Friday, June 4, 2021 at 11:37:00 P.M. EDT
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Curtis Bernhardt’s Possessed (1947) with Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey, Geraldine Brooks and Stanley Ridges.
Film Noir Guide: “When a dazed and hallucinating Crawford is found wandering the Los Angeles streets searching for her former lover (Heflin), she’s taken to a hospital's psychiatric ward where, under sodium pentathol, she’s able to tell the staff psychiatrist (Ridges) her sordid story.
“Via flashback, we witness the mentally unstable Crawford being dropped by Heflin because she has become overly possessive and marriage-minded. Vowing to wait for Heflin’s unlikely change of heart, she continues in her job as a live-in nurse for the equally unstable wife of a rich industrialist (Massey). After Heflin accepts an out-of-state position and her patient drowns in a lake, an apparent suicide, Crawford accepts her stodgy employer’s marriage proposal.
“But threatening their already slim chances for happiness is Massey’s daughter (Brooks), who returns from college believing that Crawford and her father have been having an affair which may have prompted her mother to commit suicide.
“Once the two women iron out their differences, Crawford and Massey marry, but the footloose Heflin returns and becomes romantically involved with Brooks.
“Seething with jealousy, Crawford's schizophrenia worsens, leading to tragedy. Crawford is outstanding in a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and Brooks makes a fine film debut. Heflin is excellent as the jaunty cad.”
David in TN: I’ve mentioned previously that when he started out, Van Heflin was described as “the new Spencer Tracy,” average looking with great acting ability.
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is Gordon Douglas' Walk a Crooked Mile (1948) with Louis Hayward, Dennis O'Keefe, Louise Allbritton, Carl Esmond, Onslow Stevens, Raymond Burr, Art Baker, Lowell Gilmore, Charles Evans.
ReplyDeleteFilm Noir Guide: "From the future director of 1951's I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. comes an early Red Menace film, almost as good as his later one. This one has Hayward as a Scotland Yard investigator and O'Keefe as an F.B.I. agent teaming up to fight those 'who walk crooked miles along the highways and byways of a free America.' They're hoping to discover who's stealing atomic secrets from an American company and turning them over to Commie spies. Suspects include the company's president (Baker), a scientist (Gilmore), a physicist (Evans), and a mathematician (Esmond) and his PhD. girlfriend (ALLbritton). Spy Stevens and his henchman (Burr) are intent on getting the vital atomic information and won't hesitate to knock off any fed or inept comrade who gets in their way. Good, solid performances help make this enjoyable camp B movie a treat. Burr also played a Red spy in 1951's The Whip Hand."
I've never seen this one, good it's being shown. Interesting that Film Noir Guide admits Douglas' I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. was better.
Gordon Douglas was a prolific director across all genres. He did several Frank Sinatra films (Tony Rome, Lady in Cement, The Detective).
Raymond Burr has an early Noir "Heavy" role.
On Wednesday afternoon, June 16, TCM has a Van Heflin-Spencer Tracy double feature.
ReplyDeleteAt 11:45 am ET, Tennessee Johnson (1942) with Van Heflin as Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln as President after his assassination. When the movie was made and until recent decades, Johnson was seen favorably for trying to bring the South back into the union and fighting successfully against being impeached by Radical Republicans on "trumped-up" false charges.
Tennessee Johnson is, in my opinion, one of Van Heflin's best performances.
At 1:45 ET, Northwest Passage (1940) with Spencer Tracy as the leader of Roger's Rangers, with Robert Young and Walter Brennan. The film is in glorious color. Northwest Passage takes place in the French and Indian War of the 1750s. The war with Indians is realistically brutal, causing the film to be criticized nowadays. Historical accuracy is unwelcome.
Ruth Hussey had the female lead in both. As Andrew Johnson's wife, Eliza McCardle Johnson, in Tennessee Johnson. When they met, Eliza Johnson taught her husband to read.
In Northwest Passage, Ruth Hussey played the girlfriend of Robert Young's character.