By David in TN
saturday, april 20, 2024 at 2:16:00 a.m. edt
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Robert Wise’s Born to Kill (1947) with Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak, Elisha Cook, Audrey Long and Esther Howard.
This is the third time Born to Kill has been on Noir Alley. Tierney is considered the ultimate tough guy of Film Noir. He was also known for being rough in real life, with hard drinking and numerous arrests.
Once at a Hollywood party in 1947, Tierney was irritating another actor by butting into a conversation the actor was having with his date. Twice the actor told Tierney to tone down his foul language in front of the lady. Twice Tierney brushed him off. The third time the actor approached him there was a look in his eyes and he ordered Lawrence Tierney to leave. Tierney left.
Who was the actor who made tough-guy Lawrence Tierney back down? He was a fellow named Audie Murphy.
The source is the latest biography of Audie Murphy, The Price of Valor. It was also in the 1989 bio, No Name on the Bullet. It was reported by Variety at the time: “Such deadly menace I never saw in anyone’s eyes,” said a reporter who saw the scene play out.
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TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Robert Aldrich's The Big Knife (1955) with Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Shelly Winters, Rod Steiger, Jean Hagen, Everett Sloane, Wesley Addy, Paul Langton.
Film Noir Guide: "Palance, a popular Hollywood star, wants to quit the business to save his crumbling marriage to Lupino, but ruthless producer Steiger and his henchman Corey blackmail him into signing a new seven-year contract. With a possible jail sentence hanging over Palance's head if it becomes known that the studio P.R. man (Langton) took the blame for his drunk driving accident, which killed a young girl the actor gives in to Steiger's demands."
"Lupino, who's considering running off with Palance's best friend (Addy), isn't thrilled with the prospect of seven more years in Tinseltown. Complicating matters, a dipso bit player (Winters), who was in the car with Palance on the night of the accident, has been babbling about the coverup. When Corey decides that she should be shut up for good, the horrified actor feels he must take a stand."
"Hagen plays Langton's libidinous wife, who can't resist Palance, and Sloane is the actor's sympathetic agent. Steiger gives his usual boisterous but enjoyable performance, and Palance is so compelling that noir icon Lupino is hardly noticeable as his indecisive wife."
"Based on the play by Clifford Odets, The Big Knife presents a grim look at the darker (albeit fictional) side of Hollywood life. The film wasn't a big hit with audiences, who couldn't drum up much sympathy for the pathetic life of an alcoholic, millionaire actor living in a Bel Air mansion. They also had difficulty accepting the hard-featured Palance as a sex symbol adored by millions of women."
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