Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959 by Michael F. Keaney

Author:Michael F. Keaney
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Film & Video, Performing Arts, Reference, General, Guides & Reviews, General Fiction
ISBN: 9780786463664
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2010-10-14T11:00:00+00:00

An entrepreneur (Joan Crawford) keeps a wary

eye on her boyfriend (Zachary Scott) and her

femme fatale daughter (Ann Blyth) in Mildred

Pierce (Warner Bros., 1945).

Familiar Face from Television:

❏ Lee Patrick (Cosmo’s wife, Henrietta in

Topper) as Bennett’s sugar mommy.

Memorable Noir Moments:

❏ A Los Angeles homicide inspector explains his

job description to a murder suspect. “Being a

detective’s like … well, like making an

automobile,” he explains. “You just put them

together one by one and the first thing you know,

you’ve got an automobile, or a murderer.”

❏ Arden, adjusting her nylons, tells ogler Carson,

“Leave something on me, I might catch cold.”

❏ Crawford tells the flirtatious Carson,

“Friendship’s a lot more lasting than love.” He

responds, “Yeah, but not as entertaining.”

Ministry of Fear

(1944) 86 min. Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds,

Carl Esmond, Dan Duryea, Hillary Brooke, Percy

Waram. Screenplay by: Seton I. Miller. Directed by: Fritz Lang. Noir Type: Nazi. Noir Themes: Victim of fate, betrayal, paranoia. ★★★★

Immediately after being released from an English

asylum, former inmate Milland (who was

imprisoned for the mercy killing of his wife)

stumbles onto a Nazi spy ring that has stolen

classified information about British mine fields.

Innocently uttering a secret password to a carnival

fortune teller, Milland is mistaken for a Nazi spy

and allowed to win a cake that contains stolen

microfilm. After the real spy (Duryea) shows up, a

phony blind man steals the cake from Milland and

is killed by German bombs during a blitzkrieg.

Certain that the police wouldn’t believe a former

asylum inmate, Milland tries to uncover the spy

ring with some help from an Austrian immigrant

(Reynolds) and her brother (Esmond), who operate

a suspicious charitable organization called

“Mothers of Free Nations.” Femme fatale Brooke

plays a psychic medium, and Waram is the

Scotland Yard inspector seeking to charge Milland

with murder. This dark and compelling espionage

film hooks the viewer in the first ten minutes and

manages to maintain the suspense until its exciting

rooftop climax.

Memorable Noir Moment:

❏ A grinning spy regrets not killing Milland when

he had the opportunity. “The trouble with me is,”

the gun-wielding Nazi says, “I like people too

much.”

The Missing Juror

(1944) 66 min. Jim Bannon, Janis Carter, George

Macready, Joseph Crehan, Cliff Clark. Screenplay

by: Charles O’Neal. Directed by: Oscar “Budd”

Boetticher. Noir Type: Payback. Noir Themes: Revenge, victim of the law. ★★½

When an innocent man (Macready) is convicted of

murder and sentenced to be hanged, a newspaper

reporter (Bannon) investigates and helps capture

the real killer. Macready is pardoned but by now,

after having imagined himself being hanged

hundreds of times, he’s mentally deranged and

must be sent to an asylum for psychiatric treatment.

Before long, members of the jury that convicted

Macready are being bumped off one by one. Juror

Carter is Bannon’s love interest, Clark is the

homicide detective on the case, and Crehan

provides the comedy relief as Bannon’s editor.

Cheaply made with no big surprises, but fast-paced

and entertaining.

Familiar Faces from Television:

❏ Mike Mazurki (Clon in It’s About Time) as a

masseur at a steam bath.

❏ Ray Teal (Sheriff Roy Coffee in Bonanza) as a

detective conducting a lineup.

Memorable Noir Moment:

❏ From the Some-Things-Never-Change

Department: Reporter Bannon is shocked when a

detective suggests that his reporting may have

spawned a copycat killer, and replies, “It’s

ridiculous to think that a newspaper story would

inspire someone to go out and start to kill an entire

jury.

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