Saturday, June 20, 2020

Noir or Not? TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET is Samuel Fuller’s (as Writer, Producer, and Director) Underworld U.S.A. (1961), Starring Cliff Robertson

By David in TN
Friday, June 19, 2020 at 7:55:00 P.M. EDT

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET is Underworld U.S.A. (1961). Samuel Fuller directed and produced. Cliff Robertson stars as a young man who sees his father brutally beaten as a boy and spends years planning to get revenge against the mobsters who killed him.

Robertson becomes nearly as bad as those he pursues, which is a common theme of “revenge” movies.

Film Noir Guide didn’t review Underworld U.S.A., as the 1961 date makes it a so-called “Neo-Noir.”




1 comment:

David In TN said...

TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight ET and 10 am ET is Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai (1948). Welles, Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders, and Ted de Corsia make up the cast.

This was a vanity project for Welles. His then-wife Rita Hayworth is the title character with her hair bleached blond and a scene in a skimpy swimsuit. Critics at the time disliked The Lady From Shanghai and there was little box office. Naturally, "modern" critics love it.

Film Noir Guide: "Irish sailor Welles hires on as a boatswain aboard a yacht sailing from New York to San Francisco via Acapulco and becomes embroiled in a bogus murder plot involving Hayworth, her crippled husband (Sloane), Sloane's wacko law partner (Anders) and a sleazy private investigator (de Corsia). The convoluted plot is painful to follow, but the film is so stylishly done that you might not care. The famous climax in a funhouse full of mirrors is the highlight of this weird movie, which bombed at the box office. The breathtaking Hayworth, the real-life Mrs. Welles at the time, does a good job with her part, as does Welles, despite his wearisome brogue, as the hapless Irishman."

On Saturday afternoon at 3:45 pm ET, TCM shows The Caine Mutiny (1954), with Humphrey Bogart's portrayal of Captain Queeg. I've always liked Jose Ferrer's turn as the defense attorney.