TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 a.m. and 10 a.m is Michael Curtiz’s The Breaking Point (1950) with John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez and Wallace Ford (Plus: The Death of John Garfield!)

By David in TN
friday, april 12, 2024 at 6:36:00 p.m. edt

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 a.m. and 10 a.m is Michael Curtiz’s The Breaking Point (1950) with John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez and Wallace Ford.

This is the third time The Breaking Point has been on Noir Alley. This Saturday is an all-day tribute to the late TCM host, Robert Osbourne. We can expect Red Eddie Muller to wax lyrical on how HUAC and Joe McCarthy’s “witch hunts” killed John Garfield. Muller does that every time this film is shown.

John Garfield’s death was described (latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-john-garfield-19590522-20160519-snap-story.html) in 1952 by the LA Times:

“John Garfield, 39, ‘tough guy’ screen and stage star, died of a heart attack in bed today in the two-bedroom Gramercy Park apartment of an actress friend, Iris Whitney.”

“Miss Whitney said he visited her at the apartment last night, became ill, and stayed overnight. She said she slept on a couch.

“Police were forced to break down the apartment door to investigate.

“They learned of the death through a routine report telephoned to the medical examiner’s office by a private physician.

“When they reached the apartment, the stage actress refused to permit them to enter. She said she thought they were newsmen.

“Garfield's wife received the news of her husband’s death in the Garfield apartment on Central Park West.

“She declined to see newsmen. Barry Hyams, a friend of the Garfields, said she was under the care of a physician and had been given a sedative. He said Mrs. Garfield expected Garfield home last night and became worried when he did not appear.

“Mrs. Whitney told police she had known Garfield about two months.”

[N.S.: “Mrs. Whitney”?!]

“She said she had dinner with him last night at Luchow’s Restaurant and they went to her apartment.

“She said they had coffee and that he had remarked: ‘I feel awful.

“He went to the bedroom, removed his clothing except for his shorts and T-shirt, and got into the double bed, she said.

“Miss Whitney said she decided to let him stay for the night and that she went to sleep on a couch in the living room.

“She awoke at about 8 a.m., looked into the bedroom and saw him still apparently asleep, she said.

“She said she went to the kitchenette, got some orange juice and placed a glass of it on a night table beside the bed.

“Then she tried to awaken him, but without success. She telephoned Dr. Charles H. Hammack, who pronounced the actor dead. Police said they found the glass of orange juice still on the table.

“They said Miss Whitney expressed concern about Garfield’s family, expressing hope they would not misinterpret his presence in her apartment.”

David in TN: We enjoy John Garfield’s movies. We’ll see if Red Eddie blames the “witch hunts” again in his Intro.

N.S.: Long ago, my late Mom (1930-2022) told me about Julie Garfinkle’s (“John Garfield” was born Jules Garfinkle) death. He died “in the saddle” with his mistress.

I later learned (from Phil Silvers’ autobiography?) he had been on a poker-and-booze binge for about 48 hours, before decamping for a roll in the hay with Iris Whitney. More recently, I learned that Garfield had long knowingly had a congenital heart defect. It’s a wonder he lived as long as he did.

Several hours passed, between John Garfield’s death and Iris Whitney’s performance. Numerous phone calls would have gone back and forth, and somebody had to very carefully concoct the story Iris Whitney told the cops, and coach her through it.

With the possible exception of Iris Whitney, John Garfield has had no bigger fan than David in TN. I always liked the guy, but under David’s influence, I have come to appreciate Garfield’s intensity more and more.

For instance, the first version of this story, Hawks, Hemingway, and Faulkner’s To Have and Have Not (1944), is the most famous, because of the sexual sparks that flew between a middle-aged Humphrey Bogart and a very young Lauren “Betty” Bacall. And those sparks were not just the stuff of dramatics. Soon after the picture wrapped, Bogie and Betty tied the knot.

However, although I like Bogie’s Harry Morgan, and even Betty Bacall, the secret star of To Have and Have Not is Walter Brennan, the greatest character actor of them all. (Walter was so towering that Hollywood passed an unwritten rule, first to cease giving him any more Oscars—he’d already won three, which made him the champ among actors for over 40 years—and then to stop nominating him any more. Thus, he was not nominated for this picture, or for Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), despite going toe to toe with Spence, and dueling him to a stalemate. And Spence was up for Best Actor for it.) The character Walter played, drunken first-mate, “Eddie,” had to be based on a real man, who was very important to Papa, because he would also appear in Hemingway’s posthumously published novel, The Islands in the Stream.

However, there are other problems with the 1944 version, primarily the dopey ending, in which Morgan and “Frenchie,” who have brutalized two Vichy policemen, act as if they’ll just go on as before, when the nazis would have tortured them to death.

And then you see Garfield as Harry Morgan. Although they both stood 5’7,” Garfield’s performance was head and shoulders above Bogart’s.

A problem with the 1950 version, is that Juano Hernandez, playing first mate, is a “magical negro” character. He’s angelic, while there’s nothing angelic about “Eddie.”

I realize that the American Film Institute voted Bogey the greatest “acting legend,” whatever that means, Garfield (and several others, including James Stewart, Spence, Alec Guinness, Freddie March, Jimmy C. and Laurence Olivier) was the better actor.