GREAT CINEMA DETECTIVES
BEST MOVIES OF MYSTERY, SUSPENSE AND FILM NOIR
John Howard Reid
****
Published by:
John
Howard Reid at Smashwords
Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid
****
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Smashwords
Edition Licence Notes
This ebook is
licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be
re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share
this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for
each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did
not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then
please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.
****
Original text copyright
2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.
Enquiries:
johnreid@mail.qango.com
****
CHAPTER 1
HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 21
2011
Other Books in the “Hollywood Classics” series:
1. New Light on Movie Bests
2. “B” Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies
3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s
4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West
5. Memorable Films of the Forties
6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s
7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Support Program
8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Entertainment
9. Hollywood Gold: Films of the Forties and Fifties
10. Hollywood “B” Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills
11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics
12. These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards
13. Movie Mystery & Suspense
14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest
15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic
16. Hollywood Movie Musicals
17. “Hollywood Classics” Index Books 1-16
18. More Movie Musicals
19. Success in the Cinema
20. Best Western Movies
21. Great Cinema Detectives
22. Great Hollywood Westerns
23. Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema
24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies
25. Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1—24
--
Other Movie Books by John Howard Reid
Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD
WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD
British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD
Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD
CinemaScope One: Stupendous in ‘Scope
CinemaScope Two: 20th Century-Fox
CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge
--
Table of Contents
Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer {Boris Karloff} (1949)
Alerte au Deuxieme Bureau (1956)
Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1938)
B
Baron’s African War (see Secret Service in Darkest Africa)
the Black Sheep of Whitehall (1941)
Bloody Hands of the Law (see Mano Spietate della Legge)
C
Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)
Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)
Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)
Circumstantial Evidence (1935)
Code of the Secret Service (1939)
Court Martial of Major Keller (1961)
Crime Reporter (see Criminal Investigator)
D
Desert Agent (see Secret Service in Darkest Afria)
Desperate Men (see Cat and Mouse)
E
F
the Falcon in Hollywood (1944)
the Falcon in San Francisco (1945)
Farewell, My Lovely (see Murder, My Sweet)
Fortune in Diamonds (see Adventurers)
G
the Girl Who Had Everything (1953)
Great Adventure (see Adventurers)
H
I
J
K
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
L
Living Dead (see Scotland Yard Mystery)
M
Mailbag Robbery (see Flying Scot)
Man at the Carlton Tower (1961)
Manhunt in the African Jungle (see Secret Service in Darkest Africa)
Mano Spietate della Legge (1973)
Mister Muggs Rides Again (1945)
Monte-Charge (see Paris Pick-Up)
Muggs Rides Again (see Mister Muggs Rides Again)
Murder at Malibu Beach (see Trap)
Murder, Inc. (see the Enforcer)
Mysterious Mr Valentine (1946)
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
N
Nest of Spies (see Alerte au Deuxieme Bureau)
Night in Havana (see Big Boodle)
Night Train {to Munich} (1940)
O
P
Phantom of Paris (see Mystery of Marie Roget)
Q
Queer Money (see Smashing the Money Ring)
R
S
Salaire de la Peur (see Wages of Fear)
Secret Service in Darkest Africa (1943)
Secret Service of the Air (1939)
Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Claw (see Scarlet Claw)
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1942)
Smashing the Money Ring (1939)
Stronger Than Fear (see Edge of Doom)
T
Taste of Fear (see Scream of Fear)
There’s That Woman Again (1938)
There Was a Crooked Man (1960)
Two of Us (see Jack of All Trades)
U
V
W
--
Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer
Bud Abbott (Casey Edwards), Lou Costello (Freddie Phillips), Boris Karloff (Swami Talpur), Lenore Aubert (Angela Gordon), Gar Moore (Jeff Wilson), Donna Martell (Betty Crandall), Alan Mowbray (Melton), James Flavin (Inspector Wellman), Roland Winters (T. Hanley Brooks), Nicholas Joy (Amos Stickland), Mikel Conrad (Sergeant Stone), Morgan Farley (Gregory Milford), Victoria Horne (Mrs Hargreave), Percy Helton (Abernathy), Claire Du Brey (Mrs Grimsby), Vincent Renno (Mike Relia), Murray Alper (Joe), Harry Hayden (Lawrence Crandall), Patricia Hall (manicurist), Marjorie Bennett (maid), Harry Brown (medical examiner), Beatrice Gray (woman), Frankie Van (Bozzo), Jack Chefe (barber), Eddie Randolph (bootblack), Phil Shepard (bellboy), Arthur Hecht (photographer), Eddie Coke, Billy Snyder (reporters).
Director: CHARLES T. BARTON. Screenplay: John Grant, Hugh Wedlock Jr, Howard Snyder. Story: Hugh Wedlock Jr, Howard Snyder. Photography: Charles Van Enger. Film editor: Edward Curtiss. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun, Richard H. Riedel. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman and Oliver Emert. Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Special effects: David S. Horsley. Music: Milton Schwarzwald. Assistant director: Joe Kenny. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey and Robert Pritchard. Producer: Robert Arthur.
Copyright 8 September 1949 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Globe: 18 September 1949. U.S. release: August 1949. U.K. release: 23 January 1950. Australian release: 23 March 1950. 7,644 feet. 85 minutes. A Universal-International Picture.
Alternative title: Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.
SYNOPSIS: A dim-witted bellboy at a resort hotel finds himself suspect number one in a murder investigation.
COMMENT: The alternative title (widely used in America and England, but not in the censored-to-6,865-feet version released in Australia) pans out as a bit of a misnomer. It’s established at quite an early stage of the proceedings that Karloff is no killer. What’s even worse, his role occupies a pitifully meager amount of screen time. He’s actually allowed only one full scene in which to exercise his histrionic skill. One of the best scenes in the whole movie, admittedly, but hardly a justification for the excessive billing he receives in the title.
Fortunately, the film presents plenty of other diversions, including some delightful slapstick by-play and a bit of hilariously quick-footed body-switching.
We are also treated to some thrillingly atmospheric moments when photographer Charles Van Enger is allowed to run riot: the opening shot, for example, the dumping of the bodies into the basement, and, of course, the marvelous climactic chase and bizarre confrontation in the caverns. Mention should also be made of the fine sets created by Bernard Herzbrun and Richard H. Riedel. At the same time, we can all tingle to that wonderfully vintage Universal music score, so effective it was constantly used by the studio in movie after movie after movie (despite which of the studio’s in-house composers received the actual credit).
However, I do make one note of caution for non-Abbott and Costello fans. You may find that the constant verbal battles between the two comics, plus Lou’s stupidly incessant interruptions to the deliberations of the other characters, do make the unfolding of the plot somewhat heavy going.
--
John Carson (Paul Lanson), Jacqueline Ellis (Henriette), Derrick Sherwin (Alan), Richard Vernon (Johnnie Paxton), Jean Lodge (Brenda), Gerald Case (police inspector), Jacqueline Lacey (Milly), Rilla Madden (nurse).
Directed by GEOFFREY NETHERCOTT from a screenplay by Arthur La Bern, based on a story, “Jack O’Judgement” by Edgar Wallace. Photographed by James Wilson. Camera operator: Peter Allwork. Assistant director: Ted Lewis. Casting director: Ronald Curtis. Film editor: Geoffrey Muller. Music composed and directed by Bernard Ebbinghouse. Title music composed by Michael Carr. Art director: Peter Mullins. Make-up: Bill Griffiths. Production manager: Michael Morris. Set continuity: Kay Mander. Wardrobe: Eileen Welsch. Sound editor: Roy Norman. Sound recording: Sidney Rider and Ronald Abbott. Produced by Jack Greenwood for Merton Park Studios.
Distributed in the U.K. through Warner Pathé/Anglo Amalgamated. U.K. release date: 8 March 1964. Australian distribution through B.E.F. Never theatrically released in the U.S.A. but available to TV through AVCO Embassy. 5,102 feet. 57 minutes.
COMMENT: On acquiring the screen rights to most of Edgar Wallace’s novels and stories in 1960, Merton Park Studios made a total of 49 low-budget features. This is number 34, and the first of the two films (the other, Who Was Maddox?) in the series directed by Geoffrey Nethercott. The screenwriter, Arthur La Bern, also wrote numbers 18 (Time to Remember), 25 (Incident at Midnight), and 36 (The Verdict). Most of the other behind-the-camera personnel were used constantly throughout the series, which came to an end with Strangler’s Web in 1965. This is a passably entertaining entry. The photography is flat, but the direction shows some evidence of talent and the script holds the interest throughout the film’s 57 minutes.
OTHER VIEWS: Entertaining minor thriller with plenty of pace and suspense and very neat performances from John Carson, Jacqueline Ellis and Richard Vernon. Within his obviously limited budget, Geoffrey Nethercott’s direction is fairly forceful.
— E.V.D.
Britain’s Edgar Wallace “B”-features are far drabber than their German contemporaries. This one is a little above the average for the series, having Miss Ellis (England’s answer to Merry Anders) and a climax in an electrified swimming pool which lingers in the mind long after the trivia of the war-time betrayal and vengeance plot.
— B.P.
--
Dennis Price (Clive Hunter), Jack Hawkins (Pieter Brandt), Siobhan McKenna (Anne Hunter), Peter Hammond (Hendrik van Thaal), Gregoire Aslan (Dominic), Bernard Lee (O’Connell), Ronald Adam (van Thaal, senior), Charles Paton (barman), Martin Boddey (chief engineer), Phillip Ray (1st man in restaurant), Walter Horsbrugh (2nd man in restaurant), Cyril Chamberlain (waiter).
Directed by DAVID MacDONALD from a story and screenplay by Robert Westerby. Photographed by Oswald Morris. Art director: Edward Carrick. Music composed by Cedric Thorpe Davie and directed by Muir Mathieson. Film editor: V. Sagovsky. Costumes: Joan Ellicott. 1st assistant director: Don Weeks. 2nd assistant director: David Peers. Associate producer: Alex Bryce. Producer: Aubrey Baring. Executive producer: Maxwell Setton.
A Setton-Baring Mayflower Production, presented by J. Arthur Rank. Released in the U.K. through G.F.D., in Australia through B.E.F., in the U.S.A. through Lippert Pictures.
Copyright 28 November 1951 (in Notice: 1950) by the Mayflower Pictures Corp., Ltd. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: December 1951. U.K. release: 9 April 1951. Australian release: 8 October 1953 (sic). 7,328 feet. 81 minutes. Cut to 75 minutes in the U.S.A.
U.S. release title: THE GREAT ADVENTURE.
Alternative U.S. title: A FORTUNE IN DIAMONDS.
SYNOPSIS: Pieter Brandt (Jack Hawkins) and Hendrik van Thaal (Peter Hammond) are separated from their Boer Commando towards the end of the South African war. Pieter discovers a fortune in diamonds on the dead body of a smuggler. He hides them, intending to return. When he gets home he learns that his girl Anne (Siobhan McKenna), thinking him dead, has married Clive Hunter (Dennis Price), a wastrel expatriate Englishman.
The local Law Officer O’Connell (Bernard Lee), who is also fond of Anne, owns a disused gold mine. Hunter has it surveyed, finds it has possibilties. He plans to buy it cheaply from O’Connell and sell at a profit.
Hunter needs money for this project. Brandt needs money for his trek back to the diamonds. The pair form a distrustful partnership.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: An English Treasure of the Sierra Madre, beautifully photographed by Oswald Morris on attractive South African locations. The characters, however, are pretty much stock figures, a fact that is emphasized by the director’s habit of filming dialogue in close-ups. The story is on the slow side, taking a long time to get under way, and it has only a perfunctory love interest. The special effects in the fire sequence are very poor, being very obvious superimpositions. Still, with cameraman Ossie Morris along, this film noirish trek to South Africa is well worth making.
OTHER VIEWS: A dull safari to South Africa. A fine cast flounder throughout, trying to make the best of it, with Jack Hawkins a little more successful than the rest. But David Macdonald’s sub-routine direction manages to flatten any interest long before we have wended our weary way through it all. Oswald Morris tried to do something to give the film a lift with some striking photography but the effort was wasted.
— E.V.D.
An attempt at something off-beat in British films, a melodrama pivoting on a trek into the South African wilds to find a hidden diamond hoard, this film is a bit low on production values and movement, while the strong cast doesn’t get all the opportunities it deserves. As was often the case in English films of this period, it was considered adequate to put a story with a strong plot element on film and let the visuals take care of themselves. The result here is better than some.
— B.P.
--
Christabel Leighton-Porter (Jane, the cartoon girl), Stanelli (hotel manager), Michael Hogarth (Tom Hawke), Ian Colin (Captain Cleaver), Wally Patch (customs officer), Sonya O’Shea (Ruby), Peter Butterworth (drunk), Sebastian Cabot (foreign traveller), George Crawford (Freddie), Joan Grindley (maid), Sidney Benson (Sneyed), Charles Irwin (Lew).
Director: EDWARD G. WHITING. Co-director: Alf Goulding. Screenplay: Alf Goulding, Con West, Edward G. Whiting. Based on the Daily Mirror comic strip by Norman Pett. Photographed in black-and-white by Jackson Rose. Film editor: Edward Scott. Music composed by Stanelli. Art director: Jack Floyd. Producer: Edward G. Whiting.
A New World—Keystone Production. Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A., but available to television through both Hyams and UCC Films. U.K. release through Eros: floating from January 1950. Never theatrically released in Australia, but issued in New Zealand through British Empire Films. 5,061 feet. 56 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Jane is a cartoon character who comes to life and gets involved with diamond smugglers in Brighton.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: In the days of my picturegoing childhood, I always imagined that every English-language film newly made would sooner or later (and sooner rather than later) find its way to my local neighborhood cinema. It never occurred to me that there existed a whole group of British movies, distributed by an Australian company, that were never shown in Australia at all. Held in bond at Australian customs, these movies, accompanied by Australian-printed daybills and one-sheets, were eventually shipped to New Zealand, where they were received, if not with acclaim, then certainly with profit.
All Mancunian Productions were included in this group of all-British product. So Kiwis had a chance to admire the work of many music-hall-type comedians whose very names (aside from avid readers of the weekly Film Fun comics) were completely unknown to Australians. And still are. I’ve never seen Frank Randle or Jimmy Jewel or Ben Warriss or Nat Jackley (though Jackley did play on the stage in Sydney and Melbourne) or Harry Korris or Robby Vincent or “Two-Ton” Tessie O’Shea. The loss of Frank Randle from my picturegoing experiences is one I especially regret. Gracie Fields once described Frank as “the greatest character comedian that ever lived!” Certainly, he had an adoring public. In Northern England, he was a bigger box-office draw in most towns than Stewart Granger or James Mason or Errol Flynn.
You can add to the Frank Randle-and-his-cohorts list, movies like The Adventures of Jane. From memory, the buxom brunette of the comic strip was forever getting involved in sexually innocent escapades and situations in which she was forced to strip down to her lingerie. This propensity, alas, was not fully transferred to the film, which has opted for a straight thriller format and is further negated by miserable production values, including fuzzy camerawork and poor sound recording.
One of the most amazing things about the motion picture industry is the way prestigious “A” productions which made a fortune for their makers and distributors can completely disappear off the face of the earth a decade or so after their initial release. The list of so-called “lost films” is absolutely mind-bending. On the other hand, many Poverty Row movies seem to live forever. Like this one, they never disappear!
OTHER VIEWS: This quota quickie emerges as a below-standard comedy-drama in all departments except brevity.
— Eric Sarten.
--
Eric Linden (Ed Martin), Sidney Fox (Peggy Martin), Tully Marshall (Anderson), Louis Calhern (Wade), Berton Churchill (Manning), Edward Arnold (Jig Skelli), George Meeker (Lennie), Mayo Methot (Marge), Ian MacLaren (chief), Matt McHugh (Joe Skelli), Frank Sheridan (commissioner), Gustav von Seyffertitz (Berger), Reginald Barlow (Judge MacMurray), Edward Martindel (Major Jamison), Robert Warwick (Jake), Tom Jackson (Benchley), Joyce Compton (Alice), King Baggot (police officer), John Ince (Bill), George Chandler (Pete), Arthur Housman (a drunk), Ben Taggart (Detective Burke), G. Pat Collins (Archie), Kernan Cripps, Hal Price (arresting detectives), William Farrel, Robert Homans, Jack Dougherty, Lew J. Kelly (third degree detectives), Jim Farley (police sergeant), Lita Chevret (Molly), James Eagles (Sam), Joe Bonomo (party guest), Walter Brennan (sign carrier), Lynton Brent (Wade’s secretary), Ralph Brooks, Gladden James, William Wagner (reporters), Edward Thomas (bartender), Harry Tenbrook (Spike), Philip Sleeman, Pat Harmon (prison patients), Olin Francis (prison hospital guard), Clarence Geldart (third degree doctor), Charles Giblyn (doctor), Huntley Gordon (governor), Dorothy Granger (Kippie), Perry Ivins (unemployed man), Lew Kelly (mailman), Lew Meehan (jail official), Margaret Lindsay (bit), Fred Kohler, Jr (elevator operator), Monte Montague (electrician), Frances Morris (nurse), Lee Phelps (taxi-driver), Lorin Raker (Mike), Jack Richardson (editor).
Director: EDWARD L CAHN . Screenplay: Tom Reed. Based on the 1932 stage play Merry-Go-Round by Albert Maltz and George Sklar. Photographed in black-and-white by Karl Freund. Supervising film editor: Maurice Pivar. Film editor: Milton Carruth. Art directors: Charles D. Hall, Edgar G. Ulmer. Camera operator: Richard Fryer. Assistant cameraman: Jack Eagan. Stills: Sherman Clark. Music: James Dietrich. Sound recording supervisor: C. Roy Hunter. Sound recording: Jess Moulin. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Executive producer: Carl Laemmle.
Copyright 31 October 1932 by Universal Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Winter Garden: 18 December 1932. U.K. release: 29 April 1933. Australian release: February 1933. 69 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: See below.
NOTES: The stage play opened on Broadway at the Avon, after a sensational off-Broadway debut on 22 April 1932 at Provincetown where it attracted record-breaking crowds and an unusually large volume of press attention. It ran 56 performances before transferring to the Avon where it lasted five weeks. It tells of a hotel bellboy (Elisha Cook Jr) who witnesses a murder by an influential crime czar (Harold Huber), who has the witness imprisoned and finally killed by the policemen who are supposed to be guarding him. Walter Hart and Michael Blankfort produced. Hart also directed.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: Hard-hitting drama of judicial and political corruption, directed with surprising verve by Edward L. Cahn some years before he became a dreary director of inescapable, low-low-budget “B” movies. The cast is unusually strong, with stand-out performances from Tully Marshall as the cowering District Attorney, Louis Calhern as his corrupt assistant, Berton Churchill as the shifty mayor, Frank Sheridan as Police Commissioner Garvey, and Edward Arnold in the Harold Huber part.
Superbly photographed by Karl Freund, Afraid to Talk is an excellent example of the socially-aware Hollywood movie of the early 1930s. One’s only quarrel with Hollywood is the substitution of a happy ending for the play’s more effectively dramatic downbeat curtain.
Fortunately, it now appears that two endings were filmed. A happy one for American release and a version close to the stage play’s for the European market.
For some reason, this brilliant film noir has not made anybody’s list. Why? Too old? Hardly. Underworld (1927) is frequently cited as a classic example of the genre. Does this movie lacks an appropriately noirish mood and atmosphere? Again, no. In fact cameraman Karl Freund is often quoted as a master of film noir lighting
--
William Powell (Nick Charles), Myrna Loy (Nora Charles), James Stewart (David Graham), Joseph Calleia (Dancer), Elissa Landi (Selma Landis), Jessie Ralph (Aunt Katherine Forest), Alan Marshal (Robert Landis), Sam Levene (Lieutenant Abrams), Penny Singleton (Polly Byrnes), Dorothy Vaughn (Charlotte), Maude Turner Gordon (Helen), Teddy Hart (Floyd Casper), William Law (Lum Kee), William Burress (General), Thomas Pogue (William), George Zucco (Dr Adolph Kammer), Tom Ricketts (Henry, the butler), Paul Fix (Phil Byrnes), Joe Caits (Joe), Joe Phillips (Willie), Edith Kingdon (Hattie), John T. Murray (Jerry), John Kelly (Harold), Clarence Kolb (Lucius), Zeffie Tilbury (Lucy), Donald Briggs, Fredric Santley, Jack Norton (reporters), Baldwin Cooke, Sherry Hall, Jack E. Raymond (photographers), Ed Dearing (Bill, the San Francisco policeman), Dick Rush (San Francisco detective), Monte Vandergrift, Eddie Allen, Jimmy Lucas (men), Heinie Conklin (trainman), Mary Gordon (Rose, the cook), Ben Hall (butcher boy), George H. Reed (porter), John Butler (racetrack tout), Vince Barnett (wrestler’s manager), Ethel Jackson (girl with fireman), Arthur Housman (man rehearsing welcome speech), Jack Daley (bartender), Bert Scott (man at piano), George Guhl (San Francisco police captain), Norman Willis (fireman), Edith Craig (girl with fireman), Kewpie Martin (boy friend of girl standing on hands), Bert Lindley (station agent), James Blaine (San Francisco policeman), Guy Usher (chief of detectives), Bob Murphy (arresting detective), Harry Tyler (fingers), Bobby Watson (leader of late crowd), Eric Wilton (Peter, the butler), Henry Roquemore (actor’s agent), Constantine Romanoff (wrestler), Sam McDaniel (Pullman porter), Ernie Alexander (filing clerk in morgue), Louis Natheaux (racetrack tout), Jonathan Hale (night city editor), Jennie Roberts (girl who works with Jerry), Charlie Arnt (drunk), Harvey Parry (man who stands on hands), Jesse Graves (red cap), Alice H. Smith (Emily), Richard Powell (surprised policeman), Cecil Elliott, Phyllis Coghlan (servants), Frank Otto (taxi driver), Jack Adair (escort of dizzy blonde), Irene Coleman, Claire Rochelle, Jean Barry, Jane Tallant (chorus girls), Sue Moore (sexy blonde), Edith Trivers (hat check girl), George Taylor (Eddie), Lee Phelps (flop house proprietor), Chester Gan (Chinese waiter), Richard Loo (Chinese headwaiter), Lew Harvey, Jimmy Brewster (thugs), Harlan Briggs (Burton Forrest), Billy Benedict (newsboy), Murray Alper (kid), Charles Trowbridge (police examiner), Eadie Adams (girl), “Asta” and “Mrs Asta”.
Director: W.S. VAN DYKE. Screenplay: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett. Based on the 1934 novel The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. Photographed in black-and-white by Oliver T. Marsh. Film editor: Robert J. Kern. Music score composed by Herbert Stothart and Edward Ward. Songs: “Blow That Horn” (Singleton) by Nacio Herb Brown (music) and Arthur Freed (lyrics); “Smoke Dreams” (Singleton) by Walter Donaldson, Chet Forrest, Bob Wright. Dances staged by Seymour Felix. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Harry McAfee. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Costumes designed by Dolly Tree. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Hunt Stromberg.
Copyright 21 December 1936 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 24 December 1936. 110 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: No sooner do Nick and Nora Charles return to their San Francisco home from New York than they are confronted by family problems. Selma Landis, Nora’s cousin, pleads with Nick to help find her husband, Robert Landis, who has been missing for three days. Nick locates him in a Chinese cafe, and learns from the intoxicated man that he has been having an affair with cafe singer Polly Byrnes. David Graham, Polly’s former sweetheart, gives Robert $25,000 in bonds to go away and leave Selma alone. Robert accepts the funds and prepares to leave town when he is shot.
NOTES: Second of the six-picture series. (See Song of the The Thin Man later on in this book).
One of the top forty box-office attractions in North America for 1937.
Goodrich and Hackett were nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for their Screenplay, losing to Story of Louis Pasteur.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: All of us are a bit too hard on sequels. All of us. Critics, fans, general moviegoers, we all tend to judge the sequel by the standard of the original movie. Thus the thumbs down to Son of Kong, Belle Starr’s Daughter and The Return of a Man Called Horse. Yes, it’s certainly true that studios often skimp on production values when they have a ready market for a sequel. It’s equally true that the script is often hastily written and the film directed by a man whose emphasis is on celerity rather than meticulous craftsmanship. But many of these scruples do not apply to After the Thin Man. Here we have the same leads, the same director, same writers, same producer, even the same film editor. Mr Powell is the same sharp, inebriated, self-indulgent Charles, and Miss Loy continues to be gorgeously gowned by Dolly Tree. Only the supporting cast has changed. Instead of Nat Pendleton’s reasonably intelligent, co-operative police lieutenant, we now have Sam Levene’s more aggressive yet equally co-operative police lieutenant. Instead of Maureen O’Sullivan’s pleadingly lovely damsel-in-distress, substitute Elissa Landi’s slightly more hysterical yet equally attractive damsel-in-distress. Instead of a missing father, make it a missing husband. Instead of a more mature low-life friend for dad, introduce a more hoydenish bit of low-life for hubbie. Instead of a bookish brother for the heroine, conjure up a more sensitive, more helpful ex-lover. Don’t forget the matriarch and the blackmailer, they’re virtually the same. Mix them all together and round them all up for a final confrontation and there you have After the Thin Man. Never was there a truer title!
Yes, same plot, same characters — but less action and more songs — why are we complaining that the sequel isn’t as bright, as witty, as agreeable as the original?
I like it as much anyway. Maybe it’s a bit too talky — and loudmouthed Sam Levene does get on our nerves a bit — but it does have at least three incomparable advantages: — James Stewart, Penny Singleton and Jessie Ralph.
To catch Jimmy Stewart in an unsympathetic role — I believe this is the only time he ever played a heel in his entire screen career — is reason enough to see After the Thin Man. But he does the part really well. In fact, it’s a performance that actually improves the more you watch it, full of subtleties that you miss on a first viewing: little bits of business, fleeting facial expressions, body movements and gestures that give more than a clue to the character’s real persona behind the oh-so-friendly and politely diffident mask.
In another turn-up for the books, Penny Singleton here essays a characterization as far removed from Blondie as Peter Ibbetson from Count Dracula. She’s not only totally convincing, bogus accent and all, she doesn’t even look like Mrs Bumstead. And she has a couple of songs as well. What a wonderful bonus!
For matriachal roles, you simply can’t go past Jessie Ralph. She’s the queen. Minna Gombell, by comparison, can rise no higher than upstairs maid. Admittedly, Jessie did occasionally step off her pedestal (for example, as the scourge of W. C. Fields in the 1940 The Bank Dick), but never lost her dignity.
To these three reasons for catching After the Thin Man, add Bill Powell, Myrna Loy and a marvelous support cast. If Van Dyke’s direction isn’t quite as stylish, and if you tend to agree with some reviewers that too much time is wasted on the dogs, surely this rich assembly of favorite players more than compensates?
--
Frank Villard (Captain Thierry), Genevieve Kervine (Martine Duverger), Marc Cassot (Inspector Lombard), Jean Tissier (Edgar Clement), Martine Sarcey (Helene), René Clermont, Hugues Wanner, Gerard Buhr, Alfred Goulin, Jacques Eyser, A. Medina, J. Montaine, P. Amiot, Dinan.
Director: JEAN STELLI. Screenplay: Jean Kerchner. Photography: Marc Fossard. Film editor: Jean-Charles Dudremet. Art director: Daniel Guéret. Music: Marcel Landowski. Casting director: Tonio Sane. Production manager: Jean Kerchner. Producers: Michel Kagansky, Jacques Lebaudy, Evrard de Rouvre.
A Films Serius Production, not copyright in the USA 1956. Never theatrically released in the USA but available to television stations through American-International. 85 minutes.
American TV title: Nest of Spies.
SYNOPSIS: The mysterious death of a well-known criminal sparks an investigation into national security.
NOTES: First of the popular Deuxieme Bureau series, this entry was followed by Deuxieme Bureau contre Inconnu (1957), Rapt au Deuxieme Bureau (1958), Suspense au Deuxieme Bureau (1960), Deuxieme Bureau contre Terroristes (1961).
COMMENT: It’s certainly odd to find the screenwriter doubling as production manager, but that’s indeed the case here. Frankly, it is the writing that would have benefited from a more professional approach. The proceedings are not only juvenile but dull. And despite much shooting on actual locations, Stelli’s direction comes over for the most part of the movie as disappointingly leaden, though it does spark into sudden life at unexpected moments. However, a compensating factor is the presence of two attractive blondes in the cast in the persons of Mademoiselles Kervine and Sarcey.
Another oddity is that Frank Villard who played Captain Thierry in the first three movies, returned in the final entry as a different character! Jean Stelli directed all entries but the film noirish Suspense au Deuxieme Bureau which was written, produced and directed by Christian de Saint-Maurice.
--
Vivien Leigh (Anna Karenina), Sir Ralph Richardson (Count Karenin), Kieron Moore (Count Vronsky), Hugh Dempster (Prince Stepan Oblonsky), Niall MacGinnis (Levin), Michael Gough (Nicolai Scherbatsky), Sally Ann Howes (Kitty Scherbatsky), Mary Kerridge (Dolly Oblonsky), Frank Tickle (Prince Scherbatsky), Marie Lohr (Princess Scherbatsky), Martita Hunt (Princess Betsy), Helen Haye (Countess Vronsky), Mary Martlew (Princess Nathalie), Ruby Miller (Countess Meskov), Austin Trevor (Colonel Vronsky), Ann South (Princess Sorokina), Guy Verney (Prince Makhotin), John Longden (General Serpuhousky), Leslie Bradley (Korsunsky), Heather Thatcher (Countess Lydia Ivanovna), Beckett Bould (Matvey), Judith Nelmes (Miss Hull), Valentina Murch (Annushka,), Theresa Giehse (Marietta), Michael Medwin (Kitty’s doctor), John Salew (lawyer), Patrick Skipwith (Sergei), Gino Cervi (Enrico), Jeremy Spenser (Giuseppe), and Helen Campbell.
Directed by JULIEN DUVIVIER from a screenplay by Jean Anouilh, Guy Morgan and Julien Duvivier, based on the 1877 novel by Count Leo Tolstoy. Photographed by Henri Alekan. Production design: Vincent Korda. Art directors: Andre Andrejew and Wilfred Shingleton. Costumes: Cecil Beaton. Film editor: Russell Lloyd. Music composed by Constant Lambert and directed by Dr Hubert Clifford. Casting director: Bill O’Bryen. Special effects: W. Percy Day and Cliff Richardson. Music played by the London Films Symphony Orchestra. Production manager: Ronald Kinnoch. Camera operator: Robert Walker. Assistant director: Michael Delamar. Set continuity: Maisie Kelly. Make-up: Harold Fletcher. Hairdressing: Helen Penfold. Dialogue advisor: Elizabeth Montagu. Period advisor: Vladimir Wiazemsky. Sally Ann Howes appears by permission of the J. Arthur Rank Organization. Sound supervisor John Cox. Sound recording: Bert Ross and Red Law. Producer: Herbert Mason. Associate Producer: Sir Alexander Korda.
London Films. Released in the U.K. through British Lion, in Australia through B.E.F., in the U.S.A. through 20th Century-Fox.
Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. New York opening at the Roxy: 27 April 1949. U.S. release: May 1948. U.K. release: 27 September 1948. Australian release: 21 October 1948. 12,544 feet. 139 minutes. Cut to 10,122 feet or 112 minutes in Australia and the U.S.A.
SYNOPSIS: Anna Karenina is a young society woman who prefers a romantic entanglement with a dashing officer to life with her staid husband and querulous child.
NOTES: A huge hit with Miss Leigh’s legions of Australian fans, the film was less successful in America where her triumphs in Gone With The Wind and Waterloo Bridge were largely forgotten.
Director/writer Julien Duvivier had actually contemplated a French film version of the novel to star Danielle Darrieux. However, when contacted by Alexander Korda of London Films, Duvivier agreed to make over his adaptation for Vivien Leigh, because Korda had financed the director’s previous film, Panique.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: A classy production. Oddly, it has improved greatly with time. It no longer seems such heavy going. Indeed, even Kieron Moore’s performance appears less gauche, whilst Miss Leigh’s is more sensitive and Ralph Richardson’s more impressive than ever. Duvivier’s superb mise-en-scene and Henri Alekan’s lustrous photography capture sets and costumes of such beauty and attractiveness, we are never likely to see their like again.
OTHER VIEWS: Fine photography, beautiful costumes, sensitive direction and some excellent performances but the film remains a sad second-best when compared with the earlier Garbo version. The fault lies in the rather ponderous script which tends to make it all a wearisome and heavy-going affair. But there’s no denying it’s a beautiful production.
— E.V.D.
Kieron Moore was clearly miscast as Vronsky. Actually, we decided to put him in the part as a last resort. Our director had arrived, cameras were ready to roll — with no leading man. Kieron was at hand and under contract to us. We decided to risk it.
Through no fault of his, the part did him more harm than good.
— Bill O’Bryen.
Anouilh wrote the original script, transposing the story to France. This wasn’t at all what Korda wanted and he brought in Guy Morgan to work on the screenplay with Duvivier . . . The film turned out to be too long, had to be cut drastically and this, with some miscasting, turned into a comparative failure something that should have been a triumphant success . . . The railway stations, the opera, the parties, the balls of upper-class Russian society created a crowded, bustling, vivid pattern that in Duvivier’s hands was extremely attractive . . . Where the film’s weakness lay was in the acting — with some notable exceptions. Vivien Leigh presented a pictorially perfect Anna, but too cool, too self-possessed. She remained aloof as if viewing her part from the outside and made it impossible to believe her jealousy and despair. Only in the last scenes did she come to convincing life. Kieron Moore — and he was Korda’s choice — was stiff, gauche, unconvincing as Vronsky. The real star of the film was Sir Ralph Richardson, whose tortured Karenin acquired a far greater significance than his lines.
— Paul Tabori in his biography of Alexander Korda.
Vivien Leigh is a beautiful but withdrawn Anna. Kieron Moore is sadly miscast as Vronsky and the all-important relationship between the two is never even vaguely realized, so that Karenin, strongly played by Sir Ralph Richardson, strangely emerges with an heroic, and not a pathetic reference. The heavy yet graceful elaboration of the interior sets and — a vivid memory this — the wintry scenes within the railway station show the sensibilities of the art director and costume designer at their best.
— Denis Forman.
--
Irene Dunne (Dr Ann Vickers), Walter Huston (Judge Barney Dolphin), Conrad Nagel (Lindsay Atwell), Bruce Cabot (Captain Lafe Resnick), Sam Hardy (Russell Spaulding), Edna May Oliver (Malvina Wormster), Gertrude Michael (Mona Dolphin), Murray Kinnell (Dr Slenk), Rafaella Ottiano (Feldermans, Dr Vickers’ secretary), Mitchell Lewis (Captain Waldo), Helen Eby-Rock (Kitty Cognac), J. Carroll Naish (Dr Sorell), Sarah Padden (Lil), Reginald Barlow (chaplain), Irving Bacon (waiter), Edwin Maxwell (defense attorney), Jane Darwell (Mrs Gates), Arthur Hoyt (Penny).
Director: JOHN CROMWELL. Screenplay: Jane Murfin. Based on the 1933 novel by Sinclair Lewis. Photographed in black-and-white by David Abel and Edward Cronjager. Film editor: George Nicholls Jr. Music composed by Max Steiner. Music director: Max Steiner. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase, Charles Kirk. RCA Sound System. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Executive producer: Merian C. Cooper.
Copyright 28 September 1933 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 28 September 1933 (ran one week). U.S. release: 13 October 1933. U.K release: 7 May 1934. Australian release: 21 March 1934. 9 reels. 72 minutes.
NOTES: Irene Dunne was super-popular world-wide, though Ann Vickers was more successful in cities than the country; and in carriage and middle-class suburbs rather than working-class districts.
COMMENT: Ann Vickers is the sort of movie I really like. Here we have a fast-moving plot, packed with incident; a sympathetic lead and interesting support characters; smart, witty dialogue; all abetted by stylishly inventive, pacy direction and highly polished photography. (Production values only fall down in a couple of minor matters, like the obvious use of models for the Stuyvesant Building and the clumsy superimposition of Irene Dunne’s close-up over the prison scenes. Maybe this latter device was designed to disguise the fact that these scenes were extracted from the stock footage library; — but if so, they were darn good).
Two photographers were employed, David Abel doing the bulk of the work like the lovely soft-focus close-ups, the dynamically-framed two-shots and the dramatic reverse angles of Miss Dunne; whilst Eddie Cronjager contributed the more high contrast material, such as the single take with Dunne and Oliver in the taxi.
Dunne carries the bulk of the action. I think she is in every scene, though of course she does take a back seat as a spectator in the trial sequences. Attractively photographed, styled and dressed, Miss Dunne brings Sinclair Lewis’ plucky heroine to sympathetic life.
Led by Walter Huston and Edna May Oliver, the support cast is enlivened by a highly skilled array of players, including Bruce Cabot (in a small but meaty role), Gertrude Michael (making the most of her one brief scene), Edwin Maxwell, and especially Mitchell Lewis. It’s easy to spot other favorites like Arthur Hoyt and Jane Darwell (both Stuyvesant board members), J. Carroll Naish (a nonspeaking bit as a drunken doctor), Irving Bacon (also no dialogue) as a waiter. Huston himself has only one brief scene in the first half of the film, but comes into his own in the second half where he plays with his usual feisty vigor. Unfortunately, Huston’s self-confident and self-possessed sincerity is not echoed by Conrad Nagel who makes his part as Irene’s social worker colleague, a little too prissy (though maybe this is true to Lewis’ vision of the character). In any event, his role is small. Also mercifully brief is Rafaella Ottiano’s impersonation of Irene’s secretary at the Stuyvesant Home. Luckily, she doesn’t come on until the latter half of the picture, but she’s a bit hard to take, what with her constant facial grimacing that serves no purpose other than plain camera-hogging.
Max Steiner has obliged with a melodic music score, the film editing is exceptionally adroit, the movie is always attractive to look at and often scintillating to hear. Perhaps one or two dull sequences, but all told, a lively and engrossing 72 minutes.
Packed with incident, the movie seamlessly crosses the boundaries of a number of genres: The brutal prison scenes align with classic film noir, the wronged woman with traditional weepies, the final silver-lined clouds with storybook romance.
--
William Powell (Nick Charles), Myrna Loy (Nora Charles), C. Aubrey Smith (Colonel MacFay), Virginia Grey (Lois), Ruth Hussey (Dorothy), Nat Pendleton (Lieutenant Guild), Otto Kruger (Van Slack), Tom Neal (Freddie Colman), Marjorie Main (Mrs Dolley), Patric Knowles (Dudley Horn), Muriel Hutchison (Smitty), Sheldon Leonard (Sam Church), Phyllis Gordon (Mrs Bellam), Don Costello (Vogel), Harry Bellaver (Creeps), Abner Biberman (Dum-Dum), Martin Garralaga (Pedro), Alex D’Arcy (South American), Frank Sully (Pete), Horace MacMahon (chauffeur), Nell Craig (maid), William Anthony Poulsen (Nicky), Milton Kibbee (deputy), Murray Alper (Larry), Nestor Paiva (waiter), Shemp Howard (Wacky), Nellie V. Nichols (Mrs Wacky), Thomas Jackson (detective), Joseph Downing (1st thug), Edward Gargan (Quinn), Matty Fain (thug), Bert Roach (Cookie), Claire Rochelle (telephone operator), Doodles Weaver (guard), Roy Barcroft (Slim), Joe Devlin (Barney), Milton Parsons (medical examiner), Dick Elliott (investigator), Gladden James (fingerprint man), Edwin Parker (trooper), Ralph Dunn (expressman), George Guhl, Paul Newman (bodyguards), Paul E. Burns (ticket agent), William Tannen (state trooper), Alphonse Martel, Alberto Morin (waiters), John Kelly (father), Edward Hearn (detective).
Directed by W.S. VAN DYKE II from a screenplay by Frances Goodrich from Albert Hackett, based on an original story by Dashiell Hammett. Photography: Oliver T. Marsh, William Daniels. Film editor: Fredrick Y. Smith. Music: Edward Ward. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, John S. Detlie. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis. Costumes: Dolly Tree. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Producer: Hunt Stromberg.
Copyright 15 November 1939 by Loew’s Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 23 November 1939. U.S. release: 17 November 1939. Australian release: 29 February 1940. 10 reels. 9,228 feet. 103 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Wealthy munitions manufacturer hires Charles because he thinks someone is trying to kill him. He’s dead right.
NOTES: Based on a short story, “The Farewell Murder”, originally featuring Hammett’s Continental Op (a nameless operative for the Continental Detective Agency in San Francisco, the character is modelled both on Hammett himself and James Wright, assistant superintendent of Pinkerton’s Baltimore office [Hammett’s former boss]. The series recounts many of Hammett’s own experiences as a Pinkerton detective).
Number three in the six-picture series inaugurated by The Thin Man in 1934 (see Song of the Thin Man later in this book).
One of the top twenty-five box-office attractions in the United States/Canada for 1940.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: The third and most entertaining of the six-picture series. The script is rowdy and witty and full of delightfully off-beat characters. A group of talented main and cameo players are given plenty of opportunities to embellish their roles with humorous bits of business. The identity of the murderer is well hidden and, considering the occasional ineptitudes of After the Thin Man, Van Dyke has directed with remarkable gusto, pace and craftsmanship.
--
Peter Ustinov (Hercule Poirot), Lauren Bacall (Lady Westholme), Hayley Mills (Miss Quinton, Lady Westholme’s assistant), Piper Laurie (Mrs Boynton), Carrie Fisher (Nadine Boynton), Jenny Seagrove (Dr King), David Soul (Jefferson Cope), John Gielgud (Colonel Carbury), Michael Craig (Lord Peel), Nicholas Guest (Lennox Boynton), John Terlesky (Raymond Boynton), Amber Bezer (Ginevra Boynton), Valerie Richards (Carol Boynton), Douglas Sheldon (Captain Rogers), Mike Sarne (Healey), Rudy Ruggiero (tourist guide), Marcel Solomon (ship’s captain), Dan Muggia (Italian policeman), Babi Neeman (Arab vendor), Rupert Horrox (British official), Hugh Brophy (British official at coronation ball), Lutuf Nouasser (Boynton driver).
Director: MICHAEL WINNER. Screenplay: Anthony Shaffer, Peter Buckman, Michael Winner. Based on the 1938 novel and 1945 stage play by Agatha Christie. Photographed in Eastman Color (processed by Rank Film Laboratories, Denham, England) by David Gurfinkel. Film editor: Michael Winner. Executive film editor: Chris Barnes. Production designer: John Blezard. Art director: Avi Avivi. Set decorators: Alan E. Cassie, Shlomo Tsafrir, assisted by Miguel Markin. Costumes designed by John Bloomfield, assisted by Ora Stikovski. Wardrobe mistress: Rona Doron. Wardrobe co-ordinator: Shuli Silberberg.Casting director: Dyson Lovell. Music: Pino Donaggio, assisted by Frank Barber (European music) and Rafi Kadishson (Arab music). Set continuity: Cheryl Leigh. Assistant to director: Graeme Harrington. Production supervisor: Itzik Kol. Production manager: Asher Gat. Production manager (London): Clifton Brandon. Post production supervisor: Stephen Barker. Location manager: Danny Ben Menahem. Assistant director: Chris Carreras. Music editor: Brian Lintern. Sound editors: Lionel Selwyn, Tony Lenny. Automated dialogue replacement mixer: Lionel Strutt. Sound re-recording mixer: David Old. Sound recording mixer: Eli Yarkoni. Associate producer: Mati Raz. Producer: Michael Winner. Executive producers: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus.
A Golan-Globus production, copyright 1988 by The Cannon Group, Inc. Distributed by Cannon in key territories. New York opening: 15 April 1988. London premiere: 27 May 1988. 108 minutes. Cut to 102 minutes in the USA.
SYNOPSIS: The time is 1937. After depriving her mature-age step-children of their rightful inheritance, a tyrannical matriarch takes her family on a tour of the Holy Land.
NOTES: Counting his three TV movies, this is Ustinov’s sixth (and final) appearance as Hercule Poirot whom he commenced playing in Death on the Nile (1978). The others: Evil under the Sun (1982), “Thirteen at Dinner” (1985), “Dead Man’s Folly” (1986), “Murder in Three Acts” (1986).
USA rental gross was only $960,000. Even allowing for a similar gross from the rest of the world, the film would have been lucky to break even.
COMMENT: With an enormous amount of actual location lensing, this entry certainly looks expansively attractive. Unfortunately the sound re-recording is occasionally a bit on the blurry side, but a much worse annoyance is the fidgety, jumpy, jerky film editing perpetrated by Mr Winner, who seems anxious that neither a single unnecessary location set-up or top-heavy studio close-up be jettisoned. These two irritants make the plot somewhat difficult to follow. Admittedly, the editorial rhythm does settle down about halfway through. In fact, the story even starts to drag a little, despite the welcome insertion of a couple of well-staged action sequences. Ustinov’s indifferent performance doesn’t help either. The movie is saved by Lauren Bacall, however, ably assisted by Jenny Seagrove and—in lesser roles—Piper Laurie and David Soul, almost right up to the fade-out when an unexpected conclusion proves not only highly disappointing but leaves a bad taste in the mouth. In a book or on the stage, Miss Christie probably managed to get away with it, but cinema audiences are rooting for the character concerned. It comes as a big blow when this charismatic person turns out to be a cold-blooded killer. I’m not surprised the movie failed to recover its negative cost in America.
The murder mystery itself proves far less interesting than the scenery, while the locations themselves are often dwarfed by the cast. With the exception of Peter Ustinov (who often seems to have wandered into the movie by mistake), the principals deliver mighty engaging performances, though it’s sad to see Hayley Mills in such a lackluster and unrewarding role. David Soul gives a good account of himself, but it’s the women led by Lauren Bacall and Piper Laurie who really excel. Director/editor Michael Winner seems overly concerned to cram as much location footage as possible into the film, often at the expense of coherence. But then, when it comes to the minor players, who cares who’s who anyway?
--
Charles McGraw (Cordell), Adele Jergens (Yvonne), William Talman (Dave Purvis), Douglas Fowley (Benny), Steve Brodie (Al Mapes), Don McGuire (Ryan), Don Haggerty (Cuyler), James Flavin (Phillips), Gene Evans (Ace Foster), Anne O’Neal (Mrs Page), Barry Brooks (Witwer), Linda Johnson (girl transmitter), Carl Saxe (Chandler), Charles Flynn (Rhodes), Dick Irving (Craig), James Bush (control tower operator), Roger Creed (operator), Anne Nagel (Mrs Phillips), Mary Randall (Nurse Paxton), Frederick Howard (Dr Leslie), Allen Mathews (2nd detective), William Tannen (Johnson), Paul Bryar (Duncan), Jack Shea (Evans), Art Dupuis (cashier), Paul E. Burns (Mr Kelly), Mack Williams (Marshall), Frank Scannell (Kimball), Dick Dickenson (newsboy), Max Hellinger (Mr Bronson), Carey Loftin (Duff), Robert Sterling.
Director: RICHARD FLEISCHER. Screenplay: Earl Felton and Gerald Drayson Adams; from a story by Robert Angus and Robert Leeds. Director of photography: Guy Roe. Sound: Frank Sarver, Clem Portman. Music: Roy Webb. Music director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Art directors: Albert S. D’Agostino, Ralph Berger. Set decoration: Darrell Silvera, James Altwies. Make-up: Mel Burns, Burrows Grimwood. Hair styles: Vera Peterson. Production manager: John Burch. Assistant director: John E. Pommer. Script supervisor: Mercy Wireter. Film editor: Desmond Marquette. R.C.A. Sound System. Producer: Herman Schlom.
Copyright 8 June 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. No New York opening. Released 7 June 1950 (U.S.A.), 6 August 1951 (U.K.) 20 October 1950 (Aust.). 6,265 feet. 69 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Dave Purvis is a cruel, intelligent criminal who maintains a clean police record by planning robberies that others carry out. He is introduced to strong-arm men, Al Mapes and Ace Foster, by a mutual friend, Benny, a down-and-out promoter whose wife, Yvonne, is a flashy stripper and is having an affair with Purvis. Benny convinces Mapes and Foster that although Purvis is unknown (he keeps his real identity a secret), he is indeed one of the best “brain men” in the business; and they agree to implement Purvis’s plan to rob a local sports stadium.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: As a switch, McGraw was the cop rather than the bad guy in Fleischer’s B-features This one is not as exciting as The Narrow Margin. There is the almost obligatory finale among the spilled bank notes and indeed the whole film is done competently to formula. Talman gives the film’s best performance and it is a pity he didn’t get better parts to keep him out of his TV Perry Mason spot.
— Barrie Pattison.
OTHER VIEWS: Armored Car Robbery, a conventional caper film, does not possess the budget or pretensions of such later productions as The Asphalt Jungle or The Killing. Yet the narrative substantially anticipates both films with the marked exception of Kubrick’s restructuring of the chronological order. Armored Car Robbery does possess the noir visual style of many RKO crime and suspense films in the post-Welles era: high contrast photography integrating studio and location sequences by use of expressionistic lighting and deep focus and completed by the haunting music of Roy Webb.
— Bob Porfirio.
--
John Howard (Captain Hugh C. “Bulldog” Drummond), Heather Angel (Phyllis Clavering), H.B. Warner (Colonel Nielson), Reginald Denny (Algy Longworth), E.E. Clive (Tenny), Jean Fenwick (Lady Beryl Ledyard), Zeffie Tilbury (Aunt Meg), George Zucco (Rolf Alferson), Leonard Mudie (Robin Gannett), Evan Thomas (Smith), Clyde Cook (Constable Sacker), David Clyde (Constable McThane), George Regas (Soongh), Neil Fitzgerald (Sir Malcolm McLeonard), Claud Allister (Sir Basil Leghorne), John Sutton (Inspector Tredennis), Ferdinand Munier (Old Major Trumleigh), John Rogers (Guggins), Frank Baker (cop), John Davidson (Gumba), Billy Bevan (aquarium attendant), Dick Elliott (mayor).
Director: JAMES HOGAN. Screenplay: Stuart Palmer. Based on the 1926 novel The Final Count by H.C. (“Sapper”) McNeile. Photography: Ted Tetzlaff. Film editor: Stuart Gilmore. Art directors: Hans Dreier, Franz Bachelin. Set decorations: A.E. Freudeman. Music director: Boris Morros. Assistant director: Evan Thomas. Sound recording: Hugo Grenzbach, Richard Olson. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Stuart Walker.
Copyright 25 November 1938 by Paramount Pictures Inc. Presented by Adolph Zukor. New York opening at the Criterion: 11 January 1939. U.S. release: 25 November 1938. Australian release: 12 January 1939. 6 reels. 60 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Drummond and his friends travel to a British-held tropical island to corner a villain who has transported a powerful death ray there from London, after killing its inventor.
NOTES: Number 14 of the 24-picture “Bulldog Drummond” series.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Borderline.
COMMENTS: There’s plenty of explosive action in this one (after a slow start) and the support cast is interesting too. Unfortunately, the script re-introduces Nielson’s tiresome “Don’t call me Inspector!” joke, though Reginald Denny is less boobish than usual and Nydia Westman is mercifully not present. Hogan keeps the film moving at a crackling pace and production values, headed by Ted Tetzlaff’s cinematography, are good.
--
Virginia Mayo (Julie Benson), Gordon MacRae (Bob Carey), Edmond O’Brien (Steve Connolly), Dane Clark (Ben Arno), Viveca Lindfors (Lysa Radolph), Ed Begley (Captain Garcia), Frances Robinson (Mrs Blayne), Richard Rober (Solly Blayne), Sheila Stephens (Bonnie), David Hoffman (Burns), Ida Moore (Sybil), Leonard Strong (Quong), John Ridgely (detective at hospital), Charles Lane (hospital doctor), Fred Kelsey (fight fan), John Dehner (detective in office), O.M. Wissen (Dr Anstead), Monte Blue (Detective Sergeant Pluther).
Director: VINCENT SHERMAN. Screenplay: Larry Marcus, Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts. Story: Larry Marcus. Photography: Carl Guthrie. Film editor: Thomas Reilly. Art director: Anton Grot. Music scored by Daniele Amfitheatrof, orchestrated by Sid Cutner and Leo Shuken, directed by Ray Heindorf. Dialogue director: Maurice Murphy. Camera operator: Lou Jennings. Set decorations: William Wallace. Script supervisor: Alma D. Young. Hair styles: Alma Armstrong, Ray Forman. Make-up: Perc Westmore, Eddie Voight, Gene Hibbs, Nick Marcellion. Costumes: Milo Anderson, Leah Rhodes. Grip: Herschel Brown. Gaffer: Victor Johnson. Still cameraman: Frank Bjerring. Production manager: Don Page. Assistant director: James McMahon. Sound technician: Stanley Jones. RCA Sound System. Producer: Anthony Veiller.
Produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., by whom copyright 11 February 1950. Released 11 February 1950 (U.S.A.), 13 August 1951 (U.K.), 27 July 1951 (Australia). New York opening at the Globe: 26 January 1950. 8,139 feet. 90½ minutes. Shooting title: Somewhere in the City.
SYNOPSIS: Complex crime yarn following Mayo and MacRae as they search for ex-G.I. pal O’Brien, who is on the lam for a murder he didn’t commit.
NOTES: Second collaboration of writers Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Their first was White Heat (1949).
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Borderline.
COMMENT: A moderately suspenseful thriller with engagingly atmospheric photography, some fair action sequences, and at least one stand-out support performance (Viveca Lindfors); — in fact, all the support players walk rings around the two principals, here somewhat out of their element in non-musical roles. Actually, Virginia Mayo is not in the film to the extent her top billing implies (and in TV transmissions her part is the first to be trimmed).
The identity of the real killer is obvious, but nonetheless intriguing thanks to the skilful playing of the person concerned.
The film is a bit slow to get under way and there are some extraneous episodes that could have stayed in the cutting-room (but were doubtless left in to build up Miss Mayo’s part). These things aside, the film is directed at a reasonably fast pace and with a modicum of power and style.
Production values are no more than average by “A” standards but behind-the-camera credits (sets, costumes, music, film editing) reflect the usual craftsmanship of Warner Bros. studio.
--
Peter Reynolds (Terry), Sandra Dorne (Della), Sydney Tafler (Shelton), Arthur Mullard (Joe Linders), Lloyd Lamble (Detective Inspector Mason), Rose Hill (Mrs Marling, landlady), Tim Ellison (Jack Conner), Roberta Woolley (Sonia Conner), Jeanne Kent (Mrs Conner), Ann King (Ann Seaton), Patrick Feeney (nightclub singer), Robert Bruce (Detective Sergeant Bates), Dennis Taylor.
Director: MAXWELL MUNDEN. Original story and screenplay: Brandon Fleming. Photography: Henry Hall. Camera operator: Cyril Gray. Film editor: Ted Hunter. Art director: Joseph Bato. Make-up: Harry Dave. Set continuity: Olga Marshall. “The Yum Yum Song” (Feeney) by Monti de Lyle and Frank Booth. Production manager: Pamela Paulet. Production secretary: K. Climie. Assistant director: Ron Genders. Sound recording: Jim Morris. RCA Sound System. Producer: Geoffrey Goodhart. A Film Workshop Production presented by Film Storytellers, made at St John’s Wood Studios.
Copyright 1958 by Rank Film Distributors Ltd. Never theatrically released in the U.S.A. Released in the U.K. through Rank: 2 November 1958. Australian release through British Empire Films: 23 April 1959. 5,367 feet. 59 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A petty crook gives bank robbers away by flashing money about.
NOTES: Final film of Max Munden, who made his feature film debut the previous year (he had previously directed two shorts, back in the early 1940s) with The House in the Woods, which has a considerable cult following.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Unsuitable for younger children,
COMMENT: By the humble standards of the British quota quickie, this is a reasonably gripping effort. Peter Reynolds fans will have a hey-day. The exotic Sandra Dorne looks great too, though the film’s stand-out performance is contributed by Arthur Mullard as the mastermind’s thuggish henchman. With the notable exception of Tim Ellison (who looks and sounds like a RADA reject), the support players are likewise in good form. Despite the film’s obviously cramped budget, the direction has impact, with real locations and sound effects skilfully utilized. Summing up: A considerable cut above the average British “B”-feature, thanks to inventive direction, solid playing and a tight script. Production values are also well above the norm for a film of this class, helped out by real locations such as the London night club (with a resident singer, yet).