By David in TN
friday, september 13, 2024 at 9:09:00 p.m. edt
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Joseph H. Lewis' A Lady Without Passport with Hedy Lamarr, John Hodiak, James Craig and George Macready.
Film Noir Guide: "Hodiak is an undercover immigration agent posing as a Hungarian refugee in Cuba in order to infiltrate Macready's gang, which smuggles illegal aliens into the U.S. The beautiful Lamarr, a former concentration camp prisoner trying to make her way to America, falls in love with Hodiak.
"But before the G-man can tell her the truth about himself, the jealous Macready spills the beans and convinces Lamarr that Hodiak is interested only in arresting her. Lamarr's beauty and the unique aerial photography keep this from being too tedious to watch.
David in TN: Hedy Lamarr was billed as "the most beautiful woman in the world."
Stunning.
ReplyDelete--GRA
Anything by Joseph Lewis (best known for "Gun Crazy") is worth a look. I've been watching "The Rifleman" lately (from DVD, not butchered on TV), and he did some amazing work on that series. Here's one that really surprised me, particularly Connors' performance:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4-qwMuei1I&list=PLtbMv4lXX2mtW-zGH_G35XpbnoStlCmjA&index=19&ab_channel=FilmRiseTelevision
There's also another great performance by one of TV's finest and most prolific character actors, John Anderson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Anderson_(actor)
The whole series is available (legitimately) on that Youtube channel.
-RM
Lauren Bacall is TCM's Star of the Month for September. Tomorrow (Monday) night TCM shows all four Bogart-Bacall movies starting at 8 p.m. ET with To Have and Have Not (1944). The others: The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948) follow in succession.
ReplyDeleteTCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday NIght-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Dick Powell's Split Second (1953) with Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, Keith Andes, Paul Kelly, Robert Paige, Richard Egan, Frank de Kova.
ReplyDeleteFilm Noir guide: "Sterling plays a dancer who's hitchhiking to her next gig, and reporter Andes is the guy who gives her a lift. Lovers Smith and Paige are on their way to Las Vegas so Smith can divorce her physician husband (Egan.) The unfortunate foursome run into McNally, an escaped killer who, along with partners Kelly and de Kova, takes them hostage.
"McNally phones Egan and threatens to kill Smith if he doesn't come to an abandoned mining town in the Nevada desert to treat Kelly, who was shot while escaping. To complicate matters, the Army has scheduled an atomic bomb test for the next day, and the ghost town is only a couple of miles from point zero. While the hostages are terrified, McNally isn't at all worried. He figures he'll have plenty of time to get out of there, minus the hostages, of course.
"McNally, in one of his best roles, is sensational as the trigger-happy gang leader. Sterling is just right as the cynical, street-wise dancer, and Smith is delightfully shameful as the sniveling cheat who'll do anything, including throwing herself at the sadistic killer, to get out of her dangerous predicament. This exciting thriller marked former song-and-dance man and noir icon Powell's directorial debut.