cult film freak: howard duff

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Written by James M. Tate / 2/13/2024 / No comments / action , brian donlevy , bruce bennett , fifties , film noir or melodrama , howard duff , lawrence tierney , peggy dow , thriller

HOWARD DUFF, PEGGY DOW & LAWRENCE TIERNEY IN 'SHAKEDOWN'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx1j_XHBzmAut6yLnWR6h2Yj8ACijHO-sRGSzY0VbmmogpaVlo7LBCm-SJBQK0BwccwQ5YubLuDcozoU0XoPZCnyxIowrgcHLSGqYS1wRMTTEVwF4-r8WcdcA4BK6fWrGDQfAV5PbXZorN61elYKDy0iT561xF6dIhJmu9E74C6bCbg1OkLFlE-EkCt2U2/s1740/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-23%20at%206.16.05%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1740" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx1j_XHBzmAut6yLnWR6h2Yj8ACijHO-sRGSzY0VbmmogpaVlo7LBCm-SJBQK0BwccwQ5YubLuDcozoU0XoPZCnyxIowrgcHLSGqYS1wRMTTEVwF4-r8WcdcA4BK6fWrGDQfAV5PbXZorN61elYKDy0iT561xF6dIhJmu9E74C6bCbg1OkLFlE-EkCt2U2/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-23%20at%206.16.05%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE SHADOW OF THE CAT Year: 1961 Rating: **</td></tr></tbody></table>In the 1930's James Cagney programmer PICTURE SNATCHER, he plays a photographer who will stop at nothing (even taking contrived shortcuts) to get a sensational photo... meanwhile romancing the newspaper boss's secretary and dealing with the mob.... who he used to work for but in the case of a more upfront and seemingly sophisticated Howard Duff in SHAKEDOWN, it's a blackmail photo of deadly criminal Lawrence Tierney that lands him in hot water... Although he did get that gorgeous secretary Peggy Dow with no effort, who basically landed him the job through Bruce Bennett, running the paper and not trusting Duff's Jack Early no matter how exciting the photos are... from a man almost drowning in a car to Brian Donlevy's ex-mobster getting blown up in one...

action, brian donlevy, bruce bennett, fifties, film noir or melodrama, howard duff, lawrence tierney, peggy dow, thriller

HOWARD DUFF, PEGGY DOW & LAWRENCE TIERNEY IN 'SHAKEDOWN'

Title: THE SHADOW OF THE CAT Year: 1961 Rating: ** In the 1930's James Cagney programmer PICTURE SNATCHER, he plays a photographer who w...

BURT LANCASTER IN JULES DASSIN'S PRISON NOIR 'BRUTE FORCE'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRBqJqswGhk0aIR9hsvanxgrcYFAo_1SzFWrFCRr3iMWvZMBURYul4TqPY5Q5VQC6gGcNtr8WD2VLFWV7NiC8cTNVvlY2nZMjuAMtfy38ggt3PfyxdI0_jECJOXDs8PfgvszTSYHUVudFevYFdDfEvBIKgKUxMZd4B8cbwPi9sqjLyv04HX39PDR3zqyA/s2186/111%203%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1322" data-original-width="2186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRBqJqswGhk0aIR9hsvanxgrcYFAo_1SzFWrFCRr3iMWvZMBURYul4TqPY5Q5VQC6gGcNtr8WD2VLFWV7NiC8cTNVvlY2nZMjuAMtfy38ggt3PfyxdI0_jECJOXDs8PfgvszTSYHUVudFevYFdDfEvBIKgKUxMZd4B8cbwPi9sqjLyv04HX39PDR3zqyA/s16000/111%203%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BRUTE FORCE Year: 1947 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Director Jules Dassin basically made his own post-war World War II picture, only set in an American hoosegow with prisoners as proverbial soldiers and an obvious Nazi representation in Hume Cronyn, who, as chief guard eyeing the warden spot, not only runs the place like a sadistic, tyrannical dictator, but mentally and physically tortures inmates while listening to Wagner... Actually, BRUTE FORCE is a fairly effective prison noir/expose, bathed in rich B&W cinematography and splendid matte-painted backdrops, centered on desperate men stuck in a doomed purgatory: yet there are a few exterior flashbacks involving dames that, either sassy or sympathetic, landed these fellas into their current predicament...

anita colby, ann blyth, burt lancaster, film noir or melodrama, howard duff, howland chamberlain, hume cronyn, jack overman, jeff corey, john hoyt, jules dassin, prison, sam levene, yvonne de carlo

BURT LANCASTER IN JULES DASSIN'S PRISON NOIR 'BRUTE FORCE'

BRUTE FORCE Year: 1947 Rating: ***1/2 Director Jules Dassin basically made his own post-war World War II picture, only set in an American ho...

LEX BARKER, MALA POWERS & LEO GORDON 'THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8kag3IvxoGjSCD6PWefbfb766MyLBaZ7fEhSmQAPGwEMFmSBxGYZJ5it9GxujVl92gyBmk_w9T-VF-wt_Z-5L3Rab5noRadFyqFYmMGxbdq3JHZgHBv7BIdbWd6g_i-us2kPoaGNkTfj5HWC8169R3HP8dKdxH4j7yZOFjueunAtltRu4NERsQiSt8mng/s2448/1%202%202.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1460" data-original-width="2448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8kag3IvxoGjSCD6PWefbfb766MyLBaZ7fEhSmQAPGwEMFmSBxGYZJ5it9GxujVl92gyBmk_w9T-VF-wt_Z-5L3Rab5noRadFyqFYmMGxbdq3JHZgHBv7BIdbWd6g_i-us2kPoaGNkTfj5HWC8169R3HP8dKdxH4j7yZOFjueunAtltRu4NERsQiSt8mng/s16000/1%202%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lex Barker & Leo Gordon in THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN Year: 1954 Rating: ****1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Any movie about mining for gold will eventually include double-crossing con artists, and THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN starts right off with honest hero Lex Barker punching his former backstabbing friend in the office of a saloon that's the central location: until they venture into the titular mine with two different names on the claims...There's the shifty fella Barker fought with in charming, unpredictable Howard Duff, with his eyes on the gorgeous daughter of unlucky lifelong gambling miner William Demarest, a kind of passive version of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/11/bogartgold.html">Walter Huston</a>...

action, adventure, denver pyle, fifties, howard duff, john mcintire, leo gordon, lex barker, mala powers, treasure, western, william demarest

LEX BARKER, MALA POWERS & LEO GORDON 'THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN'

Lex Barker & Leo Gordon in THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN Year: 1954 Rating: ****1/2 Any movie about mining for gold will eventually include double...

DON TAYLOR & HOWARD DUFF IN JULES DASSIN'S 'THE NAKED CITY'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOurvQoG2_Y6xuTU5c-k4TO8CRP9o5cSVC7SAK-_APXkcGCY-1X3_9o0UDVTlk9qrvwC6UuRhGEWZb2EQLqjYUN4t5auXNjK4Ujdq_HKi-k-rPIN8gdp7Diqa5yFIXFAPuMV9vwopix1MfpHft1etAoSuE3IViF5iZAFXYtf8cF7vdLNweX4GWgLDsAn3R/s2368/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-15%20at%205.30.40%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1208" data-original-width="2368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOurvQoG2_Y6xuTU5c-k4TO8CRP9o5cSVC7SAK-_APXkcGCY-1X3_9o0UDVTlk9qrvwC6UuRhGEWZb2EQLqjYUN4t5auXNjK4Ujdq_HKi-k-rPIN8gdp7Diqa5yFIXFAPuMV9vwopix1MfpHft1etAoSuE3IViF5iZAFXYtf8cF7vdLNweX4GWgLDsAn3R/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-15%20at%205.30.40%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Year: 1948 Stars: Howard Duff, Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>After producer Mark Hellinger's famous opening narration, introducing the audience to THE NAKED CITY, following authentic shots of New York City exteriors, from buildings to shipyards... interiors from noisy newspaper offices to lonely radio stations... when we eventually catch a quick glimpse of Hollywood actors Howard Duff and Dorothy Hart at a fancy nightclub, there's an awkward contrast to those grainy/gritty shots in a police procedural that resembles a documentary one second and a dressed-up melodrama the next...Centered on two detectives seeking the killer of a beautiful dame drowned in a classy apartment bathtub, they couldn't be more different: the veteran, Barry Fitzgerald, is like a wise old leprechaun while tall/lanky young Don Taylor traipses around town, searching for clues — yet it's stout every-man cop Tom Pedi who compliments the grittier images, like a dockyard silhouette of a formidable criminal, eventually revealed soon enough so NAKED trades mystery for a by-the-numbers investigation...

anne sargent, barry fitzgerald, cop, don taylor, dorothy hart, film noir or melodrama, howard duff, john mcquade, jules dassin, kathleen freeman, ted decorsia, thriller

DON TAYLOR & HOWARD DUFF IN JULES DASSIN'S 'THE NAKED CITY'

Year: 1948 Stars: Howard Duff, Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor Rating: **** After producer Mark Hellinger's famous opening narration, intro...

HOWARD DUFF IGNITES HAMMER'S SCI-FI MYSTERY 'SPACEWAYS'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7OXCzVjxidku9aNRghU587-I0uAe9eTYHY8bwdQ6MVtwFVHlEhcatmY2OLTbz6bd327IcLZSOE15kwsyaVVj6VaCiWGV5pEKHfKgyrZx673PnEywNY-ar1xU5T8h7W0-DlDMmdNA8ClY_UmwS6qKFV4RpWsxC-lfbgM09hoBE1M38UKPCT_sW7HbH6VNS/s1720/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-05%20at%2010.14.44%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1166" data-original-width="1720" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7OXCzVjxidku9aNRghU587-I0uAe9eTYHY8bwdQ6MVtwFVHlEhcatmY2OLTbz6bd327IcLZSOE15kwsyaVVj6VaCiWGV5pEKHfKgyrZx673PnEywNY-ar1xU5T8h7W0-DlDMmdNA8ClY_UmwS6qKFV4RpWsxC-lfbgM09hoBE1M38UKPCT_sW7HbH6VNS/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-05%20at%2010.14.44%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: SPACEWAYS Year: 1953 Rating: **</td></tr></tbody></table>Before their famous Victorian horror flicks, Hammer Films did either film noir crime or science fiction, making SPACEWAYS a cross between both but mostly mystery as two people vanish inside a headquarters along with a rocket that blasted into space to become a satellite... and it's imported American actor Howard Duff, friends and partners with a pretty scientist prettier than the wife who'd gone missing with a womanizing doctor she'd been cheating with...Both stories pan out practically side by side... a shame because the sci-fi rocket aspect... especially during the early 1950's... feels straight from one of those space magazines from that era... having more potential than whoever might've killed two unlikable characters and possibly sent them into outer space on that rocket... a lesson for Hammer to stick with one genre or the other: in five years hitting the bigger leagues with good sci-fi including the QUATERMASS while horror classics DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN weren't far behind.

british, hammer films, howard duff, mystery, science-fiction, terence fisher

HOWARD DUFF IGNITES HAMMER'S SCI-FI MYSTERY 'SPACEWAYS'

Title: SPACEWAYS Year: 1953 Rating: ** Before their famous Victorian horror flicks, Hammer Films did either film noir crime or science ficti...

FRITZ LANG DIRECTING DANA ANDREWS 'WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj05KOdd2289pTyLxt7moyYh-uGbFIRge14RxXraKFvfL9phUmTXRS2LjGzg8nn-pblpfnFCWK83DNVECw16__Mlh7M4oKXNTOpz7maY0jQVuXly6n-Ctja6djxAO1L12vKhD_ygoHiDU9MD9kVCbl_hlLTVgMZFKadjBi0Gpo0CYJ1uLD5V0CIgFZiUw=s1082" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="813" data-original-width="1082" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj05KOdd2289pTyLxt7moyYh-uGbFIRge14RxXraKFvfL9phUmTXRS2LjGzg8nn-pblpfnFCWK83DNVECw16__Mlh7M4oKXNTOpz7maY0jQVuXly6n-Ctja6djxAO1L12vKhD_ygoHiDU9MD9kVCbl_hlLTVgMZFKadjBi0Gpo0CYJ1uLD5V0CIgFZiUw=w400-h300" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS Year: 1956 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Imagine Orson Welles's Charles Foster Kane inheriting a news outlet instead of a goldmine to buy one, and there you have Vincent Price's not so kind Walter Kyne, who, after his powerful but honest father dies, takes over Kyne Enterprises — with a familiar "K" symbol ala CITIZEN KANE — and sets the employees against each other... 
 
The winner must name a violent serial killer killing single women, making WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS part Film Noir and occasional Horror... And it needs more of the latter from perhaps having too much of the first, character-wise: the overcrowded Kyne Corporation office ensemble includes whiskey-drinking career-newsroom chief Thomas Mitchell; sharp/flirtatious wire-service runner George Saunders; beyond flirtatious one-woman-womanizer James Craig; and star Andrews, surprisingly the least interesting character as the central newscaster... Although his scenes collaborating with token cop Howard Duff from THE NAKED CITY makes for worthy B&W crime scene Noir elements while a young, gnarly-looking John Barrymore Jr. takes the villain role albeit lacking motivation save the usual mommy issues: and even that's not really clarified...