locks in that room.
Rene now figures that Stan really is a murderer and Stan figures the same thing. But there are major plot twists to come.
Stan of course has considered the possibility that he has gone crazy. There are other possibilities. The nightmare was obviously very significant.
Changes were made to the plot for the 1956 remake and both film versions differ in some ways from Woolrich’s story.
One thing that should be noted is that the poster for the movie (reproduced on the Blu-Ray cover) gives away the entire plot of the movie. I’m not going to do that but if you’re concerned about spoilers just don’t look at that disc cover!
Kevin McCarthy is excellent as the confused and worried Stan, a nice guy whose whole world is suddenly falling apart. Edward G. Robinson gives one of his kindly wise older man performances, mixed with one of his aggressive tough guy performances.
The actresses are fine but the focus here is very much on Rene and Stan and McCarthy and Robinson are both so good that the female stars inevitably get overshadowed.
This is a visually rather impressive movie. The New Orleans locations are used well. The camerawork combines with the music to give that crazy disturbing jazzy feel that the story requires. There’s a nice use of mirrors. Not just the mirrored room, but there’s another very cool mirror shot early which doesn’t advance the plot but just adds subtly to our sense of unease.
There’s a lot of Freudian stuff. It’s half-baked Freudianism, but Freud’s Freudianism was half-baked as well so it doesn’t matter. Freudian nonsense always adds some fun.
You might think I’m being persnickety about that poster but I do think it weakens the movie. The movie works better if you don’t know the answer to a couple of the key questions which cause Rene and Stan so much anguish and bewilderment, and the poster makes those answers much too obvious. Perhaps Shane really did want us to know the answers, but the way he structures the movie suggests to me that that was not the case.
Is this film noir? I would say no, but it’s definitely noirish. Always bear in mind that the movie was made in 1956 when no-one had heard of film noir, so it was never intended as a film noir and there’s no sense complaining that some of what are now seen as essential noir ingredients are missing. This is an entertaining psychological crime thriller and it’s recommended.
Kino Lorber have provided a very nice Blu-Ray transfer.
What’s interesting is that Shane’s first feature film, Fear in the Night (1946), was based on the same Cornell Woolrich novella. A decade after that film Shane decided that he could do a much better job with the material and Nightmare is certainly more ambitious and more accomplished. Nightmare would be Shane’s final feature film so his directing career began and ended with the same story.
For his 1956 remake Shane switched the scene of the action to New Orleans which was a rather good move. For some reason New Orleans had been under-used as a noir location but it’s the perfect setting for a movie with a slightly spooky mysterious vibe.
It also offered the opportunity to give the movie a more jazz-fuelled feel.
Stan Grayson (Kevin McCarthy) is a jazz musician and he’s just had a terrible nightmare about killing a man in a strange mirrored room. In the struggle (in the nightmare) Stan rips off one of the buttons of his victim’s coat. What worries Stan is that when he wakes up he is clutching that button. He also has a key which he has never seen before. Could Stan be a murderer? But why would he have killed a man he has never seen before?
Stan decides to ask his brother-in-law Rene Bressard (Edward G. Robinson) for advice. Rene is a Homicide cop. Rene assures Stan that he’s just suffering from overwork. Then Rene, his wife Sue, Stan and Stan’s singer girlfriend Gina (Connie Russell) go on a picnic. Trying to avoid a downpour they are led by Stan to an empty house. Stan has never been to this house but he knows how to get there and he knows where the spare key is hidden. There’s a mirrored room in the house - the room from Stan’s dream. And that mysterious key fits the locks in that room.
Rene now figures that Stan really is a murderer and Stan figures the same thing. But there are major plot twists to come.
Stan of course has considered the possibility that he has gone crazy. There are other possibilities. The nightmare was obviously very significant.
Changes were made to the plot for the 1956 remake and both film versions differ in some ways from Woolrich’s story.
One thing that should be noted is that the poster for the movie (reproduced on the Blu-Ray cover) gives away the entire plot of the movie. I’m not going to do that but if you’re concerned about spoilers just don’t look at that disc cover!
Kevin McCarthy is excellent as the confused and worried Stan, a nice guy whose whole world is suddenly falling apart. Edward G. Robinson gives one of his kindly wise older man performances, mixed with one of his aggressive tough guy performances.
The actresses are fine but the focus here is very much on Rene and Stan and McCarthy and Robinson are both so good that the female stars inevitably get overshadowed.
This is a visually rather impressive movie. The New Orleans locations are used well. The camerawork combines with the music to give that crazy disturbing jazzy feel that the story requires. There’s a nice use of mirrors. Not just the mirrored room, but there’s another very cool mirror shot early which doesn’t advance the plot but just adds subtly to our sense of unease.
There’s a lot of Freudian stuff. It’s half-baked Freudianism, but Freud’s Freudianism was half-baked as well so it doesn’t matter. Freudian nonsense always adds some fun.
You might think I’m being persnickety about that poster but I do think it weakens the movie. The movie works better if you don’t know the answer to a couple of the key questions which cause Rene and Stan so much anguish and bewilderment, and the poster makes those answers much too obvious. Perhaps Shane really did want us to know the answers, but the way he structures the movie suggests to me that that was not the case.
Is this film noir? I would say no, but it’s definitely noirish. Always bear in mind that the movie was made in 1956 when no-one had heard of film noir, so it was never intended as a film noir and there’s no sense complaining that some of what are now seen as essential noir ingredients are missing. This is an entertaining psychological crime thriller and it’s recommended.
Kino Lorber have provided a very nice Blu-Ray transfer.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Dick Tracy Returns (1938 serial)
Dick Tracy Returns was the second of Republic’s Dick Tracy serials. It came out in 1938. This time it’s directed by William Witney and John English and nobody did serials better than those two. It also means that the cliffhangers will be above average.
Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy comic strip began its run in 1931. It’s still running today.
In this serial Dick Tracy has become an F.B.I. agent.
Dick’s latest case puts him up against Pa Stark and his five sons (obviously a reference to Ma Barker and her notorious boys).
And Pa Stark is played by Charles Middleton, Ming the Merciless himself. He is always a joy to watch. In this serial he’s not a wildly colourful villain but he is ruthless and menacing.
Ralph Byrd plays Dick Tracy and it’s fair to say that he was the definitive screen Dick Tracy. He makes Tracy a square-jawed hero but not too much of an an exaggerated comic-book hero. He resists the temptation to go over-the-top. His Tracy is a remorseless but quietly efficient crime-fighter.
Pa Stark dabbles in various kinds of criminality, from a relatively straightforward armoured car robbery to extortion and even espionage. His plans are elaborate but his boys don’t always execute those plans successfully.
A major problem that arises for Pa Stark early on is that his youngest son “Kid” Stark falls into the hands of the police and is facing a murder rap.
That murder rap is a personal matter for Dick Tracy. The murdered G-Man was one of his protégés.
Pa’s solution is to eliminate the witnesses, but that solution just seems to create more witnesses to more crimes. Dick Tracy becomes a witness but eliminating him is going to prove to be quite a challenge.
The science fictional elements of the first Dick Tracy serial have been dropped but there is still plenty of technology.
The Republic serials directed by Witney and English are always fast-moving. Never give the audience time to worry too much about the plots, just make sure that there is always something breathlessly exciting or tense happening. Have lots of things getting blown up. Witney and English always did superior action scenes.
Naturally Pa Stark’s criminal schemes tend to involve cars, aircraft and explosions and some modern technology (just as a new high-powered astronomical telescope), and abandoned mines and all the stuff that makes 1930s/40s serials so much fun.
Dick Tracy Returns is fine entertainment. Highly recommended.
VCI’s released a DVD boxed set containing three Dick Tracy serials. It offers perfectly acceptable image and sound quality and it’s a very good buy.
The first of the Republic Dick Tracy serials, Dick Tracy (1937), was not directed by Witney and English and has a different feel but it’s very enjoyable. I’ve also reviewed the two best Witney-English serials - Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939) and the magnificent Spy Smasher (1942).
Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy comic strip began its run in 1931. It’s still running today.
In this serial Dick Tracy has become an F.B.I. agent.
Dick’s latest case puts him up against Pa Stark and his five sons (obviously a reference to Ma Barker and her notorious boys).
And Pa Stark is played by Charles Middleton, Ming the Merciless himself. He is always a joy to watch. In this serial he’s not a wildly colourful villain but he is ruthless and menacing.
Ralph Byrd plays Dick Tracy and it’s fair to say that he was the definitive screen Dick Tracy. He makes Tracy a square-jawed hero but not too much of an an exaggerated comic-book hero. He resists the temptation to go over-the-top. His Tracy is a remorseless but quietly efficient crime-fighter.
Pa Stark dabbles in various kinds of criminality, from a relatively straightforward armoured car robbery to extortion and even espionage. His plans are elaborate but his boys don’t always execute those plans successfully.
A major problem that arises for Pa Stark early on is that his youngest son “Kid” Stark falls into the hands of the police and is facing a murder rap.
That murder rap is a personal matter for Dick Tracy. The murdered G-Man was one of his protégés.
Pa’s solution is to eliminate the witnesses, but that solution just seems to create more witnesses to more crimes. Dick Tracy becomes a witness but eliminating him is going to prove to be quite a challenge.
The science fictional elements of the first Dick Tracy serial have been dropped but there is still plenty of technology.
Naturally there is some aerial action - aviation was a 1930s obsession so any crime serial worth its salt was going to include aerial adventure. You know there will be narrow escapes from doomed aircraft.
The Republic serials directed by Witney and English are always fast-moving. Never give the audience time to worry too much about the plots, just make sure that there is always something breathlessly exciting or tense happening. Have lots of things getting blown up. Witney and English always did superior action scenes.
Naturally Pa Stark’s criminal schemes tend to involve cars, aircraft and explosions and some modern technology (just as a new high-powered astronomical telescope), and abandoned mines and all the stuff that makes 1930s/40s serials so much fun.
Dick Tracy Returns is fine entertainment. Highly recommended.
VCI’s released a DVD boxed set containing three Dick Tracy serials. It offers perfectly acceptable image and sound quality and it’s a very good buy.
The first of the Republic Dick Tracy serials, Dick Tracy (1937), was not directed by Witney and English and has a different feel but it’s very enjoyable. I’ve also reviewed the two best Witney-English serials - Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939) and the magnificent Spy Smasher (1942).
Saturday, November 16, 2024
The Pleasure Girls (1965)
The Pleasure Girls is a 1965 Gerry O’Hara movie and if you’re familiar with his work you’ll be guessing that these girls are not going to be getting much pleasure. In the world of Gerry O’Hara’s movies looking for pleasure (or fun or emotional fulfilment) just leads to misery so the smart thing to do is to throw yourself under a bus at the first opportunity.
This movie is an interesting antidote to the popular image of Swinging London. Swinging London was great for a tiny minority of people in the worlds of entertainment, art and fashion but for most people it was the same old grind. A desperate struggle against poverty and despair. If you tried to get ahead you’d just get knocked down and as for sex, forget it. That leads inevitably to ruin.
This was an era in which politicians and the media were constantly fretting over the evils of the “permissive society” which was about to engulf Britain in a tidal wave of immorality.
With this movie you have to bear in mind that it reflected the sexual mores of most of society at that time. Unmarried sex was something that pop stars and people on the Continent did. Nice English people didn’t do such things. The very word pleasure was a sign of behaviour of which respectable people disapproved. The Sexual Revolution had not yet filtered down to the masses.
The Pleasure Girls is centred on a group of girls living in a block of flats in London. Sally (Francesca Annis) has just arrived in London from the country, hoping to make a career for herself as a model while guarding her virginity like the Crown Jewels. She meets Keith (Ian McShane), a cheerfully irresponsible sort but basically pretty nice.
Keith would like to sleep with her but she wants him to wait, just for a little while. Just until her career is established and they have enough money to get married. It will probably only be five or six years. Surely if he loves her he won’t mind waiting such a short time.
Sally is a good girl.
Marion (Rosemary Nicols) lives with Prinny (Mark Eden) in the flat below. They’re not married so we figure Marion has some suffering in store for her. Once we get to know Prinny we’re even more sure of that - he’s a loser, a hopeless gambler and a louse. But he’s charming and Marion loves him. We have some doubts as to whether Marion is a good girl.
We have doubts about Dee (Suzanna Leigh) as well. She’s having an affair with a married man, Nikko (Klaus Kinski). She seems nice, but we suspect she might be in line for some suffering as well.
One problem with this movie is that there are too many characters which makes things a bit unfocused. Some of these characters seem like they might be important but they end up playing no significant part in the story. A bit more emphasis on the central characters would have allowed for their personalities to be a bit more fleshed out. The narrative drive is also a little weak.
Nikko is actually the most interesting character. He’s a successful hard-driving businessman whose ethical standards are loose to say the least. We assume he’s being set up as the villain of the piece but as we get to know him we discover that his business ruthlessness doesn’t reflect his true character. He doesn’t mistreat Dee. In fact he’s affectionate and gentle with her and he has a generous side. He’s really quite a nice guy.
Francesca Annis gives a solid performance but it’s a somewhat thankless part. Sally really is rather prim. Anneke Wills is charming (as she would be later in her starring role in the excellent offbeat TV series The Strange Report) in a part that doesn’t really go anywhere.
Rosemary Nicols is the standout performer among the women. In the same year this movie was released she landed the lead role in the excellent and very underrated sci-fi TV series Undermind although she is of course best known as one of the three leads in the wonderful 1969-70 Department S TV series. She manages to give Marion some real substance. At times we despair at the choices she makes but we understand those choices.
Klaus Kinski gives a very restrained performance. Yes, you read that right. Kinski giving a restrained performance. But it’s quite effective. He is able to persuade us that there’s more to Nikko than outward appearances would suggest.
Ian McShane is fine as Keith although there’s not a great deal of depth to the character.
This one is mostly worth watching for the fine performances by Rosemary Nicols and Klaus Kinski. It’s definitely an intriguing time capsule of Swinging London without the glamour. It’s worth a look.
Of the three Gerry O’Hara movies I’ve seen this is the least depressing. It’s not exactly upbeat but the sense of doom isn’t quite so relentless. Worth a look if only as a time capsule.
The BFI have released this movie in one of their Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs. The transfer is very satisfactory.
Other British movies of this era that are interesting for their bleak view of sex are All the Right Noises (1970), That Kind of Girl (1963), Baby Love (1969), Her Private Hell (1968) and Permissive (1970).
This movie is an interesting antidote to the popular image of Swinging London. Swinging London was great for a tiny minority of people in the worlds of entertainment, art and fashion but for most people it was the same old grind. A desperate struggle against poverty and despair. If you tried to get ahead you’d just get knocked down and as for sex, forget it. That leads inevitably to ruin.
This was an era in which politicians and the media were constantly fretting over the evils of the “permissive society” which was about to engulf Britain in a tidal wave of immorality.
With this movie you have to bear in mind that it reflected the sexual mores of most of society at that time. Unmarried sex was something that pop stars and people on the Continent did. Nice English people didn’t do such things. The very word pleasure was a sign of behaviour of which respectable people disapproved. The Sexual Revolution had not yet filtered down to the masses.
The Pleasure Girls is centred on a group of girls living in a block of flats in London. Sally (Francesca Annis) has just arrived in London from the country, hoping to make a career for herself as a model while guarding her virginity like the Crown Jewels. She meets Keith (Ian McShane), a cheerfully irresponsible sort but basically pretty nice.
Keith would like to sleep with her but she wants him to wait, just for a little while. Just until her career is established and they have enough money to get married. It will probably only be five or six years. Surely if he loves her he won’t mind waiting such a short time.
Sally is a good girl.
Marion (Rosemary Nicols) lives with Prinny (Mark Eden) in the flat below. They’re not married so we figure Marion has some suffering in store for her. Once we get to know Prinny we’re even more sure of that - he’s a loser, a hopeless gambler and a louse. But he’s charming and Marion loves him. We have some doubts as to whether Marion is a good girl.
We have doubts about Dee (Suzanna Leigh) as well. She’s having an affair with a married man, Nikko (Klaus Kinski). She seems nice, but we suspect she might be in line for some suffering as well.
One problem with this movie is that there are too many characters which makes things a bit unfocused. Some of these characters seem like they might be important but they end up playing no significant part in the story. A bit more emphasis on the central characters would have allowed for their personalities to be a bit more fleshed out. The narrative drive is also a little weak.
Nikko is actually the most interesting character. He’s a successful hard-driving businessman whose ethical standards are loose to say the least. We assume he’s being set up as the villain of the piece but as we get to know him we discover that his business ruthlessness doesn’t reflect his true character. He doesn’t mistreat Dee. In fact he’s affectionate and gentle with her and he has a generous side. He’s really quite a nice guy.
Francesca Annis gives a solid performance but it’s a somewhat thankless part. Sally really is rather prim. Anneke Wills is charming (as she would be later in her starring role in the excellent offbeat TV series The Strange Report) in a part that doesn’t really go anywhere.
Rosemary Nicols is the standout performer among the women. In the same year this movie was released she landed the lead role in the excellent and very underrated sci-fi TV series Undermind although she is of course best known as one of the three leads in the wonderful 1969-70 Department S TV series. She manages to give Marion some real substance. At times we despair at the choices she makes but we understand those choices.
Klaus Kinski gives a very restrained performance. Yes, you read that right. Kinski giving a restrained performance. But it’s quite effective. He is able to persuade us that there’s more to Nikko than outward appearances would suggest.
Ian McShane is fine as Keith although there’s not a great deal of depth to the character.
This one is mostly worth watching for the fine performances by Rosemary Nicols and Klaus Kinski. It’s definitely an intriguing time capsule of Swinging London without the glamour. It’s worth a look.
Of the three Gerry O’Hara movies I’ve seen this is the least depressing. It’s not exactly upbeat but the sense of doom isn’t quite so relentless. Worth a look if only as a time capsule.
The BFI have released this movie in one of their Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs. The transfer is very satisfactory.
Other British movies of this era that are interesting for their bleak view of sex are All the Right Noises (1970), That Kind of Girl (1963), Baby Love (1969), Her Private Hell (1968) and Permissive (1970).
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Fate is the Hunter (1964)
Fate is the Hunter, released in 1964, is a kind of aviation disaster movie (a favourite genre of mine) and also a kind of mystery. And fate may or may not be a crucial factor.
An airliner crashes a few minutes after taking off from Los Angeles. 53 passengers and crew are killed. Due to a couple of unexpected misfortunes the cause of the crash is not easy to determine. The aircraft’s flight recorder was destroyed. There are audio tapes of messages passed between the doomed airliner and ground control but the messages end at a vital moment, apparently due to a radio failure. The evidence, such as it is, is ambiguous.
The airline’s flight director, Sam McBane (Glenn Ford), believes that the pilot is, quite unfairly, going to be blamed.
There is evidence that one of the aircraft’s two engines exploded. That evidence is strong but not absolute. There is some evidence that the second engine failed as well but the evidence for that is more shaky.
So much of the evidence is not merely ambiguous but puzzling. The second engine was later found to be entirely undamaged but a survivor insists that both cockpit warning lights were on, indicating failure of both engines. That survivor is one of the stewardesses, Martha Webster (Suzanne Pleshette). Martha is a sensible young woman. She is an experienced stewardess and is therefore perfectly well aware of the meaning of the cockpit warning lights. As a stewardess she has been trained to keep her head in a crisis. She did not suffer any head injuries. There is no reason to think that she was likely to be confused or in a panic. Sam is very much inclined to believe her story even though it conflicts with other evidence.
This was 1964, a time when flying was still glamorous and exciting. ln those happy days airliners had no flight attendants. They had stewardesses. The stewardesses were pretty, because having pretty airline stewardesses made flying seem more glamorous. They were well-trained and extremely competent. They just happened to be pretty as well. It is clear that Martha Webster is very good at her job and very professional.
The worrying thing is the suggestion that the pilot, Jack Savage (Rod Taylor), may have been drinking shortly before the flight. Sam does not believe this could have been the case. On the other hand we have to take into account Sam’s fierce loyalty to his pilots, and the fact that he and the pilot were old friends. He had been Jack’s co-pilot during the war. To complicate things, Sam’s attitude towards Jack is a bit ambivalent - a mixture of hero-worship and disapproval. Sam considers Jack to have been an outstanding pilot, but perhaps less outstanding as a man.
This movie was made at a fascinating time in Hollywood history. The Production Code was crumbling rapidly. The studios were tentatively experimenting with a radical new concept - making movies that took a grown-up attitude towards sex. Jack’s sex life becomes an important plot point. He sees to have shared his bed with a succession of attractive young ladies. If a decision is made to cast Jack as the scapegoat the newspapers will certainly suggest that he was a man of dubious sexual morals, and they are likely to suggest that a man with such a deplorable lack of sexual self-restraint might have a similar lack of self-restraint when it comes to booze.
It is possible that Jack will be judged not on his skills as a pilot but on his morals. And it is obvious that the press is gunning for Jack.
Glenn Ford is in fine form as a decent man who might possibly be allowing his personal feelings to interfere with his judgment. Ford could play tortured characters extremely well without resorting to Method acting histrionics. The underrated Rod Taylor is also excellent as another man who might have been wrestling with some inner demons. These are the two performances that matter.
Suzanne Pleshette is very solid, and Nancy Kwan and Constance Towers are very good as two of Jack’s girlfriends. It’s fun to see Jane Russell doing a cameo as herself. It’s also fun that her garters are important pieces of evidence!
There are a lot of flashbacks which give us insights into the personalities of both Jack and Sam.
This is a movie that plays fair with the viewer. A sufficiently alert viewer can certainly solve the mystery before Sam does (I did).
This movie was based on a novel by Ernest K. Gann who also wrote the source novels for two of the best aviation disaster thriller movies ever made, The High and the Mighty (1954) and Island in the Sky (1953).
Fate is the Hunter is both a fine aviation thriller and a decent puzzle movie. Highly recommended.
I have the Spanish Blu-Ray which offers a superb transfer and includes both Spanish and English language versions (the latter with removable Spanish subtitles). I can recommend this Blu-Ray without any reservations.
An airliner crashes a few minutes after taking off from Los Angeles. 53 passengers and crew are killed. Due to a couple of unexpected misfortunes the cause of the crash is not easy to determine. The aircraft’s flight recorder was destroyed. There are audio tapes of messages passed between the doomed airliner and ground control but the messages end at a vital moment, apparently due to a radio failure. The evidence, such as it is, is ambiguous.
The airline’s flight director, Sam McBane (Glenn Ford), believes that the pilot is, quite unfairly, going to be blamed.
There is evidence that one of the aircraft’s two engines exploded. That evidence is strong but not absolute. There is some evidence that the second engine failed as well but the evidence for that is more shaky.
So much of the evidence is not merely ambiguous but puzzling. The second engine was later found to be entirely undamaged but a survivor insists that both cockpit warning lights were on, indicating failure of both engines. That survivor is one of the stewardesses, Martha Webster (Suzanne Pleshette). Martha is a sensible young woman. She is an experienced stewardess and is therefore perfectly well aware of the meaning of the cockpit warning lights. As a stewardess she has been trained to keep her head in a crisis. She did not suffer any head injuries. There is no reason to think that she was likely to be confused or in a panic. Sam is very much inclined to believe her story even though it conflicts with other evidence.
This was 1964, a time when flying was still glamorous and exciting. ln those happy days airliners had no flight attendants. They had stewardesses. The stewardesses were pretty, because having pretty airline stewardesses made flying seem more glamorous. They were well-trained and extremely competent. They just happened to be pretty as well. It is clear that Martha Webster is very good at her job and very professional.
The worrying thing is the suggestion that the pilot, Jack Savage (Rod Taylor), may have been drinking shortly before the flight. Sam does not believe this could have been the case. On the other hand we have to take into account Sam’s fierce loyalty to his pilots, and the fact that he and the pilot were old friends. He had been Jack’s co-pilot during the war. To complicate things, Sam’s attitude towards Jack is a bit ambivalent - a mixture of hero-worship and disapproval. Sam considers Jack to have been an outstanding pilot, but perhaps less outstanding as a man.
This movie was made at a fascinating time in Hollywood history. The Production Code was crumbling rapidly. The studios were tentatively experimenting with a radical new concept - making movies that took a grown-up attitude towards sex. Jack’s sex life becomes an important plot point. He sees to have shared his bed with a succession of attractive young ladies. If a decision is made to cast Jack as the scapegoat the newspapers will certainly suggest that he was a man of dubious sexual morals, and they are likely to suggest that a man with such a deplorable lack of sexual self-restraint might have a similar lack of self-restraint when it comes to booze.
It is possible that Jack will be judged not on his skills as a pilot but on his morals. And it is obvious that the press is gunning for Jack.
Glenn Ford is in fine form as a decent man who might possibly be allowing his personal feelings to interfere with his judgment. Ford could play tortured characters extremely well without resorting to Method acting histrionics. The underrated Rod Taylor is also excellent as another man who might have been wrestling with some inner demons. These are the two performances that matter.
Suzanne Pleshette is very solid, and Nancy Kwan and Constance Towers are very good as two of Jack’s girlfriends. It’s fun to see Jane Russell doing a cameo as herself. It’s also fun that her garters are important pieces of evidence!
There are a lot of flashbacks which give us insights into the personalities of both Jack and Sam.
This is a movie that plays fair with the viewer. A sufficiently alert viewer can certainly solve the mystery before Sam does (I did).
This movie was based on a novel by Ernest K. Gann who also wrote the source novels for two of the best aviation disaster thriller movies ever made, The High and the Mighty (1954) and Island in the Sky (1953).
Fate is the Hunter is both a fine aviation thriller and a decent puzzle movie. Highly recommended.
I have the Spanish Blu-Ray which offers a superb transfer and includes both Spanish and English language versions (the latter with removable Spanish subtitles). I can recommend this Blu-Ray without any reservations.
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