'Gangster Squad' Ready to Rumble

The Sunday L.A. Times just arrived outside my door wrapped in its usual plastic body bag, but this time it was also wrapped in a faux front-page advertisement touting “Gangster Squad,” the big-deal movie that opens Friday. The four-page L.A. Times ad disguised as a legitimate front page complete with screaming headlines and real photos of 1940s – ’50s gangster boss Mickey Cohen (pictured above) and others of his ilk, is a sure sign that this film is getting the big-time promotional treatment reserved for high-ticket movies such as “The Dark Night.” Warner Brothers, who is releasing the thing, seems to have high hopes that this one is going to be, as the Mafioso would say, a “good earner.” Sean Penn plays the Mickster.

The script was written by ex-L.A. cop Will Beall based on the book of the same title by Paul Lieberman. Apropos to the Time’s four-page advertorial spread, the paper also published a series on Mickey Cohen’s reign over the city, and the secret police squad that skirted the law to break organized crime’s stranglehold on L.A. You can read the series online here: L.A. Noir: Tales from the Gangster Squad.

Just Desserts for a Bad Apple

The Hoodlum (1951)

Director: Max Nosseck
Writer: Sam Neuman
Stars: Lawrence Tierney, Allene Roberts and Marjorie Riordan

See the full movie on YouTube, or rent it on DVD.

Sometimes a rat gets what he deserves – it just takes a while.

“The Hoodlum” begins documentary style with a rundown of anti-hero Vincent Lubeck’s dirty dealings. As a teen, he starts getting busted for petty crimes, and pretty soon he's graduated to the big leagues.

Next is a scene with wooden dialogue in which Lubeck’s mom successfully argues with the parole board to release her wayward boy from lock-up. But mom soon finds she made a big mistake in springing the now-grown golden boy from the slammer.

The movie’s first few minutes might make you want to look for something else to watch. But stay with it. It’s not a goofy morality tale, a la “Reefer Madness.” The movie quickly morphs into a terse, tightly edited story (it’s just an hour and 10 minutes long) of a caring, supportive family getting thoroughly screwed over by their good-for-nothing son.

Lawrence Tierney is great as Vincent, the sociopath who ensures that no good deed goes unpunished. Tierney’s real-life brother, Edward, plays his sibling, Johnny Lubeck. Johnny puts aside his disdain for his paroled brother – Vincent’s criminal shenanigans drove their father to his grave – and tries to help him go straight. But aiding in Vincent’s reform is a losing battle, and Johnny ends up suffering dearly for his efforts.

Vincent, being the shark that he is, displays a genius in finding ways to exploit, humiliate and drive to the brink everyone who shows him trust and kindness. He gets off scot-free for his dirty dealings with his family. But when he masterminds an armored car robbery that goes wrong, his downfall is at hand. The authorities, you see, wear no kid gloves.

This low-budget flick avoids finding redeeming qualities in Vincent, which is one of its greatest strengths. Vincent has no softer side that makes him sympathetic to a broad audience, and any attempt to explain or justify his anti-social behavior would dilute the film's impact.

Vincent's end comes at the town dump -- not at all like the "top of the world" fiery and spectacular end James Cagney's Cody Jarrett meets in "White Heat" a couple of years earlier.

But like Cody, Vincent has little respect for anyone but his mother -- and we don't see much of it until the movie's final act. It's then and only then that we have a glimmer of sympathy for the hoodlum, when it's too late to save him. But then, "The Hoodlum" isn't about redemption. It's about payback, and Vincent receives that in spades.

Shadowy, But Hardly a Dead Ringer for Noir

Lots of vintage films are labeled films noir, yet when you look closely at them they don’t pass the noir litmus test. “Dark City” is one worth watching, but it flunks the exam.

You can spot a noir by it’s ending -- the hero is a victim of circumstances who naively wanders, or is lured, into big trouble and the outcome is, of course, less than positive. He faces a bleak fate -- probably death.

“Dark City” is a crime film, for sure, but the anti-hero at the center of the story, Danny Haley, played by Charlton Heston, isn’t the doomed, tormented soul that every noir leading man must be. In fact, Danny isn’t conflicted about his life’s work, running a bookie joint. But his shop keeps getting raided by the cops despite the payoffs to City Hall. To quote gang boss Johnny Caspar in a more modern gangster classic, “Miller’s Crossing,” “If you can't trust a fix, what can you trust?”

With the bookie business getting too hot, Danny goes after some easy pickings when he sets up a visiting hayseed in a rigged card game and causes the poor sucker to sign over a check for $5,000 that doesn’t belong to him.

The scheme looks foolproof until the cheated out-of-towner, Captain Garvey, played by Dean Jagger, takes his own life. Suddenly, everything unravels.

A young Henry Morgan plays one of Danny’s slightly dim sidekicks, and does the role proud. But the one to watch is Jack Webb. This may have been Webb’s best screen role as the weasely Augie, the annoying punk who is determined to cash the check that the group filched in the card game. Danny is dead set against cashing the check, and that puts his at odds with Augie.

Webb is, of course, better known for his straight and narrow, but ultimately cardboard roles as detectives, cops, and even a Marine Corps drill instructor. He hits his mark as a greasy whack job who is too impatient and intelligence-challenged to save his own life. If the film has a noir anti-hero it’s Webb. But he’s too much of a jerk to root for, so we are left with Heston’s Danny to guide us through this William Dieterle-directed, 1950 thriller.

Heston makes a believable and sympathetic Danny, a guy who could have done more with his life if he hadn’t settled in the rackets. Fran Garland (Lizabeth Scott), a torch singer, carries a torch for Danny, but he pays her little attention. The plot turns when Danny, using a false name, visits Captain Garvey’s widow, Victoria Winant (Viveca Lindfors), and romance begins to blossom. But the short-lived infatuation suddenly turns to ashes when she learns who Danny really is.

Needless to say, revenge is waiting on the doorstep for each member of Danny’s gang who helped take the chump for all he was worth. Toward the end, things look bleak for Danny, but he manages to turn the situation around and redeem himself. The climax presents us with an upbeat ending, which studio execs must have insisted on, but it simply ain’t noir. Too bad – it’s a good film that could have been great.

Crime Erupts Under the Streets of L.A.

Much of "He Walked by Night" is held together with the loose thread of documentary-style film-making. But those parts are no match or the last 20 minutes or so of the film that prowls the lower reaches of the city.

Richard Basehart is the killer who terrorizes L.A. and can't be stopped. Few have ever seen him, and that frustrates the L.A.P.D.

Jack Webb plays a supporting role as a police forensics officer, and it's obvious that this film provided the blueprint for the TV show that would become his shining achievement, "Dragnet."

The movie is an early, primitive police procedural that wants to be a German Neo-Expressionist art film. When the camera moves into the subterranean world of storm drains it's easy to imagine for a while that directors Carol Reed or perhaps Fritz Lang are calling the shots.

What makes it a must see is the wonderful black and white photography as Basehart becomes the human prey of the forces of justice.

Suddenly, Venice, Calif., stands in for Vienna. We remember Orson Welles being chased through that city's storm drains in "The Third Man." Oceans are crossed, and the European avante garde finds a safe refuge on the Pacific Coast.

Scene of the Crime (Film) IV: Shock of Recognition

If you live in or visit Hollywood you can find lots of buildings used as film exteriors. You might be familiar with the address, such as 77 Sunset Strip, named after the 1950s-60s TV detective show set in Los Angeles, For the record, the building where they filmed the opening sequence and some exterior scenes was not really number 77, but it was on the Strip. The detective agency was located "between La Cienega Boulevard and Alta Loma Road on the south side of the Strip next door to Dean Martin's real-life lounge, Dino's Lodge.

If you're looking for other film and TV locations, here are a few that will appeal to film noir fans. In "Double Indemnity," Walter Neff, portrayed by Fred MacMurray, the L.A. insurance salesman who gets pulled into a murder plot by femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck, lives in an apartment building, the Kensington, at 1825 N. Kingsley Drive in Hollywood (right). "Double Indemnity" director Billy Wilder instructed the art director to build the set used as Neff's apartment interior to resemble Wilder's quarters in the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Blvd., where the director was living while shooting the movie.

You can see the train station where, in "Double Indemnity" Neff and femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson pull a switcheroo with the body of her murdered husband, and where
Neff boards a train posing as Phyllis's husband. The station at Glendale (right) was the scene of the crime. Neff jumps off the train as it's pulling away from the station, and he and Phylis dump her husband's cold, dead body by the side of the tracks, making it look like the old guy got killed in an accident. Neff and Phylis plan to ride off together with the husband's insurance money, but complications ensue for the murderous pair.

While in Glendale don't forget to drop in on the "Mildred Pierce" house (right) where Joan Crawford resided in the 1945 film of the same name.  It's at 1147 N. Jackson Street, Glendale. Don't literally drop in, it's a private residence. The impressive palm tree still dominates the front of the house, but it has grown substantially taller than it was in the 1940s.

The first glimpse of these sites can be a little strange. You instantly recognize the place and the buildings, but something's wrong. Then you realize that you've experienced this scene only in black and white, and now for the first time you're seeing it in color.

Punks, Thugs Rule the City in 'Crime Wave'

One of the better rediscovered crime films of the past few years is "Crime Wave." Remember James Ellroy's top 10 favorite crime films, which we discussed here a few posts ago? As you may remember, "Crime Wave" made the list, and for good reason.

It should have come as no surprise when I got ahold of the DVD and put on the commentary track it was none other than Ellroy along with author and crime film aficionado Eddie Muller giving the blow-by-blow at ringside. First off, I admire Ellroy, even when he's a bit overbearing on the commentary track. This is a film that's worth viewing. It's got many scenes of vintage L.A. architecture, circa 1952 when the film was shot, even though it wasn't released until '54. Both Ellroy and Muller are fountains of information, so the commentary track is a must once you've viewed the film without it.

Crime wave was shot during the "Dragnet" days, when Jack Webb engineered a cozy relationship between the film and TV industries and the LAPD. That gave filmmakers access to the inner workings of the force like you couldn't dream of these days. They even film in the old L.A. Police Detective Bureau, which used to be located in City Hall. Also, keep an eye out for the many identifiable L.A. landmarks that turn up, like the original Bob's Big Boy in Burbank.

The films stars Sterling Hayden (above) as no nonsense Detective Lt. Sims. Muller comments, and I have to agree, that Hayden WAS Bud White, the fictional L.A. Police detective in Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential," who was played by Russell Crowe in the screen adaptation of Ellroy's novel. Hayden was the real thing, a "knock your teeth down your throat if you give me any lip" LAPD detective.

Also playing a small supporting role is a young Charles Buchinsky, who became better known later as Charles Bronson.

It's not the greatest story ever told, but check out the camera work and all of those L.A. locations. Director André De Toth filmed this strikingly gorgeous portrait of L.A. that makes you forgive and forget the occasional weakly written scene.

Once again, this is a low-budget Warner Bros. knockoff, that almost starred Humphrey Bogart -- De Toth fought for Hayden -- and was shot in 14 days. This might be the only film I've ever seen that I'm grateful did not have Bogie in the cast. It's perfect the way it is.

Crime in the New Wild West

A lot of people say that "No Country for Old Men" is Joel and Ethan Coen's best film so far. I'd find that a difficult choice to make. But I'll say that "No Country" is one of my favorites.

Javier Bardem has gotten all the kudos for his portrayal of devil incarnate Anton Chigurh -- he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. But people talk less about Josh Brolin's turn as Llewelyn Moss, the brush hunter who one strange day on the range find's he's no longer the hunter, but the hunted.

My favorite is Tommy Lee Jones (above, right), whose Sheriff Ed Tom Bell couldn't be more natural and less affected. He's an old-timer who admires the old guy sheriffs. Particularly the ones like him who never carry a gun.

Jones is a native of West Texas, where the story is set, and his performance ranks above all others in that film, and that's no minor compliment. He doesn't seem to act, he merely IS Sheriff Ed Tom Bell.

Brolin is wonderful as Moss, the backwoodsman who stumbles upon the remnants of a drug deal gone bad. The story takes place in 1980, just when the U.S.-Mexico drug war is starting to become exceedingly violent. The movie is also appropriately bloody. In the end the body count is as big as the West Texas sky.

Scenes of graphic carnage are offset with black humor. You can chuckle at a setup that leads to mayhem, then gasp at the blood-letting that follows. As is usual with the Coens, you laugh and then wonder why you just laughed.

The director brothers get high marks on their visual storytelling skills in most of their films, and this one hits a high water mark. They let those big, barren Texas landscapes tell the story. There's just enough information in each scene to move the story along. You have to watch closely to keep up.

Yet this tale couldn't be simpler -- it's a cat and mouse chase that rises way above typical brainless "action" movies. There's real character development setting NCFOM apart from 99 percent of the crap out there.

Overall, it's sort of a modern day cowboy, crime, action, comedy -- or something like that. Stark as a lone cactus in the desert. And just as dry as the landscape there.