Semiquincecentennial Movie Project #14: The Trouble with Harry

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #14: Vermont -

 

The state of Vermont was established on March 4, 1791

Details about Vermont:

State bird: hermit thrush

State flower: red clover

State tree: sugar maple

Additional historical trivia:

Vermont is the home of the hippie's favorite ice cream, Ben & Jerry's.

The first postage stamp in the US was printed in Brattleboro.

The state was the last holdout to allow the Evil Empire (Wal-Mart) to open up a store in it's boundaries. They didn't get one until 1996...

There are more covered bridges in Vermont than any other state. Only about 8.000 people. But even the most populous city only has about 50,000 residents.

Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery.

You won't find billboards in Vermont. It was the first state to outlaw them. 

Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, is the least populated capital city in the Union. 

Famous people born in Vermont: Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur (US Presidents), John Deere, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (founders of the Mormon church), and Bill Wilson (founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and, yes, I included him because I am a member of the recovery group...).

 

The Trouble with Harry (1955): 

Where is Hitch?: In almost every Hitchcock movie Alfred Hitchcock managed to make a cameo appearance. Hitch appears about 22 minutes into the film as one of the customers browsing the art work on display.

 

The Trouble with Harry was a rarity in the oeuvre of Alfred Hitchcock, in that it was more of a comedy than a thriller. And the film is populated with some of the most oddball characters you'll see this side of Arsenic and Old Lace. 

The production of the film had as much oddball quirks as the characters in the movie itself. For one thing, when the production company showed up in Vermont to start shooting the film, they were expecting the trees to still be sporting the fall colors of just beginning to hibernate foliage. But the trees were almost bare of leaves... So the solution? Why, they glued leaves to the trees, of course... (As ridiculous as it sounds, they didn't do all that bad a job of it...)

The production team was also plagued with torrential rain. Some of the scenes actually had to be filmed in a rented gym. And the rain played hell with the production there, too. There was some extensive redubbing because the rain interfered with the sound. And, on top of that, a camera fell from the ceiling and almost hit Hitchcock. The good thing about all that rain; even though there was some local flooding, which was bad, the revenue from the film was donated to locals who had been affected by the flooding.

The Trouble with Harry had some fairly big names associated with it. It was the first movie that Shirley MacLaine was ever cast. It was also an early screen premiere for Jerry Mathers, who just a few years later would be cast for the lead in the TV series Leave it to Beaver. Also appearing in the film were Edmund Gwenn (Kris Kringle in the classic Miracle on 34th Street), John Forsythe (probably most well-remembered as the voice of "Charlie" on the TV series Charlie's Angels or Blake Carrington on Dynasty), two-time Oscar winner Mildred Dunnock (Death of a Salesman and Baby Doll) and Royal Dano (a familiar face to many people, like my sister, who watched those old TV westerns.)

The movie opens with young Arnie Rogers (Jerry Mathers) hiking through the woods with his toy gun when he stumbles upon a body. The body is that of Harry Worp (the body was played by Philip Truex, whose father. Ernest Truex, appeared in two classic Twilight Zone episodes). 

Arnie runs off to tell his mom of his discovery, but in the meantime, Captain Wiles (Edmund Gwenn) comes across the body. He thinks that Harry is the victim of an accident, having been shot by Wiles while he was out hunting rabbits.

Wiles has plans to hide the body, but he is discovered by Miss Gravely (Mildred Natwick). Miss Gravely is not entirely in shock, as you might expect. Instead she agrees to keep the body a secret, provided that the captain drops by her house for a social engagement. But when the captain tries to continue his plan to hide the body he runs into problems. The woods seem to be populated as much as the local town. Everybody and their mother stumbles upon the body (while the captain hides and mutters that he might as well have sold tickets to view the body.

Everyone who stumbles upon the body is likewise as unperturbed as Miss Gravely. It turns out that several people know who Harry is, and that they themselves are complicit in the death of the poor man.  This is the black comedy part of the film. (Yes, it's a black comedy. What other kind of comedy could we expect from the master of the macabre...?) 

Among those who drop in on the corpse are a tramp (Barry Macollum) who steals the corpse's shoes,

and Jennifer Rogers (Shirley MacLaine), Arnie's mom, who, instead of shock, exhibits what amounts to relief. 

Harry, you see, was her estranged husband and she had hit him with  milk bottle earlier and thinks that is probably what killed him.  And Miss Gravely? She is not so innocent as she appears. She, too, thinks that she was implicit in the death of Harry. It seems the only person in town that does not think her or she was involved in Harry's death is little Arnie.

Meanwhile, back in town, we meet a few more of the screwy residents. Mrs. Wiggs (Mildred Dunnock), who runs a local dry goods store and is the local postmaster to boot, confers with local artist, Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe). 

Sam has commissioned her to sell some of his paintings, but she hasn't had much success. It seems tourists don't stop by as often as would be useful. (I'm not entirely sure if there EVER ARE any tourists dropping by, but be that as it may...) Local sheriff Calvin Wiggs (Royal Dano) comes on the scene asking about some shooting he heard. The sheriff had previously posted a "No shooting" ordinance and wants to know who was doing some shooting. The sheriff, by the way, is the son of the postmaster/dry goods store owner.

Of course, into the scene comes a potential customer for the decidedly odd paintings, but he may have a bit of trouble in succeeding in his quest since it seems everyone else is preoccupied with other small town events. Later, when Sam goes out into the woods to do a little drawing he too stumbles across the body, as well as the captain who is still fretting over his supposed complicity in the exit of Harry. Sam agrees to help the captain bury the body.  And unbury it... And bury it again... And unbury it... And bury it again... This part of the film is ne of the funnier parts of the film as they try to decide what to do about Harry.

In the meantime a relationship between Sam and Jennifer develops. And, as can usual happen in such a comedy of errors, Sam wants to marry Jennifer. But she is still married to Harry.  And if it can't be proven that Harry is dead, they would have to wait until the requisite 7 years for Harry to be declared officially missing... So now Harry is going to have to be "found" by the officials and declared dead, if they don't want to wait it out.

The Trouble with Harry was not particularly well received by the critics.  Bosley Crowther, a critic for The New York Times wrote that it is not a particularly witty or clever script" and that Hitchcock's direction did not "make it spin". But he did compliment the way the cast was able to pull it off with some panache in the form of it's comedy. Another critic, John McCarten for The New Yorker, claimed that "Alfred Hitchcock, whose work has been going steadily downhill ever since he arrived in Hollywood, skids to preposterous depths."

It was not a big hit at the box office either, although it did manage to bring in a profit; $3 million in sales against a budget of $1 million. Despite that, Rotten Tomatoes ranks it as 88% Fresh. And, really, if you have an open enough mind to accept Hitchcock as a comedic director, it's pretty good. Note "laugh out loud" funny, like, say Blazing Saddles, or, if you want to go the black comedy route, Arsenic and Old Lace, but I did find myself snickering on several occasions. Peopled as it is with such oddball characters, it carried itself well.

Black comedy is, by nature, not for everyone. If you have trouble accepting a dead body as a source of comedy, then I suggest you leave this one alone. But if you are like me, and appreciate a jaunt into the outré, then by al means, set up the DVD player. Maybe even make it a double feature with the aforementioned Arsenic and Old Lace...

Until, next time, drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

Hot Time in the Old Town

 

 

 

 

 This is my entry in the 6th Annual Golden Boy Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema and The Flapper Dame

 

 

 

 

The 50's were a different time altogether.  One can look at the average 50's drama and either wax nostalgic for lost innocence or maybe cringe at the closed-minded mores that governed what constituted "polite" society.  I have to admit I would probably have not fit in well in the 50's.  But then again, that stems from an upbringing that began sometime around 1970 (when I would have been 8, BTW).

Even so, those halcyon days did have a few things going for it that you would be hard pressed to find in today's world.  In the 50's people actually did things like give an itinerant bum a meal for doing a few chores around the house. And people did not look askance, and with a touch of suspicion at said stranger when he showed up.

William Holden, the aforementioned "bum", was 37 when this movie was made.  Not sure how old he is supposed to be in this film. For the sake of talking about the character, I'm going to say his character, Hal, is about 25, though.  Hal went to college (but flunked out in his junior year) and did a stint in the Army, and then bummed around for a bit.

But Holden looks damn good for 37, especially when his shirt is off.  According to my research, they had to shave his chest for those scenes.  (Possibly because they couldn't convincingly dye the hair on his chest good enough so it looked convincingly young?)

Picnic is based on an original play written by William Inge, a playwright who had some limited success on Broadway with four big hits, but later in life fell into depression because he felt nothing ever lived up to his first successes. Sad note: that depression eventually led to him committing suicide in 1973. 

 

 

 

 

Picnic (1955):

Pulling in to an unnamed town in Kansas (the opening train scene was filmed in Salina, as noticed by the sign on a building as it comes into town, but most of the film was shot in Hutchison), a train conductor lets Hal (William Holden) out of one of the cargo cars.  Hal tells the conductor he has a bigwig friend in town that he has come to see.  The conductor is, not surprisingly, unconvinced, but wishes him luck anyway.  Hal goes to use a nearby creek to wash up and then wanders in to town.

He sees young Millie (Susan Strasberg) playing in her yard, and while he watches her, the neighbor Mrs. Potts (Verna Felton) invites him in for a meal.  He repays the hospitality by doing some yard work.  Which is an excuse for him to take off his shirt.  Which garners attention from the whole family of girls next door; Millie, Madge (Kim Novak), and their mom, Flo (Betty Field).  As well as town schoolteacher, Rosemary (Rosalind Russell).

Madge

Millie

Mrs. Potts and Flo

Rosemary

Madge has a part time boy friend, Alan (Cliff Robertson), but she also has several admirers, including "Bomber" (Nick Adams).  She has plenty of potential prospects, obviously, but her mother says her time is short.  She only has her looks to snare a man for a short time because it is a quick leap from 20 to 40.  (She is just 19 at the time of the film).

Mom tells her that they made a mistake doting on her as a child, and that she spends more time and attention on Millie because she doesn't want to make the same mistakes.  She also tells her that she should get serious with Alan, because marriage to him, he being the richest prospect in town, would be a good thing for her.

(The idea that a woman is nothing on her own and needs to be married to be important in life is one of the issues I struggle with in watching 50's films.  But fortunately, that is one of the issues that this film addresses and, I think, attempts to dismantle, in it's own way.)

It turns out that Alan is the "old friend" that Hal has in town, so his tale of having a bigwig friend he told the conductor at the beginning is actually true.  Hal goes to Alan seeking out a job.  Hal has dreams of a cushy office job, but Alan tells him if he comes to work he'll basically have to start off small. Like as a laborer.

 At a local swimming hole, all the girls are entranced by this sexy new guy in town.  Millie tells her friends that Hal is taking her to the picnic. Although Millie is only about 15, if my math is right (Madge is 4 years older than Millie), and Hal is not interested in her other than just as a friend tagging along to the picnic, even Millie exhibits some attraction to him.

Mom is starting to get a little put off by Hal.  She wonders how he ever got in to college (it was a football scholarship), and how come the fraternity he joined with Alan pledged him, since apparently in those days fraternities usually had a little more :breeding" in their selection of candidates. (Mom is starting to show her feathers as an elitist, surprising since she is not in such an elitist environment.)

She is not the only elitist in the film.  Alan's father disapproves of Madge because she is from a lower economic class.  But elitism is not the main focal point of the film.  I may or may not be in the minority on this (and it's possible I am getting different signals, since this movie is often described as a tender and old-fashioned film), but I think there are a lot of proto-feminist ideas being put forth, at least in subtext.  The film seems to be saying that the old-fashioned view that women are nothing without a man in their lives is outdated. 

After all, Madge is resistant to the idea that she is only supposed to marry for the advancement of her status in town.  And Rosemary, who is on the verge of becoming the classic spinster and old maid, is desperate to get married. Not because she wants a man in her life, necessarily, else why should she try to latch on to a guy like Howard (Arthur O'Connell), who doesn't seem like all that much of a catch to me? Even Flo, as the mother whose husband left her to raise her two girls alone, seems to be a counterpoint to that tradition in the way she is portrayed.

The picnic scenes include several classic contests, none of which add to the movie in any way, but are apparently needed to convey the old-fashioned feeling of the small town  tradition. (And at least one reviewer I read during the preparations for this blog suggests that the director just took advantage of the use of the extras at a real celebration where he was filming to bulk up the film...)  But as the day winds down, we get a little more insight into the character of Hal and who he thinks he is (or who he wishes he was...) Never having become the man he wants to be in real life, he is not averse to building himself up in the eyes of the people with whom he is hanging out.

But is Hal anymore guilty than anyone else? It feels like everyone else in town is either running from their past, hiding from the future, or both. Alan seems to struggling with living up to his father's ideals Rosemary is, well, worried about becoming an old maid. Millie seems to hide behind books because she has to compete with her older sister who is "the pretty one" ( I kept expecting her to say "Everyone loves Madge. It's always Madge. Madge, Madge, Madge!) and she has to settle for what she can get. Flo has worries about her daughters futures because of the things she went through in her own past.  The only one who really seems comfortable in his own life is Howard..

At the end of the picnic is a dance.  Hal dances with Millie, which causes Madge to become a little jealous and she ends up dancing with Hal. (And James Wong Howe's lighting of this scene is one of the more impressive, because the camera makes the scene look more like a painting than an actual movie scene).  And Rosemary, who is getting drunk, decides she wants to dance with Hal, too.  But Hal rejects her advances and she tears his shirt in the struggle. And when Millie gets sick, and is discovered to have been drinking, Rosemary tries to pin the blame on Hal.

Hal, struggling with his own demons, to be sure, is becoming less and less enamored of this idyllic setting. He leaves the picnic, but Madge tags along. The relationship between Madge and Hal comes to a head, because Madge, like nearly all the women in the town, finds herself attracted to Hal. But Madge's attraction is more than just superficial.  Made likes the way that Hal doesn't make her feel like just a pretty face and nice figure. And the two kiss.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Rosemary confronts Howard, making him come to a final decision over their long-term courtship. She insists that Howard HAS to marry her, and thus, we find that even Howard has his own little fears about the future.  As he he tells Rosemary, sometimes, as time goes on, you become complacent with the lot in life you've been given,, "until it becomes too late to change".  (and thus, for me, Howard becomes the most relatable character, since his lot in life is similar to mine.)

When Hal returns Alan's car, the police are waiting at his house. It seems Alan is a bit perturbed that Hal has been horning in on his relationship with Madge and has filed a report that Hal stole the car (when, after all, Hal has been loaned the car by Alan). Hal has a scuffle with Alan and then runs, but is chased by the police. He manages to elude them and shows up at Howard's house, asking for Howard to let him stay the night, planning to leave town the next day.

There is a (somewhat) happy ending to it all, as eventually, most of the people facing bleak or uncertain futures do find fulfillment.  (Of sorts. Perhaps Howard's eventual change may not have been fulfilling enough for him as it was for Rosemary.  And I can identify with his resignation to go forward even if he was initially reluctant.) 

But that's not necessarily how it was planned out..  Apparently the original Inge play had a grimmer and starker ending,  Note: I got this information from Joe Bob Brigg's phenomenal treatise on "Sexy Movies That Changed History" Profoundly Erotic. Apparently the director, Joshua Logan, wanted a less bleak ending to the film than the playwright, William Inge, had initially conceived.  The play, as originally written, ended with Madge having turned into an old maid herself, rejected not only by Hal, but also having lost Alan's love, too, and is living a life in despair and shame.  This from the days when it was still a Broadway play.

 So some interesting tidbits of information I garnered;

First: Even though Holden himself thought he was too old for the role, he took it, mainly to fulfill a contract he had signed. It was the last one he had to make for the contract.  And he did not like his co-star Kim Novak all that much. And he had such a hard shoot with her, especially the scene where they had to dance. According to my info, he finally asked to be allowed to shoot that scene drunk, because it was the only way he could feel comfortable with dancing, especially with her.

And Novak, for her part, felt she was not quite adept enough for her role.  And it sometimes shows, if you ask me, The director apparently begged and pleaded to be able to cast someone (ANYBODY) else.  But producer was adamant that his new "ingenue" be given the primary role.  I personally was never that impressed with her as an actress.  Even Vertigo, which is probably considered her top performance, just never really clicked with me.

Rosalind Russell declined to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the movie because she felt her good days were still ahead of her and didn't want what she thought would be the death knell for her potential starring roles if she was classed in a "supporting actress" mold. And since at least two bravura performances were still in her future (in Auntie Mame and Gypsy) perhaps she wasn't wrong.

Cliff Robertson was just getting his start in the business. This was his first credited role.  And you know he had a pretty good career.  After all John F. Kennedy himself tagged Robertson as being the best choice to play him in P.T. 109 and he an Oscar for Charly.

But the most interesting piece of trivia I found concerned the woman who played Mrs. Potts, (whom I consider the most likeable character in the film). She had a pretty good career up until her death in 1966.  But one of her most memorable "roles"? Her picture was the one on the desk of Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan), who was identified as his wife, Mildred in the series. And this long after her passing. (Morgan's connection with her had to do with his long term association with Felton in two other TV series from the 50's, December Bride and Pete and Gladys).

I don't consider Picnic to be a true gem of the classic 50's small town life that some critics seem to identify it.  To me it seems hardly a step above Peyton Place, which is definitely not a movie you would associate with being a love letter to life as it was in those days.  But is it horrible? No, not really.  I just come away from it with a different view.

For further review: Previous entries in Golden Boy Blogathons:

The Horse Soldiers

The Devil's Brigade

Bridge on the River Kwai (as well as The Bridges of Toko-Ri)

Slow Boat from China

This is my entry in the Lauren Bacall Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood

It's a given that Lauren Bacall had some real sex appeal, especially in her early years with her onscreen presence with Humphrey Bogart.  Blood Alley teams her up with John Wayne, and that chemistry seems to dissipate immensely.  One wonders how much better it would have been with Robert Mitchum (the original star of the picture), or for that matter, Bogart, who was approached to do the film after Mitchum got canned from the flick, but wanted too much money to do it. 

Blood Alley (1955):

The movie begins with Captain Tom Wilder (John Wayne), a seaman in the Merchant Marines, in prison in Communist China.  He has been under interogation by the Communists during this time, but he has kept his sanity because he has a guardian angel of sorts, named "Baby", whom he talks to and confides in when the going gets rough. (Must be a new definition of "sanity", if you ask me...)


The circumstances change when he is helped to escape.  He doesn't initially know why his secret benefactors have conspired to get him out until he arrives at the town of Chiku Shan.  There he mets a Mr. Tso (Paul Fix, entirely unrecognizable in make up, at least to me, but if you close your eyes, you will hear the voice of the Marshall from The Rifleman, the part he was most famous for playing).  Tso tells him the reason.  He is wanted to pilot a ferryboat the town has commandeered and take the entire city of Chiku Shan out of Communist China territory to freedom in Hong Kong.

Also on hand in Chiku Shan is Cathy Grainger (Lauren Bacall), the daughter of a medical missionary.  Cathy is waiting for the return of her father, who has gone to do some surgery on one of the Communist leaders.  Unbeknownst to Cathy, or anyone else at the beginning, Cathy's father's surgery failed, and he was killed by the Communists in revenge.

So Wilder has to get the village to safety, but he has no real chance.  The ferryboat is a wreck, the trip is full of dangers, hampered by the fact that Wilder has to go only by his memory of the area since he has no viable map, and the escape vehicle can't really outdistance any ships the Communists could use to chase them.  They must rely on a little subterfuge to even get out of Chiku Shan so that the enemy doesn't realize what is going on right away.

The trip is hampered by the fact that the village has to take the resident family of Communist loyalists, the Fengs, with them.  Ostensibly because the Fengs would be blamed, persecuted and probably executed for allowing the village to escape.  But the Fengs prove to be a hazard to the trip in a couple of ways, including the poisoning of the food supply onboard.

The one thing that kept coming to my mind in this movie is how the film seems to teeter on the edge of being either late 19th century/early 20th century and "modern" (or modern in terms of the time of the movie).  It seems to me that it avoids some seemingly obvious options on the part of the Communists.  Why, if they were so intent on preventing the defection, didn't they just put a couple of airplanes in the air to bomb the derelict ferryboat?

Given Wayne's virulent anti-communist stance in politics, the film does come off a bit jingoistic.  And the Chinese characters are, admittedly typical of the era, a bit of a parody.  I cringed every time Joy Kim, who plays Cathy's maidservant, Susu, spoke. But not all are such annoyances.  Wilder's main man on the boat, Big Han (Mike Mazurski) is pretty good, as well as Henry Nakamura, who plays a cigar loving engineer, Tack.

The movie is not one of Wayne's best, nor is it one of Bacall's best, but it is entertaining on most levels.  After all he Wayne movies I've seen, this one only ranks in the middle of the list, but I would recommend it to anyone who wants to watch a non-Western Wayne film.

Quiggy

Hammer Films Does Film Noir

This is my entry in the British Invasion Blogathon hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts

If you are like me and are pretty much educated as to the output of the Hammer Films Productions through the classic Dracula and Frankenstein films of the 50's - 70's (starring Christopher Lee and/or  Peter Cushing in the iconic roles therein), you may be surprised that only 50 or so of 163 movies the company put out before it retired in the 70's were in the Gothic horror genre.  It was a complete surprise to me when rummaging through a rack of cheap DVDs that I found the following two movies on one DVD.  And it was labeled "Hammer Film Noir Vol. 5", which indicates there are at least 4 more volumes out there somewhere.

This information inspired me to do a little research on Hammer Films.  Hammer films was started in 1934 by William Hinds (who performed on the stage as Will Hammer, thus the origin of the company name).  The first actual movie produced by Hammer was a comedy, The Public Life of Henry the Ninth. But after only a handful of movies, the company basically went into hibernation.  (WWII had started and both Hinds' son, who was now a partner, and his executive, James Carreras left to go serve King and country).

But after the war was over the company went full blast into producing movies.  And for ten years the company produced a variety of themes; crime films, comedies, thrillers and film noir.  It was only with the first appearance Professor Quartermass (a legendary character for those who love British sci-fi) in 1955 that Hammer really delved into the area for which it more renowned today.  The Quartermass Xperiment was closely followed by X: The Unknown, and then came the start of the Frankenstein/Dracula films which garnered Hammer Films the cult following it has today: The Curse of Frankenstein which starred Peter Cushing as Doctor Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as the Monster, a pairing of two great actors that would crop up again and again in Hammer Horror.

But Hammer Films apparently cut its teeth on gritty crime dramas and film noir. I'll save the Gothic horror stuff for a later date.  The two films covered today are classed as film noir and with good reason.  The characters are almost all unethical to some extent, and their motives are almost always personal.  That is the essence of film noir to me, anyway.  The two movies also have the same director at the helm, Montgomery Tully.

Note: Both of the movies were originally released in the UK under the titles listed in bold below.  The American titles are listed in italics.  The posters are, by necessity,  the ones for the American releases,  because I could not find any images of the UK versions.


























Five Days (1954) aka "Paid to Kill"

Dane Clark stars a Jim Nevill, a businessman who has some rather unethical tendencies.  He gambles on business deals without the consent of his board of executives.

One deal, involving some purchases for which he expected a client, Cyrus McGowan (H. Marion Crawford, whom fans will recognize as Dr. Watson to Ronald Howard's Sherlock Holmes in the 50's British TV series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".)

McGowan reneges on a verbal deal he made with Nevill.  Nevill is not in great standing with his board in the first place, especially with the man who is his most ardent critic, Hyson (Arthur Young).   At wits end, and wanting his wife, Andrea (Thea Gregory), whom he dearly loves to be financially well off, Nevill arranges to have an acquaintance kill him, so she can collect the life insurance.



Wikipedia says that Paul Kirby (Paul Carpenter) is Nevill's "best friend" in the movie.  I'm just glad I don't have any "best friends" like that.  Apparently sometime in the past they had a falling out, most likely due to the fact that Kirby had murdered someone years ago and Nevill defended him at the trial by witnessing that it was "self defense", and has recently found out that the situation was otherwise.  Kirby is a lush who has never been any good at anything, except making friends with bartenders.  Especially his girlfriend, who just coincidentally happens to run a bar
.

At any rate, Nevill tries to hire/blackmail Kirby into killing him 5 days from the meeting.  The confrontation plays out somewhat like an episode of the 60's TV series  Batman, if you ask me. (Note: What follows is only a humorous creation by me; not the actual dialogue...)

Nevill: I want you to kill me. (POW!)
Kirby:  I won't do it!  (BANG!)
Nevill:  Yes, you will, or I'll tell on you!  (KERPLUNK!)
Kirby:  You can't make me!  (THWOCK!)

Despite this rather ridiculous confrontation (and believe me, it is kind of funny, even without the humor I injected into the scene), Nevill goes off to conduct the business he has planned, trying to wrap up the final details of his life, convinced he has succeeded in convincing Kirby to take care of his end of the deal.  He arranges for one of his business partners, Peter Glanville (Anthony Forwood), to take of entertaining his wife while he is gone, and goes off to Dublin on business.

But when Nevill gets back from his business deal, who shows up but McGowan, ready to re-initiate the deal he had promised.  Nevill's life is looking up, and he no longer needs to have Kirby kill him.  But when he tries to find Kirby to arrange to stop the killing, Nevill can't find him.  He seems to have disappeared.

Yet someone is definitely on the job, because someone takes a shot at him.

Not only is he shot at, his desk is sabotaged by a bomb and a couple of other potentially deadly incidents occur.  The bomb goes off and it is only Nevill's quick reflexes that prevents either him or his secretary, Joan (Cecile Chevreau), from being injured.  Desperate, Nevill tries to find out what happened to Kirby and discovers that he seemed to have skipped town the day after Nevill hired him and has not been seen since.  Nevill deduces that someone else is trying to kill him, and this is what makes the film interesting.


The ending may be telegraphed a mile away, but it is still an entertaining hour (actual running time is only 70 minutes)  for the viewer, in my opinion.

The Glass Cage (1955) aka "The Glass Tomb"

Pel Pelham (John Ireland) is a huckster, a carnival promoter who has basically only one act; a man named Sapolio (Eric Pohlmann), who intentionally starves himself.  (It's the 50's and it's London... Maybe that kind of thing would really attract a crowd.  Personally, I'd go see it once, if that, and ignore it for the rest of the event, but that's me.)

Pelham goes to a former boss, a bookie named Tony Lewis (Sidney James, the same James who starred in all those "Carry On" movies.  You'll see a lot of familiar faces in this one, BTW...).  Pelham gets Lewis to back him with money to put on the show.

 Lewis also gets him to approach a woman who is trying to blackmail Lewis.  It turns out that Pelham is familiar with the woman, although not under the name Lewis gives for her.  She is Rena Maroni (Tonia Bern), the daughter of a carnival owner who gave Pelham his start in the business.  By strange coincidence (or egregious plot device, your choice), Rena lives in the apartment upstairs from where Sapolio and his wife live.

After confronting Rena and seemingly convincing her to abandon her blackmail scheme, Pelham invites her to a party that he and Sapolio are throwing in celebration of the upcoming act.  But while the party is going on, Rena is murdered.  We as the audience actually see who the murderer is, so it really isn't a spoiler alert to tell at this point.  But I think I'll withhold it anyway.

Blackmail, double crosses, and a police inspector who suspects Pelham somehow involved complicate the matter. However, Sapolio thinks he saw who committed the murder so he becomes a target for the murderer, as do several other people in the film.  This is classic film noir in my opinion, because almost no one, with the exception of Pelham's wife (played by Honor Blackman) and his son, are even remotely ethical in any sense of the word. (And BTW, if I hadn't been told beforehand I doubt I would have even recognized the future Miss Pussy Galore...)

Don't miss out on seeing several familiar faces in this film.  I racked my brain trying to place a couple of them.  (I have a terrific memory for faces, but I often have to use the internet to place which other movies I've seen some faces.  The guy who plays "Rorke" (Sydney Talfer) was one of these.  It turns out he had a brief role in "The Spy Who Loved Me", a James Bond movie I had recently re-watched.)

Once again, Hammer Films made a short film noir.  This one doesn't even top 1 hour in length.  But despite some its flaws, its still a rather decent movie.

Quiggy

Psychotic Tendencies

This is my entry in the A Celebration of Classic Hollywood blogathon hosted by An Old Fashioned Girl.

John Wayne is my absolute favorite actor, no question about it.  But if I were forced to add to the list #s 2-whatever, I'd almost surely list Robert Mitchum in the top 5, maybe even as high as #2.   Mitchum could pull off anything, from comedic roles (Holiday Affair, What a Way to Go!), dramatic turns (Thunder Road, The Enemy Below), even romantic hero (Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison).  One of my favorite Mitchum performances, which is also my favorite John Wayne movie is the previously reviewed El Dorado, wherein Mitchum plays a drunken sheriff, paired with Wayne to fight off an unscrupulous land baron.

To really get a good example of Mitchum's talent, however, you have to see how well he can pull off unadulterated evil.  Whether as a convicted rapist bent on revenge against a former state's witness that helped put him in jail, or as a renegade preacher/ serial killer, bent on finding his former cellmate's stolen booty, Mitchum can exude such malevolence as to give one nightmares.

























Night of the Hunter (1955)

Mitchum plays Harry Powell in a film that was based on a book by Davis Grubb which in turn was based on real life events.  (There really was a man named Harry Powers who killed two women and three children) .  Powell is in the guise of a travelling preacher, but is like no man of the cloth in reality.  At the beginning of the movie he is caught and arrested for being in possession of a stolen vehicle.

At the same time, Ben Harper (Peter Graves) is arrested for having committed robbery and murder.  Just before his arrest, however, he arranges to hide his booty with his son, John (Billy Chapin).  Only John and his sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) know the secret.  Their mother, Willa (Shelley Winters), does not know of the secret.

Ben ends up in the same jail cell as Harry.  He mutters in his sleep about the hidden money, but Harry can't get the secret out of him.  Ben is executed for the murder, and Harry gets out after serving his time and immediately makes a beeline for the Harper's home.  He convinces everyone he is a legitimate preacher, and begins to woo Willa, meanwhile also trying to wangle the hiding place of the money from the children.

Harry eventually kills Willa.  Poor Shelley Winters.  That's twice she is killed in a movie, with an unscrupulous fiend trying to get access to her brood.  (She was also the mother of the teenager Lolita Haze  in Lolita, although James Mason didn't actually kill her to get access to her daughter.)  Harry then begins in earnest on John and Pearl.  Under threat to kill them, John tells Harry that the money is under a rock in the cellar.  (Not really the place, we already know it's in Pearl's doll, but Harry doesn't).  They trick Harry and run for their lives, escaping on a boat.

The children end up down river and become involved with an older widow woman, Mrs. Cooper (Lillian Gish).  But eventually Harry finds out to where the kids have escaped.

This one is a nail-biter to the bitter end, and you'll never be able to hear the hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" without a twinge of fear in the back of your mind...  Mitchum is pure evil, but an evil that is more subdued and hidden.  He saved his best evil menace for a role he played 7 years later....

Cape Fear (1962)

Mitchum was cast in his most iconic psychopath role at the behest of his eventual co-star, Gregory Peck, who had bought the rights to the novel The Executioners by John D. McDonald.  Peck intended to play the role of Bowden, but he thought the meatier role was that of Cady and he wanted an actor with a great screen presence.  According to one source I read, Telly Savalas (who eventually played the role of Charlie Seivers, a private detective) was considered for the role.  Think about that one for a minute.  If you saw The Dirty Dozen you know he could pull of psychotic, but I just can't imagine anyone but Mitchum in the role.  Although Robert De Niro pulled off an incredible job in the Scorcese remake.

In Cape Fear, Mitchum is Max Cady. Cady just got released from doing a stretch in the penitentiary for rape.  A key instrument in his conviction was Sam Bowden, an attorney who witnessed and interrupted Cady's attack on his victim.   Cady spent 7 years in prison, nursing his grudge.  Upon his release he immediately heads to Savannah to confront his nemesis.

Bowden's first encounter with Cady is a rather intense moment as Cady reaches in the open window of Bowden's car and snatches his keys.  He then airs his grievances with Bowden, telling him how much he suffered in prison because Bowden had the temerity to act as a witness on the stand.  As Bowden leaves, Cady mutters that he's going to make Bowden see the situation from Cady's angle.

Cady then begins a systematic course of becoming a nuisance, all within the legal limits of the law.  Cady knows the law, he studied law during his time in prison and knows just what he can get away with.  Bowden attempts to have him arrested on vagrancy, and intimidate him with the help of his police friend (Martin Balsam).  It turns out, however, that Cady has money.  He sold his parents house after they died, while he was in prison.  So running him out of town on vagrancy is out.

Bowden is given the suggestion of hiring a private detective to follow Cady.  While Cady eventually does slip into his old ways and brutally batters and rapes a woman he picks up in a bar, she is totally humiliated and scared and refuses to testify against Cady.  So yet another avenue of getting rid of Cady is closed.

Bowden then hires a couple of thugs to beat up Cady.  But Cady overpowers them (3 to 1 and he still comes out on top).

 Cady's lawyer, an unscrupulous jurist in his own right, threatens to have Bowden disbarred.  At his wits end, Bowden plans to go down the only avenue he seems to have left;  lure him to Bowden's private houseboat on Cape Fear.

This one is a nail-biter in ways that the previous movie could only imagine.  Polly Bergen, as Sam's wife, Peggy, and Lori Martin as his young daughter Nancy are both put into separate incidences of jeopardy, and you will wonder just how far Sam will have to go to rid himself of this terror that has come into his life.

This one is actually going to be on TCM next month, if you are now sufficiently intrigued.  Check out your December 2016 schedule for the exact times.

Be sure to lock all your doors tonight when you get home, you never know what unexpected visitors might show up.  Sleep tight, folks.

Quiggy