What classics did you see last week ? (2 Feb - 8 Feb 2020)

I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang / Mervyn LeRoy (1932). Warner Bros. Cinematography by Sol Polito (The Adventures Of Robin Hood, Arsenic And Old Lace). Social realism from Warner Bros. James Allen (Paul Muni) has just returned from WWI where he worked in engineering and learned to build bridges. His family expects him to go back into the clerical job he had in a shoe factory before the war but he rebels and goes on the road looking for work he likes. He is a failure at this and ends up poverty stricken and homeless in the deep south. When another tramp tries to hold up a diner. Allen is swept up by the cops and before he knows it, he has a nine year sentence of hard labor at a brutal prison camp. Warner studio, like other film companies, was hurting during first few years of the depression. They lost a lot of money in 1932 but “I Am A Fugitive…” was one of their few releases that made a profit even though it pictures almost unrelieved misery. Also, because of the public outcry after the film had been seen, the state of Georgia actually instituted some reforms in their chain gang system. The stunning final scene, shot, and line are the stuff of film history.





Paul Muni makes his escape in a 1920s White Motor Company truck


Bullets Or Ballots / William Keighley (1936). Warner Bros. Cinematography by Hal Mohr. Edward G. Robinson stars as police detective Johnny Blake who, when a new city reform government takes control, is ousted from the department. Luckily, he has had a friendly relationship with Al Kruger (Barton MacLane) who, although in the rackets, is more of the business man gangster model than the brutal type although his right hand man, ‘Bugs’ Farrell (Humphrey Bogart), is old-school volatile and violent. Blake and Kruger have a mutual respect society going on, even though on opposite sides of the law, so, when Blake needs a job, he is offered one by Kruger over the loud objections of Farrell. Blake takes him up on it. Has Johnny really turned to dark side? Tune in to find out. This is another fast moving gritty crime drama with very little fat on it, directed and edited at about 90mph, as was typical with Warner studio at the time. Joan Blondell is in there as a former flame of Johnny’s who still has the feels for him and Frank McHugh is around for some comic relief but his scenes are thankfully brief.






Deadline At Dawn / Harold Clurman (1946). RKO Radio Pictures. Cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. We have here my latest you-never-heard-of-it-but-must-see-it recommended film. It has some real theatrical heavy hitters involved. It is the only film directed by Harold Clurman, one of the co-founders of the Group Theatre in the 1930s, drama critic, Broadway director, and acting teacher. One of the most influential stage directors of his time. The script is by Group Theatre playwright Clifford Odets (“Waiting for Lefty”) who is cited as the first playwright to write particularly for “Method” acting. Throw in veteran noir lensman Nicholas Musuraca and you have the complete recipe for a good film noir trip. A sailor (Bill Williams) from the sticks who is in New York City on leave finds himself in the apartment with a loose woman who throws herself at him. He drinks too much and has an hour long blackout. Returning to the apartment he finds her dead, strangled. He is not sure if he is or is not the murderer. He gets help from two unlikely people. June Goffe (Susan Hayward), a young but cynical dime-a-dance “hostess” and a foreign born cab driver, Gus (Paul Lukas). It is about 2am when they begin their investigation, leaving them four hours before the Sailor has to catch a bus back to Virginia – or turn himself in to the police. Suspects abound. First there is the dead woman’s blind husband (Marvin Miller), her gangster brother (one of my favorite noir era actors, Joseph Calleia), a blackmailed Broadway producer (Jerome Cowen), and a mysterious woman seen leaving the apartment (Osa Massen). Susan Hayward is very effective as the seen-it-all dance hall girl who is also from a small town who starts to regain her values after meeting the Sailor. After this film and last week’s “The Lost Moment” my respect for Hayward has grown immensely.



Susan Hayward, Paul Lukas, Bill Williams



Repeat Performance / Alfred L. Werker (1947). Eagle-Lion Films. Cinematography by L. William O'Connell. Film noir meets fantasy in this successful “what if” story. It is News Year’s Eve ushering in 1947 and Sheila Page (Joan Leslie) is shooting her husband, Barney (Louis Hayward) to death. Fleeing to show business friends at a party, she reveals what she has done to the sensitive poet William Williams (Richard Basehart in his movie debut). He suggests they visit Broadway producer John Friday (Tom Conway) who, they think, can advise them. Going up the stairs to Friday’s apartment, Sheila wishes she could live the previous year over again. She turns to find that William has disappeared. When she gets to Friday’s home she finds he is getting ready to go out to a New Year’s party to celebrate 1946! She is getting her wish. But she finds that free will and a person’s destiny are sometimes in conflict and she may not be able to avoid the final tragedy. A very interesting mash-up of styles and stories with good acting and writing. A most watchable film that, for all intents and purposes, had been ‘lost’ until restored with funding from the Film Noir Foundation.



Joan Leslie




Motherless Brooklyn / Edward Norton (2019). When late 1950s detective agency head Frank Minna (Bruce Willis) is murdered by his own clients, his agents (all of whom he rescued from a orphanage and raised) vow to find his killers. The least likeliest of the bunch to succeed is Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton) who struggles with what would later be named as Tourette Syndrome. He is plagued with twitches, tics, and verbal exclamations (“IF!”) that he is helpless to control yet forges ahead with an investigation that pits him against a huge political and criminal organization. This is based loosely on a real-life former NYC city planner Robert Moses (his character, played marvelously by Alec Baldwin, is named Moses Randolph) who, though unelected, managed to clear away many lower income neighborhoods (labeled “slums”), displacing hundreds of thousands of poor families, largely Latino and African-American while making himself rich with ties to the contractors who did the leveling and rebuilding. Also featuring Willem Dafoe as a destitute wild man who has a lot of insider information on Randolph, rising star Gugu Mbatha-Raw as an anti-slum clearance advocate, and the always excellent Bobby Cannavale as the most alpha of Minna’s men. The general plot of corruption in high places and a few scenes reference “Chinatown,” that I believe to be a deliberate homage. Edward Norton wrote, directed, and stars in this film. I haven’t seen all that many movies dated 2019 by the database, but of the ones I have seen, this is the only one I think worthy of being on a Best Of The Year List.