TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Fred Zinnemann’s Act of Violence (1949) with Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor, Phyllis Thaxter and Berry Kroeger
By David in TN TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Fred Zinnemann’s Act of Violence (1949) with Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor, Phyllis Thaxter and Berry Kroeger.
Film Noir Guide: “Heflin, a war veteran, and pillar of the community, has a dark secret. While a prisoner in a German P.O.W. camp, he betrayed his men’s escape plans. Believing he would be saving lives, he instead caused his friends to be bayoneted by German soldiers and left for dead. Of the eleven escapees, only the disabled Ryan has survived and now he’s out for revenge.
“Heflin’s wife (Leigh), though shocked by her husband’s past, stands by her man, and Ryan’s girl (Thaxter) tries in vain to convince hers to give up his deadly mission.
“Astor is excellent as the whore with a heart who, in a misguided attempt to help Heflin, unwittingly hooks him up with a vicious hit man (Kroeger).
“Heflin gives a bravura performance as the guilt-ridden veteran who seeks redemption in a final act of atonement, and Ryan is convincingly sinister as the limping, avenging angel.
“A film noir classic.”
David in TN: Eddie Muller picked Act of Violence for Memorial Day Weekend. In last week's outro, he called it a perfect noir.
By the way, TCM shows The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) tonight (Friday) at 12:15 a.m.
Friday, May 28, 2021 at 10:30:00 A.M. EDT
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This Memorial Day weekend TCM is showing a marathon of war movies. On Monday, May 31, TCM has three special films.
At 3 pm ET, Sam Fuller's The Steel Helmet (1951) with Gene Evans (in a rare lead) as a WW II veteran NCO in the early days of the Korean War.
John Huston's The Red Badge of Courage (1951) with Audie Murphy in possibly his finest performance, at 6:30 pm ET, from Stephen Crane's famous novel.
In prime time at 8 pm ET, TCM features William Wellman's Battleground (1949) with Van Johnson, Ricardo Montalban, and John Hodiak.
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is Curtis Bernhardt's Possessed (1947) with Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey, Geraldine Brooks, and Stanley Ridges.
Film Noir Guide: "When a dazed and hallucinating Crawford is found wandering the Los Angeles streets searching for her former lover (Heflin), she's taken to a hospital's psychiatric ward where, under sodium pentathol, she's able to tell the staff psychiatrist (Ridges) her sordid story. Via flashback, we witness the mentally unstable Crawford being dropped by Heflin because she has become overly possessive and marriage-minded. Vowing to wait for Heflin's unlikely change of heart, she continues in her job as a live-in nurse for the equally unstable wife of a rich industrialist (Massey). After Heflin accepts an out-of-state position and her patient drowns in a lake, an apparent suicide, Crawford accepts her stodgy employer's marriage proposal. But threatening their already slim chances for happiness is Massey's daughter (Brooks), who returns from college believing that Crawford and her father have been having an affiar which may have prompted her mother to commit suicide. Once the two women iron out their differences, Crawford and Massey marry, but the footloose Heflin returns and becomes romantically involved with Brooks. Seething with jealousy, Crawford's schizophrenia worsens, leading to tragedy. Crawford is outstanding in a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination for best Actress, and Brooks makes a fine film debut. Heflin is excellent as the jaunty cad."
I've mentioned previously that when he started out, Van Heflin was described as "the new Spencer Tracy," average looking with great acting ability.
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