Twelve movies

[One to four stars. Four sentences each. No spoilers.]

The October Man (dir. Roy Ward Baker, 1947). A young woman is murdered, and her neighbor in a residential hotel (John MIlls) is suspected. He’s recovering from a brain injury suffered in an accident, and it’s not certain that he’s “all right.” The greatest pleasures in this movie come from the depiction of life in the cozy, claustrophobic Brockhurst Common Hotel, whose residents snoop, play cards, and complain about the cold and the absence of marmalade. The question of whodunit is answered early on, and the pacing is erratic: after interminable trips to and from the police station, the chase near the movie’s end feels comic. ★★★

*

Sleepers West (Eugene Forde, 1941). The sleepers are train cars, going to San Francisco, and they carry, among other folk, private detective Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan), shepherding a surprise trial witness (Mary Beth Hughes) who’ll reveal a web of political corruption. Along for the ride are Mike’s ex (what a coincidence), her fiancé, a businessman on the lam, an inquisitive porter, an engineer determined to make good time on his final run, and a would-be hit man. Lots of variety, with shifting story lines as we move from compartment to compartment. Look for George Chandler (Uncle Petrie from Lassie), whom the IMDb identifies as “Yokel.” ★★★

*

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (dir. Nathan Hertz, 1958). Her name is Nancy (Allison Hayes), and her husband Harry (William Hudson) is interested only in her money and his Honey, his girlfriend (Yvette Vickers). A chance encounter with an extraterrestrial orb turns Nancy into a giant, with an Achilles-sized rage. Guess where she’s going with it. A great pop-culture document of female anger, its suppression (chains, tranquilizers), and its flowering. ★★★★

*

Cause for Alarm! (dir. Tay Garnett, 1951). Search YouTube for recently added film noir and you’ll find all sorts of worthwhile movies — that have nothing to do with film noir. This one is melodrama, a tour de force for Loretta Young as Ellen Jones, a desperate housewife trying to retrieve a letter that her just-died husband sent to the district attorney, accusing his doctor and Ellen of plotting to kill him. A drama of postal procedure? The premise may sound ludicrous, but the result is genuinely compelling. ★★★★

*

Outrage (dir. Ida Lupino, 1950). Between 1949 and 1953, Ida Lupino wrote and/or directed several socially conscious films, treating such subjects as bigamy, polio, and unwed motherhood. Here the subject is rape, with Mala Powers giving a great performance as Ann Walton, a bookkeeper, engaged to be married, who is raped after she leaves work. Ann flees her family and fiancé and as “Ann Blake” finds herself among compassionate (though clueless) people at an orange ranch, where she meets a vaguely mystical minister (Tom Andrews) who gives her good counsel. Frank and unnerving, and when the rapist stalks Ann through a deserted industrial area, terrifying. ★★★★

*

History Is Made at Night (dir. Frank Borzage, 1937). The movie starts out as romantic melodrama, with vengeful husband Bruce Vail (Colin Clive), his desperate wife Irene (Jean Arthur), and “the world’s greatest headwaiter,” Paul Dumond (Charles Boyer), who happens to be nearby when Irene is in danger. Things then take a turn toward comedy (the restaurant scenes are priceless), then back to melodrama, before ending up as a proto-disaster story. Clive looks ghastly (he died in 1937); Arthur and Boyer are a wonderful comic duo (there’s much more to Charles Boyer than I might have thought). Honorable mention to Leo Carrillo for his comic contributions as Cesare, Paul’s pal and “the world’s greatest chef.” ★★★★

*

Two more by Mitchell Leisen

Hands Across the Table (1935). Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray star: she, as Regi Allen, a manicurist looking to marry rich; he, as Theodore Drew III, a broke heir looking to do the same. Gee, will they ever be able to get together? Snappy patter and glorious sets: even a zillionaire’s wheelchair is Art Deco. My favorite scenes: the phone prank, the roof. ★★★★

Remember the Night (dir. Mitchell Leisen, 1940). Fred MacMurray again, as Jack Sargent, a Manhattan prosecutor who takes shoplifting suspect Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) back to his Indiana home when her trial is postponed for the Christmas holiday. The screenplay is by Preston Sturges, so there’s plenty of arch comedy, but also great pathos when Lee attempts to reconnect with her mother, and considerable tenderness when Lee shares the holidays with the Sargent family. With Beulah Bondi as Mrs. Sargent, Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Emma, Sterling Holloway as Cousin Willie, and Thomas W. Ross with a great turn as a looney-tunes defense attorney. Watching this movie, I found it impossible to imagine the leads as Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson (Double Indemnity ). ★★★★

[Barbara Stanwyck as Lee Leander, Beulah Bondi as Mrs. Sargent.]

*

It Should Happen to You (dir. George Cukor, 1954). Gladys George (judy Holliday) is a nobody, a model who wants to be famous; Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon), another nobody, is an aspiring documentarian filmmaker. Gladys’s desire to be a somebody moves her to buy a billboard to fill with her name, and her efforts draw the attention of playboy and soap magnate Evan Adams III (Peter Lawford). With a sharp, witty screenplay by Garson Kanin, and beautiful on-location scenes of Manhattan as a mid-century playground for lovers. My favorite scenes: Holliday and Lemmon singing and humming Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s “Let’s Fall in Love”. ★★★★

*

Party Girl (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1958). I first saw Party Girl in 2016, and my judgment hasn’t changed: the movie looks at first like a bit of CinemaScope song-and-dance fluff, but it turns out to be much more, with moments of deliriously theatrical violence. In 2021 I find new and surprising overtones in the relationship between crime boss Rico Angelo (Lee J. Cobb) and his lawyer-fixer Tommy Farrell (Robert Taylor), which strongly resembles the relationship between a recent president and his lawyer-fixer. Which makes dancer Vicki Gaye (Cyd Charisse) the future Mrs. Michael Cohen? A further complication: Corey Allen’s Cookie La Motte bears an eerie resemblance to Anthony Scaramucci. ★★★★

*

I See a Dark Stranger (dir. Frank Launder, 1946). The premise is not as daft as it might seem: Bridie Quilty (Deborah Kerr), a young Irish woman with a fierce hatred of all things British, joins up with an effort to free a Nazi spy from a British prison. Trevor Howard is a British officer who becomes smitten with Bridie. This movie goes off in all directions — genuine suspense, light comedy, bizarre slapstick — and it’s difficult to know whether Bridie is here to be hated, pitied, laughed at, or adored (Howard has no problem making up his mind). I think the movie aspires to be a Hitchcock, but it never hits the mix of suspense and comedy needed to succeed. ★★★

*

Hunt the Man Down (dir. George Archainbaud, 1951). A Detour-like premise: a fellow (James Anderson, Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird) walks into a bar, spills a drink, takes up with seven new-found acquaintances, entertains them with his piano skills, and soon finds himself charged with killing one of them. He improbably escapes police custody, but years later an act of heroism puts his picture on the front page — and back to jail he goes. Gig Young stars as a public defender tracking down the six long-lost acquaintances to establish that the accused is not guilty. A highly watchable B-picture. ★★★

Related reading
All OCA movie posts (Pinboard)