Friday, June 11, 2021 at 6:05:00 P.M. EDT
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Gordon Douglas’ Walk a Crooked Mile (1948) with Louis Hayward, Dennis O'Keefe, Louise Allbritton, Carl Esmond, Onslow Stevens, Raymond Burr, Art Baker, Lowell Gilmore and Charles Evans. Film Noir Guide: “From the future director of 1951’s I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. comes an early Red Menace film, almost as good as his later one.
“This one has Hayward as a Scotland Yard investigator and O’Keefe as an F.B.I. agent teaming up to fight those ‘who walk crooked miles along the highways and byways of a free America.’
“They’re hoping to discover who’s stealing atomic secrets from an American company and turning them over to Commie spies. Suspects include the company’s president (Baker), a scientist (Gilmore), a physicist (Evans), and a mathematician (Esmond) and his PhD. girlfriend (Allbritton).
“Spy Stevens and his henchman (Burr) are intent on getting the vital atomic information and won’t hesitate to knock off any fed or inept comrade who gets in their way.
“Good, solid performances help make this enjoyable camp B movie a treat. Burr also played a Red spy in 1951’s The Whip Hand.”
David in TN: I’ve never seen this one; good it’s being shown. Interesting that Film Noir Guide admits Douglas’ I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. was better.
Gordon Douglas was a prolific director across all genres. He did several Frank Sinatra films (Tony Rome, Lady in Cement, The Detective).
Raymond Burr has an early Noir “Heavy” role.
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TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 am ET is Fritz Lang's The Blue Gardenia (1953) with Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Southern, Raymond Burr, Jeff Donnell, and George Reeves.
Film Noir Guide: "Commercial artist Burr thinks he died and went to Heaven (he turns out to be half right, anyway) when a pretty switchboard operator (Baxter), depressed after receiving a 'Dear Jane" letter from her G.I. boyfriend in Korea, accepts his invitation for dinner and drinks at the Blue Gardenia Restaurant. After plying Baxter with Polynesian Pearl Divers all evening, he takes her to his apartment, where he attempts to seduce her. When she drunkenly responds, thinking that he's her boyfriend, Burr becomes emboldened to go further. When she regains her senses, however, he learns the hard way that no means no--she beans him with a fireplace poker before passing out. Later, she manages to make it home to the apartment she shares with two co-workers (Sothern and Donnell, who provide the comedy relief). The next morning, homicide detective Reeves (TV's Superman) shows up at the telephone company asking questions. Suffering from booze-induced amnesia, Baxter eventually learns that Burr has been bludgeoned to death with a fireplace poker and that the cops are searching for the blonde he was seen with at the Blue Gardenia. Ace reporter Conte, smelling a scoop, writes a column asking 'the Blue Gardenia Murderess' to surrender to him and his newspaper. While this isn't one of Lang's best efforts, The Blue Gardenia is a gem thanks to Baxter's superb performance as the sweet working girl whose happy-go-lucky life has been turned upside down by a faithless boyfriend and an unscrupulous Lothario. Nat King Cole plays himself and sings the title song."
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