The Film Noir File is FNB’s guide to classic film noir, neo-noir and pre-noir from the schedule of Turner Classic Movies (TCM), which broadcasts them uncut and uninterrupted. The times are Eastern Standard and (Pacific Standard).
PICK OF THE WEEK:
“Raw Deal“ (1949, Anthony Mann). Friday, May 23, 5:15 p.m. (2:15 p.m.)
The eternal triangle: Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt and Dennis O’Keefe in “Raw Deal.”
We’re in Washington state, on the run, surrounded by mountains, fog and guys with guns. Dennis O’Keefe is one of them: a tough, angry escaped convict named Joe Sullivan. Joe, need we say, got a raw deal. He took the rap and went to stir for fat, sleazy mobster Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr), a rat who double-crossed him and now wants him dead. Claire Trevor is Pat Cameron, the moll who loves Joe and sprang him from jail. She’s on the lam too. Marsha Hunt is a pretty legal caseworker who thinks Joe is innocent and got mixed up in the jail break; she also has a yen for the guy. John Ireland is bad news walking: Coyle’s murderous torpedo.
Here is a vintage, top-of-the-line B-movie film noir from the Golden Age and they don’t get much better or more noir. Director Anthony Mann was as much a master of this form as he was of the Western, or the epic, and he‘s at his peak in “Raw Deal.“ The cast is top-notch. The writers, a crack team, included Leopold Atlas (Wellman’s “The Story of G.I. Joe”) and Mann’s frequent collaborator, John C. Higgins (“T-Men,” “Border Incident.”) The photography – grim, moody, coldly romantic – was shot by the master, John Alton. These guys and gals all know what they’re doing, and the picture is a little masterpiece, the real deal.
Thursday, May 22
8 p.m. (5 p.m.): “The House on 92nd Street” (1945, Henry Hathaway). With William Eythe, Lloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso and Gene Lockhart. Reviewed in FNB on March 13, 2013.
Friday, May 23
5:15 p.m. (2:15 p.m.): “Raw Deal” (1948, Anthony Mann). See Pick of the Week.
Saturday, May 24
1:45 p.m. (10:45 a.m.): “The Steel Helmet” (1951, Samuel Fuller). With Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie and James Edwards. Reviewed in FNB on April. 25, 2014.
5:45 p.m. (2:45 p.m.): “The Hill” (1965, Sidney Lumet). A brilliant drama of sadism and brutality unleashed by a vicious, bullying officer (Ian Hendry) in an isolated North African British military-prison stockade.
The prisoners include Sean Connery (the rebel), Alfred Lynch (the victim), Roy Kinnear, Jack Watson and Ossie Davis (who has a hilarious strip-tease scene). The other stockade officers include Harry Andrews (his all-time best performance) and Michael Redgrave. Ian Bannen is a sympathetic guard. All these actors are absolutely terrific. Ray Rigby wrote the explosive, uncompromising script. The great Oswald Morris shot the picture. We sometimes forget what a superb director of actors Sidney Lumet is; you‘ll remember after you watch the incandescent British ensemble (plus Ossie) do their stuff in this unjustly neglected stunner of a movie.
Tuesday, May 27
10 p.m. (7 p.m.): “Laura” (1944, Otto Preminger). With Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price and Judith Anderson. Reviewed in FNB on January 15, 2011.
Wednesday, May 28
1:15 p.m. (10:15 a.m.): “Shadow of the Thin Man” (1941, W. S. Van Dyke). Dashiell Hammett’s sharp-witted society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) – who were said to be based by Hammett on his own relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman – solve another one, this time at a racetrack. By now, all original Hammett material, and even Hammett story ideas, were used up, but ace screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett keep things crackling. With Donna Reed, Sam Levene, Stella Adler (yes, that Stella Adler, Brando‘s acting teacher), Barry Nelson and (arf!) Asta.
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