By David in TN
friday, january 27, 2023 at 9:52:00 p.m. est
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Andrew L. Stone’s Highway 301 (1950) with Steve Cochran, Virginia Grey, Gaby Andre, Edmon Ryan, Robert Webber, Wally Cassell, Richard Egan, Edward Norris and Aline Towne.
Film Noir Guide: “Despite the hokey opening statements by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina (‘This picture may save the life of someone in the audience’) and the equally hokey closing remarks by the narrator (‘You can’t be kind to congenital criminals like these’), this underrated little gem really delivers.
“The brazen ‘Tri-State Outfit’ (Cochran, Cassell, Webber, Egan, and Norris) has been pulling bank jobs in broad daylight, and law enforcement officials from three states and the District of Columbia can’t come up with a clue to their identities.’
“Accompanying the gang are Grey and Towne (Cochran’s and Cassell’s molls) and Webber’s latest girlfriend (Andre), who naively believes he’s a traveling salesman. Led by vicious killer Cochran, the gang pulls off an armored car heist, the fabled ‘biggest haul of all time,’ which turns out to be one of film noir’s darkest ironies.
“Breathing down their necks is the shrewd cop (Ryan), whose extensive manhunt forces the desperate thugs to scatter to their many hideouts. This is an exciting, fast moving, and exceptionally violent film. While the entire cast is excellent, it’s Cochran who shines as the despicable, psychopathic gang leader, who will shoot a dame in the back without blinking an eye. Crime may not pay, but it sure is entertaining.”
David in TN: Unusually violent for the time. Cochran gives his standard Bad Guy characterization. Ryan usually plays a villain in noir films. This time he’s the detective tracking down the criminal gang. The critics at the time were mixed. Bosley Crowther of the NY Times called it “an exercise in sadism.”
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3 comments:
Reading Bosley Crowther's review are most likely "an exercise in sadism"--on the reader.
--GRA
Should have been "reviews".
--GRA
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is John Brahm's Hangover Square (1945) with Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders, Faye Marlowe.
Film Noir Guide: "Cregar, a turn-of-the-century London composer, goes into a Jekyll and Hyde--like murderous rage when he hears loud, discordant sounds, but has no recollection of his crimes afterwards. Darnell is the scheming saloon singer who seduces him into writing songs for her, and Marlowe is his adoring fiancee. Sanders plays the Scotland Yard psychiatrist who's been keeping a wary eye on Cregar since he walked into his office, expressing concern about his bouts with amnesia."
"The Victorian gaslight torches, dark, foggy streets and the haunting musical score give this film a delicious noir flavor. Darnell is enjoyable as the femme fatale, and Cregar is sensational as the tortured composer."
"Twentieth Century Fox wisely capitalized on Cregar's success in 1944's The Lodger by starring him in this similar role. Unfortunately, Cregar died shortly before Hangover Square was released, as a result of complications from excessive dieting. He was only 28. Compare Cregar at his normal weight in This Gun for Hire."
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