CRY OF THE CITY

Richard Conte and Victor Mature

CRY OF THE CITY (1948). Director: Robert Siodmak. Colorized. 

Career criminal Martin Rome (Richard Conte) is laid up in the hospital after a bank job -- during which he shot a cop --goes awry. Lt. Candella (Victor Mature) learns that a woman (Debra Paget)  came to see him and is determined to discover her identity. Could Rome have had something to do with a jewel robbery in which an elderly woman was beaten and strangled? Others involved with Rome include shifty lawyer Niles (an excellent Berry Kroeger); Nurse Frances (Betty Garde), who does Rome a big favor; gal pal Brenda (Shelley Winters); and sinister masseuse Rose Given (Hope Emerson). When Rome breaks out of jail there will be more than one death attributed to him.

A lady to watch out for: Emerson and Conte

Richard Conte gives a good performance in this but Victor Mature is even better. One could easily complain that the film is full of cliches -- a hood with an adoring younger brother (Tommy Cook) and heart-broken mother (Mimi Aguglia), for instance -- but the film is so well-written, acted and directed that it just doesn't matter. Everyone is perfectly cast and at the top of their game. This is another film in which those two hefty, homely and gifted actresses Garde and Emerson both appear, although they have no scenes together in this as they do in Caged. Garde is good but Emerson is outstanding in her portrayal of a truly slimy female reptile. Fred Clark and Roland Winters are also notable in smaller roles, as is Walter Baldwin as inmate Orvy. 

Betty Garde deals with Mature while Clark and Conte look on

This unpredictable movie has several memorable scenes: the suspenseful  business when Rome breaks out of his prison hospital cell; a violent confrontation in Nile's office between the lawyer, Rome and an unfortunate secretary who gets too nosy; and the tense subway stand-off between Rome and Candella with Emerson getting in the way. Alfred Newman contributes an exciting score and the film is shot by Lloyd Ahern Sr.

Verdict: Terrific film noir with a great cast. ***1/2. 

THE KILLERS

Virginia Christine, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner

THE KILLERS (1946). Director: Robert Siodmak.

Torpedoes Max (William Conrad) and Al (Charles McGraw) come to the town of Brentwood and (improbably) announce to people in the diner that they are going to kill a guy known as the Swede or Pete Lund (Burt Lancaster), which they do. The rest of the film presents assorted flashbacks from various points-of-view as insurance investigator Jim Reardon (Edmund O'Brien) tries to find out more about "Lund" and the reasons for his murder. Reardon hooks up with former cop Sam Lubinsky (Sam Levene) and discovers that the latter's old friend the Swede, actually Ole Anderson, a former boxer, was mixed up in a robbery plot as well as with a beautiful if duplicitous female named Kitty (Ava Gardner). But before Reardon's investigation is over, those two torpedoes just may have more work to do. 

Waiting for death: Burt Lancaster

The Killers is a fine and memorable piece of film noir. In his very first film, Lancaster gives a strong performance and he is backed up by an old pro in O'Brien. Conrad and McGraw certainly make in impression in their brief but chilling appearances. Levene and Virginia Christine (Anderson's old girlfriend and now Lubinsky's wife) are solid as well. And then there's Ava Gardner in her 27th film, but clearly still growing as an actress. She makes a good impression in the early scenes but doesn't quite cut it in her climactic moments. There are good turns from Phil Brown [Weird Woman] as Nick Adams, Vince Barnett as old Charleston, Albert Dekker as the architect of the robbery plot, Donald MacBride as Reardon's boss, Jack Lambert [The Unsuspected] as a member of the gang, Queenie Smith as Queenie, Anderson's sole beneficiary, and especially Jeff Corey as Blinky. (Charles Middleton plays a farmer but I didn't spot him.) Although Anderson is in some ways an unsympathetic character, you can't help but feel sorry for the miserable way in which he is played for a sucker. The Killers boasts an evocative score by Miklos Rozsa and fine photography by Elwood (Woody) Bredell. 

Verdict: Totally absorbing, very well-acted crime drama. ***1/4. 

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DIVORCE

Joseph Allen and Lynn Bari

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DIVORCE (1942). Director: Robert Siodmak.

"There goes "Malicious." 

George Nordyke (Joseph Allen) is an insecure husband whose manhood is threatened by the fact that his wife, Lynn (Lynn Bari of Shock), is better at everything and even bagged the moose, Stinky, that hangs in their game room. When George almost literally runs into a more demure blonde named Lola May (Mary Beth Hughes of The Lady Confesses), he falls in love with her and he and Lynn decide to divorce, against the better judgment of their friend, Inspector "Camp" Campbell (Truman Bradley). Lynn winds up dating a radio musician named Victor Roselli (Nils Asther of Storm at Daybreak) and things get weird -- but still dull -- after one of the group gets murdered. Allen and Bari give it their all, but the script is horrible and there are few if any laughs. Kay Linaker tries to inject some life as Lynn's friend, Hedda, as does Thurston Hall as her hubby, and Mary Treen is as adept as ever as yet another maid, Olga. This doesn't even have the courage of its convictions.

Verdict: Not as much fun as clipping your toenails. *.

THE FILE ON THELMA JORDAN

Original title: Thelma Jordan."

THE FILE ON THELMA JORDAN (1950). Director: Robert Siodmak.

"Maybe I am just a dame and didn't know it. Maybe I like being picked up by a guy on a binge."

Concerned with possible burglars at her elderly aunt's estate, Thelma Jordan (Barbara Stanwyck) goes to see an assistant district attorney named Miles Scott (Paul Kelly) but winds up with another ADA, Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) who happens to be rather bored with his wife (Joan Tetzel) and children and their vacations and falls hard for Thelma while on a bender. The plot has various intriguing twists and turns as the two carry on a heated affair while Mrs. Marshall and the kids wait at the beach. Then, wouldn't you know it, someone gets murdered ... Stanwyck gives another fine performance in Thelma Jordan, and Corey is quite good as well; this is an actor who has hidden facets as well as versatility. Stanwyck plays one of her most unsympathetic characters but you're with her right from the start. Tetzel and Kelly are also fine, and Gertrude Hoffman is just right in her brief appearance as Thelma's aunt. No, this is no Double Indemnity, but it's absorbing and has a few tricks up its sleeve. To accept some of the more absurd plot turns takes a definite "suspension of disbelief," however. Some of Corey's best performances were in No Sad Songs for Me, The Big Knife, and his debut film Desert Fury, and he also somehow wound up in Women of the Prehistoric Planet.

Verdict: Stanwyck smoulders in grand style. ***.

THE DARK MIRROR

Two Olivia De Havillands for the price of one

THE DARK MIRROR (1946). Director: Robert Siodmak.

Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) is called in when a man is murdered and a woman named Terry Collins (Olivia de Havilland) has been identified by more than one witness as being at the victim's apartment that night. But she has an unshakable alibi -- and also an identical twin sister named Ruth. Stevenson realizes that the ladies have him over a barrel -- one probably committed murder and the other is an accessory, but which one do you put on trial for homicide? The cop enlists the aid of Dr. Scott Elliott (Lew Ayres) to find out what's up with the twins, but things get even more complicated when Elliott begins to fall for one of the women --- but which sister is it? This is an interesting cat and mouse game with good performances that is undermined a bit by some absurd dime-store psychology and Siodmak's rather routine direction. De Havilland is a bit Hollywoodish, but she has some very good moments as well. Ayres seems a trifle defeated by his role and the mumbo jumbo he has to utter. The special effects work is excellent and generally seamless. Siodmak also directed Son of Dracula and many others. Nice theme by Dimitri Tiomkin. Richard Long has a small role as Rusty. Bette Davis played twins the same year in A Stolen Life.

Verdict: Entertaining minor mystery. **1/2.

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY (1944). Director: Robert Siodmak.

Now here's a weird one. Someone got the idea of taking a serious novel by Somerset Maugham (The Razor's Edge and many others) and casting Gene Kelly and, of all people, Deanna Durbin in the leads -- talk about epic miscasting. True, neither of these actors exactly disgrace themselves, it's just that you can imagine what a wholly different picture this would have been with different leads. But in any case, it wouldn't have been much good. Lt Mason (an effective Dean Harens) has just been jilted by his fiancee when he meets up with a singer named "Jackie" (Durbin), whose real name is Abigail but who changed it after her husband, Robert (Kelly) was convicted of murder. Most of Christmas Holiday consists of flashbacks as Jackie pours out her story [seemingly at the drop of a hat] to the kind lieutenant. Robert remains a shadowy character, however, and we never really learn the details of his crime nor anything about his victim. We do get to know his strange mother (Gale Sondergaard), who does the best she can with another underwritten role. Richard Whorf, who later became a director, plays a reporter named Simon, and Gladys George is cast as Valerie, who runs the club that Jackie sings at. Kelly does no singing or dancing, but Durbin gets to warble "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" and "Always," the film's signature tune. There's an interesting segue from a Beethoven concert to a dance club, but Christmas Holiday has the gall to use Wagner's liebestod from "Tristan and Isolde" to try to add dramatic heft to this kitsch. It doesn't work, although, ironically, the best scene in the movie has Kelly and Durbin listening to the music and being, quite understandably, moved by it. Durbin did seven more films before retiring four years later. Harens did two more films and then had a long list of credits in television.

Verdict: With these leads the fare should be much lighter. **.

THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY

THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY (1945). Director: Robert Siodmak.

Harry Quincey (George Sanders) lives with his two sisters, Hester, a widow (Moyna MacGill) and a supposedly sickly younger woman named Lettie (Geraldine Fitzgerald), who doesn't react well when she learns that Harry is going to marry a pretty co-worker named Deborah (Ella Raines), leading to assorted complications. Although the incest theme is extremely overt, the production code necessitated an unbelievably annoying ending to the film. However, the movie is absorbing and generally well-acted. Sanders subdues his naturally rakish personality to play a shyer kind of fellow and Raines and MacGill are excellent, as is the always reliable Sara Allgood as the opinionated maid. Fitzgerald doesn't always quite seem to have a handle on her often repellent character, and some of the revelatory sequences are handled in a perfunctory manner. And that ending ...! Still, the picture is quite entertaining.

Verdict: Rumors that this was remade as Toys in the Attic are untrue. **1/2.

CRISS CROSS

CRISS CROSS (1949). Director: Robert Siodmak. 

Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) begins seeing his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) even though she's now married to racketeer Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). When the two are caught in a compromising position, Steve decides the only way out of it is to pretend he was only hoping Anna would help interest her husband in a plan he had for an armored car robbery. So he's stuck ... even though his own father is one of the other drivers. And thus begins this twisted tale, most of which is told in flashback. Duryea and De Carlo come off best, although Lancaster is no slouch. Stephen McNally is effective as a cop-friend of Steve's and Alan Napier makes an impression as a confederate who likes his liquor. Richard Long appears briefly as Thompson's brother, and if you blink you might miss Tony Curtis in a bit as Anna's dance partner. While Criss Cross is hardly a major picture and is generally too perfunctorily-handled to make the most of its situations, it's also unpredictable, absorbing, and has a dramatic conclusion. 

Verdict: Entertaining film noir. ***.

SON OF DRACULA (1943)

SON OF DRACULA (1943). Director: Robert Siodmak.

Imagine fearing death and oblivion so much that you would desire to become a vampire so that you could "live" eternally with your beloved. That is the premise of this fascinating, chilling, and ultimately poignant horror film, one of the best of the Universal Dracula/monster flicks. Lon Chaney (Jr.) plays Count Alucard, who comes to a sleepy Southern town at the invitation of Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton), and who begins a reign of terror against those who figure out who he really is. Frank Craven is the kindly Dr. Brewster, who calls upon his friend Professor Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg) for information on vampires. Robert Paige is Katherine's fiance, Frank, and Evelyn Ankers is her sister, Claire. Son of Dracula is well-acted (although Chaney can't compare to Lugosi and is rather disappointing), well-directed, and quite unpredictable, with a terrific conclusion. Lots of atmosphere. NOTE: There is no actual reference in the film to Chaney being the son of the original Dracula.

Verdict: Outstanding Universal horror film. ***1/2.