Film Noir Hall of Fame VI

Oh me? Why yes of course I'm still hosting

I was going to ask how everyone was doing as today at midnight is the deadline for Night and the City. But I thought that wouldn't be good form as there's still some hours left before the deadline. Though I'm a bit worried to be honest, as only You, me and John-Connor have watched it. I guess we'll see if the other's are still in or out.

I will go ahead and post the third week's noir in a minute.

Things got away from me today so I couldn't get to Night and the City yet. I'm going to try before I sleep tonight. I can't guarantee success. Sorry my friends. My Mondays don't normally go like this.

__________________
I destroyed the dastardly dairy dame! I made mad milk maid mulch!

I hate insomnia. Oh yeah. Last year I had four cases of it, and each time it lasted three months.

Is this also on Archive?

No it's not but I have a good link for anyone who needs it.

I forgot to post here when I did it that I watched Night and the City (although the important bits don't take place at night). It's pretty good. Widmark played a good wishy-washy overly-ambitious bad-at-everything guy although it got annoying after a while. His boss was dense and his boss' girl was more-so. Ah overall it's fairly good. I liked Night and the City. Sorry it took me so long to watch it.

I've caught up with Night and the City again and my review should appear here any day now - I apologize for any tardiness and promise there's a pretty good reason I'm late with this one.

__________________

Nightlife scenery, cool Jazz tunes playing combined with poor decision making and bad luck. Starts off like a typical Film Noir, but turns into a heavy and compelling true crime drama. Excellent filmmaking, good job making the objects in the death chamber look horrifying. Powerful award winning performance by Susan Hayward. (Tough year Elizabeth Taylor was also in the running for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.) Overall a very memorable and intense viewing experience. Robert Wise does it again for me. I have yet to be disappointed by this director.

Nice review JC. Robert Wise made so many great films. He's a director who I hope to watch all of his filmography. I see he also made other noirs:
Odds Against Tomorrow 1959
I Want to Live! 1958
The Captive City 1952
The House on Telegraph Hill 1951
Born to Kill 1947

Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is a crook. He's not a good man by any measure the word "good" could possibly be twisted, and even his rivals laugh with glee in the knowledge that Harry's new business partners, marks, friends and fellow travellers all soon find out he's a con and is using them. He works as a club tout for a London spot called the Silver Fox Club, owned by Phil Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan), duping unsuspecting tourists and locals into going there using various confidence tricks. His hairbrained "get rich quick" schemes are always crooked, and he usually ends up stiffing those he's in business with. So why is it I feel so sorry for Harry? Why do I pull for him so hard while watching Jules Dassin's Night and the City? Perhaps it's because Widmark gives him the countenance and behavioral attributes of a child. He gets overexcited about future plans, his whole body exploding with absurd energy as he dances, fiddles, bangs and stomps. His expectations are so unrealistic, and he completely lacks self-awareness. Behind all the grafting and hucksterish insincerity there's a weird kind of innocence that part-time girlfriend Mary Bristol (Gene Tierney) can see clearly - and it's obvious why she finds this man-child adorable, despite the fact that he lacks maturity and manliness. I really don't want to see Harry undone - or worse, dead.

This is all thanks to an arguably career-best turn from Widmark - an actor who should by all rights be considered a legend. One of the things he was famous for is his laugh, but in my opinion he had a million different laughs, and each character he played with the range he was blessed with had his own distinctive one. In Night and the City it's a weapon that almost seems to keep the truth at bay. Widmark's facial features can also contort into ghoulish, contorted grins and painful grimaces, which we see a lot of. I can't think of one single moment in the film when Harry's isn't racing around, celebrating victory, being cornered like a rat, arguing, gloating or desperately trying to convince people to give him a break. It all requires so much from the actor - he must have been exhausted at times, especially during periods when multiple takes were needed. The only other performance in this film that comes close is Stanislaus Zbyszko's, who funnily enough wasn't an actor. He plays famed ex-wrestler Gregorius the Great, who is part of Harry's plan to become a big-name wrestling promotor and host big matches in London. His scheme is labyrinthine and brings him into direct competition with Kristo (Herbert Lom), who just happens to be the son of Gregorius.

Harry is always the outcast, and you have to wonder how director Jules Dassin perceived what he was making, being an outcast himself after being outed during the McCarthy witch hunts during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Dassin was blacklisted, and this was why he was making one of his final Hollywood-backed films during this period in London. The city proved an ideal location for film noir, with it's many dark and foreboding spaces, dead-ends and grim, bomb-scarred streets featuring dour buildings. Many a nightclub exists down a dark alleyway, and Phil Nosseross sits in an office tucked away in his club where the shadows play tricks and make it seem he's an awfully large spider sat at the center of some macabre web. In many ways Night and the City is an atypical film noir classic, but as far as shadow and darkness are concerned they're used strikingly well. Max Greene's cinematography manages to frame characters in ways that were progressive for their day, and often miraculously maintains focus in the dark with Harry on the run - a trick that would have been particularly stressful for any camera operator to pull off. This film really mattered to those who were making it.

What's amazing about the movie is how many other distinct personalities inhabit it. Helen Nosseross (Googie Withers) is Phil's wife, and desperately wants to become financially independent so she can leave her husband. She helps Harry front the money for his wrestling venture, but might come to regret that later. Adam Dunne (Hugh Marlowe) is Mary Bristol's neighbour, and serves as a counterpoint to Harry in that he's clean, and is a morally upright, decent man. The kind of guy who is kind to everyone and tells the truth. Figler (James Hayter) is Harry's buddy - the kind of buddy who wouldn't hesitate to turn Harry in for a price. The Strangler (Mike Mazurki) is an unhinged, dangerous wrestler who Harry turns to when in need of a big attraction that'll keep investors in his business hanging in there. Anna (Maureen Delany) has a scow anchored on the Thames and cares about Harry in a motherly way - despite the fact she can't help him. All of these characters have important parts to play in this film, and I love the fact that the story has room for so many interesting, varied and memorable personalities - introducing most of them early in Jo Eisinger's very pointed, flowing screenplay.

I have to admit to having seen both the American and British versions of this movie - there are some interesting differences, and they have completely unique scores composed by different musicians (Franz Waxman the American version and Benjamin Frankel the British.) Obviously they aren't completely different films, but the British version includes a number of scenes that aren't in the American and the opening scene when we're introduced to the relationship Harry has with Mary is completely different - it has him trying to convince her to put an absurd amount of money into a "fuel efficiency" scheme. Jules Dassin has always maintained that the American version is "his" version, and thus I guess the more official version if you look at movies through that prism. I really like the British version because there are moments in it that help clarify a few things, such as why Phil is so set on wrecking Harry (he spies Helen kissing him) and why Helen is desperate to leave Phil. It also helps to expand Gene Tierney's role, which seems a little too small in the American version. It doesn't make for a huge difference however, with both films excellent and worth the utmost in praise.

The character of Harry lives on in the likes of Howard Ratner, played by Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems (2019) - the hopeless dreamer who will continually take monumentally stupid risks in the hopes of unrealistic financial gains, somehow impervious to any thoughts to what hot water failure will land him in. Not only that, but these characters are blind to what they have, because they're constantly dreaming of the day they get their hands on near-infinite riches by playing their cards right. These characters are ultimately frustrating and deluded, but never seem bad enough to be worthy of outright hatred. They're not malevolent, cruel, capricious or evil - just misguided and, admittedly, immoral. I don't love Harry Fabian, but I do feel sympathy for him and what seems to be his inevitable destiny. It's the destiny of a gambling addict with the added weight of what being part of the underworld brings, and for such a child-like man this seems almost cruel. Night and the City is a damned good movie though, and has become one of my favourite film noir classics from this period of moviemaking. Made by a talented filmmaker at his peak - blacklisted for no good reason, but on the verge of making the classic Rififi and winning Best Director at Cannes.

Rating :

I Want to Live! (1958, Wise)

I don't know if you would classify this noir or crime drama. For me it definitely devolves into a clinic of how to make a viewer suffer as the main character does in the film. Susan Heyward is full of sass and even has some seemingly to spare here. Something akin to a classic wisecracking gumshoe. The story of the criminal pulling off one last job and going straight is common for these flicks but the real drama takes over after our main character is convicted of a murder that she didn't commit and sent to the gas chamber. Here Robert Wise puts on a clinic of escalating dread only to offer a slight ray of false hope in the closing minutes before it is ripped away. Precision is always key with him, everything in his films always have a crisp and confident way of telling the story. I watched this first for the noir countdown earlier this year and this revisit improved my opinion on it.

Excellent review Phoenix. You nailed what I was trying to say about Harry (Richard Widmark). For me if Widmark hadn't been able to play his role like an over excited child then I might not have cared what happened to him. But I did and like you say that's thanks to Widmark.

Nicely done! I said this recently that I'm a fan of Robert Wise's work. You mentioned the noir countdown did you include I Want To Live on your ballot? I wonder if I did? I can't remember that far back.

I did not. Didn't watch it until it was revealed on the countdown. More than likely would have made spot towards the bottom. Harsh but those countdowns were loaded with great films.

I didn't remember it was on the countdown until you just mentioned it. I looked for my noir ballot but I must not have save it, rats. Maybe I posted it on the noir countdown, I'll go take a look see.

Depending on which way you look at it, this dramatic '58 film is either a stinging condemnation of capital punishment or hysterical propaganda - but more curious minds might want to put aside whether Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward) was guilty of the murder of Mabel Monohan, and focus on the way the justice system functioned in this instance. Murderers are encouraged to be the first to confess and pin the blame on co-conspirators - thus attaining for themselves immunity. Fellow inmates entrap the accused and undercover cops encourage or demand they confess in return for false alibis. For that prison sentences are reduced to 'time served'. Criminals are promised favours for their testimony. If the suspect in the hot seat is actually guilty, it often feels there's justification for no-holds-barred battle when it comes to law and order - but when that suspect is actually innocent, these battle tactics will produce guilty verdicts regardless, and as such are obviously not serving the interests of justice. From what I read, Barbara Graham was probably involved with the murder, and thus could be prosecuted for murder, but at the same time the way she was found guilty really stinks - and the fact that she was sentenced to death rubs one the wrong way. Life imprisonment when there's a shred of doubt concerning her involvement seems a more decent way to have handled this case.

So what kind of Barbara Graham does Susan Hayward give us with her Oscar-winning portrayal - one that swept aside the likes of Elizabeth Taylor for her star turn in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof? She brings forth a Barbara who is defiant and one who lusts for life - and also a Barbara who is perhaps a little unrealistically principled - trying to live a straight life after her first stint in prison, but being let down by husband Hank (Wesley Lau) and his drug addiction. We don't dwell too much on the fact that the real Barbara Graham was a prostitute - first working naval bases before graduating to a high class brothel in San Francisco. This was 1958 (at one famous moment late in the film, she's denied Barbara's famous last words "How the hell would you know?" when executioners try to advise her on the most painless way to take in the poisonous gas - instead she's restricted to "How do you know?") and as such Barbara's life is cleaned up a little so as to be suitable enough for audiences to see. The parties she attends seem remarkably clean by today's standards - even the reefers have an element of plausible deniability to them, for they might just be cigarettes. Nobody swears, does anything lude or gets into any trouble. You'd be fine with your 14-year-old attending, except he'd complain about the jazz being "so old fashioned". This all feeds into how it feels Barbara is unfairly persecuted - it only seems even more so now.

In this Robert Wise, Gidding & Mankiewicz version of the story, it's the cops who prey on Barbara. They try to entrap her in bars by tempting her. They follow her and track her. They nab her for perjury when she tries to help a friend. The jail staff poke, probe and humiliate her - they take away her humanity and rip apart what has sentimental value to her. The press make a mockery of her and her story - and turn her misfortune into a sideshow attraction. Because we never really see Barbara in a bad light, it all seems like a tragic miscarriage of justice. Her moments of defiance are tinged with righteous anger because she only demands what every person deserves - her dignity and her human rights. Her involvement with criminals always seem somewhat incidental and harmless. She delivers things. She tells a few lies. She hangs out in dens with the men who offscreen pull off the real crimes and hurt people. She shouldn't be doing it, but having a murder pinned on her and being sentenced to death? Is it because she's outspoken? Is it because she's desperate? The world never gave her and her kids a fair chance, and now they're punishing her after setting her up to fail. This is definitely Barbara Graham's side of the story.

At the corners of the screenplay, fighting to be heard, are the good guys. Psychiatrist Carl G. G. Palmberg (Theodore Bikel) sees her as a rebel with some questionable values, but contends that she's completely non-violent and innocent. He tries to convince her lawyers to fight for her obvious guiltlessness. Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Edward S. "Ed" Montgomery (Simon Oakland) is the only one who manages to break through and fight his way to a place in the middle of the movie, writing Barbara's story and sharing correspondence with her. Obviously he comes to understand the injustice that dogs his pen-friend, but is powerless to do any more but make a few bucks from her tragic destiny. As luck would have it, injustice is just as good an angle as any other when it comes to selling papers. When horns start honking in what must be a celebratory gesture at Barbara's execution, he manages to blot the ugliness of it out be silencing his hearing aide. He's heard enough. To be fair, I'm against the death penalty in all but the most extreme of cases - and Barbara's does fall well short of that no matter her culpability.

What the film does do resoundingly well is give us all a clear picture of just how ugly and horrific the whole execution process is. You could hardly fashion a more terrifying method of doing away with someone than the gas chamber. You'd think humanity would be well aware of that by now! San Quentin's gas chamber is faithfully reproduced in a studio - you can look up the real one to see just how exactly it's copied. For once those making movies needed to do no exaggerating - it's scary enough, and Lionel Lindon's camera angles and careful framing turn it into an object of claustrophobic horror. We carefully watch the preparation of sulfuric acid and other elements which will combine to produce a deadly cyanide mixture and do anything but immediately render poor Barbara deceased. This final stretch is what makes even today's audience walk away from the film a little less steady than they were a few hours earlier, as you can't but imagine what your internal response would be if forced to endure this unendurable fate. Barbara steps forth with great dignity, pride and defiance and it's those carrying out the procedure that have guilt written all over their faces. Surely this should be the other way around? Spare a moment to think of how you'd fare as executioner.

I think I Want to Live! is a great anti-death penalty film - it's only fault perhaps lionizing somebody who those in the know tell us most probably was involved with the murder of a defenseless old lady just because she/they thought she had a large amount of money stashed away in her house. It does keep a few of the more suspect elements of the American criminal justice system in our minds though. All of the wheeling and dealing that often ends up gifting the odd murderer/criminal the benefits of getting in early and ratting on their partners in crime. All of the arm-twisting and entrapment which do absolutely nothing to uncover the truth, but simply close cases and get judges to bang that gavel in quick order. At the center of it all is Susan Hayward and the sassy character we all immediately identify with simply because she demands a minimum of respect and won't be defeated by a heartless, relentless system. She gave this performance all the zest and living presence the title "I Want to Live!" absolutely demands. She's not really Barbara Graham - she's simply every American who has become an unwitting victim of a system that punishes the qualities Hayward's version of her has in spades.

Night and the City (1950)

Googie Withers has the best RBF in the biz! No one can look as disdainful as she. Gene Tierney is, of course, luminous. Fabulous character actors abound. I had not seen this movie beforehand, but I had seen the moment that Widmark meets Gregorius and his protegee on the street many years ago. It is a visual that has stuck with me for years. So much so, that I thought I had already seen the movie.
Finally Richard Widmark gives, what I believe to be the performance of his career. He can chew the scenery all he wants but Dassin manages to keep it appropriate to the tone of the scene at hand.
It is so beautifully photographed and the scenes are so compellingly staged that you can’t look away. This is an absolutely gorgeous movie full of incident and the horror of mediocrity.

I just finished I Want to Live! and I must say it's quite the film. I found it awesome. The ending is so nerve-wracking in spite of what felt like an obvious outcome. I could feel my heart racing. It's great. I am more than glad I took the two hours to watch it. I look forward to the next one. The parenting stuff was pretty emotional too because I have a close bond with my kids, although they aren't infants anymore, so it isn't quite identical although it is similar to her relationship with her offspring. Leaving them will be hard when the time comes. I just hope it doesn't involve me being executed for murder.