Anne Francis & Dana Andrews in Brainstorm (1965)

This film is not to be confused with the 1983 film of the same name. This black and white thriller warns against pretending to be something you're not. Jim Grayam (Jeffrey Hunter) is a research scientist working for an aeronautics firm in California owned by Cort Benson. One night he rescues a lovely woman (Francis) from what turns out to be a dramatic suicide attempt, only to discover she's his boss's wife, Lorrie. This should have been his first clue to steer clear, but he eventually falls into the trap of an affair with her. They believe they've been discreet enough for the affair to go unnoticed, but when strange events begin to befall Jim, Lorrie realizes that Cort has found out. Cort's strategy is to ruin the men who become rivals for his wife's affections by exploiting the chinks in their armor - Jim's chink is a history of mental illness. Cort picked the wrong man to poke with a stick, however. Jim decides to play into Cort's hand and feign mental illness to use as a defense for murder - his murder!

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This dark film noir has many of the elements of The Postman Always Rings Twice and other films of that style, but with an edgy, chaos infused, 60's point of view. Look for Viveca Lindfors as a sympathetic psychiatrist and Richard Kiel (Jaws from the Bond films) in a small role as an inmate.

This film is available on DVD and can occasionally be seen on TCM. It's largely forgotten, however. Above is a scene from the film, uploaded to YouTube by GR160289.

Obscurity factor: 8 (on DVD, occasionally screened on television, not well remembered)

Richard Crenna & Lee J. Cobb in Double Indemnity (1973)

This television remake of the iconic film noir might, on the surface seem like a mistake. It is, of course, not the original, however it holds its own, and there's a lot to like about it. The story is the familiar one told so beautifully back in 1944 by Billy Wilder, but it's updated to then present day LA. Walter Neff (Crenna) is an insurance agent who gets caught in a complicated web of intrigue by Phyllis Dietrickson (Samantha Eggar) when she enlists him to help her do away with her husband. Barton Keyes (Cobb) is the pensive investigator who just misses putting it all together until the last reel. This production was adapted for television by a young Steven Bochco from the original film and novel by James M. Cain. Much like in the neo noir film The Long Goodbye by Altman, also released in 1973, it's fun and incongruous to see the hard boiled dialog and world weary noir characters among the trappings of early 70's Los Angeles.

You can find this version of the story among the extras of the DVD release of the original 1944 film. It can also be seen on StageVu, uploaded by Horror Vision. It's otherwise difficult to find.

Obscurity factor: 8 (available as an extra on the original film's DVD, also on StageVu, largely forgotten)

Joan Crawford in Flamingo Road (1949)

Lane Bellamy (Crawford) is a carnival dancer, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. When she falls in love with the hand picked political pawn (Zachary Scott) of the powerful sheriff (Sidney Greenstreet) of Bolden City, she makes an enemy of that sheriff who will dog her to the death. She thought she had escaped his grasp when she married a political boss more powerful than he, but will his burning hatred be shielded by power and influence? Don't count on it.

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I've always been aware of this film, but had never seen it until tonight when I hosted it for Chelsea Classics here in New York. It's one of those Crawford films from that era that all seem to blend into each other - The Damned Don't Cry... Sudden Fear... Flamingo Road... It's a damned good picture though, with great suspense and pot-boiling drama. Sidney Greenstreet is just hateful as the sheriff, with a mean streak so wide you could drive a truck down it. The story, which originated in novel form, was turned into a television series in the 1980's starring Morgan Fairchild Stella Stevens.

This film is available on DVD. The trailer for it is above, uploaded to YouTube by captbijou.

Obscurity factor: 4 (known to diehard Crawford fans, still in the public consciousness, available on DVD)

Ann Sheridan & Zachary Scott in The Unfaithful (1947)

Obscurity factor: 7

Chris Hunter (Sheridan) kills an intruder in her home late one evening while her husband (Scott) is out of town. When questioned by the police, she claims not to know him, but it's later discovered by her lawyer (Lew Ayres) that he - a sculpter - had done a bust of her and they had been having an affair. She schemes to keep the truth from her husband and beat the murder rap. Will she be able to?

Wikipedia

On Friday I posted The Road Builder, a Patricia Neal film that had elements reminiscent of the Bette Davis vehicle, Now Voyager.  This film is a reworking of the Somerset Maugham, Bette Davis film, The Letter. It deviates from the original plot in a few key points, however and there are more misogynistic overtones to this version of the story, and that's saying quite a bit.

This film has been released on DVD through the Warner Bros. Archive Collection. The trailer is above, uploaded to YouTube by SkipJackTuner.

Obscurity factor: 7 (available on DVD, occasionally screened on TV, not high in the public consciousness)

Jean-Louis Trintignant, Roy Scheider & Ann Margaret in The Outside Man (1972)

Obscurity factor: 8

This is a good example of the neo-noir genre. French hit man Lucien Bellon (Trintignant) arrives in Los Angeles to do a job. He checks into the Beverly Hills Hilton then takes his gun and his money and heads over to the palatial home of mobster, Victor Kovacs and kills him. Upon returning to his hotel he finds he's been checked out and all his belongings have been taken, including his passport - he's essentially stranded. As he goes to try and do something about it he's shot at in the parking lot. What follows is a game of cat and mouse played between him and another hit man (Roy Scheider) on his tail that leads him through the seediest parts of 1970's LA and throws him together with Georgia Engel (of Mary Tyler Moore fame) and Ann Margaret. As he unravels the puzzle he finds himself in he begins to be able to turn the tables on his pursuers.

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This film has some strange contradictions. It's neo-noir, action film and psychological study all rolled into one. Somehow the sum is greater than the parts, and the film works. It's fun to see Los Angeles in the 1970's and the suspense is well maintained through out the film. Look for Angie Dickenson, Alex Rocco and John Hillerman in small roles.

While not available on DVD, this film can be found on VHS. I saw it the other night on the uber-strange American Life TV network where I also saw Bunny O'Hare. The trailer is above, uploaded to YouTube by SorryHaters.

Obscurity factor: 8 (largely unknown now, not on DVD, known to some 70's film buffs)

Joan Crawford in The Damned Don't Cry (1950)

Obscurity factor: 2

In some ways this is the ultimate composite Joan Crawford film. In it she gets to go through the full range of styles and emotions from the films of her Warner Bros. pictures - grief, hard-as-nails determination, shame, sophistication, passion... Ethel Whitehead lives a bleak existence amongst oil derricks and poverty. She and her husband and son share a home with her doting mother and heartless father. When she decides to buy her son a bike it touches off a familiar argument with her husband, who is sensitive of not being able to provide more than the basic essentials for his family. When the son is killed it effectively breaks the bond between husband and wife and Ethel leaves to make her own way. She starts out as a model at a dress company, but, using men as her stepping stones, is able to scheme her way into the heart of an organized crime syndicate - and a glamorous life. She becomes Lorna Hansen Forbes, a fabulously wealthy oil heiress and lives a beautiful life. That is, until the syndicate boss decides to use her in his play to get the western territory back from a rebellious associate.

This film has a Mildred Pierce on steroids quality to it - the death of a child, the struggle to achieve, the realization that the top isn't all its cracked up to be... It's fun to see Joan play the scenes to the hilt, as usual and to see her go from know-nothing fit model to confident society woman.

This film has a big cult following among Crawford fans. It's available on DVD. The trailer is posted above, courtesy of felixxxx999 on YouTube. The poster above is available from MoviePosterShop.com.

Obscurity factor: 2 (well known to Crawford fans, otherwise obscure, available on DVD)

Elliot Gould in The Long Goodbye (1973)

Obscurity factor: 2

Elliot Gould as Phillip Marlowe? Right off the bat you know this isn't an ordinary, hard boiled crime drama. But then, Robert Altman isn't an ordinary director.

Altman's Marlowe is a fish out of water - dubbed Rip Van Marlowe by the director. He's a man with a cut and dried, 1950's sense of right and wrong living in the increasingly amorphous moral climate of southern California in the early 1970's. Marlowe's friend Terry Lennox comes to him early one morning asking for a lift to Tijuana. He's had a fight with his wife, so he says. When his wife turns up dead the police head straight to Marlowe. He won't give them any information, so they rough him up a little and hold him for three days. When he's released he learns that Terry Lennox has committed suicide while in Mexico. In a seemingly unrelated case, Marlowe is hired by the ice cool blond wife (Nina Van Pallandt) of a Hemmingwayesque writer (Sterling Hayden) who has disappeared. Marlowe finds him in detox and returns him to his wife. When he gets home he finds gangster Marty Augustine and his henchmen waiting for him, convinced that he has money that Terry Lennox owed him. As the plot continues to unravel, Marlowe finds the common link in these three stories and his moral code is put to a real test. This film, as with most Altman pictures is highly distilled and creates very polarized reactions among viewers. It's not faithful to the Raymond Chandler novel, which many consider a sacrilege. Some hold it up as a masterpiece of neo-noir cinema, while others consider the forays into character development and scene setting annoying distractions from the story. At the time of its release the film was not well received. It was pulled from theaters and rebranded with a more comedic slant and still didn't fare well. In retrospect, however, it has a lot going for it, with a moody, dark storyline, great performances and beautiful cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond. The washed out pastel effect was created with light struck film. Look for a young Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of Augustine's henchmen and listen for the title song as sung by Jack Sheldon - voice of many of the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons.

Fans of Robert Altman know this film well. To the rest of the film going public, it's not well known. It's available on DVD, and can be seen in its entirety on YouTube thanks to uploads by PrizeFighterEnFuego. The first installment is above.

Obscurity factor: 2 (well known in film circles, relatively unknown generally, available on DVD and YouTube)

Constance Towers in The Naked Kiss 1964

To cap off our week of Noir we have this late entry. 1964 is really the bitter, ragged end of film noir. Many people wouldn't consider this a noir film because of the year it was made, but for our purposes we're going to count it in. In this Leon Fromkess/Samuel Fuller production, Constance Towers is Kelly, a former prostitute who's trying to give it up and walk the straight and narrow. The film opens with a shocking scene of Kelly beating up her pimp, from the pimps point of view. As she pounds at him with her purse her wig falls off and she's bald. He's shaved her head to punish her for transgressions. We next see Kelly getting off a bus in a small town. She meets the sheriff (Anthony Eisley) there and has a fling with him, after which he tells her to leave town and suggests she work at Candy's - a clip joint in the next town over. He's later surprised to find her working at the local children's hospital as a nurse's aid. She tries to convince him that she's cleaning up her act, but he doesn't believe her. Later, she's taken to a party at the home of the town's most eligible bachelor. Well, of course you can guess that they fall madly in love. He's hiding a dark secret, however.

This film is really disturbing on many levels. The close proximity of deviant behavior and children, the exploitation of disabled children to drive sympathy for Kelly, the sanctioning, even championing of Kelly's tendency to viciously attack the people who have wronged her in some way all add up to one twisted film. Look for Virginia Gray and Patsy Kelly in small, but well featured parts, and an especially creepy scene with the above mentioned disabled kids singing "Mommy Dear." Also, look below for my little soap box moment about some implausible plot points in the film - they include spoilers though!

This film has gotten something of a cult reputation in the years since it was made. There was a DVD release by the Criterion Collection back in 1998 and it's also on the Hollywood Bombshells Collection that's been the source of all the films this week. It's uploaded to YouTube in full, thanks to MindsiMedia. Part 1 is above. Many thanks to Steven Menendez for loaning me the set!

Obscurity factor: 3 (film is cult classic, available on DVD, YouTube, largely unknown out of cult circles)

*spoiler alert*

Now I usually don't include spoilers in these write-ups, however this needs to be addressed. There's a big hole in the plot here that has only become more obvious in the age of Law & Order. Kelly is in jail, awaiting trial for killing her fiance, and when the child is found and she confirms her story she's set free, no trial, no other corroboration. She's killed one of the most prominent citizens of the town and is released with a thank you. It completely implausible. At the very most the circumstances would provide a defense lawyer with a case of justifiable homicide, but because there wasn't a specific victim in immanent danger, that defense probably wouldn't have gotten her off. There, I feel better now...
*end spoilers*

Angela Lansbury in A Life At Stake 1954

Our first film noir post this week featured Angela Lansbury, and here she is again playing another dangerous dame.

Keith Andes plays Edward Shaw, an architect who has lost his business in a deal gone bad. He's approached by an attorney who is looking for someone to partner with his clients (Lansbury and her husband) to take advantage of the post war building boom in Southern California. When he meets Doris Hillman (Lansbury) the sparks fly, and it looks like some pleasure will be mixed in with the business. The deal seems too good to be true - they'll pay off his debt and establish the new company with him with no upfront money from him at all. The only catch is they want to take out an insurance policy on him. This might not phase another man, but Mr. Shaw is nothing if not suspicious - of everyone. When more and more things start to point toward a scheme to murder him to collect on the insurance he starts to run scared. Look for veteran character actress Jane Darwell as Andes' landlady.

This film, like the others this week is available on the Hollywood Bombshells Collection DVD, and it's also uploaded in full to YouTube by Timeless Classic Movies. It's another one of those noir films that's gotten lost among the many available titles, so it's primarily unknown. The poster above is available at MoviePosterShop.com.

Obscurity factor: 6 (available on DVD and YouTube, largely forgotten)

Blonde Ice 1948

Blonde Ice is true film noir. It's a B movie all the way, produced by an obscure production company and showcasing obscure actors, it's left to get by on its own merits. There are a few.

The lead - Leslie Brooks plays Claire Cummings Hanneman, a woman so obsessed with getting ahead that she lets nothing stand in her way. She's willing to lie, cheat, steal and murder to come out on top. She's made a name for herself as a society reporter for a San Francisco newspaper and uses that name to land a wealthy man. The film opens at her wedding, and after the ceremony, she takes the sports writer (Robert Paige) she dumped aside to tell him that she's still in love with him. When her husband finds out on their honeymoon in Los Angeles he leaves her to fly home. She follows and kills him, then goes back to LA to establish an alibi. Despite some boneheaded moves on her part, she gets away with it for a while. The film is entertaining, though you have to suspend disbelief occasionally.

Another film available on the Hollywood Bombshells Collection DVD set, this film is also available in full on YouTube, thanks to Time Capsule Project. There is a stand alone release of this title as well, that comes with several interesting bonus features. It's otherwise all but forgotten. The poster above is available at MoviePosterShop.com.

Loretta Young in Cause for Alarm 1951

Second in our series on film noir is this dark little gem. Loretta Young plays a wife taking care of her invalid husband. His incapacitating disease has started to affect his mind and she and his doctor become the target of his increasing ire. He believes they are plotting against him, attempting to kill him, so he takes action by composing a letter to the prosecuting attorney claiming as much and saying that, should he not survive, they were the cause of it. After getting his wife to mail the letter and confronting her with what she just sent, he attempts to shoot her and then promptly drops dead. What's she to do?! Loretta Young is not the first actress you think of when you think of film noir. This circumstance, however, fits her persona perfectly and also fits beautifully into the genre. The setting is a bright, sunny California day, but the story line is dark as night.

This is one of those films that sort of slips through the cracks. I first saw it on TCM, but it tends to blend in with all the other titles and get lost in the shuffle. It's worth seeking out, however. The entire film is uploaded to YouTube in one large file. You can watch it above, thanks to sdfilmcritic. You can also find it on the Hollywood Bombshells Collection DVD set and occasionally on TCM.

Obscurity factor: 5 (available on DVD and YouTube, occasionally screened on TCM, largely forgotten)

Angela Lansbury & Raymond Burr in Please Murder Me 1956

The phenomenon of film noir produced quite a few obscure specimens. By its very nature, film noir was a low budget medium, despite its more high profile, high budget examples. This week I'll be covering some fun examples of the more obscure film noir titles, thanks to a DVD set that was loaned to me by my neighbor, Steven Menendez.

Angela Lansbury seemed to be cast in more than her share of film noir titles. Please Murder Me is one of them. She plays a femme fatal, one of the stock characters of film noir, who falls in love with her husband's best friend. When the husband turns up dead, his friend defends her for the murder. After he gets her off he finds out that she was never in love with him at all. She used him to murder her husband and get away with it, though his brilliance as a defense attorney. It's then that he plots to have her murder him so he can be sure she'll receive justice. The film has all the elements of good noir. It's moody in its cinematography, clever in its plot points and heavy handed in its acting, in a good way. Raymond Burr is a great counterpart to Lansbury.

 

This film is available on the Hollywood Bombshells Collection compilation put out by Pop Flix. The quality isn't great, but good enough to get the idea. It's also available on YouTube in its entirety, uploaded by VideosbyBob. Installment 1 is above. The poster is available at MoviePosterShop.com

Obscurity factor: 6 (available on DVD and YouTube, rarely screened on TV, largely unknown)