|
|
Post by mikef6 on Jul 30, 2017 3:49:23 GMT
The Thief / Russell Rouse. The pluses in this nifty, suspenseful noir are often overlooked in the discussion of the film’s gimmick. There is no dialog. Nobody talks. You play a kind of game in your head while you’re watching. How can they avoid talking in THIS situation? The movie even opens on a close-up of a ringing telephone. How will someone answer that and not say, “Hello”? The story, itself, is a good one. Ray Milland is a physicist who is selling off America’s nuclear secrets. We don’t learn whether he is doing it for ideology or money, but it is probably the latter because at one point he takes an international prize he had won off his wall and smashes it in remorse. Not the actions of a spy doing the job for love. Eventually, the FBI narrows down their search for the leak to the science facility where Milland works, so he has to go on the run. Martin Gabel, who I had only known as a game show panelist and husband of Arlene Francis back in the early ‘60s, is very good as Milland’s sinister Control. The centerpiece is a climactic chase with Milland pursued by an FBI agent from the observation deck of the Empire State Building, up via a maintenance staircase, to the highest reaches of the iconic building. Some, if not all, of this sequence was filmed on location at the Empire State. I can’t vouch for the internal staircase shots, but if they are studio sets, the producers sure took care to make them appear authentic. In some ways, an interesting curiosity; in other ways, a well-made and often suspenseful noir. I liked it.
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jul 30, 2017 3:55:36 GMT
Russel Rouse directed the thunderous 'The Fastest Gun Alive' (1956) starring Glenn Ford & Jeanne Crain.
|
|
|
|
Post by Richard Kimble on Jul 30, 2017 5:28:18 GMT
I saw as a teenager (early '80s or so) and came up with the all time world's greatest ending: Milland is about to get in the car, but turns to the FBI agents and says, "I've decided to talk".
So brilliant!!! Why didn't they use it???
|
|
|
|
Post by london777 on Jul 30, 2017 14:27:22 GMT
The Thief / Russell Rouse. The pluses in this nifty, suspenseful noir are often overlooked in the discussion of the film’s gimmick. There is no dialog. Nobody talks. You play a kind of game in your head while you’re watching. How can they avoid talking in THIS situation? The movie even opens on a close-up of a ringing telephone. How will someone answer that and not say, “Hello”? The story, itself, is a good one. Ray Milland is a physicist who is selling off America’s nuclear secrets. We don’t learn whether he is doing it for ideology or money, but it is probably the latter because at one point he takes an international prize he had won off his wall and smashes it in remorse. Not the actions of a spy doing the job for love. Eventually, the FBI narrows down their search for the leak to the science facility where Milland works, so he has to go on the run. Martin Gabel, who I had only known as a game show panelist and husband of Arlene Francis back in the early ‘60s, is very good as Milland’s sinister Control. The centerpiece is a climactic chase with Milland pursued by an FBI agent from the observation deck of the Empire State Building, up via a maintenance staircase, to the highest reaches of the iconic building. Some, if not all, of this sequence was filmed on location at the Empire State. I can’t vouch for the internal staircase shots, but if they are studio sets, the producers sure took care to make them appear authentic. In some ways, an interesting curiosity; in other ways, a well-made and often suspenseful noir. I liked it. I saw it when it first appeared. I was bored but I was only 12 so I might like it now. All I can remember is a sweaty half-naked Rita Gam in the middle-distance. (Was she in her room with the door left open?). The fact that only that remains in my memory must be evidence of pubescent stirrings. |
|
