Saturday, September 25, 2021

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is William J. Hole’s Hell Bound (1957), Rarely Seen on TV, Starring John Russell, with June Blair, Stuart Whitman, Margo Woode, George Mather, Stanley Adams and Frank Fenton

By David in TN
Friday, September 24, 2021 at 11:46:00 P.M. EDT

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is William J. Hole’s Hell Bound (1957) with John Russell, June Blair, Stuart Whitman, Margo Woode, George Mather, Stanley Adams and Frank Fenton.

Film Noir Guide: “Russell (TV’s The Lawman) portrays a particularly vile criminal mastermind who plots the theft of a ship’s supply of war surplus narcotics, which he hopes grateful drug suppliers will turn into “big, white, fluffy, happy clouds.”

“His convoluted scheme involves his lover (Woode), a fake shipwreck victim (Mather), a diabetic public health officer (Adams), a phony nurse (Blair), and an innocent intern/ambulance driver (Whitman).

“Hoping to obtain funding for his outrageous plan, Russell films a documentary explaining how it will be played out and presents it to a mobster (Fenton), who agrees to back him.

“Unknown to Russell, Mather is a hopelessly addicted druggie, and Adams experiences a drastic improvement in his diabetic condition, a necessary ingredient for the success of the plan. Even worse, Blair, who’s also Fenton’s moll, falls for Whitman while accompanying him on his ambulance calls. Needless to say, this well-thought heist turns into a film noir nightmare.”

David in TN: This is a film that in 1957 would be half of a double-feature. I haven’t seen it; nice for Eddie to show one rarely on TV.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Drug addicts are hell bound, aren't they? If not from the drugs then the crime they commit.

David In TN said...

Eddie Muller continues his run of poor selections for TCM Film Noir of the Week. This week its The Glass Wall (1953), which has never been considered a film noir. It stars Gloria Grahame, whom Eddie has a crush on. The plot has an illegal alien from Italy on the run in New York City evading the evil agents from the Eisenhower government trying to deport him.

An obscure film never in the noir canon nor highly rated. Eddie will probably claim its "topical."

On Friday night at 11:45 pm ET, TCM shows Black Sunday (1977) with Robert Shaw as an Israeli anti-terrorist agent and Bruce Dern as the Crazy Vietnam Veteran character so loved by Hollywood.

The story was inspired by the 1972 Munich Massacre. Dern joins up with Black September terrorists who plan to use a Goodyear Blimp to blow up at a Super Bowl killing 80,000 people.

Black Sunday was one of the 1970's disaster movie cycle.