OUT OF THE PAST

Jane Greer

OUT OF THE PAST (1947). Director: Jacques Tourneur.

"You're like a leaf that's been blown from one gutter to another."

Jeff (Robert Mitchum) has a new life running a gas station, as well as a girlfriend named Ann (Virginia Huston), when his past catches up with him in the person of gunsel, Joe (Paul Valentine). Joe works for crooked big shot Whit (Kirk Douglas), and some time ago he hired Jeff to go after his gorgeous gal pal, Kathie (Jane Greer), who not only shot Whit but left town with $40,000 in cash. In flashback we learn how Jeff caught up with Kathie and decided he wanted her for himself. But Kathie may have had other plans. Now she's back with Whit, who wants Jeff to do a favor for him -- or else. Well, Out of the Past should be prime film noir -- it certainly has all of the elements (even if much of it is actually played in sunlight instead of shadows), including a beautiful femme fatale, but somehow this just doesn't add up. The characters are little more than stick figures, brought to life with satisfactory but somehow second-rate thesping. Everyone, especially Douglas, who underplays nicely, is cool and professional but there's something missing, although Paul Valentine [House of Strangers] probably has the best role of his career in this and runs with it. Virginia Huston [Tarzan's Peril] is pleasant and competent but she only had a few credits after this. Dickie Moore [Passion Flower] makes an impression as the deaf and mute boy who works for Jeff at the gas station, as do Ken Niles as the nervous lawyer, Eels, and Rhonda Fleming as his secretary. Others in the cast are Steve Brodie as Jeff's former partner, and Richard Webb as a man who's carrying a long-time torch for Ann. The film is beautifully photographed in crisp black and white by Nicholas Musuraca [Clash By Night], and Roy Webb has contributed an effective theme. There's a certain poignancy to the conclusion, hinging on a not-so-little white lie. (Whether the lie should have been told or not Ill leave up to the individual viewer.) There's so much confusing going back and forth from place to place by the cast that it gets somewhat tiresome after awhile.

Verdict: For a great film noir with Robert Mitchum watch Otto Preminger's Angel Face instead of this. **1/2. 

TARZAN'S PERIL

Dorothy Dandrige

TARZAN'S PERIL (1951). Director: Byron Haskin.

Radjeck (George Macready), a bad guy who escaped from jail, is up to no good with his less bloodthirsty companions, Trask (Douglas Fowley) and Andrews (Glenn Anders). One of Radjeck's victims is Commissioner Peters (Alan Napier). Before realizing what a crumb he was, Jane (Virginia Huston) had befriended Radject, but now Tarzan (Lex Barker) is out to snare him. Radjeck wants to sell weapons to a nasty native tribe; Queen Melmendi (Dorothy Dandridge) represents a tribe of friendlier natives. Tarzan's Peril is a poor Tarzan entry, badly directed by Haskin, who fails to give the film any kind of pacing or suspense. (This is strange, as Haskin also directed The War of the Worlds and Too Late for Tears, among others, both excellent movies.) Dandridge [Change of Heart] is as criminally wasted as she usually was, even after her Oscar nomination some years later for Carmen Jones. Macready is strangely subdued (for him) as the villain throughout most of the running time. There's a mechanical snake that nearly eats Cheetah (who has little to do in the pic), and man-eating plants that ensnare both Tarzan and a baby elephant with their vines. Jane looks like she'd be more at home on Park Avenue than in the jungle!

Verdict: Not Tarzan's finest hour. **.

FLAMINGO ROAD

FLAMINGO ROAD (1949). Michael Curtiz.

It's Joan Crawford vs. Sydney Greenstreet in this entertaining melodrama which combines the stars of Mildred Pierce (Crawford, Zachary Scott) with that film's director, Michael Curtiz. (As well, Scott appeared with Greenstreet in the former's film debut The Mask of Dimitrios.) Crawford also plays a waitress (part of the time) as she did in Mildred. This time, as Lane Bellamy, she's stranded in a small town when the carnival runs off, and is befriended by Deputy Sheriff Field Carlisle (Scott), who, unfortunately, already has a girlfriend, Annabelle (Virgina Huston). Greenstreet is Sheriff Titus Semple, who wants his protege Field to go places in politics and wants Lane run out of town, even going so far as to have her arrested on trumped-up prostitution charges. When Lane whacks him in the face (not once but twice) for his role in this, it begins a formidable battle between two forces of nature, involving not only Field but also political boss Dan Reynolds (David Brian). Giving Titus a steely look across a restaurant table, Lane tells him how an elephant had to be shot down at the circus when it attacked its trainer. "You have no idea how hard it is to dispose of a dead elephant," says she. Flamingo Road could be called anti-corpulent were it not for the fact that Greenstreet/Semple's excessive avoirdupois is neatly tied into the plot.

All of the performances are good in Flamingo Road -- including Gladys George as the owner of a risque roadhouse and Gertrude Michael as a saucy waitress-friend of Lane's -- but Greenstreet pretty much walks off with the picture. Although he never manages a convincing Southern accent, his performance is still powerful, and Titus Semple is, in fact, one of the best roles the portly actor was ever given on the screen. Letting out with a rough giggle after George makes a comment about his weight as he climbs the stairs of her establishment, or confronting a whole roomful of men as he cheerfully blackmails them, Greenstreet is never less than mesmerizing. Curtiz' direction is brisk, Max Steiner's score evocative, and the dialogue positively crackles with gems ("My boyfriend cut himself on a knife I was holding," says Iris Adrian, one of the other women incarcerated with Lane). Oddly, the [uncredited] white maid, Sarah, speaks exactly as if she were doing an imitation of Butterfly McQueen (who was Crawford's maid in Mildred Pierce.) As an added bonus, Crawford does a sexy, smoky rendition of "If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight." A rags to riches story that also serves as a highly entertaining study of social hypocrisy. Not as good as Mildred Pierce, but not bad.

Verdict: Lots of fun! ***.