We’re only a month away from our draft of the Top 13 Films Noirs of 1955. I’m busy compiling my list, and I’m sure my co-drafters Sergio Angelini and Nick Cardillo are doing the same. I’ve seen a few masterpieces, a lot of solid noir, and some real, er, dreck. The question is: what’s ahead for me in the final nine viewings of the list. (Find the full list here.)  Okay, on to the next three . . . 

Shack Out on 101

If you drive down the California coast, there’s a little nautical-themed diner right off the beach that is run by an affable WWII vet named George (Keenan Wynn). He is assisted by Kotty, a sexy young waitress (Terry Moore) who dreams of passing the Civil Service exam and bettering her life, and a short-order cook named Slob (Lee Marvin) who lusts after Kotty. The poultry is delivered by two tall very good-looking drivers, and the fish is brought in by a slimy-looking guy who you know is bad because he never whistles at Kotty. There are also a couple of regular customers: Eddie (Whit Bissell) is a genial old war buddy of George’s, who survived D-Day but is left pathologically afraid of violence. And Sam Bastion (Frank Lovejoy) is a local professor who is dating the comely waitress. 

Everyone passes the time doing hilarious things, like stripping off their shirts, lifing weights and admiring each other’s muscles, or donning scuba gear and hunting the stuffed swordfish hanging on George’s wall. However, it’s not all a laugh riot: near the diner is a nuclear lab where Professor Sam works and where Soviet agents work with traitorous Americans to steal American secrets. It eventually becomes clear that the espionage involves people at George’s diner. The only questions are who are they? will they succeed? and who the hell cares?

This is tonally the strangest film on the list. It’s got a great cast – Wynn, Bissell, Moore, and especially Marvin are terrific – and it’s filmed really nicely by director Edward Dein and cinematographer Floyd Crosby, whose career goes back to the late 1920’s when he filmed a South Seas documentary for F.W. Murnau. (This, his first feature, earned Crosby an Academy Award.) There’s some suspense to be found here, although Lovejoy, in his third film appearance on our list, is decidedly lackluster here. The problem is that the comedy sequences are extended and insufferable, adding nothing to the plot and making the 80-minute run feel forty minutes longer. By the time we get to the end, the excitement of the final showdown is insufficient payback for what we have already endured. At least Whit Bissell, a character actor I have always loved, gets his due in the end. 

*     *     *     *     *

Sudden Danger

It’s always nice when a film noir has a whodunnit element – it’s rarer than you think. The premise of this film is interesting: Wallace Curtis (Tom Drake) comes home one evening to discover the gas in his mother’s apartment is on and the woman lying dead on her bed, an apparent suicide. Mrs. Curtis, who owns a sportwear manufacturing company, has long felt guilty because a mistaken switch in eyedrops caused her to blind her son. Did she kill herself to provide the insurance money necessary for a sight-restoring operation for her boy, or did Wallace kill her for the money. Police Lieutenant Andy Doyle (Bill Elliot) suspects the son, and so Wallace and his fashion designer girlfriend (Beverly Garland) investigate to the case to see if they can find the culprit and clear Wally’s name. 

It’s nice to know that Tom Drake had a film career after playing the Boy Next Door in Meet Me in St. Louis, and I always like Ms. Garland, even in low-budget dreck. The opening moments of the film, where behind the credits we watch a man’s footsteps across a city sidewalk, accompanied by a dog’s paws, are nicely stylish. From there, everything sinks to substandard dialogue, cheaply filmed with no thrills. Wallace’s idea to get the operation and still feign blindness in order to find the killer is fine, but as the identity of the culprit doesn’t matter most of the time and is obvious when it does, there’s not much more of interest to be found here. 

*     *     *     *     *

Tight Spot

Someone on my social media flashed a picture of Ginger Rogers with the caption: “I don’t know about you, but I’m suspicious of anyone who doesn’t love Ginger Rogers.” I’ll be honest: there’s a big difference for me between Rogers in the 1930’s, the wise-cracking beauty who enlivens two Busby Berkeley films, headlines Stage Door and is my favorite Fred Astaire partner, and the Rogers of the 1950’s, who by then had ruined many lives through her gleeful participation in the efforts of the House Un-American Activities Committee. I know it’s not fair, but that’s what came to mind while watching this tale of a female prisoner who is offered her freedom if she will testify against a mob boss with whom she was once involved. 

Rogers plays Terry Conley, a model (with a very strange haircut!) who was railroaded into prison. She is approached by a U.S. attorney (Edward G. Robinson) who offers her a deal to set her free in exchange for her testimony against an evil crime boss. Terry is whisked to a posh hotel where she partakes of lobster Newberg and is guarded by a kindly prison matron and a sexy detective (Brian Keith). Terry stalls making her decision to testify while enjoying the perks of both room service and the detective. And then one of the mob boss’ goons tries to kill Terry right in her room, and the film begins to twist and turn. One of those twists is a real head-bender that comes late in the proceedings and requires you to sit back and just take it. 

I thought Rogers was badly miscast. She screeches her dialogue, adding a lot of “dese” “dems” and “doses.” Oh, and her hair looks terrible! Unfortunately, Robinson, a favorite of mine, was fairly dull. The poor man had run afoul of Hollywood for being a liberal and was given one “B” role after another as punishment. (Still, he continued to make a lot of movies; he’s in three films on our list and made two more movies and several television appearances that year.) Keith is really good, as is Lorne Greene in an all-too-brief appearance as the crime boss. Under the direction of Phil Carlson (The Phenix City Story), I’ll grant you that the film moves along. If you’re a big Rogers fan, you might get a kick out of seeing her in something unusual.

*     *     *     *     *

The rankings? None of these films made much of an impression on me, but here’s what I came up with for ranking:

• 1^st  place – Shack Out on 101 – for a very good cast doing some really weird things.
• 2^nd place – Tight Spot – for the presence of Robinson and for Brian Keith’s performance.
• 3^rd place – Sudden Danger – for squandering an interesting idea in 65 boring minutes.

See you in a week or so!