I’m back with my thoughts on three more films from the big 1955 film noir list that Sergio Angelini, Nick Cardillo and I are watching in order to create our Top 13 Best Film Noirs of 1955. (Remember: I’m watching these films in alphabetical order. You can join me or simply sample the films that sound good to you. The complete list can be found here!)

The Big Knife

I grew up a big fan of director Robert Aldrich based on two films: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? And Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Both films combine gothic horror with elements of noir, and both benefit from unbelievable casting. The likes of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Olivia De Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Victor Buono, Mary Astor and Agnes Moorehead elevate the tawdry material of Henry Farrell’s two novels into something that somehow transcends camp – but just barely. I love both these films, and Aldrich’s stylish direction is another big factor in their success.

If you asked me whether Aldrich, a stalwart of 50’s film noir and other genres, had created a terrific film about the dark side of Hollywood, I would say, “Of course! That would be Baby Jane!” But in 1955, Aldrich also took Clifford Odets play of the same year, The Big Knife, and filmed it with an all-star cast. I say that with The Bad and the Beautiful, Vincente Minnelli’s 1952 movie of similar pedigree with, I think, a superior cast, firmly in mind. But Knife stars Ida Lupino, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Jean Hagen, Ilka Chase, and other fine character actors all in support of Jack Palance in one of his most sympathetic roles as Charlie Castle, a movie star hitting a crisis in his career. 

I’d never watched this before now, and I have to say two things about it. First, it’s one of those movies that feels like a play: it feels divided into French scenes where two or three actors get dramatic together, somebody exits and a new set of actors enter to make more drama. And second, like The Bad and the Beautiful, this is definitely a melodrama – I will go so far as to call it a tragedy – but it doesn’t look or feel like film noir to me in the least. If you want Hollywood noir, you’ll have to wait two years for The Sweet Smell of Success. 

I can’t say I loved this one, but I can promise that it won’t go anywhere near my list. I rank it “n/a.”

*     *     *     *     *

A Bullet for Joey

It’s George Raft as Joey, a ruthless gangster once so powerful that he has been banned from America, versus Edward G. Robinson as Inspector Leduc, an actual Mountie! The place is Montreal, where the Communists want to kidnap an atomic physicist and offer Joey oodles of money to carry out their plan. Joey enlists the old gang (shades of Ocean 11) to help, including Joyce, a former girlfriend (Audrey Totter), who seduces the scientist while Joey and his gang do a lot of other things, and Leduc and his men try and figure it all out in time. 

The script was co-written by Daniel Mainwaring, who wrote hard-boiled mysteries under the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes. His last novel was Hang My Gallows High, which Mainwaring himself adapted into Out of the Past, my favorite film noir of all time. His writing partner was A. I. Bezzerides, who wrote the adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s Kiss Me Deadly, certainly one of the greatest noirs of the 50’s. And director Lewis Allen helmed one of the best haunted house movies of all time, 1944’s The Uninvited. 

With a cast and crew of this pedigree, there’s no way this film couldn’t be sensational. But it isn’t. No, it isn’t at all. Cinematographer Harry Neumann was a veteran of gangster pictures, and the film doesn’t look bad; however, the docudrama style gives the whole thing a muted feel.. At 62 and 54 respectively, Robinson and Raft seem a little subdued. It’s odd seeing Robinson take the lives of his men, witnesses and victims so much for granted. Only Totter, playing the embittered moll to the hilt, strikes emotional gold here. The final moment was obviously meant to conjure up memories of Double Indemnity. Joey has, at the last minute, found his inner patriotism and helps Leduc bring down the Commies – at the cost of a fatal bullet. Robinson holds a dying Raft in his arms, just like Barton Keyes cradled Walter Neff – except there’s no relationship between them and you don’t feel much of anything for either of these guys. I like everyone involved. I just wish I’d liked the film more. 

*     *     *     *     *

Crime Syndicate

This is what you’d call a “tidy little crime thriller.” It turns out that the fall of Al Capone led to the rise of the titular syndicate, run by Arnold Valent (Paul Stewart) who, under cover of a vast insurance empire, controls most of the crime going on in Chicago. Nelson Kern, who works for Valent as a bookkeeper, goes to newspaper editor David Healey (Richard H. Cutting, who narrates the film) with a promise to deliver the proof of Valent’s criminal activities. But when Kern is gunned down outside the newspaper’s building, Healey recruits Barry Amsterdam (Dennis O’Keefe), a war hero with bookkeeping skills (!!), to infiltrate Valent’s gang and find the evidence. Barry is helped by Kern’s daughter Joyce (Allison Hayes) and, ultimately, by Valent’s girlfriend Connie Peters (Abbe Lane) who sings for Benny Chico, who happens to be played by Xavier Cugat – who, after watching him act, should have stuck to bandleading.

It’s actually a fun movie, and it’s made even better by Stewart’s turn as a gangster. Valent isn’t a psychopath, and if he’s no gentleman at least he’s a good son. (Ironically, he gets gunned down right in front of his loving ma!) Stewart will repeat his success as an urbane crime boss in Kiss Me Deadly. 

At the start, O’Keefe protests that he doesn’t have the chops to go undercover as a crook – and then gives a sterling performance right from the start. Each beat of the ups and downs of Barry’s plan to ingratiate himself, find the evidence and steal it is interesting, and the final act is violent and suspenseful. The most uncomfortable aspect of the film occurs when Valent and Barry use their respective girlfriends as bargaining chips for each other. Granted, Joyce is willing to go along with using her feminine wiles to entrap a gangster, but at least Hayes heaves a huge sigh when she is asked to do so. And Lane is terrific as the moll – no femme fatale she, but a girl whose fatal flaw is her loyalty to Valent. And she sings nice, too! This was a great discovery for me!  

*     *     *     *     *

The rankings?

Again, it’s no contest: 

• 1^st place – Crime Syndicate, a nice way to spend 87 minutes.
• 2^nd place – A Bullet for Joey, a real disappointment, given how much superb talent was involved
• 3^rd place – The Big Knife – for me, this one doesn’t even place because in my book it’s not noir – but it’s worth a watch