Last Chance...Film Noir HoF V

This one is a lock for my noir countdown ballot. A pity more people don't know about this one, at least I don't hear it mentioned. I suspect it's the title that turns them off as it sounds like a romance drama, it's not! It's one of the best written, best constructed film scripts I've seen. It's two parallel stories with Van Heflin being the connecting element. The characters are given plenty of backstory and pathos to bring them and their actions to life. And the acting is top notch. If you've only seen Van Heflin in Act of Violence where he plays a meek man on the run then you need to watch this as here Heflin is playing the type of roll he's known for. Heflin is the rogue outsider who drifts into town and causes events to happen. He's good, real good so is Stanwyck who is controlling and rich. But it was Lizabeth Scott who utterly impressed me. This was her second movie and her first major role. It's clear to me she was taping into real emotions as she comes across very compelling, very real as a troubled woman with no place to go. Likewise I'm impressed with Kirk Douglas' first movie role. He's not the tough guy here. He's a weak willed DA who's married to Martha Ivers and controlled by her. They both have a secret that binds them together and sets events in motion that in true noir fashion ends in tragedy for some.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

This is a lollapalooza of a noir based on Mickey Spillane’s 1952 novel of the same name featuring a two-fisted Mike Hammer. Directed by Robert Aldrich, and photographed by the noir veteran Ernest Laszlo, screen writer A.I. Bezzerides changed the basis of the novel from an organized crime story to an espionage thriller featuring a mysterious valuable box. Spillane was not happy about the screenplay.

The picture opens with a thrilling scene. As Hammer drives along a highway a woman named Christina, clad only in a trench coat, runs into the car’s path, causing Hammer to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting her. He invites her into his car. She is escaping from a mental hospital having been held against her will, and implores to him that whatever happens, to “remember me”. Presently some gangsters overtake Hammer’s car, drag the woman out, and trying to force information out of her, she is killed. The scene sets up the whole story, and is played beautifully by Cloris Leachman in her first screen role. They subsequently knock out Hammer, and along with the woman’s body, and push the two of them over a cliff in Hammer’s car.

Days later Hammer wakes up in the hospital with his assistant/lover Velda standing over him. Hammer is intrigued about the incident and decides to find out what mystery Christina held, that it’s “something big”. He first seeks out Christina’s roommate Gabrielle, and finds out that she is somehow in league with a group of people who are all involved in seeking out the valuable box. As Mike proceeds to investigate he comes into contact with a dizzying array of con men, gangsters and thieves. It all comes to head at a lavish beach house where the content of the box is revealed, and provides one of the most memorable of noir endings.

The movie is filled with indelible participants played by great character actors such as Jack Elam, Jack Lambert, Paul Stewart, Strother Martin, and Albert Dekker. Ralph Meeker’s Mike Hammer is written as more of a sleaze than Spillane characterizes him in the novels, although he still has a violent streak. The picture was a landmark film which influenced everyone from Francois Truffaut to Quentin Tarantino.

Va va voom! Pow! Wow! It's not hard to speak in mechanic Nick's (Nick Dennis) vernacular when talking about Kiss Me Deadly - one hell of a gritty, dark, nasty film noir masterpiece directed by Robert Aldrich and twisted into shape using Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novel. It's a surprise that films like this could exist at all in 1950s America - not that it wasn't considered as a "number one menace to American youth" from some quarters. I reckon some of it might have flown directly over the heads of most kids - it takes a lot of innuendo, suggestion and playful filmmaking to get this much sex and violence past the Production Code Office. But make no mistake - this film is violence, sex and death without let-up for over 100 minutes. Even before the opening credits start to roll a mostly-naked young woman stops Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker), driving a 1951 Jaguar XK120 roadster, and uses her allure to desperately entice him into giving her a lift.

The woman is Christina Bailey (Cloris Leachman) - and on the run from dangerous people. Before Mike can even get her from point A to point B their car is stopped and the two are abducted, with Christina tortured and murdered before an unconscious Mike is tipped over a cliff and left to die. Luckily he doesn't, but from that moment on he's trying to link up anyone connected with Christina to find out what was valuable enough to necessitate such treatment. With the help of his co-worker and lover Velda Wakeman (Maxine Cooper) he uncovers a list of names which either feature people that have since been murdered, or those doing the killing - all after a "whatsit", the location of which has been cryptically hinted at by Christina's exhortation to Mike : "Remember me..." If Mike does end up finding what has been causing all of this fuss, he might very well wish that he'd left well enough alone...

Talk about anti-heroes. Mike Hammer is a private investigator, but his work ethic sure is interesting. He entices wives to cheat on husbands, and uses Velda to entice the husbands - playing each side against the other with him the ultimate winner finance-wise. The cops yuck it up when questioning him - but this is a seriously twisted person to be a protagonist. When on the hunt for the "whatsit" at the center of this story, he breaks valuables, uses violence, seduces, pays off, and does whatever is necessary to get him the information he needs. A cornoner has his hand crushed. A storage proprieter feels the wrath of his fists. An opera singer sees his valuable record smashed. All because Mike can smell a big pay-off when he gets his hands on whatever it is everyone is killing and dying for. In the meantime allies are killed and kidnapped as consequences of his obsessive quest.

Kiss Me Deadly does everything noir with accomplished confidence and style - but always with an added bad attitude. Famed cinematographer Ernest Laszlo deliniates shadows sharply, and goes to town with them in nearly every scene - as expected. Frank De Vol's music pounds with dramatic flair. The opening credits are accompanied by the sexualized gasping of Christina Bailey, and scroll from bottom to top as if the film were being purposely defiant. There's something sleazy about the feel of it, and before long we're hearing Christina's cries of pain as she's tortured, naked, upon a table as an unconscious Hammer lolls in the foreground. Sound is being used as a substitute for visuals because Aldrich and co appear to have realised that the Production Code doesn't really come down as hard on what we can hear as long as we can't see it.

In it's conclusion this film is as nasty as it's been throughout - everything burns - but overall there's a wonderfully subverse quality that goes against the grain of Mickey Spillane's trashy writing at the time. The violent vigilante at the center of all of this is in no way justified, excused or redeemed. His greed and overconfidence instead perverts the course of justice, and the power at the center of the story is unleashed in it's horrifying fury. In Samuel Fuller's 1953 Cold War spy film noir film Pickup on South Street the crimes of the anti-hero are excused and condoned in the name of fighting communism. In Kiss Me Deadly Spillane's anti-communist Hammer has been transformed by having more selfish motives - lest the hysteria of the time make all of the horror seemingly in order. None of it is - the violence and criminal activity reeks, just as it should do.

Watching all of the bad activity in this - it's so much fun. Every edge is razor sharp, and every comment dripping with nasty innuendo, threat, lust and a hardness only the most corrupt can summon from their minds. The power everyone fights for is almost as extreme as that the Ark of the Covenant has in Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is what it reminds me of when finally found - explaining why people are fighting and dying for it. A timely reminder that this was the beginning of the atomic age. We side with the anti-hero for the simple reason that we want to see it already - sharing in that grim kind of curiosity. Kiss Me Deadly is bad - in the Michael Jackson use of the terminology. So bad. As bad as the end result of the power at the film's center finally unleashed. As bad as the reasons for wanting to harness that power and own it - to steal it by any means necessary. Nothing good could ever come from that, and what better lesson could be taught to American youth?

__________________

The Breaking Point

To expand on what I wrote when I added this to my log, I didn't really feel like this was very noirish. That sense of darkness seemed largely like a standard drama rather than the special dark quality that noir's known for. Maybe this is because most of the movie deals with the boat's situation rather than the actual crime orientation. Now this isn't to say there weren't strengths in the drama. The characters were used very well. While the acting itself was rarely ever great and never perfect, the charisma between the various characters was stronger than everyone's acting qualities. Their reactions to each other bounced between them so well that the plot couldn't help but progress with a strong presence. But there's not a lot of darkness or drama that comes from this simple illegal transport drama, so it could've used a little more oomph in both the plot and the atmosphere. So it's a good movie for what it's worth,. but not powerful enough to stand with the Olympians.

Starting The Night of the Hunter. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve seen it so it’ll be a nice refresher.

There are many great journalists populating the world of Ace in the Hole, proving that it's not a hatchet job on the profession as a whole, but more of a character study on Kirk Douglas character Charles "Chuck" Tatum - a tinsel-toothed shyster ready to show the world how the game works, and how he's the best at what he does. We've all come across the type - overconfidence, all-too-easy grin and always something to prove. Likeable enough at first, I was ready to go either way with what Billy Wilder and co had in store for me. Tatum had been shown the door from one newspaper after another for various reasons - his temper, his alcoholism or his readiness to sleep with the wrong lady. He has great spirit though, and for all we know this might be his redemption story. It's not though. This is Chuck Tatum's fall. This is Chuck Tatum pushing all of the seedy, amoral and unethical levers in conjunction with manic glee when he finds what he thinks is his big break.

His big break isn't the fact that the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin will give him a chance. This small newspaper is only a small stepping stone on Tatum's climb back to the top. Tatum's big break is running across Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) - a man trapped deep down in a cave which has a roof threatening to fall on him. His legs pinned, Minosa can't get out, and Tatum has known about stories of this type that have grown out of all proportion and captured the entire nation's imagination. Soon the newspaper man is coordinating the influx of engineers and rescue workers - along with scooping corrupt Sheriff Gus Kretzer (Ray Teal) into his pocket. Before long he's promised young partner Herbie Cook (Robert Arthur) a sterling career, and Leo's unsatisfied wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) instant cash and a ticket to freedom. All he has to do is keep the trusting Leo trapped down there long enough for a circus atmosphere to prosper - and soon enough the carnival is in town.

Yeah, before our very eyes Chuck Tatum turns into one of the slimiest snakes we've seen in motion pictures. Instead of rescuing Leo the proper way (shoring up the cave and blasting him out) - Tatum gets Sharriff Kretzer to make sure it'll be the long route. That's a 6-day drilling operation, with poor Leo trapped the entire time in the filthy, cold, loneliness that's his prison. He then monopolizes the rights to the story, and teaches the Minosas how to profit as much as they can from the situation. We've reached the character of Tatum at a time in his life where he has to push any break he thinks he's getting to the absolute limit, and use all of the dirty tricks he's learned over the years. It reminds me a little of what getting to know Richard Nixon would have been like during his presidential era. People who think they've learned how the whole filthy system works, and are all-in. People who think that it's their turn, and hell, they'll step on whomever they have to because they figure that they've been stepped on all their lives.

So, overall, I think Ace in the Hole is a good study of that kind of character. It didn't need to be journalism - this could have been about politics, the law, or management in a corporation. Sure, there is that kind of gutter journalism that panders to rubber neckers and morbid curiosity - with extra dashes of manipulation - but for the most I think journalism is a good profession. Most of what I read I trust, and you won't find me reading anything from sources I find to be untrustworthy (there goes the entire internet.) I think Wilder and his writers were more interested in the character himself - a control freak, know-it-all, with a great big helping of malignant narcissism. Chuck Tatum reminded me of someone with bipolar. Riding a rocket to the moon until it invariably breaks, whereupon they come crashing to earth taking out anyone they just happened to drag along for the ride.

Ace in the Hole was Oscar-nominated for it's screenplay - overlooking what I thought was a really good performance from Jan Sterling as the fed up Lorraine Minosa. It's all put together in a decent enough way - not at all what I'd expect from a film noir except for the film's very dark final act - which is when all of the shadows lengthen and it not only feels noirish, but looks and sounds the same way. One thing I never get with Billy Wilder films is the whole 'humour' angle, which here again misses the mark for me. On Wikipedia this is described as a 'comedy-drama', but even with the occasional lighter moment, I'd never describe this movie as a comedy. To me it's pretty far from it, even if some of the grotesquery is meant to be funny. Kirk Douglas might have had some of the manic energy as part of who he really was, so his hyper-active performance has a certain natural ring of authenticity.

I liked the film a fair bit, as I share Wilder's disdain for shyster characters - and I think the critics got it all wrong when they perceived the film as a slight on American journalism. More confronting from an American perspective is the tendency to turn big events like this into complete carnivals - and Wilder hits hard on that front as well, bringing a literal carnival to town with joy-rides, snacks, music and celebration while Leo Minosa suffers. It's a natural progression from a "how can we make money out of this?" mindset which comes naturally to a people who embrace capitalism almost as a religion - without any moral restraints at all. That's where Ace in the Hole really stings, and in 1951 is would have seemed inconceivable to question the viability of this system. So much so I think many critics overlooked that, and focused on the journalist thrust which narrative-wise delivers the blade. We never get to hear much of Tatum's journalism, but we hear plenty about his various ways to make a buck from Leo's misfortune, of which the story is but one overriding method.

Sweet Smell of Success...this is my kind of movie, with its greedy manipulation of people in a high power stakes game played by unscrupulous newspaper columnist & publicity agents. It's a fascinating world.

The film's razor sharp dialogue is a trademark of screenwriter Clifford Ordets. The words are poetically aimed like daggers at the unfortunate recipient. In Sweet Smell of Success words are weapons...One well placed remark, one turn of the screw and someone is elevated to high places...or burnt to the ground.

One of the star 'characters' is NYC, with it's crowded night spots in Times Square, the bustling sidewalks of 42nd street and all those famous night clubs with such vitality and movement.

The cinematography of legendary James Wong Howe is critical to the film...So many movies use tight shots of the actors, as it's economical to shoot with a telephoto lens. But bless James Wong Howe! He uses mid to wide angle lens out on the actual streets of NYC and in that way he captures a realistic feel of night life and raw power that flows from the streets into the veins of men like Sidney Falco and J.J. Hunsecker.

J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) was patterned after real life newspaper columnist Walter Winchell, a man reportedly as notorious as the fictional Hunsecker.
Walter Winchell was so obsessive about his daughter's love life that he had her institutionalized as being emotionally unstable, and with the help of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had forced her lover to leave the country.

Tony Curtis known for comic-romantic roles, played against type by playing the slimy press agent Sidney Falco. For me this is Curtis' film...He infuses his character with just enough charm with that 'ice cream face' of his, that just maybe one day he'll wise up and stop allowing his all consuming greed to drag him down to the gutter...Then again this is noir, sophisticated but a noir none the less...and like any good noir the 'heavy' might have a touch of humanity residing in him somewhere, but not enough to save him from himself.

It's probably no surprise to anyone that I liked this. After all it is my #1 top 10 profile movie.

The Breaking Point (1950)

The chief recommendation for this over-wrought melodramatic crime picture is Patricia Neal’s alluring and sexy performance of Leona Charles, a free spirited vamp who tries to seduce John Garfield’s character, Harry Morgan. She commands the viewer’s attention whenever she appears on screen. Otherwise this noir themed tale of a man who, in order to save his charter boat, but against his better judgment, signs on to an escape plot for several heist gangsters, which inexorably leads to a bad outcome.

Phyllis Thaxter turns in a reliable performance as Harry’s wife, Lucy. And Wallace Ford is his sleazy shady best as F.R. Duncan, who continually tempts Harry into illicit money making schemes. The veteran Juano Hernandez does a reliable job as Wesley Park, Harry’s boat assistant and conscience.

The prolific Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) directed on a screen play by Ranald MacDougall (Mildred Pierce). The cinematography by Ted D. McCord (Johnny Belinda) was competent and realistic, but not in the least noirish.

This was the second screen adaptation of Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, and although it was reported to be more faithful to the novel, this version was not quite as absorbing as the 1944 looser adaptation with Bogart and Bacall.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Night of the Hunter is really a fantasy horror film. It’s noir element is chiefly due to the studied chiaroscuro photography of Stanely Cortez (The Magnificent Ambersons). Considered to be more of an art film when released, it had a poor reception but has steadily grown in stature in the years since.

Robert Mitchum plays Harry Powell, a murderer and self-proclaimed preacher who becomes the cell mate of a man named Ben Harper (Peter Graves) who had killed two bank guards and had stolen a large sum of money which he subsequently hid in a place that only his two children knew about. Powell cannot wheedle the hiding place before Harper is executed. Upon his release Powell seeks out Harper’s widow (Shelley Winters), hoping he can find the stolen loot. He deceives the townspeople with his flase piety, and subsequently marries the widow. When he finds out that the widow does not know the location of the loot, but that the children do, he promptly kills the widow, and threatens the children who escape and hide down river under the protection of Rachel Cooper (Lilian Gish), an elderly widow who looks after stray children. Powell tracks them down but is foiled by Cooper.

The film was directed by Charles Laughton in his singular instance as a director in film, although he was an experienced stage director. The novel of the same name was by Davis Grub, and Laughton and Grub worked closely together to develop the style of the story, although a lengthy screenplay by James Agee was eventually used in portion. The art direction by Hilyard Brown focused on providing abstract and sparse sets, giving the picture an almost dream-like fantasy look which fomented an other-worldly feel in many of the scenes.

Most studios as well as most actors would not have backed a film of this type in the mid 1950s, but United Artists had come to be known as a studio that would give their producers and directors free reign. And in fact the picture has attained classic status, and appears on many best picture lists.

Damn. I forgot to write my review from the other night. I’ll have it up tonight after work

You can write it in your head while you're at work I do that sometimes.

The Night of the Hunter

“Children….oh children….”


Perhaps Robert Mitchum’s most iconic role, the villainous Father Powell is a viscous serial killer who hates women, and what they represent. He believes he is doing the lords work, which makes him more frightening. He goes from town to town killing, a false prophet. When he hears about a widow who has moneys at she’s away from her dead husbands bank robbery, he strikes out to seduce her…not with sex, but with kindness, and promises to take care of her and her children. The children are the key here, because only they know of the money and where it is hidden. She isn’t aware of his intentions until after they have been married. By then, it’s too late. She’s been broken down by his mental cruelty.

Mitchum switches effortlessly between charming and sinister in the blink of an eye, and is the kind of role he should have been awarded for. His tattoos on his knuckles (live on his right, hate in his left) has become synonymous with evil and has been parodied many times from the Simpsons to Seinfeld. I tho k I remember seeing it on De Niro in the Cape Fear remake? Need to verify.

The film itself is pretty good, but falls short of being a classic for me. While the cinematography is excellent, I’m a sucker for fog effects and goodness does the town seem to be covered in fog on a nightly basis, but the ending feels rushed and almost like a different movie. I’m talking about the last 10 minutes.

Decent pick, regardless. Good to revisit this after about 7 years or so?

Night of the Hunter

Laughton 1955


I thought that this movie has held up well for a mid-fifties film. My main praise centers on Harry Powell (Mitchum's character). I thought the film maintained a large degree of suspense throughout the movie, and a lot of this was due to how Mitchum played his character. It did not rely on hokey story lines or over the top violence to maintain its suspense. This is one of my favorite noirs so far.

Ace in the Hole Billy Wilder 1951

I thought this movie had a timely message for its audience of today. When news becomes "entertainment" there are real consequences for Leo Minosa and for us as we enter an echo chamber and loose all proper perspective on the events of our time. Sorry for the two short reviews.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

I’ve wondered if Paramount hadn’t taken a bit of a risk with this title, since it makes it sound like a melodramatic love story. The fact is that the picture is one of the best examples of classic down and dirty noir. The film is epic in nature, the tale beginning in 1928, and concluding in 1946. It stars Van Heflin, Barbara Stanwyck, Lizbeth Scott (in her second film role),Judith Anderson, and Kirk Douglas (in his first). Directed by Lewis Milestone (Casablanca), and photographed by the veteran Victor Milner (The Lady Eve).

Martha Ivers (Janis Wilson, Stanwyck as an adult) is the niece of a wealthy industrialist (Anderson) who has been Martha’s guardian since the demise of her father, a man named Smith. She hates her cold domineering aunt, and tries to run away with a young rogue friend Sam Masterson (Daryl Hickman, Heflin as an adult). The aunt has her captured and brought back telling her that she’ll never be able to escape. Another boy, Walter O’Neil, Jr. (Mickey Kuhn, Douglas as an adult), the son of her tutor, Walter O’Neil, Sr. (Roman Bohnen), is responsible for ratting out Martha’s escape.

Soon Martha attempts another escape with Sam, but Mrs. Ivers overhears them upstairs. During Mrs. Ivers’ walk up the stairway she stumbles upon the pet cat, and starts to beat the cat with her cane. Martha and Walter Jr. appear, whereupon Martha grabs the cane and strikes Mrs. Ivers, who tumbles down the stairs to hear death. Walter Sr. appears but agrees to testify that Mrs. Ivers’ death was an accident as long as he and his son can benefit.

Years later Sam happens by the town on a trip, where he learns that Martha is now the wealthy industrialist, and that she has married Walter Jr. --who has become the town’s district attorney-- in a pact to keep Martha’s involvement in the Ivers death a secret. Sam visits his old home which is now a boarding house, where he meets a girl who is on probation, Toni Marachek (Scott). Sam soon approaches Walter to see if he’ll rectify Toni’s legal problem, but Walter wrongly suspects Sam is blackmailing him.

What follows are several twists and entanglements which lead to a classic memorable noir ending.

The picture was a huge success, and along with Double Indemnity two year prior, it cemented Stanwyck as one of the best femme fatales in film history. In fact she was never again to do a comedy. It was Heflin’s role in this film that made me realize what a great actor he was. Like Stanwyck, he was completely at home in any type of film. In addition this is the picture that put Kirk Douglas on the map. One can recognize the kernels of depth that he exhibited in his many subsequent films. And Lizabeth Scott was absolutely smoldering in her portrayal of a blithe probationer who gets her man.

The success of Robert Rossen’s complex screenplay insured his future succcess as a director in such memorable films as All the King’s Men (1949) and The Hustler (1961).

Bad title, good movie....What were they thinking of? Was this the first time you seen it?

There's a real scrape in The Breaking Point that has protagonist Harry Morgan (John Garfield) hang on to his livelihood, home, family and peace of mind by the barest free edges of his fingernails - constantly juggling to keep going another day, or even another few hours. This film noir classic has it's dingy, shadowy focus on a working man. A fishing boat captain who takes sporting fishers out for a certain amount of money, and barely makes a cent after paying the various fees, fines and costs that keep his business operating. Ernest Hemingway's novel, "To Have and Have Not", had kind of been adapted to the screen in the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall 1944 film of the same name, directed by Howard Hawks - but that film differed wildly from the novel. That's the reason why this film came along after so little time - the story in the novel was really being told for the first time here. It's a really dark, rough and rugged film that throws little counter-balance out apart from the loving exchanges Harry has with wife Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter) and his kids.

Harry starts the film having to spend most of the advance money he gets on either fuel for his boat, or food for the family, and that's before his next customer stiffs him - meaning he lacks the cash to exit the port he's in. Shady lawyer F.R. Duncan (Wallace Ford) can offer one possible solution - transporting illegal immigrants into the United States for money. Something that could land Harry in jail for years. In the meantime, he's also tempted by seductress Leona Charles (Patricia Neal) - during which he proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the love he has for his family, his wife and his sense of self-pride and determination. Harry ends up trying to smuggle the Chinese immigrants in from Mexico, but the whole operation turns into a disaster and in the end brings down more heat from the authorities, who impound Harry's boat for a search and investigation. One more criminal enterprise could put Harry well ahead still - but results in tragedy for his partner Wesley Park (Juano Hernández) and might take Harry well beyond the breaking point.

I enjoy the incredible fun cinematographers have playing with shadow and darkness in film noir, but I don't think I've seen darkness used to such a strong effect as it is here. Director of photography Ted D. McCord (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Young Man With a Horn, East of Eden and The Sound of Music) drowns his characters in inky black nothingness, and has them fight blizzards of sharply delineated dark lines, crevasses of space where no light can enter and many phases of muted grey mystery. Often you'll just see a silhouette, and often when a character enters a shady joint the lights are down unbelievably low - as if patrons don't want to see what they're drinking. Harry's costume is dark, meaning at night we often can only see his face clearly. There are plenty of scenes outside during the day to provide much needed contrast and balance throughout the film. I enjoyed the noir cinematography of McCord, and the way he keeps us feeling claustrophobic on those boat trips, ironically out in a great expanse of water.

The other most notable aspect of the film aside from the story and cinematography is the performance of John Garfield, who is especially strong here - doing what he considered some of the best acting of his entire career. Garfield would come under pressure from various fronts not long after featuring in The Breaking Point - family-wise, he'd lost a daughter five years previously and was at the time constantly cheating on his wife Roberta Seidman. It was the investigation by the FBI however, after his testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, that would provide the most stress. Only two years after hitting a high point here, he found himself blacklisted and unable to get film work. Unable to sleep and constantly exerting himself, with his career in doubt and investigations ongoing, Garfield died of a heart attack on May 21, 1952. He was only 39-years-old. Here he shows what kind of promise the rest of his career showed in his second-last screen performance.

I found The Breaking Point a very heavy, moving experience. I mean, the final scene and the way those final shots play out - with Wesley Park's son on the wharf looking for his father - are so solemn and bleak. The whole struggle-street saga is familiar enough, and it's a scene I don't have the fortitude to fight my way through. Lucy is always begging Harry to start a new career, but his determination and grit will see the man fight to the bitter end. There's a requisite cynicism to film noir that demands the ending we get - but it's tempered and not the worst of all endings possible. In the meantime the constant blows are felt by an audience totally on Harry's side, and pulling for him. Of course criminal enterprises are going to go wrong. When you deal with crooks you can't expect to be dealt with in a fair and square manner. Harry has a great head on his shoulders in a crisis though, and a lesser man would have ended up in a worse position. That's not saying, however, that his decisions were the right ones.

So, overall, even though The Breaking Point didn't win any awards, it's reputation today is stellar, and there are plenty of people who give it the highest praise. Before now, I'd never heard of it and can't say I'm familiar with many of the actors who appear in it (Patricia Neal we'd see in The Day the Earth Stood Still and Hud later in her career.) It reminded me just a little of Thieves Highway, and I can't help wonder if it's bitter tone regarding capitalism had anything to do with the left-leaning Garfield signing on to play the lead. The scenes featuring danger and action were some of the most thrilling, tense and gripping I've ever seen in a noir film - real edge-of-your-seat stuff and actually the greatest thing about the film while I'm in 'watching it' mode. Really, really exciting stuff, and props to editor Alan Crosland Jr. and Curtiz for crafting those moments that make this noir thriller go off with a bang. The breaking point indeed. We're often just a moment away, giving us those treasured movie moments where nothing else in the world exists.

No, I've seen it a couple of times long ago. But I did watch it again on Friday afternoon. Very strong noir.