By David in TN
Saturday, June 18, 2022 at 12:41:00 A.M. EDT
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway (1949) with Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell and Barbara Lawrence.
Film Noir Guide: “Conte is a veteran who returns from the war to find that his truck driver father has lost both legs in an ‘accident’ deliberately caused by a crooked produce wholesaler (Cobb) to avoid paying the old man for his load. Vowing revenge, Conte teams up with Mitchell to deliver two truckloads of apples to Cobb who, aided by a seductive hooker (Cortese), proceeds to cheat Conte out of is money.
“Reminiscent of They Drive by Night, Thieves’ Highway has a convincing, fast-moving plot, and the actors are excellent, especially Cobb as the shady wholesaler and Cortese as the femme fatale with second thoughts.
“Soon after he made Thieves' Highway, Director Jules Dassin (Brute Force, The Naked City, and Two Smart People) was identified as a Communist by fellow director Edward Dmytryk during House Un-American Activities Committee hearings.”
David in TN: Eddie Muller recycles another one he’s already shown, instead of several good ones yet to be featured.
N.S.: And with a hackneyed, Buzz Besserides (pardon the redundancy) script, though the performers are excellent.
Timeless
ReplyDeleteCaucasian
Movies
Though some flicks--like this one--may seem timeless in another way:as if they'll never end.
--GRA
In his intro, Eddie Muller told us why he loves Thieves' Highway. When Eddie was in his early teens one day, he faked being sick in order to get out of school. It happened that Thieves' Highway was on TV and Eddie loved its portrait of his home town San Francisco that no longer existed.
ReplyDeleteEddie says Thieves' Highway got him started as a Film Noir fanatic.
David In TN: I don't especially care for Thieves' Highway.
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 and 10 a.m. ET is Arnold Laven's Down Three Dark Street's (1954) with Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman, Martha Hyer, Marisa Pavan, Max Showalter, and Claude Akins.
ReplyDeleteThe Complete Films of Broderick Crawford: "Down Three Dark Streets is a superior police/murder mystery that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end and one of Broderick Crawford's best films."
David In TN: Eddie Muller finally puts on a good one. Broderick Crawford plays an FBI agent based in Los Angeles who finds himself working three separate cases. Ruth Roman is a target for an extortionist in one. In another Martha Hyer plays a burlesque dancer involved with a gangster. Akins is a violent thug terrorizing Pavan.
Crawford's performance as a tough-talking, dedicated FBI agent paved the way for his most famous role, Dan Mathews in the TV series Highway Patrol.