Twelve movies

[One to four stars. Four sentences each. No spoilers. Sources: Criterion Channel, TCM, YouTube.]

From the Criterion Channel’s Noir in Color collection

Accused of Murder (dir. Joseph Kane, 1956). Whodunit: was it the hitman (Warren Stevens) hired to kill a crooked lawyer, or the nightclub singer (Vera Ralston) who rebuffed the lawyer’s advances? And can the police lieutenant (David Bryan) falling for the singer be trusted to come up with the correct answer? The funnest thing about this movie is that it’s from Republic Pictures but plays like a real movie — like Storm Over Lisbon, it’s another Republic effort with which they seem to have gone all out. In lurid Naturama, Republic’s answer to Technicolor. ★★★

Foreign Intrigue (dir. Sheldon Reynolds, 1956). Press agent Dave Bishop (Robert Mitchum) finds his wealthy employer on the floor, and it’s odd: everyone wants to know if the man said anything before dying. It’s foreign intrigue indeed — from Monte Carlo to Stockholm to Vienna, as Bishop’s effort to figure out the facts of the dead man’s life pulls him into a world of blackmail and murder. Eastmancolor (which looks more natural to my eye than Technicolor) and Paul Durand’s score (heavy on acoustic bass and percussion) make this movie feel like it’s already the 1960s. With Geneviève Page and Ingrid Thulin. ★★★★

The River’s Edge (dir. Allen Dwan, 1957). Ben Cameron (Anthony Quinn) and his city-slicker ex-con wife Meg (Debra Paget) are trying to make a go of it on Ben’s New Mexico cattle ranch, but Meg can’t get the hang of ranch life, and she and Ben argue about everything. Into their bickering world comes trouble in a sports car. The driver is Nardo Denning (Ray Milland), a man with a past, who enlists Ben and Meg to guide him and his suitcase of money across the border to Mexico. Difficult to think of this as noir, but it’s certainly suspense, with overtones of The Postman Always Rings Twice (beautiful woman, two contrasting men), The Killing, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. ★★★★

The Badlanders (dir. Delmar Daves, 1958). A loose remake of John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle, recasting the story in late-nineteenth-century Arizona. Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine play newly released prisoners with a scheme to extract gold from a abandoned mine. But complications abound. Scenes of extraordinary brutality, deep danger (underground), and romance (Borgnine and Katy Jurado), and one never stops rooting for the so-called badlanders to succeed. ★★★★

Man of the West (dir. Anthony Mann, 1958). Can noir pair well with bright wide-open western spaces? I’m still not persuaded, but I can say that this is a great movie on its own terms. As solemn-looking Link Jones, traveling by train to hire a schoolteacher for his town, Gary Cooper meets up with relatives from his criminal past, in the person of psychopathic Uncle Dock Tobin (Lee J. Cobb) and his gang. As the gang presses Link back into service, It’s the one against the many, with strong overtones of Key Largo. With Jack Lord, Arthur O’Connell, and Julie London as a singer who never sings. ★★★★

*

The North Star (dir. Lewis Milestone, 1943). In the summer of 1941, Ukrainian villagers make a valiant stand against Nazi forces, in what I think of as two movies. The one movie has a strong cast (Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Walter Huston, Erich von Stroheim), suspenseful scenes of ambush and sabotage, brilliant cinematography (James Wong Howe), and a score by Aaron Copland. The other movie has a cringeworthy screenplay by Lillian Hellman and shameless propagandizing for the joys of collective farming. The best scene: a Ukrainian doctor confronts a Nazi doctor to raise the question of legacy, with great resonance for our times. ★★★★ / ★ (TCM)

*

No Down Payment (dir. Martin Ritt, 1957). Four young mortgage-paying couples in Sunrise Hills, an LA subdivision where the houses are close, very close. Life appears good on the surface (steak every night, someone says), but the storyline brings in alcoholism, disparities in social class and education, domestic violence, racism, rape, the unending thirst for more money, and what we would now recognize as PTSD. Brutal and spectacular, with great performances from Joanne Woodward and Cameron Mitchell (the Boones), Tony Randall and Sheree North (the Flaggs), Pat Hingle and Barbara Rush (the Kreitzers), and Jeffrey Hunter and Patricia Owens (the Martins). I must cite what David Bowie wrote in his reply to a first fan letter from the States: “I was watching an old film on TV the other night called ‘No Down Payment’ a great film, but rather depressing if it is a true reflection of The American Way of Life.” ★★★★ (YT)

*

Sealed Cargo (dir. Alred Werker, 1951). “This is the story of one small victory in World War II,” says the on-screen introduction. The story concerns U-boats off the Canadian coast and a Gloucester fishing boat captained by Dana Andrews. An eerie encounter with a ghost ship prepares for greater mysteries, as Andrews tries to figure out who can be trusted: the passenger he’s taking to her remote village? the new recruit who speaks Danish with an odd accent? With Carla Balenda (Lassie’s Miss Hazlit!) and Claude Rains. ★★★★ (TCM)

*

Desperate (dir. Anthony Mann, 1947). A Hitchcockian story of a newly married Chicago truckdriver (Steve Brodie) who takes on a job that threatens to doom him and his wife (Audrey Long). The flight from feral Raymond Burr and other hoods to an aunt and uncle’s Minnesota farm takes the couple through improbable semi-comic scenarios reminscent of The 39 Steps and Saboteur : riding with a sheriff, hiding behind fun-house masks, agreeing to a traditional Czech wedding. But there’s real darkness in this story, and George E. Diskamp’s cinematography — that swinging lamp — intensifies the atmosphere of danger. Our household’s annus mirabilis of movies comes through for us again. ★★★★ (TCM)

[Not a halo. Raymond Burr and the swinging lamp.]

*

The Furies (dir. Anthony Mann, 1950). The Furies is a cattle ranch, and Walter Huston is its owner, T.C. Jeffords, a man egomaniacal enough to have given his late wife a floor-to-ceiling portrait of himself. Barbara Stanwyck is T.C.’s daughter and confidante Vance, and their relationship has more than a touch of vaguely incestuous feeling about it. Wendell Corey is Rip Darrow, the man Vance wants; Gilbert Roland is Juan Herrera, a squatter on the ranch who adores Vance; and Judith Anderson — uh-oh — is Flo Burnett, T.C.’s new wife. Vance’s revolt against the patriarchy suggests to me Antigone and Electra and Cordelia, in a story that’s utterly insane — which is not a bad thing. ★★★★ (YT)

*

Grand Central Murder (dir. S. Sylvan Simon, 1942). It plays like a radio drama, with a many suspects — too many. Each has a good reason to have killed Broadway star Mida King (Patricia Dane); each tells their story in a flashback. As a private detective, Van Heflin is the nominal star, but I found Tom Conway and Virginia Grey more interesting, at least in part because they so strongly resemble George Sanders and Lucille Ball (Conway and Sanders were brothers). A last-minute deus ex machina (is there any other kind?) serves to identify the killer. But I liked the ridiculously snappy patter: “He’s ready to yodel after putting on the clam all evening.” ★★ (YT)

*

The Fearmakers (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1958). I’ve already written about and quoted from this movie, which is prescient in ways its makers did not imagine, suggesting the Facebook/Fox/Newsmax/OAN/Twitter/
YouTube disinformation diet that shapes so many people’s mistaken ideas about reality. Genial Dick Foran (cowboy star, and Ed Washburne on Lassie) is a surprising pick for the role of evil media mastermind; as his nemesis, Dana Andrews’s character carries the burden of his time as a POW and victim of brainwashing, a past that comes into the story merely as a way for the bad guys to damage his credibility. (This movie is not The Manchurian Candidate.) Mel Tormé is a dweebish underling; Veda Ann Borg and Kelly Thordsen are seedy underlings; Marilee Earle is a dutiful secretary but wooden, bad enough for me to drop a star. ★★★ (TCM)

Related reading
All OCA movie posts (Pinboard)

Sardine bookmarks

“Little card ‘sardines.’” Notice the quotation marks. They are not actual fish.

Thanks, Diane.

Related reading
All OCA sardine posts (Pinboard)

Reconditioned Can Co.

[62 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, c. 1939-1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a larger view.]

I chose this photograph for its Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer flavor. I would imagine that the cans sent for reconditioning to the Reconditioned Can Co. were drums to hold chemicals, paints, industrial goods. I don’t think the company was working on cans of Le Sueur peas. But I could be wrong. “Can reconditioner” is an occupational title, and the work is about improving cans that hold food: hitting with a mallet to test the vacuum seal, removing dirt and rust, relabeling. So the Reconditioned Can Co. might be a food-salvage operation.

This Greenpoint building now houses apartments, some of them no doubt with canned goods.

Nearby in the Greenpoint area: Eberhard Faber, whose tax photographs don’t do the building justice. Much more impressive: the photographs in a New York Times article and Forgotten New York’s two-part — 1, 2 — tour of Greenpoint.

Related reading
More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives

Rocks and debris

[Beetle Bailey, July 31, 2022. Click for a larger view.]

Ernie Bushmiller would know how to tidy up this landscape. Just “some rocks,” please.

[Strange to see “debris” in the news and in today’s Beetle Bailey.]

Eight to two, four to one

From the news:

“All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

I know precision is necessary. But I’d still be tempted to replace “potential debris impact risk” with “danger.”

[Eight syllables to two, four words to one.]

Today’s Saturday Stumper

The last Newsday  Saturday Stumper I was unable to finish (June 4) was by Steve Mossberg. Today’s killer Stumper is by Steve Mossberg. Uh-oh.

It took me an hour, and I flailed for a “Long stretch” (49-A, four letters) in the northeast corner. I’d estimate that my solving time was lengthened by the challenge of concentrating amid the ever-shifting colors and shapes of the ads that fill the GameLabs window. Ugh. Newsday, please, bring back free access to the Stumper or charge a reasonable price for a crossword-only subscription.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-A, eight letters, “H’s horizontal.” Well, that was easy.

11-D, nine letters, “‘American Oxonian,’ e.g.” I struggled to see this one. The sixth letter of the answer was partly responsible. The quotation marks didn’t help.

12-D, nine letters, “Newspaper puzzle challenge.” I’ll have to take your word for it.

13-A, nine letters, “Inculpatory adage ender.” That was not easy.

16-A, nine letters, “Concert-to-go.” LIVESTREA — no.

24-D, six letters, “Terms of service.” Nicely deceptive.

26-A, twelve letters, “Pre-grilling advice.” Hah.

30-D, eight letters, “Breakfast buffet offering.” Mean!

31-D, nine letters, “Flavor enhancers.” I don’t recall seeing the answer in a puzzle before.

38-A, six letters, “Not keeping well.” I’ve seen this clue before, and it’s still a little forced for my taste.

48-D, five letters, “1953 debut as Froffles.” Easy once you see it. I was thinking maybe an animal friend from the movies or TV.

60-A, nine letters, “Do business.” I was reaching for a verb.

62-A, nine letters, “Go Bananas and Mango Madness.” I’m supposed to know this?

My favorite in this puzzle: 32-D, nine letters, “Electronic stop.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Another Mary Miller vote

Mary Miller (R, IL-15), who smiles as she poses with veterans, voted against S. 3373, the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, described as “a bill to improve the Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant and the Children of Fallen Heroes Grant.” She was one of eighty-eight House members, all Republicans, who voted against the bill. The bill was then killed in the Senate by Republican votes, twenty-five of them from senators who had previously voted for the bill.

Miller’s Democratic opponent in November, Paul Lange, finally has a website and Twitter account. You’d never know from his website who he’s running against. You’d never know from his Twitter account about Miller’s vote on S. 3373 or many of her other votes. Not that it matters, because IL-15 was designed as a deep-red, non-competitive district.

*

Is it just me, or is it genuinely difficult to find Congressional votes in a timely way? GovTrack.us still doesn’t have the final Senate vote on S. 3373. Congress.gov has the latest Senate vote yet shows the bill as going to the president.

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“I Like my Sleep!”

[Dig the spats. Life, October 14, 1940. Click for a much larger view.]

I found this advertisement while looking, as usual, for something else. I have a soft spot for Al Smith. As a college freshman in an American history course, I wrote a term paper on his 1928 presidential campaign.

Have you ever heard Smith speak? Listen to the governor’s comments upon being presented with the first post-Prohibition case of beer in New York State. Priceless.

This post, with a Pullman car in it, is for my friend Diane.

[I’m not sure how Al Smith was able to underscore an exclamation point when speaking, but so be it.]

“As said before”

Dinnertime for Leopold Bloom. The scene is the dining room of the Ormond Hotel. Pat is the waiter. Richie Goulding is Stephen Dedalus’s uncle and Bloom’s casual acquaintance and impromptu dinner companion. Goulding is a costdrawer (cost accountant) in the legal firm of Collis and Ward. From the “Sirens” episode:

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

Joyce is rather playful here. The “Calypso” episode introduces Bloom thusly:

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)

“It’s for an invalid”

From the “Wandering Rocks” episode. Blazes Boylan is supervising the preparation of a gift basket to be delivered to Molly Bloom, whom he will visit that afternoon.

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

A few notes:

~ Thornton’s: fruiterer and florist, “a very fashionable shop” (Don Gifford, Ulysses Annotated).

~ “Fat pears,” “ripe shamefaced peaches”: Boylan would have no trouble understanding the language of emoji. In the “Ithaca” espiode we find a description of the remains of this gift: “an oval wicker basket bedded with fibre and containing one Jersey pear, a halfempty bottle of William Gilbey and Co’s white invalid port, half disrobed of its swathe of coralpink tissue paper.”

~ What’s in the jar? Apparently it’s Plumtree’s Potted Meat, flakes of which are found in the Blooms’ bed.

~ The OCA reader will have seen H.E.L.Y’s in a passage from “Lestrygonians.”

~ The “darkbacked figure”: Leopold Bloom.

~ “Invalid port”: a fortified wine. “Es un excelente reconstituyente,” says a webpage I found somewhere. Molly is of course not an invalid.

We last see Boylan in his small section of this episode with a red carnation between his smiling teeth. He takes it from a stem glass and asks the shopgirl if it’s for him.

Related reading
All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)