SYNOPSIS
This four-disc boxed set features eight film noir titles, each disc being a double-feature. The four discs include Cornered (1945)/Desperate (1947), The Phenix City Story (1955)/Dial 1119 (1950), Armored Car Robbery (1950)/Crime in the Streets (1956) and Deadline at Dawn(1946)/Backfire (1950).
CRITIQUE
All of the truly great film noirs controlled by Warner Home Video (e.g. Out of the Past, The Asphalt Jungle, Murder, My Sweet, Crossfire, On Dangerous Ground) have already been released onto DVD. Therefore, this fifth set of four discs, all double features, contains, for the most part, “B” movies from RKO, Warner Brothers, MGM and Allied Artists that are controlled by WHV.
Many of these pictures are straight crime dramas rather than quintessential noir, yet most of them have clever scripts, a talented cast, a knowledgeable director and a cinematographer who knows where to place his shadows.
Several of these eight films were directed by noir’s most revered auteurs and are engrossing, minor classics of the genre.
Looking at each disc individually:
Cornered/Desperate
Directed by Edward Dmytryk, Cornered is really the only “A” picture in the collection.
It stars Dick Powell as a former RCAF pilot who vows to kill the Nazi collaborator responsible for the execution of his French bride (and fifty other patriots). Released from a military hospital after a long convalescence, he sneaks back into France to pick up his prey’s trail, only to learn that the man is supposedly dead.
Powell knows that this is a façade, and his search finally takes him to Argentina where he finds himself amid a clandestine hotbed of ex-Nazis planning to build a new Reich.
Of course, along the way, he gets knocked over the head once or twice.
Cornered may be a little talky at times, but it is also a suspenseful thriller, directed by one of the creators of the genre. It contains fine performances by Powell, Walter Slezak as a devious guide with questionable loyalties, Micheline Cheirel as the collaborator’s “widow” and Luther Adler in role that I won’t describe because it would be a Spoiler.
The best thing about Desperate is the direction of Anthony Mann, another architect of the genre; a master of shadowy lighting and tension-filled sequences. The actors also acquit themselves well.
The problem with this picture is its script, which deals with a honest WW2 veteran, now a trucker (Steve Brodie), who is framed in a robbery and the resulting murder of a cop. With both the crooks, led by Raymond Burr, and the police after him, he takes his pregnant wife (Audrey Long) and goes on the run.
All through the movie, I kept asking myself: “Why doesn’t this poor schmuck just go to the police and tell them what happened?” After all, it’s not like he’s an ex-convict or somebody who would have reason to fear the police. He’s a war hero.
Even worse, the crooks’ reasons for pursuing Brodie are so inane and convoluted that I’m not even going to try to describe them here.
But, if you can overlook these unbelievable aspects of the screenplay by Harry Essex (Kansas City Confidential, It Came From Outer Space), it’s not a bad little movie.
The Phenix City Story/Dial 1119
The Phenix City Story is a superb, often shocking, semi-documentary; essentially a factual account of the notorious Alabama town of the title and the assassination of the state’s reform Attorney General-elect, Albert Patterson (John McIntire) in 1954.
For one hundred years, Phenix City, located just across the river from Fort Benning, GA, was controlled by corrupt elements that dealt in illegal gambling, liquor, prostitution and, when challenged, open voter intimidation and even murder. There was no danger from local law enforcement or politicians, because they were on the payroll.
The film, tautly directed on location by Phil Karlson, follows the efforts of Patterson, his attorney son (Richard Kiley) and other of the Phenix City’s honest citizens to take back control of their community. Kathryn Grant, Edward Andrews, John Larch and James Edwards are among the fine group of professional actors who play scenes with people who appear to have been cast locally.
Some of the scenes in this picture are not easy to watch, like the brutal killing of a black child, whose body is tossed from a moving car.
The film itself is preceded by a 13-minute featurette in which reporter Clete Roberts interviews several of Phenix City’s actual residents, including Albert Patterson’s widow.
Directed by Gerald Mayer (Louis B.’s nephew), Dial 1119 is a nifty little hostage drama; one of the best films in this collection.
Clean-cut Marshall Thompson, in an atypical role, plays a homicidal mental patient who has escaped from an asylum. After killing a bus driver, he takes five people hostage in a local bar, threatening to shoot them all if he is not allowed to speak to the psychiatrist (Sam Levene) that he blames for having him committed.
What makes Dial 1119 unique is that, unlike similar dramas that appear on television these days almost weekly, this one is quite unpredictable. There is no “hero cop,” every rescue attempt the police try fails and the hostages are the kind of characters who usually die in this type of movie, rather than save the day. This one will keep you wondering how the victims are going to get out of their predicament (or if they even will) right up until the finish.
Among the cast members are Virginia Field, Andrea King, Leon Ames, Keefe Brasselle, Richard Rober and William Conrad.
Armored Car Robbery/Crime in the Streets
Armored Car Robbery is a well-made cops-and-robbers movie, directed by Richard Fleischer (The Narrow Margin).
William Talman is the mastermind of a gang that steals a half-million dollars from an armored car, killing a police detective during the robbery. The rest of the picture cuts back-and forth between Talman and his crew, double-crossing each other, and the police, headed by Charles McGraw, trying to track them down.
This is an entertaining; fast-moving (68 minutes) crime thriller (sort of a pre-Dragnet) that takes full advantage of Los Angeles locations and does not overstay it’s welcome. Adele Jergens, Douglas Fowley, Steve Brodie and Gene Evans play other key roles.
If there is a “turkey” in this collection, then it has got to be Crime in the Streets, which plays like a live television drama, filled with little action and repetitive scenes of dialogue. Actually, the genesis of this film was live television, and it appears that, for the most part, writer Reginald Rose simply transferred and slightly expanded his video version into this screenplay. Actors John Cassavetes and (future director) Mark Rydell repeat their TV roles in the movie.
Why this picture is included in a film noir collection totally baffles me. It is a movie about juvenile delinquency, ala The Blackboard Jungle. Indeed, in the opening scene when Cassavetes and his gang jump a fence and start heading for a rumble, I half expected them to start singing, “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way…”
Don Siegel was a fine director of action movies, but he was not an “actor’s director,” and he was the wrong director for this picture. [Sidney Lumet directed the television version.] Aside from the fact that the entire movie, including the street scenes, was filmed on a sound stage, the acting styles of the various performers do not mix.
Don’t misunderstand. All of these people are fine actors, but Siegel allows his teenage delinquents to overplay their roles, thus coming off as caricatures. He compounds the problem by casting veteran character actor James Whitmore in the part of the local social worker who tries to get the neighborhood kids to change their ways. [Robert Preston played the social worker on television.] The result is that “Method” performer Cassavetes comes off as a 2nd-rate Marlon Brando (you can really see the “wheels” turning), whereas Whitmore does “nothing” and, therefore, dominates every scene that they share together.
Certain live television dramas transferred well to motion pictures (e.g. Marty, Twelve Angry Men, Patterns). This one did not.
Sal Mineo is billed second in the film, but he really has very little to do.
Deadline at Dawn/Backfire
Deadline at Dawn is notable because it is the only movie directed by acclaimed Broadway director Harold Clurman and it features a screenplay, filled with marvelous dialogue, by playwright Clifford Odets.
The movie has a well chosen cast, including Susan Hayward, Paul Lukas, Bill Williams, Joseph Calleia, Osa Massen and Jerome Cowan; and the filmmakers have filled the screen with a gallery of mysterious, sordid characters, dark streets, plus all the other elements that make up good film noir.
The story centers on Williams, a sailor on leave who awakens from a drunken blackout, not remembering if he has murdered a woman who had helped “roll him” earlier in the evening. Williams was, apparently, the last person to see this woman, a blackmailer of many men, alive. Feeling sorry for the seeming innocent young man, dance hall girl Hayward and cab driver Lukas volunteer to help him solve the mystery. Their dilemma is compounded by the fact that Williams has only six hours before he has to catch a bus that will take him back to his ship.
It is perhaps because Clurman and Odets are from the world of theatre, rather than motion pictures, that the film falters. Not only is the story a bit too convoluted with far too many suspects rushing about, but, despite the plot’s inherent “deadline,” the movie has no real sense of urgency. More than once, the narrative just seems to drift.
The identity of the killer does, however, come as bit of a surprise.
Told with many flashbacks, Backfire follows war veteran Gordon MacRae as he and his nurse girlfriend (Virginia Mayo) try to find out what has happened to his best friend (Edmond O’Brien), who is wanted by the police for the murder of a notorious gambler. [NOTE: Though released in 1950, this picture was actually shot in 1948 and the details of the gambler’s killing is very reminiscent of the “Bugsy” Siegel assassination, which took place a year earlier.]
The mystery in this virtually forgotten film is definitely intriguing and veteran director Vincent Sherman keeps the shadow-filled movie moving at a pace that prevents you from pondering a major plot hole. The extensive flashbacks, as they did in The Killers (1946), makes Backfire play like two films in one.
Viveca Lindfors, Dane Clark, Ed Begley and Sheila (Mrs. Gordon) MacRae round out the cast, and they are all more than capable in their various roles.
On the other hand, without being a spoiler, it was because of the casting that I was able to guess the killer long before his/her identity is revealed on screen.
THE VIDEO
The eight films have been restored to their sharp, black-and-white glory. All of the pictures are Full Screen, with the exception of The Phenix City Story and Crime in the Streets, which are presented in the widescreen format.
THE AUDIO
The Dolby Digital Mono sound on all the titles is fine. No problems.
THE EXTRAS
Theatrical Trailers for Cornered and Dial 1119.
FINAL THOUGHT
There are enough minor “gems” in this collection to satisfy lovers of film noir.
