We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
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We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
Despite noirs competing in an increasingly-relatively weak field [compared with the 1930s/1940s] as the 1950s advanced the standard of Steve’s pictorials never falters and his 1954 noir video is another high-rated 98% offering in my own book. Best STILLS/LOBBY CARDS:
1/World for Ransom
2/Bait-wow!
3/Make Haste to Live
4/Highway Dragnet
5/ALL for Pushover
6/2 for Rogue Cop
7/Witness to Murder
8/Drive a Crooked Road
9/ALL for Suddenly
10/Crime Wave
11/ALL for Riot in Cell Block 11.
12/Black Tuesday – wow! By the mid-1950s Eddie had descended into cheap B movie and /or supporting roles.
13/The Good Die Young. STEVE – you’ll live forever! Solid Brit crime thriller with stellar professional cast but none of the major sources that I have seen [such as Wikipedia and IMDB] accept it as a film noir. Anyhow one of my late-father’s fave films.
14/ALL for Naked Alibi-saw this on double bill with Joel McCrea western Black Horse Canyon [or was it called Work Horse Canyon?]
15/The Sleeping Tiger. One of the very first films to make me a great fan of England’s Sir Derek Niven van den Bogaerde [aka Dirk Bogarde]. In a recently-published poll of the greatest INTERNATIONAL actors of all time Bogarde made the Top 10 along with the likes of Brando and DeNiro. Sir Dirk complained once that in his early days audiences often confused him with Humphrey Bogart.
16/The Long Wait. Although in the lead role here Quinn had not yet achieved top stardom. Before The Long Wait his main claim to fame was a supporting-actor Oscar for 1952’s Viva Zapata starring Brando. When greater stardom eventually came around 1960 Tony claims he picked-up the phone to a chum and said “Guess what – I’ve just put my first $ million in the bank!”
17/ALL for Human Desire. Gloria Grahame and Charles William Stuart [aka Glenn Ford] reprising their teaming from the year before in classic noir The Big Heat. In those years Gloria was going through a period of off-screen notoriety: when she was making 1950s noir In a Lonely Place with Bogie, the director Nicholas Ray who was married to her at the time surprised her in a compromising situation with Nicholas’ own under-aged son Anthony from a previous marriage. There seemed to be genuine affection between Gloria and Anthony though because the pair eventually married and it lasted from 1960-1974.
18/In the early 1950s Ginger Roger’s career was fast-declining and the great days of Fred and Ginger were a thing of the past. For example according to The Work Horse’s figures whereas the Astaire/Rogers classics Swing Time and Top Hat had grossed it terms of today’s money just short of $200 million apiece in the domestic market Twist of Fate lifted an inflation-adjusted miserly $13 million at the US box office. Ginger’s role in Twist of Fate [as the mistress of gangster Stanley Baker] was far from her glamourous iconic outings in the Astaire/Rogers flicks of her heyday.
HI STEVE: Just able to enjoy your latest offering before taking off for the airport. Nice work – and au revoir!
Generally speaking any classics among the selections in Steve’s 1954 film noirs video are from my own recollections minor ones [for example Riot in Cell Block 11] with B list stars like Barry Sullivan or “has-beens” such as Joe Yule Junior and George Raft: the Great Days of noirs such as Maltese Falcon and The Blue Dahlia and mega noir performers like Ladd/Cagney/Bogie at their peak were fast-fading into the rear-view mirror when 1954 came around. Best POSTERS in Steve’s video are as follows-FL=foreign language version of poster.
1/1st and FL ones for Miami Story
2/Make Haste to Live-McNally in a lead role for once.
3/1st and FL ones for Highway Dragnet
4/1st and FL ones for Naked Alibi
5/ALL for Loophole
6/1st And FL ones for Private Hell 36
7/1st one for Black Tuesday
8/ALL the FL ones for Human Desire
9/FL for Suddenly – that was the town’s name in the movie
10/1st and FL ones for Crime Wave
11/ALL for Riot in Cell Block 11
12/ALL for The Long Wait
13/1st for Pushover-Fred sliding further into supporting roles/B movie leads
14/1st 2 for Twist of Fate. WOW! Over here in Ireland the Aka of Beautiful Stranger that Steve quotes was used. It is the title I prefer personally.
15/1st one for Shield for Murder. Edmond chewing up the scenery and the other actors as he always did. “A trigger crazed cop turned killer” was a 1954 poster tagline.
16/Rogue Cop. Raft in decline. George’s screen persona was increasingly becoming seriously mixed up with his behavior in real-life: in the 1960s the British Home Secretary Baron James Callaghan threw Geordie out of Britain because of alleged gangster connections.
17/1st one for Cry Vengeance. In the 1940s with prestige dark such as The Dark Corner and the classic Street with No Name with Widmark, Mark Stevens looked as if he was going places but in the 1950s he faded into obscurity in B material/supporting roles. For example his 195s BRITISH noir The Lost Hours [aka The Big Frame] with England’s Jean Kent as his leading lady was a cheap affair that lasted just 67 mins. IMDB gives Lost Hours just a 59% rating; overall the Brits didn’t really do well at noirs in my view. In the 1960s he elapsed into semi-retirement. It was rumored that one of his legs was slightly shorter than the other.
Aloha Bob, sorry for my later than usual reply. As you may have guessed I assumed you’d be on holiday and unable to review the video. It’s my fault for not checking in earlier. Anyway thanks again for the review, generous rating and info, always appreciated. Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
1954 wasn’t a great year for film noir, no all time classics this time round, though ‘Riot in Cell Block 11’ is reasonably well known. But how many have actually seen it?
Only 2 films of the 25 on the video have been given a rating from all eleven of my sources – Suddenly and Riot in Cell Block 11, and none of the 25 were rated 9 or 10.
My Video Top 5 –
Riot in Cell Block 11 7.5
Crime Wave 7.2
Suddenly 7.2
Human Desire 7.0
Drive a Crooked Road 6.8
The UMR Critics Top 5 –
Riot in Cell Block 11 7.5
Suddenly 7.5
Shield for Murder 7.2
Crime Wave 7.1
Black Tuesday 7.1
IMDB Trivia – Human Desire – Director Fritz Lang had desperately wanted Peter Lorre to play Jeff Warren, but Lang had treated Lorre so abusively during the making of M (1931) that the actor refused. Marlon Brando also rejected the role of Jeff Warren, saying “I cannot believe that the man who gave us the über dark Mabuse, the pathetic child murderer in M and the futuristic look at society, Metropolis (1927), would stoop to hustling such crap.” Fritz Lang did not like the title ‘Human Desire’ and thought it redundant. “What other kind of desire is there?” is his reported comment.
Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford formed a familiar screen duo in the 1950s. Before this film they were co-stars in Convicted (1950) and later in The Fastest Gun Alive (1956). Upon his return from Japan after the Korean War, veteran Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) brings Ellen Simmons a kimono and jokingly refers to The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956), a reference to the Broadway hit of the time, “The Teahouse of the August Moon” (1953-56). Ford would star in the screen version two years later.
Enjoy your break Bob, next video on friday.
For the first time in watching these film noir videos, Steve, I have seen less than half of the movies in your video – including not having seen the number 1 film.
I have seen 12 top 1954 film noirs. Favourites are Crime Wave, Suddenly, Human Desire, Black Tuesday, Witness to Murder, Shield For Murder, The Good Die Young, Pushover, and Naked Alibi.
I have also seen Drive a Crooked Road, Highway Dragnet, and The Miami Story.
Favourite posters and stills are from Crime Wave, suddenly, Human Desire, Pushover, Naked alibi, The Long Wait, and The Miami Story.
Hi Flora, yeah most of these were b-movies, not as well known as in other noir years. Your tally 12 out of 25. I’ve seen just 2 – Crime Wave and Riot in Cell Block 11. As usual there are plenty here I’m interested in seeing. I should jot down all the titles in the series I want to see. I wish TCM would show a season of noir and give westerns a break for a while.
Thanks for commenting, much appreciated. Happy you liked the picture gallery. 1955 next friday.
THE MAN BEHIND THE POSTER
STEVE: I don’t know whether you have the Sky Arts channel but the above-mentioned documentary is showing on it at 1.55am this coming Friday. Here’s what the write-up says:
“A look at the career of film-poster artist Drew Struzan whose output includes Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Shawshank Redemption and Harry Potter. With insight from Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and others.”
Looks interesting. The programme runs for 1hr 50 mins.
Hi Bob, I’ve seen that documentary, it’s pretty good. I did a page on Drew Struzan at hubpages 10 years ago. A modern movie poster legend. The original classic poster for Star Wars 1977 was done by the Brothers Hildebrandt. Thanks for posting.
http://posterwire.com/wp-content/uploads/star_wars_hildebrandt_art.jpg
HI STEVE:
I’ll be recording the Sky Arts programme but will not be able to watch it until I return from holiday.
Meanwhile thanks for the link – impressive Hildebrandt stuff which whets my appetite for the TV programme about Drew.
NB: My apologies for spelling Barack wrong in my earlier post today.
STEVE: I am going on holiday for a week or so from next Friday and may not be in a position to comment on your next video (s) until my return when of course I will catch-up on anything new you have offered in the meantime.
Certainly THAT is something to look forward to because as you will have gleaned these film noir videos of yours are bringing back to me lots of old memories from my 1950s boyhood days.
For example in my response to your 1953 video I highlighted the Bernie Schwartz’s film-noir Forbidden as it contains one of my all-time fave pieces of music. I am also reminded that I saw Forbidden on a double bill with Joel McCrea’s western The Lone Hand at our Strand cinema.
That movie too has always stuck in my mind down the years because it is the one in which Joel’s prospective father-in–law in the plot, actor Roy Roberts, was actually one year YOUNGER than McCrea in real-life yet insisted upon calling Joel “young man” when the latter called with a picnic basket to court Roy Roberts’ young daughter in the movie.
Anyway with the coronovirus on the rampage it is actually over 2 years since I’ve had a holiday so I am especially looking forward to it. Mind you I am sure that there are those on this site who even though they are often taking breaks themselves would contend that I have no particular entitlement to a holiday: after all I don’t have a site to run!
Enjoy your holiday Bob. Just make sure it’s not in Eastern Europe.
Hopefully I’ll have a new video or two out when you get back. Take care.
p.s. Ironically whilst I’m the creator of the noir videos it’s you and Flora that have watched most of these films. Anyway I’m far more interested in seeing these films now than I was a few weeks ago. 🙂
HI STEVE
Thanks for your best wishes. Laddie wouldn’t have been put-off going to Eastern Europe – HE would have sorted- out Putin! Why are guys like The Great Alan not around nowadays when we need them most?
I agree that your videos do sharpen one’s appetite for watching or re-watching a lot of the films that you showcase.
Coincidentally we were talking about Bernie and his film noir Forbidden. I see that he is appearing tonight in a TV rferun of what was probably his first BIG production as a star: 1954’s Black Shield of Falworth.
As regards movies seen I in turn bow to Flora: she IS the Queen!
Take care until I return from hol.