By David in TN
Friday, October 27, 2017 at 3:16:00 P.M. EDT
The TCM Film Noir of the Week for Sunday, October 29 at 10 am ET, is The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). It has a great cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas.
The convoluted story has war hero Heflin stranded in his hometown, while on his way to California. Heflin tries to get his former friend, local DA Kirk Douglas, to help Scott out of legal trouble. Things begin to happen from there.
Barbara Stanwyck plays a murderous Femme Fatale. Not exactly casting against type. Douglas plays her husband in his film debut, and is a crooked DA with political ambitions.
A paradigmatic noir of guilt and betrayal.
2 comments:
On Monday, October 30, TCM is showing several anti-Communist films from the late 40's and early 50's. I think they call it "Red Scare Day" or "Anti-Communist Witch Hunt Movies."
Two are anti-Communist Film Noirs which are worth seeing. I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951) stars Frank Lovejoy as a Pittsburgh steelworker (based on real life Matt Cvetic) who infiltrates a Communist union. There are scenes in which the communists plan demonstrations designed to provoke violence. Sound familiar?
I Was a Communist for the FBI is relevant today and shows at 9:45 am ET on Monday, October 30. The TV series I Led Three Lives was a spin-off from this film.
At 11:15 am ET on Monday, TCM shows The Woman on Pier 13 (1950), starring Robert Ryan and Laraine Day. Ryan, a very left-wing actor in real life, plays an ex-communist VP of a shipping company, who is being blackmailed into rejoining the party in order to work to undermine his company.
The Laraine Day character's naive brother (John Agar) falls for a Communist femme fatale played by Janis Carter. William Tallman (a frequent Noir bad guy) plays a Communist contract killer.
The Woman on Pier 13 was produced by Howard Hughes as was I Was a Communist for the FBI.
TCM's Film Noir for 10 am ET, Sunday November 5, is Split Second (1953). Stephen McNally plays an escaped psycho killer holding four hostages at an abandoned town that is going to be blown up in an Atomic bomb test. A-bomb tests were a big thing in the early 50's.
Jan Sterling plays a hustling Las Vegas dancer. Alexis Smith is perfect as the cheating wife-from-hell who'll do anything, including playing up to the sadistic killer to get out of trouble.
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