By David in TN
friday, april 25, 2025 at 4:57:00 p.m. edt
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 and 10 a.m. ET is Joseph Losey's The Prowler (1951), with Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell and Emerson Treacy.
Film Noir Guide: "Heflin stars as a disgruntled cop who becomes obsessed with Keyes, the wife of the all-night disc jockey (Treacy), after she report [sic] sighting a prowler. A high school basketball hero who failed at college, Heflin's dream now is to own a motel in Las Vegas and sleep while the dough rolls in.
"When he discovers that Treacy has a will that leaves sixty-two thousand dollars to Keyes, he decides to kill the man by shooting him as a prowler, and then marry his widow.
"Maxwell plays Heflin's boring, rock-collecting partner. Heflin is terrific as the killer cop, and Keyes is enjoyable as the woman who fears that she married a murderer. The Prowler is an intense film noir study of the American Dream gone sour.
David in TN: As we mentioned before, Van Heflin starting out was billed as "the new Spencer Tracy."
N.S.: Apparently, there was quite a search on for "the new Spencer Tracy." Around the same time, James Whitmore was also being billed as "the new Spencer Tracy."
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 a.m. and 10 a.m. ET is Ted Tetzlaff's Riff-Raff (1947) with Pat O'Brien, Anne Jeffreys, Walter Slezak, Jerome Cowan, Mark Krah.
ReplyDeleteFilm Noir Guide: "O'Brien plays a tough American P.I. in Panama named Hammer (no, not THAT Hammer). He's hired by bad guy Krah (who recently pushed someone out of an airplane to steal an oil field map) as his bodyguard. Not one to worry about conflict of interest, O'Brien takes on another client, oil executive Cowan, who hires him to find Krah and the stolen map."
"Unfortunately, Krah doesn't last an hour under O'Brien's protection before he's murdered in his bathtub. Slezak and his goons then show up, also seeking the map, which Krah has hidden in plain sight on a bulletin board in O'Brien's office. Distrustful of O'Brien, Cowan sends his girlfriend (nightclub singer Jeffreys) to spy on him, and, of course, She quickly falls in love with the portly, middle-aged private dick."
"This fast-paced, beautifully photographed noir is witty and entertaining, with O'Brien giving an interesting twist to the hard-boiled private investigator role. Jeffreys later went on to star in the popular TV comedy 'Topper' with her husband, Robert Sterling."