By David in TN
friday, november 4, 2022 at 12:37:00 a.m. edt
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Irving Lerner’s City of Fear (1959) with Vince Edwards and John Archer.
David in TN: City of Fear is another low-rated, obscure film never in the Noir category. Vince Edwards plays a crook escaped from jail on the run, with a package he thinks is heroin. Actually it’s radioactive cobalt. This is a typical role for Edwards in the late 50s’ before he became a TV star with the Ben Casey series.
Last week, Red Eddie said in his outro that City of Fear was “cold-war paranoia.”
On Saturday at 6:15 p.m. ET, TCM shows a far better film, John Boorman’s Point Blank (1967), with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. You can see why generations of males had a crush on Angie Dickinson.
Last week,I asked if any film noirs were made after 1960 and then as fate would have it,I looked up Billy Wilder--who had directed the masterpiece of the genre,"Double Indemnity"--and found a movie that is designated,"a modern film noir" of sorts,1978's "Fedora" with William Holden and Marthe Keller. It's described as a companion piece to "Sunset Blvd"--a Wilder film--and "Blvd" is reputed to be part film noir/part comedy."Fedora" was Wilder's penultimate movie as a director.Holden was in both movies--28 years apart.
ReplyDeleteIf either David or N.S. have heard of "Fedora" or watched it,I'd be interested to hear a response.
--GRA
"City of Fear" isn't "film noir" (a nonsensical term which only refers to a narrow range of movies but has come to be used to label every crime movie in Creation), but it is a good suspense thriller with a suitably nerve-jangling score by Jerry Goldsmith.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seem Fedora. It was a French-German production. Not on the movie channels much, if at all.
ReplyDeleteTCM Has a Film Noir Early Friday Morning at 4:15 a.m. ET, Andrew L. Stone's Cry Terror (1958) with James Mason, Rod Steiger, Inger Stevens, Neville Brand, Angie Dickinson, Jack Klugman, Kenneth Tobey.
ReplyDeleteFilm Noir Guide: "Ex-Army demolition expert Steiger and his gang (Brand, Dickinson, and Klugman) try to extort half a million dollars from a large airline, claiming that they have planted several bombs aboard one of its planes."
"The terrorists kidnap Mason, his wife (Stevens) and their little girl as extra insurance. Brand gives a first-rate performance as a psychopathic bennie-popping rapist. (Guess who Steiger puts in charge of watching the nervous Stevens.)"
"Dickinson (TV's Police Woman) is terrific as the sexy moll, who wouldn't think twice about sticking Mason's four-year old daughter with a shiv if push came to shove. Tobey plays the F.B.I. agent in charge of the investigation."
"The plot is implausible and Stevens gives a whiny performance, but the suspense never lets up and there's an exciting climax in the foreboding tunnels of New York City's subway system. Stevens starred in the TV comedy series The Farmer's Daughter from 1963 to 1966 and committed suicide in 1970."
David In TN: Cry Terror is a late film noir, better than what Red Eddie Muller has been showing lately on Noir Alley. Angie Dickinson is cast somewhat against type. She usually wasn't a Bad Girl, though she's sexy as usual.
James Mason is TCM's Star of the Month.
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is John Berry's Tension (1949) with Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, Barry Sullivan, William Conrad.
ReplyDeleteFilm Noir Guide: "Homicide detective Sullivan opens the film using a rubber band as a visual aid to demonstrate how applying tension eventually will cause a suspect to snap. The suspect in is most recent case is a timid, 'four-eyed pill pusher' (pharmacist Basehart), whose wife (Trotter) has been cheating on him."
"The unfortunate working stiff has been slaving day and night to buy his ungrateful wife a house in the suburbs, but Trotter cares nothing for the American dream. Furs and fast cars are her thing. When she runs off with her rich new lover, Basehart confronts the man and is humiliated in a fistfight with him. That's when he starts thinking about murder."
"After assuming a new identity as part of his plan, he meets the lovely Charisse and falls hard for her. Will her love be enough to restrain his murderous urge? Sullivan and his partner (Conrad) don't think so after Trotter's boyfriend is found murdered."
"Trotter has a field day portraying the tawdry and calculating femme fatale in this enjoyable B movie. (Sullivan and Conrad) also pull double duty as extras crossing the street during an evening scene outside the all-night drug store where Basehart works.)"
David In TN: This is another recycling of a film on Noir Alley in 2017. In previous commentary on Tension, Eddie Muller told us Audrey Totter in real life was a very nice lady, nothing like her character in the movie. Red Eddie whined about how rough the Communist director Paul Berry had it.