By David in TN
saturday, may 27, 2023 at 12:27:00 a.m. edt
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Richard Wallace’s The Fallen Sparrow (1943), starring John Garfield and Maureen O’Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morrison and Martha O’Driscoll.
Film Noir Guide: “Garfield returns to the U.S. after helping the Spaniards in their fight against Franco. As a prisoner in Spain, he had been tortured by a Gestapo agent whose face he never saw but whose pronounced limp caused a dragging sound outside his cell—a sound he still hears in his disturbed mind.
“Once home, he discovers that his best friend, the man responsible for freeing him from the Spanish prison, has been killed and that authorities suspect his death was an accident or suicide. Determined to find the truth, he becomes entangled with Nazi spies eager for information that only he can provide.
“Clothing store model O’Hara, society dame Morrison and nightclub singer O’Driscoll are the beautiful women involved, wittingly or unwittingly, with the spy ring. Slezak is a wheelchair-bound aristocrat with an unusual interest in Garfield’s tale of physical and mental torture. Garfield gives a gripping performance as the haunted revolutionary.”
David in TN: Red Eddie Muller will go overboard on this one. Maureen O’Hara said of her co-star, “Despite being a communist, John Garfield was a fine person and actor, easy to work with.” Because O’Hara was taller than Garfield, in their scenes together Garfield stood on a box. This is based on a Dorothy B. Hughes novel. The director, Richard Wallace had previously done Shirley Temple movies.
Trailer
“Ex-Spanish Civil War POW Kit McKitrick (John Garfield) is investigating the death of his childhood pal. But the brutality he endured at the hands of his fascist captors has left more then physical scars. Maureen O’Hara, playing an elusive beauty who knows more then she’s telling, matches her cool elegance with Garfield’s electric intensity in this highly regarded psychological thriller. As Kit careens from swank Manhattan soirees to covert Nazi spy nests, he discovers if he does have the guts to confront men who lie, torture and murder in the service of Germany’s crazed Führer.”
A Healthy Passage from Early on in the Picture
A Teaser from Roy Webb’s Music: Main Theme
“Noir Alley - The Fallen Sparrow (1943) intro 20230572 by Eddie Muller shown on May 28, 2023 From TCM's Noir Alley (Saturdays at Midnight ET and Sunday 10am ET) hosted by the Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller.”
Noir Alley: The Fallen Sparrow (1943), Intro 20230572
Spoiler alert: Don’t watch the outro, until you’ve seen the picture. I watched a few seconds, before stopping myself.
Outro
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
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A SEQUEL TO THIS MOVIE JUST CAME OUT--"THE FALLEN BRANDON";BIDEN TRIPS AND HITS THE GROUND IN A HURRY
Below is how The New York Times described the significant fall:
President Biden tripped and fell after delivering a speech and handing out diplomas to graduates of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs on Thursday. Mr. Biden, who is 80 years old, was helped up and appeared to recover quickly.
Mr. Biden’s fall was captured on video and spread on social media. He appears to trip, fall to his knees and catch himself with his hands on the floor of the stage. He was helped up by several Air Force officials and Secret Service agents, and he walked back to his seat.
Mr. Biden had just delivered an energetic speech to the Air Force graduates before helping to hand out the diplomas. He fell after he distributed the final diploma and was headed back to his seat.
The White House issued an official statement via its communications director Ben LaBolt, who said in a tweet quickly after the incident, "He’s fine, there was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands."
GRA:Uh huh."He's fine"--SO fine,in fact, Biden's going to add this to his everyday regiment.
--GRA
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Gordon Douglas' Between Midnight and Dawn (1950) with Mark Stevens, Edmond O'Brien, Gale Storm, Donald Buka, Gale Robbins.
Film Noir Guide: "Unfairly underrated, this exciting noir boasts of fine performances by Stevens and O'Brien as patrolmen who fall in love with Storm, a police department secretary. O'Brien, the hardened, cynical cop, and Stevens, the happy-go-lucky sort, have been buddies since the war."
"So they take their romantic rivalry lightly, and when Storm makes her choice, the loser is genuinely glad for his friend. Standing in the way of a happy ending is gangster Buka, whom they arrested for viciously gunning down a rival and who has vowed revenge."
"After being convicted of murder, Buka escapes from prison and heads back to town. Robbins plays Buka's kind-hearted moll, whom O'Brien unfairly labels a 'no-good filthy tramp.'"
"Unlike other directors of his time, Douglas seems to know that when someone gets shot, there's bound to be plenty of blood. Roland Winters, who starred as the great Chinese detective in six Charlie Chan films, plays Buka's henchman."
David In TN: I haven't seen Between Midnight and Dawn but it sounds good. In his Outro last week Eddie said it had a great Noir title. Other "Noir Encyclopedias" don't list it. Film Noir Guide includes practically every "crime" story of the 40s and 50s.
Gordon Douglas was a long-time director of films of every genre. Douglas directed I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. (1951).
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