By David in TN
Friday, August 14, 2020 at 10:42:00 P.M. EDT
Although TCM’s Film Noir of the Week is on hiatus this month, a good one is on Saturday night, better than most Eddie Muller has shown this year.
As part of Nina Foch day, at 11:30 p.m. ET TCM has Illegal (1955) with Edward G. Robinson, Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe, Albert Dekker, Ellen Corby, Jan Merlin and Jayne Mansfield.
Edward G. Robinson chews the scenery. Mansfield shows off in an early role.
Film Noir Guide: “A flamboyant D.A. (Robinson) with political ambitions convicts an innocent man of murder. When the real murderer confesses, Robinson is too late to stop the poor guy from frying. Guilt-ridden (‘I’d rather see 100 guilty men go free rather than execute another innocent man’), he quits his job and hits the bottle hard, ending his budding romance with his former assistant (Foch), who marries co-worker Marlowe on the rebound. When Robinson finally sobers up, he starts his own practice, attracting the attention of crime lord Dekker, who hires him as a mouthpiece for the mob. His grandstanding (including drinking a bottle of poison to prove it was harmless) makes him a favorite with the grateful mobsters. Merlin is Dekker’s nasty henchman; Corby, in a step up from her usual maid roles, plays Robinson's faithful secretary; and Mansfield has a small part as a sexy piano player. This fast-paced film is entertaining thanks in large part to Robinson's hard-boiled performance.”
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TCM's Film Noir of the Week returns. This week Sunday only at 10 am ET, Night Editor (1946) with William Gargan, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell, Paul E, Burns, directed by Henry Levin.
Film Noir Guide: "Despite the devotion of his wife and young son, homicide detective Gargan is having an affair with the beautiful Carter, who's married to a wealthy older man. While Gargan and Carter are parked in a secluded spot near the ocean, another car parks nearby. They watch in horror as the driver viciously beats his female companion to death with a tire iron. Instinctively, begins to give chase but stops when Carter reminds him about the scandal that would surely follow. Guilt-ridden and fearful, Gargan begins a cover-up. An innocent man is arrested and convicted of the murder, and when Gargan recognizes a local banker as the killer, he faces a tough moral dilemma--arrest him and end up in jail himself or let the patsy go to the chair. Narrated by a New York newspaper editor, this is a suspenseful and intriguing film, with Gargan nicely underplaying his role, and Carter deliciously wicked as the femme fatale. The surprise ending will be hated by some, loved by others. Gargan, brother of veteran character actor Ed Gargan, starred in the early TV series Martin Kane, Private Eye."
I haven't seen this one, of the "Bad Cop" genre.
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