IN A LONELY PLACE

IN A LONELY PLACE (1950). Director: Nicholas Ray. 

"I said I liked it. I didn't say I wanted to kiss it." -- Laurel referring to Steel's face when he tries to kiss her. 

Screenwriter Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is the primary suspect when a pretty hat check girl, Mildred (Martha Stewart) ,who tells him the plot of a novel at his home, is brutally murdered. Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) is a neighbor who becomes involved with Steele and is troubled by his temper and all the rumors. Did he do it or didn't he? Frank Lovejoy is the detective on the case. There's a nice score by George Antheil, and the film is well photographed by Burnett Guffey. The acting is good -- Martha Stewart is especially effective -- but the problem with the movie is that the lead character is so repellent. Very good, uncompromising ending, however. An uncredited Alix Talton of Deadly Mantis plays Fran, a friend of Dixon's, and Morris Ankrum of The Giant Claw and Steven Geray are also in the cast. Martha Stewart was attractive and talented but her career petered out by 1964 with only a short list of credits. 

Verdict: Holds the attention, has interesting aspects, but one suspects there's less here than meets the eye. **1/2.

ON DANGEROUS GROUND

ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1952). Director: Nicholas Ray. 

"Sometimes people who are never alone are the loneliest." 

Two lonely, tormented individuals -- Jim, a sadistic cop (Robert Ryan) and Mary, a blind woman (Ida Lupino) -- are brought together in an unusual, heart-breaking fashion in this unusual love story/crime thriller. Tough cop Jim Wilson is advised by his colleagues and his boss (Ed Begley) that he's losing control and is assigned to a murder in a small upstate town. There he meets the vulnerable if strong blind woman whose brother may be the chief suspect. While Lupino is perhaps a bit too restrained as Mary, Robert Ryan is terrific as Jim, and Ward Bond is also outstanding as the overwrought father of the murdered girl. Sumner Williams also makes an impression as the mentally-disturbed Danny. Nita Talbot has a brief but compelling bit as a sexy underaged gal in a bar who asks Ryan for a drink. This is a moody piece, full of poignant moments, held together by an excellent score by Bernard Herrmann. It's too bad some of the romantic strains are muted; Herrmann wrote a nocturne based on this score that is just beautiful. 

Verdict: Not for all tastes, but compelling and different. ***.

KNOCK ON ANY DOOR

KNOCK ON ANY DOOR (1949). Director: Nicholas Ray. 

"Live fast, die young, have a good-looking corpse." 

Against his better judgment lawyer Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart) takes the case of "Pretty Boy"Nick Romano (John Derek), who's been accused of killing a cop. Morton believes that Romano is innocent, but during the trial, he tries to convince the jury that it was society that made Romano -- who is guilty of other crimes -- the angry young man he is. The point is never made, even by the prosecutor, that many others came from the same environment as Romano and were able to rise above it. Knock on Any Door is an entertaining film with two excellent lead performances, but the movie is staggeringly simplistic and one-sided. The dead cop is completely forgotten and his family is never shown. An alternate point of view is never presented. Even when the truth about the murder is revealed at the end of the film, the bleeding heart approach still continues. Absurd. Prosecutor George Macready is given a disfiguring scar as if to imply that he hates the defendant because of his good looks, but the film makes clear that Romano is pretty much a stinker of a human being any way you slice it. 

Verdict: Fast-paced but foolish. **1/2.

BIGGER THAN LIFE

BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956). Director: Nicholas Ray.

Ed Avery (James Mason) is a family man who finally goes to the doctor to see about his painful spells, and learns he will be dead in months unless he takes the new wonder drug, cortisone. Unfortunately the side effect of the drug (which he apparently abuses) is to make him egomaniacal, irrational, paranoid, and eventually homicidal and psychotic. The ending of the film is only moderately hopeful.

Frankly Bigger Than Life is a pretty depressing and completely unpleasant film that is virtually devoid of entertainment value. Mason gives a good enough performance, it's just that this stylish, elegant actor seems completely wasted in a role that could probably have been played just as well by Fred MacMurray (and it might have had more shock value)! Barbara Rush gives a lovely performance as his wife, however. Walter Matthau turns up as Ed's buddy in a more or less dramatic turn and he's fine. The movie is too tedious to be a thriller, it that's what was intended, and not strong enough to be much of a drama, either.

Verdict: Who wants to see James Mason in the suburbs? **.

A WOMAN'S SECRET

Maureen O'Hara

A WOMAN'S SECRET (1949) Director: Nicholas Ray.

Flashbacks relate what led up to the shooting of young singer, Susan Caldwell (Gloria Grahame), nicknamed Estrellita, who is the protege of Marian Washburn (Maureen O'Hara, pictured), who took over Susan's career when she lost her own singing voice just as she was on the verge of making it. This sounds like it might make for a very juicy soap opera at the very least, but what results is a pretty boring, minor-league account, with Marians' boyfriend Luke (Melvyn Douglas) talking the whole business over with police inspector Jim Fowler (Jay C. Flippen); Mary Philips is fun as Fowler's take-charge wife. Flashbacks are not very riveting or compelling. Victor Jory is fine as an impresario who is smitten with Susan, and Bill Williams turns up as a man from her past. Gloria Grahame is excellent as Susan, but the movie that surrounds her is a comparatively dull disappointment.

Verdict: Not even worth wasting a rainy day for. *1/2.

BORN TO BE BAD

BORN TO BE BAD (1950). Directed by Nicholas Ray.

Joan Fontaine is Christable Caine, a scheming blonde who steals away the wealthy fiancé (Zachary Scott) of a friend, Donna (Joan Leslie), but who dallies with her true love, Robert Ryan, even after her marriage. A part that seems tailor-made for Bette Davis or Joan Crawford – even Barbara Stanwyck – works beautifully with the less "bitchy" (but equally talented) Fontaine because she’s able to exude an innocence that makes her conniving ways seem even more atrocious. She sends her lonely and loving aunt away even though Scott is happy to have her in his home, and refuses to go see her when she’s ill because of a party. Ryan, playing a novelist on the verge of success who can’t compete financially with Scott, gets some of the best lines. Regarding Scott (after he marries Fontaine) he says, "How can anyone be happy with a hook in his throat?" and says to Christabel "I love you so much I wish I liked you!" Mel Ferrer plays Gobby, a painter who may have been intended to be a gay character, based on certain remarks he makes about his "harmlessness" to wives and his complete lack of interest in the women in the cast (although he paints Fontaine’s portrait he exudes absolutely no romantic or sexual interest in her). When a man pokes his head into the gallery where Gobby’s paintings are exhibited, and rapidly retreats, Ferrer yells after him "Peasant!" This is a pretty classy, entertaining, well-acted soaper, it’s only deficit being the fact that the characterizations are rather superficial. RKO.

Verdict: Watchable and well-acted. **1/2.