He Directed Gripping Noirs … But You May Not Recognize His Name

John Payne, Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand,
Preston Foster,  "Kansas City Confidential" (1952).

By Paul Parcellin

Everything seemed to come together for Phil Karlson in the 1950s. It was an era in which his talent, energy and unique sensibilities were made to order for a  public with an insatiable appetite for raw, gritty crime films. It was in that period that he directed some of the decade’s most essential noirs. Prior to that he’d cranked out dozens of titles beginning in the mid 1940s under the banners of Monogram (he shot several Bowery Boys and Charlie Chan films there), Eagle-Lion and other Poverty Row operations. Some might remember his two lightweight spy spoofs of later years, “The Silencers” (1966) and “The Wrecking Crew” (1968), both starring Dean Martin — although, he’d probably wish that you wouldn’t. He continued to work over several decades but didn’t strike pay dirt until the release of his revenge fantasy “Walking Tall” (1973). It was his biggest and most commercially successful film and it made him rich. Otherwise, he was mostly mired in the B-movie bush league for the remainder of his career. 

But two decades before “Walking Tall,” the Chicago-born Karlson began work on a string of crime movies that would influence future generations of filmmakers.

His uncompromising narratives, short, action filled scenes and great attention to detail helped pave the way for filmmakers seeking to challenge the traditional Hollywood conventions and explore the darker aspects of human nature. Directors such as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and John Woo have all acknowledged his impact on their own filmmaking careers. Scorsese, in particular, cited Karlson's "The Phenix City Story" (1955) as a major inspiration for his seminal film "Mean Streets" (1973).

Karlson grew up in a working-class family in Chicago and developed an affinity for storytelling and filmmaking at a young age. He attended local film screenings and immersed himself in the world of cinema. His passion eventually led him to pursue a career in the film industry. While studying law he got a job as a prop man at Universal Studios to make ends meet during the Great Depression.

Phil Karlson.

In the 1930s he began working as an editor for various film studios. It was during this time that he gained invaluable experience and insights into the technical aspects of filmmaking. This early exposure would shape his later directorial style and attention to detail.

As Karlson parlayed his editing experience into directing gigs, he brought a distinct sensibility to his films. His works often explore the dark underbelly of society and tell their stories in a blunt, no-nonsense manner that avoids extravagant visuals and focuses on raw emotional impact.

One of the defining themes in his films is the exploration of crime and its consequences. He had a keen eye for depicting the complexities of human nature, delving into the psychological motivations of his characters. This was exemplified in films like "Kansas City Confidential" (1952) and "99 River Street" (1953), where he portrayed flawed protagonists grappling with the consequences of their actions.

Karlson had a knack for working with actors and bringing out their best performances. He had a successful partnership with actor John Payne, with whom he collaborated on multiple projects. In addition to his noirs, he worked on a variety of movie genres: romances, comedies, musicals, westerns and war pictures. But it’s his influential noirs, shot between 1952-’57, that inspired new generations of directors making crime films. Here’s a rundown of his work:

"Kansas City Confidential" (1952).

Kansas City Confidential

A masked gang of armored car robbers, identities hidden from each other, frame delivery driver Joe Rolfe (John Payne) for their crime. But Rolfe trails them to their rendezvous point, intending to infiltrate the crew and bust them up. A taut caper followed by a well-paced contest of nerves among desperate characters. Note that the story unfolds in a virtual cloud of smoke. In nearly every scene cigarettes, pipes and cigars are nervously, thoughtfully and dramatically lit and puffed on — a sure sign that we’re watching noir. Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” (1992) is thought to be inspired in part by “Kansas City Confidential.”

John Derek, Broderick Crawford, "Scandal Sheet" (1952).

Scandal Sheet

Newspaperman Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford) has a past he'd like to forget but his wife won't allow it. He gets into a bind and his reporters begin nipping at his heels — they don't know that the boss is the one they're chasing. Based on a Samuel Fuller novel, “Scandal Sheet” is all about making it big by printing the sleaziest rag in town. News hacks come within millimeters of breaking the law just to get a sensational story. Everyone’s fueled on adrenaline, booze and black coffee, talking at a fast clip and firing off wise-guy rejoinders. Chapman’s paper sponsors a lonely hearts soiree. The cynical, exploitive idea behind the parties is to corner a pair of lovebirds who just met and get them to tie the knot in front of the crowd. Meanwhile, a bit of Chapman’s dirty laundry may be about to be aired and it won’t be pretty. 

Jack Lambert, John Payne, "99 River Street" (1953).

99 River St.

Punched out boxer Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) takes a beating in and out of the ring in "99 River Street." A former heavyweight contender, he drives a cab and is as a doormat for nearly every bully he meets. When his girl turns up dead it looks like he's going to take the fall. As in “Kansas City Confidential,” Payne plays another falsely accused outsider who has been dealt a rotten hand and must redeem himself in society’s eyes. Panned by the New York Times when it was released, the film received more favorable favorable treatment in later years. Martin Scorsese and film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum both chose to include “99 River Street” on lists of best and favorite films.

John McIntire, "The Phenix City Story" (1955). 

The Phenix City Story

Crime and vice majordomo Rhett Tanner (Edward Andrews) has a corrupt Alabama town under his thumb. Local mouthpiece Pat Patterson is urged to run for the A.G. seat, but who wants that job? When violence visits the reformers he reconsiders his neutral position. But the mob doesn’t take kindly to the threat of a law and order attorney general in their midst. Based on a true story, “The Phenix City Story” portrays the struggles of honest folks who wrestle with their conscience and decide to take positive steps despite the threat of violence to themselves and their families. Ever the stickler for detail, Karlson had his actor wear the clothes belonging to the murder victim on whom the story is based. 

William Conrad, Brian Keith, "5 Against the House" (1955).

5 Against the House

Korean War veterans studying at college decide to rob a casino as a lark. Ronnie (Kerwin Mathews), a rich kid who doesn’t need the money, wants to prove he’s smart enough to mastermind the perfect crime. It’s all just a prank by overgrown school boys — they plan to leave the stolen loot where the casino can recover it. But Brick (Brian Keith), who suffered a head wound in the war, is a wild card in this shaky caper. The rest of the gang is in various stages of arrested development, picking up where they left off before trudging off to Korea. But they soon find that swiping a casino’s money is not mere fun and games.

Ginger Rogers, Brian Keith,
Edward G. Robinson, "Tight Spot" (1955).

Tight Spot

U.S. attorney Lloyd Hallett (Edward G. Robinson) offers good-girl inmate Sherry Conley (Ginger Rogers) a chance to bust out if she finks on a mobster. Lt. Vince Striker (Brian Keith) acts as her bodyguard — and soon things heat up between them. Rogers gets the chance to play against type in the role of Sherry, the brassy, fast talking blonde trying to get all she can from the prosecutor who wants her testimony. It’s a risky ploy for her. The last witness never made it to the courtroom, and odds are that Sherry won’t do much better. Call this one a noir with a hint of screwball comedy.  

Richard Conte, Patricia Donahue, Jane Easton, 
Richard Bakalyan, "The Brothers Rico" (1957).

The Brothers Rico

The happily married Eddie Rico (Richard Conte) owns a laundry business in Florida and seems to have the world on a string. But his past connection to organized crime as well as family ties threaten to pull him back into the syndicate. A gangster demands that he provide a hideout for a syndicate hitman. Worse news, still, Eddie learns that his two brothers, Johnny (James Darren) and Gino (Paul Picerni), both of whom are still involved with the mob, have disappeared. Prolific Belgian novelist Georges Simenon wrote the book on which the film is based. Studio executives finessed the novel’s downbeat ending and tacked on a happier conclusion, much to the disappointment of the author’s fans and to Karlson, too.

 By the time that “The Brothers Rico” came to the screen it was near the end of the road for the classic noir era. The following year Orson Welles would release “Touch of Evil” (1958), which many consider the final classic noir. Karlson continued to direct films and television thereafter but never equalled the level of artistic excellence he achieved in the 1950s. Still, his handful of films noir made a mark on the genre and continue to influence today’s filmmakers.

How ‘Dragnet’ Launched a New Era in Crime Television

Ann Robinson, Jack Webb, Ben Alexander in the feature film "Dragnet” (1954)

By Paul Parcellin

Some might quibble over whether or not “Dragnet,” the TV show, movie and radio program, is noir. In fact, the series is as noir as noir can be — but more about that later. 

The story of “Dragnet” begins when the show’s creator and star, Jack Webb, played a police forensic scientist in the feature film “He Walked by Night” (1948) starring Richard Basehart. Inspired by a violent 1946 crime spree, it tells the story of troubled World War II veteran Erwin Walker who was a former Glendale, Calif., police department employee. The film presents the story in a documentary-like style popular in that era and it had a powerful influence on Webb. Many of the film’s elements would later be echoed in “Dragnet": the opening title explaining that the names had been changed to protect the innocent, the use of modern crime-fighting methods, the portrayal of Los Angeles as a vast expanse of urban sprawl. 

During production, Webb met the film's police technical adviser Marty Wynn who was fed up with unrealistic shoot-em-up crime shows. He told Webb that he should make a show that depicts the way the police really crack cases.

Emphasizing modern crime fighting techniques, “Dragnet” episodes are built around the methodical approach to a detective’s job rather than melodramatic police chases ending in shootouts. In contrast, “Dragnet” episodes mostly conclude without violence with the captured perpetrator explaining what led him or her down the path of lawlessness. Often the accused display resignation to their fate and even show remarkable self awareness. 

On radio, “Dragnet” ran from 1949 to ’57 with 314 original episodes. The TV show, shot in black and white, premiered Dec. 14, 1951 and broadcast the last of its 276 episodes on Aug. 23, 1959. In addition, “Dragnet” (1954), a feature film brought Joe Friday to the big screen. It starred Webb, Ben Alexander as Friday’s partner Officer Frank Smith, Ann Robinson as Officer Grace Downey and Richard Boone as Capt. James E. Hamilton. The weekly show was later syndicated as “Badge 714.” 

Ben Alexander and Jack Webb in the 'Dragnet' episode 'The Big Trunk' (1954)

The 1960s saw the series revived with all new episodes shot in color and starring Webb and Harry Morgan as his sidekick. It starts as “Dragnet 1967” and ends with “Dragnet 1970” and has 98 episodes broadcast over four seasons. The 1960s “Dragnet” looks more polished than the one made a decade earlier, but Webb keeps his trademark deadpan throughout both. So dedicated to the idea of maintaining straight-ahead, no-nonsense performances from his actors he had them read dialog from teleprompters to keep an even tempo free of the histrionics typical of crime shows in that era. 

The stories are always told from Friday’s point of view and each episode opens with his voiceover narrative, a pop culture touchstone if ever there was one: “This is the city, Los Angeles, California … “ he intones with gravitas as a montage of location shots within the sprawling metropolis unspool. Weekly repetition of Friday’s words, spoken in unhurried cadence, suggest a man bearing a great weight on his shoulders. Over the years his take on the city burned Los Angeles into our collective consciousness as a modern metropolis; a place of excitement and danger, a vast urban landscape serving as itself a character in each of the show’s half hour episodes.

Friday’s baritone delivery will forever be associated with “Dragnet” and it’s hard to imagine another actor playing the part. But if Webb had gotten his way Lloyd Nolan would have been television’s Friday. Webb’s reluctance to take the role was probably due to the brutal schedule he’d have to keep as star and director — as it turned out he helmed 96 episodes of the 1950s series. But the radio program was a hit and the network demanded that he keep playing the character. 

Jack Webb on the set of 'Dragnet'

Despite a rather limited dramatic range, Webb was able to carry off his role to great effect. Often parodied in pop culture for his stiff delivery, audiences likely looked beyond the surface and saw authenticity and sincerity in his performance. Friday was hardened by experience but not cynical and audiences seemed to connect with his dedication to the greater good. 

A lot has been written about the good public relations that “Dragnet” brought to the Los Angeles Police Department, whose checkered past necessitated all of the positive image building it could get. The program no doubt sanitized troublesome aspects of the department’s history, but was at least successful in conveying the weekly grind that is law enforcement’s onus to bear.

As Allen Glover observed in his book, “Noir TV,” “Week after week, like Sisyphus, Friday returns to roll yet another suspect up the steps of City Hall. The pervasive sense of futility, coupled with the obsessive endeavor to defy it, affirms “Dragnet” as dire a work of noir as any.” The show is taken from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department, many going back to the 1920s and ‘30s, the same Los Angeles that Raymond Chandler and Horace McCoy wrote about.

“The bums, priests, con men, whining housewives, burglars, waitresses, children and bewildered ordinary citizens who people “Dragnet” seem as sorrowfully genuine as old pistols in a hockshop window,” said Time magazine in a 1954 cover story. It’s an apt reflection of Webb’s own childhood, growing up fatherless on Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill, a neighborhood of “epic dereliction … the rot in the heart of the expanding metropolis,” as social historian Mike Davis described it.

In the end, it’s the dark universe that “Dragnet”inhabits that gives the program its noir credentials. We can rest easier when Friday brings the culprit to justice, but he and, through extension, us, are never allowed to relax our guard. Next week and the week after that will bring new pickpockets, bunco artists and killers who will upset our sense of wellbeing. Happy outcomes at the end of each half hour episode are for the most part an illusion. At best they are temporary moments of relief from the onslaught of wrongdoers. Despite Friday’s best efforts, rest assured that any sense of calm will sooner or later be shattered. 

Meet the Press: Bullies, Brutes and News Hounds of Noir

Kirk Douglas, Robert Arthur, 'Ace in the Hole' (1951).

By Paul Parcellin

Gossip, Lurid Facts, Scandal Keep the Tabloid Presses Rolling

This article contains spoilers, so you may want to see these films before reading any further.

When we see a disheveled, groggy Richard Conte breaking into his own office in the middle of the night, desperate to record a story on the company’s Dictaphone machine, you know you’re watching noir. The scene could be set in almost any kind of office but it feels most at home in the newsroom — it works in an insurance company, too, but that’s a different movie (“Double Indemnity”).

In the first half of the last century newspapers had an undeniable excitement and mystique about them that has faded in more recent times. Back then they were a perfect breeding ground for the darkest of noir tales.

Picture a dingy roomful of men in their shirt sleeves and fedoras, furiously clattering out hot stories on Royal typewriters and editors marking them up with number 2 pencils. A cloud of Chesterfield smoke lingers in the air. City streets are awash in newsprint, subway strap hangers’ hands are smudged with black ink and news hawkers bark out the day’s biggest headlines. 

Part of the reason that newspaper journalism of yore, especially tabloids, fit perfectly with the film noir perspective is their focus on crime, scandal and salacious gossip. With big, garish headlines they often told tales of bullets fired, shell casings recovered and blood spilled. But apart from the pulpy stories they printed, the newspaper game was a grimy business — literally. Ink, newsprint and hot lead type were the materials that went into making that hunk of paper that landed on your doorstep each morning or the tabloid you snatched up at a news stand near your bus stop. 

These days, with computer imaging and typography, print journalism, such as it still exists, has grown a good deal more antiseptic. Old school newsrooms, Linotype machines and photo darkrooms have dissipated into the ether along with the cigarette smoke. But in their glory days they were part of the rough, gritty stuff that noir is made of. Yet, beneath the surface of these newspaper films lies a deep seated fear of media demagoguery, its potential to deliver propaganda to the masses and the unchecked power it could potentially wield — fears that have stayed with us to this day.

Howard Duff, 'Shakedown' (1950).

Most of those in the journalism game were and are straight shooters, but noir by its very nature focuses on humanity’s dark side, and the journalists of film noir are nothing if not amoral and shamelessly power hungry. We see that in "Shakedown" (1950). Cutthroat photographer Jack Early (Howard Duff) has a seemingly uncanny ability to take sensational pictures of breaking news events. Early is evasive about how he manages to be at the right place where dramatic events unfold. It turns out he’s getting tips from racketeer Nick Palmer, who lets him know about crimes, usually involving henchmen the crime boss want to get rid of, before they happen. For Early, the tips are a bonanza that pave the way to a job on the city’s newspaper. But as his career advances he develops a taste for double crosses, himself, setting up a crime  boss for an assassination. He plans to stand on the sidelines and capture it all on film. Eventually, Early is killed, but the camera he has stationed on a tripod takes pictures of the shooter in the act of rubbing him out. It’s a fitting last act for a crime photographer who liked to catch all of the lurid details on film. 

Richard Conte, Bruce Bennett, 'The Big Tip Off' (1955). 

In "The Big Tip Off" (1955), Richard Conte plays two-bit newspaper columnist Johnny Denton who gains notoriety by printing red-hot information on upcoming gangland activities. Like Jack Early, he is getting his information from a shadowy associate of his old buddy, Bob Gilmore (Bruce Bennett) . Unbeknownst to Denton, Gilmore is running a charity scam. Although the information he’s receiving offers him an opportunity to boost his faltering career, Denton soon has misgivings. In voice-over he reflects on his first encounter with mob brutality. “I didn’t think of the ethics of it until it was too late,” he mutters. “A human life ended in violence.” Soon others begin questioning his seemingly prescient reporting, but he claims immunity from revealing his sources. But in time it becomes clear that he’s more concerned with self enrichment than with protecting a news source’s identity. 

When the film’s action sags toward the middle a mood-lifting charity telethon with musical guests is staged with Denton as the master of ceremonies. But telethon organizer Gilmore has a plan of his own. He’s set to abscond with the telethon proceeds and will frame Denton for murdering his erstwhile accomplice. 

Kirk Douglas, Porter Hall, 'Ace in the Hole' (1951).

Like Denton, opportunistic newshound Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) puts his career goals ahead of moral principles — and he has few of those. In "Ace in the Hole" (1951), Tatum knows he’s got a big fish on his line when an Indian relics hunter Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) gets trapped in a cliff dwelling cave-in. Tatum will do anything to keep the story active. He and Sheriff Gus Kretzer (Ray Teal), who has agreed to grant Tatum exclusive contact with Leo, browbeat the construction contractor into using a more time-consuming rescue strategy. Meanwhile, after Tate’s news dispatches hit the streets droves of gawkers appear on the scene, and before long a traveling carnival sets up — a literal media circus. Almost everyone stands to gain something from Leo’s predicament. Leo’s wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling), was ready to leave him but decides to stick around when she realizes there might be a buck to be made from the ordeal. Sheriff Kretzer is dancing to Tatum’s tune because the reporter has promised him favorable press for his reelection campaign. But in the end, all does not go well for Leo, and when the din of carnival barkers recedes into the New Mexico desert he is all but forgotten.

Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, 'Sweet Smell of Success' (1957).

Like Tatum, syndicated newspaper columnist J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) In "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957) is one in a long line of unethical journalists who manipulate events and people to maintain an outsized influence on public opinion. Lancaster’s Hunsecker is an unabashed egomaniacal monster who surrounds himself with show business figures, politicians, underlings and other useful idiots. One of his entourage is small-time press agent Sydney Falco (Tony Curtis), who relies heavily on the columnist to push the propaganda he writes for his meager list of clients. Meanwhile, Hunsecker is obsessed with breaking up his sister Susan’s (Susan Harrison) relationship with  jazz guitarist Steve Dallas (Martin Milner) — we can only speculate about Hunsecker’s deeper motives. He demands that Sydney drive a wedge between the young couple and declares a moratorium on publishing any of his publicity blurbs until he gets the job done. Sydney dutifully takes on the job of ruining Dallas’s reputation, and in doing so deceives and cajoles a cigarette girl into doing a sexual favor for another columnist who agrees to publish a slur against the young guitarist. His gambit works, for a while, at least, but as soon as Sydney begins to believe he’s on top of the world the rug is yanked out from under him. Although Hunsecker’s plot backfires, we can assume he’ll continue to disseminate venom for many years to come, as will others of his ilk.

Clifton Webb, Dana Andrews, 'Laura' (1944).

Another news columnist and broadcaster, Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), is the monster in "Laura" (1944). He’s filthy rich, earning an unheard of 50 cents per word for his literate dispatches that are printed in hundreds of papers around the country. As the story opens in Waldo’s self-described “lavish” apartment, Det. Lt. Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) interviews him as he investigates the murder of advertising executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). Both Waldo and playboy Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price) knew the late young beauty and are therefor murder suspects. We see in flashback the genesis of Waldo’s relationship with Laura, which blossoms into a strictly platonic friendship. Waldo acts as her mentor, teaching her how to dress and behave in upper crust society. He aims to mold her into a decorative, cultured ornament, much like the museum pieces housed in glass cases in his living room. Carpenter, however, is enamored with her and has proposed marriage, earning himself Waldo’s scorn, but Carpenter seems immune to Waldo’s attempts to poison the relationship. In flashback we see Waldo disposing of another would-be suitor by ridiculing him in his column — after reading Waldo’s poisonous article, Laura is no longer able to take the would-be beau seriously. 

As the investigation proceeds we learn that Laura was killed by a shotgun blast to the face at her apartment’s doorway, which adds the tantalizing possibility that the victim may not be who everyone has assume it is, a possibility that proves true when Laura makes a most unexpected reappearance. But before she reemerges McPherson begins to fall in love with a portrait of her hanging over the mantlepiece. “Laura” is in part a romance in which McPherson and the heroine come to share a mutual attraction. But the concluding scene focuses on the shotgun murder weapon and a grandfather clock. Waldo loaned the clock to Laura — the shotgun is his own. 

Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, 'The Big Clock' (1948).

While scribes such as Waldo are most frequently the bad guys of newspaper noir, they aren’t the only villains of journalistic corruption. Sometimes a publisher can be the heavy. In "The Big Clock" (1948) we meet media mogul Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), who keeps his charges on a tight leash. He’s the kind of executive who fires the janitor who left the supply closet light on overnight. One of Janoth’s employees, Crimeways magazine editor George Stroud (Ray Milland), is in the doghouse with his neglected wife, Georgette (Maureen O’Sullivan). George gets an adrenaline junkie’s thrill out of chasing down high-profile murder cases and is conflicted by his recent decision to chuck his fast-paced city life and move to the placid countryside, all in the name of maintaining marital bliss. It’s a sure bet from the start that a hot story is going to hook George and his move to the country will be put on hold. 

That comes to pass when Janoth’s former mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson), tells the publisher that she has fresh dirt on him. She’s been blackmailing him — he pays for her “singing lessons.” But now she’s ready to squeeze him for a larger payout. It’s only a short while after making her pronouncement that she is dead at Janoth’s hands. In an effort to throw the police off his trail, Janoth orders George to investigate the case and find the man whom he glimpsed but did not recognize just outside Pauline’s apartment — it was George, and that’s another sticky matter. As the police pursue blind leads, the Crimeways investigation picks up steam and the atmosphere becomes downright surreal. The magazine’s staff has unheard of investigative authority in an open criminal investigation while the police stand sheepishly on the sidelines. It’s apparent that Janoth’s company holds excessive, some might say fascistic, power over law enforcement authorities. In the end it’s George, not the police, who crack the case. But it’s not until he discovers how constrictive, mechanized and demoralizing an environment the company is that he is able to free himself from it and move back to the country and a less tumultuous way of life.

Rosemary DeCamp, Broderick Crawford, 'Scandal Sheet' (1952).

Newspaper editor Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford), is another journalist who probably should have taken up residence on a quiet country lane, but instead he remains in the big city where his past has come back to haunt him. In "Scandal Sheet" (1952), Chapman finds it hard to keep a lid on a tragic incident that makes him look guilty of murder. His estranged wife, Charlotte (Rosemary De Camp), comes calling at a lonely hearts dance organized by Chapman’s paper, the Express. She threatens to publicly disclose information about his past that could ruin him — years ago he abandoned her and changed his identity. They have a verbal dust up that turns into a scuffle and she’s accidentally killed. Chapman works out a cover up, making it look like she slipped in the tub and the police believe his story. But it’s challenging to keep things under wraps when the paper’s ace crime reporter, Steve McCleary (John Derek), keeps digging up facts that hit a little too close to home. Unfortunately for Chapman, he has overseen the transformation of his once respectable paper into a muck-raking gossip rag. The kind of mud puddle he’s just stepped into — executive slays wife he abandoned — is just the stuff that papers like his gobble up. McLeary and his colleague Julie Allison (Donna Reed) are dogged in their pursuit of the culprit whom the paper has dubbed the Lonely Hearts Killer. Clearly, Chapman’s in over his head, but he will stop at nothing to scuttle the investigation. That includes committing murder when a reporter stumbles on damning evidence — even if the reporter is his protege. McLeary survives and there is poetic justice in the possibility that Chapman’s sordid misdeeds would make front page headlines in the scandal sheet he created. The lesson here is beware of the monster that you create — most likely you’ll end up its victim.

Danger Lurks in the Shadows of Noir-Tinged ‘Cat People’

Under hypnosis, Simone Simon, 'Cat People' (1942).

By Paul Parcellin

This article contains spoilers,
so you may want to see the film before reading it.

Director Jacque Tourneur said “The less you see, the more you believe” and his film, “Cat People” (1942), proves his theory. It shows how a movie can spark an audience’s imagination when it lets them hear threatening sounds from things that lurk just off screen. We get a palpable sense of phantom-like predators that hide in the shadows, but because we can’t see them we conjure up dastardly images that fill in the blanks.

RKO budgeted the film at around $135,000 and the director made creative use of whatever odds and ends happened to be available. But that suited Tourneur, who preferred to work with a smaller budget. That would mean less oversight and more opportunity for creative innovation.

Others might have found the paltry budget to be a stumbling block, but the director had an ace up his sleeve in cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, who sculpted deep pools of black shadow for “Cat People” and another Tourneur masterpiece, “Out of the Past” (1947).

With its spare use of special effects and dramatic lighting, the film’s overall mood places it in the noir camp. “Common to all of Tourneur’s films was a muted disenchantment, a strange melancholy, the eerie feeling of having embarked on an adventure from which there was no return,” said director Martin Scorsese, who is a Tourneur fan and an appreciator of “Cat People” in particular. When discussing the film he frequently uses the word “psychosexual” to describe this story of Serbian artist in exile, Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), who is doomed by an ancestral Balkan curse. The curse makes her metamorphose into a panther if aroused by passion.

Mr. America

 She meets the self-proclaimed “good plain Americano” Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) one day while she’s sketching a panther at the zoo and the two begin dating. From the start of their courtship there are signs that Irena is anything but the average girl. She sets off a frenzy in a pet shop when she walks among the caged birds. The bemused owner remarks that “animals are ever so psychic.”

Despite ample warning signs that this may not be a match made in heaven, the two get hitched. During the wedding celebration at a small Serbian restaurant a catlike woman at a neighboring table notices Irena, who greets her as a sister when their paths cross — Simone Simon was cast as Irena, in part, because of her feline-like facial features. It’s a brief, uncomfortable moment that unsettles the guests and sets the tone for the couple’s future. The marriage gets off to a rocky start. That Irena must withhold herself from the man she loves lest she morph into a panther is hardly a formula for matrimonial bliss, yet it’s a secret she withholds from Oliver.

‘Normal’ Life

From the start it’s obvious that the two are polar opposites. Oliver is the picture of a “normal American,” so much so that Smith’s performance borders on parody. His line readings are stiff and his utter ordinariness makes him seem like a Ken doll come to life. It’s obvious that Oliver’s normal American persona drives Irena to distraction. At one point he admits that prior to the marriage he never knew what it was to be unhappy.

  In time he becomes closer to his “work wife,” the perky Alice Moore (Jane Randolph) than to Irena. As Irena’s condition deteriorates Oliver sends her to a psychiatrist to help her deal with her anxieties. But later Irena learns that Alice recommended the psychiatrist and Irena has an emotional flareup over his betrayal. “There are things that a woman doesn’t want another woman to understand about her,” she tells him. Their relationship is at the breaking point, and Irena is driven to takes steps she thinks will preserve their crumbling relationship.

Simone Simon, Kent Smith

The film is all about passions that are on the verge of boiling over and the restraint it takes to hold those seething emotions in check. Reflecting that, scenes are shot with great restraint — no flashy special effects or elaborate sets, but clever uses of the modest sets and props available to the director. A scene that sums up the concise, economical storytelling that Tourneur is known for takes place near the end of the film. When the roguish psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway) attempts to force himself on Irena, she transforms into a panther, but we don’t see the transition, or even the panther, for that matter, nor do we see her return to human form. Instead, after the confrontation is done we follow a trail of paw prints in the mud and suddenly the paw prints stop and a trail of a woman’s shoe prints continue on.

An Iconic Shot

“Cat People” was the first of the films produced by Val Lewton at RKO. The year after “Cat People,” Lewton and Tourneur combined for RKO’s “I Walked with a Zombie” and “The Leopard Man.” Lewton made his mark with “Cat People” in an unexpected way that continues influence filmmakers to this day. Irena and Alice’s rivalry leads to the oft imitated shot that became known as the “Lewton Bus” or the “jump scare.” Roger Ebert notes that “‘Cat People’ is constructed almost entirely out of fear,” and the Lewton Bus is the perfect illustration of what he meant by that.

One night at home Irena and Oliver quarrel and he leaves in a huff to go to his office. Along the way he crosses paths with Alice at a cafe. Irena has  come looking for Oliver and she hides outside. Alice leaves to go home and Irena stealthily follows. As Alice walks along the transverse beneath a bridge she begins to sense that she’s being followed. Echoing heels behind her begin to take on the rhythm and sound of a train clattering along a railway trestle. She looks around, disoriented, searching for whoever is tailing her but there’s nothing except shrubbery swaying in the wind — or is it just the wind? Without warning a city bus barrels into the frame, hissing like a jungle cat pouncing on its prey. It startles the already nervous Alice and usually shakes up the audience, too.

It may not have been the first time the jump scare was used in a film, but it brought that technique into the mainstream and has been repeated innumerable times in thrillers and horror films. 

The Supernatural

“Cat People” exists in a place where film noir and the supernatural intersect, like “The Twilight Zone” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” It has aged well, in part because it lacks clunky special effects and because of the ingenuity that went into filming it. Squeezing the most value out of every dollar in its budget forced the director to scale new creative heights. But most of all it’s the puzzle of Irena, the psychosexual underpinnings, as Scorsese would say, of a cursed woman who becomes unhinged by “normal” American life — a social critique that seems ahead of its time and still feels relevant today.

‘Double Indemnity’: Two On a Conveyor Belt Toward Doom

Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, 'Double Indemnity' (1944).


This article contains many SPOILERS, so if you haven't seen the film yet be forewarned.

By Paul Parcellin

In “Double Indemnity” (1944), housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) and gets him to kill her husband. She’s after a big payout from a policy that Neff sold him under false pretenses. It’s a classic noir — maybe THE classic noir. The story’s got all the right stuff — murder, sex and the promise of a bundle of cash for the two lovebirds. Naturally, it all goes horribly wrong and they both pay dearly for their misadventures. 

Neff and Phyllis swear allegiance to one another, repeating several times throughout the film that they’ll stick together “straight down the line” — words that prove all too prophetic. For a while, the scheme seems to have come off without a hitch, but later Neff realizes that a double-cross is in the works. Worse still, his co-worker and friend, claims supervisor Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), is doggedly working to crack the case, and for Keyes, this case is like red meat to a lion.

When Keyes begins to suspect that Phyllis and an unknown man are behind her husband’s death, he also invokes a train trip. When two people commit a crime together it’s not twice as safe, it’s ten times more dangerous. "It's not like taking a trolley ride together where they can get off at different stops,” he says. “They're stuck with each other and they've got to ride all the way to the end of the line and it's a one-way trip and the last stop is the cemetery.”

Like the rows of canned goods in Jerry’s Supermarket where the two conspiring killers meet clandestinely to plot their moves, Neff begins to realize that he’s been used by Phyllis and is nothing more than a commodity on a conveyor belt whose ultimate destination is a meeting with the executioner.

It’s all rather dire, but beneath the surface of a crime film lies a satire of modern day life — can the drudgery of the workaday world that Neff slogs through be enough to transform a morally challenged worker bee into an adulterer, embezzler and a killer? The answer is a resounding yes, here in Neff’s world, at least.

Also just beneath the surface is the film’s extremely subtle comments on big Hollywood and its tendency to crush the creative spirit of its faithful servants — it’s there but you might need a magnifying glass to see it. 

Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder.

Director Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, who co-wrote the screenplay, were not fans of the City of Los Angeles, and the film echos their disdain for the metropolis. They thought of the place as hyper-capitalized, highly industrialized and morally bankrupt. Chandler once said that Los Angeles has “no more personality than a paper cup.” He viewed the City of Angels as a modern day Sodom filled with greasy burger joints, phony spiritualist and fast-talking hustlers trying to make a dishonest buck.

James Naremore in his book “More Than Night” lays out some of the film’s underpinnings. Putting aside the heinous crimes Neff commits, the author views him as a cog in a machine, namely the insurance industry, and his foray into a murderous scheme is a doomed effort to break away from the shackles of his job and a rootless existence. After years of faithful service he wants to crook the system and go far away with his newfound lady love. 

Wilder’s satirical portrait of the drab assembly line that is modern industrialized civilization is that of a wasteland teeming with alienated masses. And the insurance business is not much different from the movie industry. Naremore points out that the insurance company offices where Neff works, which we see in the film’s opening sequence, is a near duplicate of Paramount Pictures’ New York offices. And Neff’s Hollywood apartment is a carefully constructed copy of Wilder’s suite at West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont hotel, where he lived while shooting the film. Wilder’s in-joke is that, like Neff, he’s become an automaton for the big money people. 

We see both Neff and Keyes suffer through a painful meeting with their oafish boss, Mr. Norton (Richard Gaines). A self-righteous airhead with little hands-on experience in the insurance industry, Norton tries to worm out of making good on the Dietrichson insurance policy only to have his clumsy maneuvers blow up in his face. It’s not hard to imagine that Norton is a stand-in for the executives the director was forced to report to — the kind that offer unwelcome and usually unhelpful advice all in the name of putting their imprint and a project that would do just fine without them. In this environment one could imagine upper management quoting Samuel Goldwyn when he implored his screenwriters to “Come up with some new cliches.” 

Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson. The end of the line for Walter Neff.

Wilder faced studio pressure both when trying to put his script into production and after filming got under way. The Breen Office complained about an initial script, which was closer to the James M. Cain novel on which the film is based. That one had the two murderers die at each other’s hands instead of being arrested, tried and punished appropriately by the courts and penal system as the Hays Code strongly suggested. Wilder revised the screenplay to include an execution scene with Neff in the gas chamber, which he shot. It was reviled by studio brass as too gruesome. Ultimately, Wilder cut the scene, saying that it was unnecessary, but Naremore speculates that it would have played an essential role in the film. 

Stills of the scene show Neff, the condemned man, through the death chamber’s plate glass window as he’s obscured by clouds of cyanide gas and Keyes is one of the execution witnesses. 

The payoff scene after the execution, which was cut from the final print, would have added an even stronger ending to the film. After the execution is done, Keyes, alone, obviously grieving at the loss of a friend, is emotionally conflicted. He’s a straight shooter who is pained by the whole ordeal. Throughout the film we’ve seen a repeated ritual between Neff and Keyes, who smokes cheap stogies. He’s never got a match to light his cigar, but Neff comes to the rescue, flicking a wooden match to light up Keyes’s smoke. As a somber Keyes files out of the death chamber he takes out a cigar and pats his pockets looking for a match. He comes up empty and we see in his eyes the void that Neff’s death has left in his life. Too bad that such a touching moment ended up on the cutting room floor, especially since Wilder said it was one of the best scenes he'd ever filmed. But Naremore is hopeful that the excised film is sitting in a Paramount vault and will one day be restored to the film, although there’s no reason to think that this will ever happen. 

It’s open to question whether Wilder cut the scene due to pressure from his studio bosses or if he decided that the scene was truly unnecessary as he claimed. It’s all speculation because few people have actually seen the footage. But if Naremore’s description of it is accurate it would add an additional layer of emotional complexity to Keyes — his friendship with Neff being at odds with his dedication to doing the right thing. It’s an intriguing proposition.

Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck.

‘Repeat Performance’: Happy New Year! — You're Dead

Louis Hayward, Joan Leslie, 'Repeat Performance' (1947).

By Paul Parcellin

Sometimes we could all use  a do-over, and that’s certainly the case with Sheila Page (Joan Leslie) who’s just capped off her year by turning her husband, Barney (Louis Hayward), into a corpse. But then something supernatural happens. Come midnight New Year’s Eve she finds herself not in the new year but repeating the previous year. Hubby is still alive and she’s got a second chance to fix her life and not plug her mate — sort of a year-long “Groundhog Day” that happens just once, if you catch my drift.

"Repeat Performance" (1947) asks whether experience prepares us to avoid mistakes we make, and Sheila does her level best to do just that by traveling to different locales and avoiding certain people. She reasons, quite sensibly, that if you break the chain of events leading up to an unfortunate incident you can nip the mishap in the bud. But, it turns out, fate is a stubborn thing.

Things began to sour last year when she and Barney traveled to London, so she insists that they go to California instead. She never tells Barney about the strange phenomenon she’s been experiencing, instead she confides in her neighbor, wisecracking poet Edward Edwards (Richard Basehart). However, try as she might to prevent them, events find a way of recurring. Sheila tries to stop Edwards from being committed to a mental institution as he had the previous year. And Paula Costello (Virginia Field), playwright and first-class home wrecker whom Sheila tries to ban from her residence, makes a grand appearance much to Sheila’s horror and Barney’s delight. 

Joan Leslie, Louis Hayward, Virginia Field.

It’s soon apparent that Sheila has overestimated her ability to keep disaster away from her doorstep. The trouble is, no matter what she does her husband is the same jerk he always was and no amount of clairvoyant insight is going to change that. 

We begin to understand how Sheila fell for Barney — when he turns on the charm he’s quite persuasive. In fact the two of them share some sweet moments together. But as his true character comes out, that of the failed, bitter playwright, we realize that he’s turned into a mean, womanizing drunk. Sheila tries to fix their relationship but it becomes evident that she’s wasting her time.

“Repeat Performance” is an outlier in the film noir canon, with its supernatural bent that conflicts with the earliest examples of noir, which lean toward hyper realism and rough-hewn characters who often inhabit downscale settings. Sheila and Barney are sophisticated New Yorkers and part of the upper middle class. What makes their story similar to those of other iconic characters in film noir is the palpable presence of fate. Invisible forces typically send these anti-heroes to ruin. You can change the events that lead to ruin, but you can’t change human nature, the film seems to tell us.

As it turns out, the do-over does in fact change the story’s outcome in a significant way as the hand of fate re-shuffles the deck. While you can’t drastically alter human nature, a few nips and tucks can make a world of difference.

Sidebar:
We’re lucky to have a restored copy of “Repeat Performance” available on Blu-ray, courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation, UCLA and others. A 2007 screening of the film with an appearance by Joan Leslie was scheduled, and it was discovered that a 35mm print had deteriorated, so the foundation, the university and others coordinated the restoration. As with Sheila Page, an intervention can change what seems to be an inevitable unfortunate outcome. 

If you don't want to spring for the Blu-ray you can watch a well-worn print of it here on YouTube.

‘Dementia’: A Feverish, Tortured Night on Skid Row

Adrienne Barrett, 'Dementia' (1955).

“Dementia” (1955) has many of film noir’s hallmarks: a dingy hotel room with a well-worn electric sign outside that nervously flashes off and on, shady characters prowling skid row’s streets and a posh-looking fat man who glides around town in the back seat of his limo. And of course tobacco smoke, deep, dark shadows and raking light that makes everything look sinister. 

Despite its noir earmarks, “Dementia” is mostly a psychologically driven horror film chock full of surrealistic imagery — equal parts Luis Buñuel, Raymond Chandler and John Carpenter with a heavy dollop of Sigmund Freud tossed in for good measure.  

In it, a tormented woman’s restless sleep is interrupted by paranoid delusions. She roams the streets in a business suit, looking like a Sarah Lawrence grad, except she brandishes a switchblade and as we soon discover, isn’t afraid to use it. 

She visits her parents’ graves in the dead of night and relives the violence she experienced as a child at the hands of her father and her mother’s indifference to it. Later, she’s waylaid by a pimp who attempts to put her to work for him, is chased by the cops and roughed up by some others. It’s a trippy exploration of madness as well as the ever-present threat of violence and sexual abuse that women endure. Probably “Torment” would have been a more fitting title for it.

In a Silent Way
Oh, and the film has no spoken dialog at all, just some written messages that fit into the story. One online version that I watched, titled merely “Dementia,” has a wheezing, growling electric guitar soundtrack that must have been dubbed in long after the film’s initial release — best to avoid that one. 

John Parker, the film’s writer, producer and director originally intended “Dementia” to be a short but revamped it into a feature length production. 

Bruno VeSota, Adrienne Barrett, 'Dementia'

The story is based on his secretary Adrienne Barrett’s dream, and he cast her to play the lead role. Viewing it today it’s hard to understand why the New York State Film Board banned it in 1953, but it was finally released two years later. Producer Jack H. Harris acquired it and re-released it in 1957 as “Daughter of Horror,” adding a bit of voice over narration. 

The soundtrack has the kind of swooning melodies you'd expect in a schlock horror film — music by George Antheil, orchestration by Ernest Gold, with The Giants, Shorty Rogers, and vocals by Marni Nixon. 

Also on the hokey side is the narration performed by Ed McMahon prior to his stint on “The Tonight Show.” It's over the top, but adds needed clarity to the story. 

If you don’t like low-budget, independent art films, “Dementia” is probably not your cup of tea. It’s more akin to “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” than to traditional noir studio productions like “Double Indemnity” and “Out of the Past.” 

But on the plus side it does possess a certain saturnine visual poetry that is heavy on symbolism, charmingly corny, and makes the most of dark, shadowy landscapes where danger lurks around every corner — the stuff that always lures us in.