Friday, March 27, 2020

Hayden. Carey. Bronson. De Toth. TCM's Film Noir of the Week at Midnight ET Saturday Night-Sunday Morning (and 10 a.m. Sunday!) is the Warner Brother’s Classic, Crime Wave (1954)

By David in TN
Friday, March 27, 2020 at 3:26:00 P.M. EDT

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week at Saturday Night-Sunday Morning Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Andre de Toth’s Crime Wave (1954) with Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia, and a young Charles Bronson (then Charles Buchinsky).

For some reason, Eddie Muller is repeating this film, as Crime Wave was shown on Noir Alley two years ago.


Saturday, May 19, 2018




Italian poster
 

By David in TN
Thursday, May 17, 2018 at 4:10:00 P.M. EDT
 

Sterling Hayden
 

TCM's Film Noir of the Week at Midnight ET Saturday Night-Sunday Morning is Crime Wave (1954).
 

The Bad Guys planning the job
 

Crime Wave has a great cast. Sterling Hayden is a no-nonsense LAPD detective. Ted de Corsia is a Fifties-Style crook leading a small gang, which includes Timothy Carey and a beginning actor named Charles Buchinsky (later Charles Bronson) as psycho types. De Corsia and Bronson are San Quentin escapees who kill a cop, while robbing a downtown L.A. gas station.
 

Phyllis Kirk and Gene Nelson
 

Bronson might have more dialogue in this film as a supporting actor than he did as the lead in Hard Times (1975).
 

Phyllis Kirk, Gene Nelson, and a young Charlie Buchinsky, later known as Charles Bronson
 

Movie theater lobby poster
 

Gene Nelson (usually a song and dance man) plays an ex-con trying to go straight when the crooks come to his apartment and rope him into their bank robbery scheme. Phyllis Kirk plays his loyal wife whom the gang holds hostage to get Nelson to go along.
 

 

Andre De Toth directed. Warner Brothers wanted Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner but De Toth went with Hayden and Kirk. A very enjoyable B film, which I highly recommend.
 

Timothy Carey was an eccentric character actor who made few movies, and died young. However, some of those pictures were Stanley Kubrick classics (Paths of Glory (1957) and The Killing (1959), and Carey somehow managed to inspire his own cult.
 

Crime Wave repeats on TCM at 10 a.m. ET Sunday morning, May 20.
 

 

Spanish poster
 

Crime Wave was also released as The City is Dark

 
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSaturday, March 28, 2020 at 2:01:00 AM EDT

    Unfortunately,when I dumped FOXNEWS,CNN and MSNBC,I also dropped those other channels(like TCM).Looks like a good flick.
    --GRA

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  2. David In TNFriday, April 3, 2020 at 5:00:00 PM EDT

    TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is William Cameron Menzies' Address Unknown (1944). Paul Lukas plays a German-American businessman who goes back to Germany as Hitler takes power. He betrays others leading to his own destruction.

    Address Unknown isn't on the usual Noir listing and I haven't seen it. Also with Morris Carnovsky, K.T. Stevens, Carl Esmond, and Peter Van Eyck. Photographed by Rudolph Mate.

    ReplyDelete