A reformed hood, who turns state evidence to get parole to care for his kids after his wife’s suicide, is a marked man (Fox 1947 Directed by Henry Hathaway 98 mins)

Kiss of Death is usually remembered for the debut performance of Richard Widmark as the giggling psychotic hit-man Tommy Udo and his brutal murder of a hood’s wheelchair-bound mother. But it is a strong performance by Victor Mature as the squealer, Nick Bianco, out to save his family, that holds the film together. An unaffected Coleen Gray is engaging as the love interest Nettie.  Brian Donlevy gives his usual straight-up delivery as the Assistant DA who offers Bianco a get out of jail free card.

The action is tautly directed and is set mostly on the actual streets of New York, where the innocent streets of suburbia in the afternoon are a counterpoint to the dark sordid streets of the city at night. The only weakness is a redundant and banal voice-over commentary on the action by Nettie, which is also at odds with the noir theme that redemption costs. The climatic resolution is nicely nuanced and well-paced, as is the claustrophobic tension of the perps sweating out a slow elevator ride down from the 27th floor of an office building after a jewellery heist. The family scenes of Bianco with his daughters and Nettie are beautifully played and deeply moving, without resort to sentimentality.

In the 1940’s the Breen Office rejected initial scripts (amongst many other films) for The Maltese Falcon (1941), Laura (1944), and Murder, My Sweet (aka Farewell, My Lovely 1944):

The Maltese Falcon… required the… following revisions: Joel Cairo should not be characterized as a ‘pansy type’; the ’suggestion of illicit sex between Spade and Brigid’ should be eliminated; there should be less drinking; there should be no physical contact between Iva and Spade ‘other than that of decent sympathy’; Gutman should say ‘By Gad!’ less often; and ‘Spade’s speech about District Attorneys should be rewritten to get away from characterizing [them] as men who will do anything to further their careers.’ A similar pattern of objections can be seen in the Breen Office reports on other celebrated films noirs. A… review of Laura insisted that Waldo Lydecker must be portrayed as a ‘wit and debonair man-about-town’ and that ‘there can never be any suggestion that [he] and Laura have been more than friends’; meanwhile, scenes of police brutality had to be downplayed, along with the drinking at Laura’s apartment… [A] report on Farewell, My Lovely informed the producers that ‘there must, of course, be nothing of the ‘pansy’ characterization about Marriott’; by the same token, Mr. Grayle could not ‘escape punishment’ by committing suicide, and the scenes of pistol-whipping, drinking, and illicit sex would have to be reduced or treated indirectly.

- James Naremore, More Than Night - Film Noir In Its Contexts (UCLA Press 1998)

Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos, titled The Finger Man (France 1962) for its USA release, is as dark a tale of vengeance as has ever hit the screen. Filmed in wide-screen black and white, it is visually stunning with long fluid interior and external shots.  There is a degree of  intrigue and tension as the body of the story is about deceiving the criminal protagonist and the audience.  The final shoot-out in a luxury villa outside Paris is the strongest sequence.

But for all that, the whole affair is coldly intellectual and at bottom a smug homily on the futility of revenge and a warning that all sinners are punished: live by the gun die by the gun.  Strictly art-house noir.

Imogen Sara Smith has written in the August issue of the Bright Lights film journal a review of Abraham Polonsky’s Force of Evil (1948).  The article is a good introduction to the movie without giving too much away - an endemic weakness for many reviewers of films noir and writers on film noir.

While rightly focusing on Garfield’s characterisation as the hoodlum lawyer and the relationship with his brother played by Thomas Gomez, Smith gives too little credit to Polonsky’s  solid screenplay and his impressive directorial debut.

In his last role, Humphrey Bogart, as an aging down-on-his-luck sportswriter, is drafted into fronting for a mob-controlled boxer. ( Dir. Mark Robson 109 mins)

After a stunning opening which tracks a series of cars heading to a New York boxing studio, The Harder They Fall, lapses into a visually mediocre boxing movie.  Strong performances from a haggard Bogart, who died not long after completing the picture,  and Rod Steiger as the mobster, keep the interest up, but overall the picture is flat and unmoving.

Bogart’s redemption comes too late and reluctantly, and seems shallow after the avoidable death of a punch-drunk boxer in which he is complicit.

What is interesting is the inclusion of fight fans in the denunciation of the “sport”. Bogart tells the boxer Toro when trying to persuade him to throw his championship fight to avoid getting hurt:

“What do you care what a bunch of bloodthirsty, screaming people think of you?  Did you ever get a look at their faces? They pay a few lousy bucks hoping to see a man get killed. To hell with them! Think of yourself. Get your money and get out of this rotten business.”

Another cynical touch is the scene where the mob “accountant” insists on itemising the “deductibles” from the million dollar take on the fight leaving the hapless boxer with $49.07 after “overheads”.

Factual Note: The interview on skid-row of real-life ex-boxer, Joe Greb, was not scripted or rehearsed.

Laura (1944)

August is Film Noir Month at MovieZeal.com. A crew of film reviewers and bloggers has been assembled to write reviews of and articles on 31 selected noirs.

On September 2 Fox Home Entertainment will release DVDs of three restored and remastered “film noir” titles: Boomerang! (1947), Moontide (1942), and Road House (1948).

Bomerang! directed by Elia Kazan, and Moontide starring Jean Gabin in his first US film, are peripheral noir titles, while Road House has strong noir credentials.

More details from So Hood Magazine.

The wife of a man who goes into hiding after witnessing a gangland killing, tries to track him down before the killer does (Fidelity Pictures 1950 Directed by Norman Foster 77 mins)

A great b-thriller from Foster, who had a (disputed) role in the making of Orson Welles’ Journey Into Fear (1943)  and directed Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948).  The  picture moves apace on the streets, tenements, dives, and wharfs of San Fransisco, with a novel climax at a beach-side amusement park.  A nice twist half-way through the movie ramps up the tension to the finale on and around a roller-coaster. Anne Sheridan is great in a role that moves from an indifferent wife in a failing marriage through a street-wise dame with a razor wit to the hysterical woman back in love desperately trying to save her husband’s life. The supporting b-cast performs well by playing stock characters with some considerable vitality and depth.

The movie’s noir credentials come not only from low-key lighting and sharply angled night shots, but from an intelligent screenplay that explores the ennui of a disintegrating marraige and its revival after the protagonists learn more about each other from other people than they can have imagined.   The savage murder of an innocent young cabaret dancer that gets in the way of the killer desperately trying to hide his identity, is off-screen,  but poignantly handled to add a tragic undertone to the story.

A truly engaging film.