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The Amazing Mr. X (1948) The Spook Trade Noir This film, aka The Spiritualist was directed by Bernard Vorhaus (Bury Me Dead (1947)) he was active in the UK during the 1930s. He was later blacklisted in Hollywood. Original story written by Crane Wilbur, with Muriel Roy Bolton, and Ian McLellan Hunter combining on the screenplay. The none other than excellent cinematography was by the great John Alton. The music was by Alexander Laszlo and that also includes two Frédéric Chopin pieces Prelude for Piano, Op. 28 Nr. 4 in E minor & Nocturne for Piano, Op. 9, no. 1, in B-flat minor The film stars Turhan Bey as Alexis the psychic consultant, Lynn Bari (Nocturne (1946)) as Christine Faber a wealthy recently widowed woman, Cathy O'Donnell (Bury Me Dead (1947), They Live by Night (1948), Side Street (1950), Detective Story(1951)) as her younger unmarried sister Janet Burke, Richard Carlson (Behind Locked Doors(1948), The Sound of Fury (1950), segueing into SiFi/ monster movies and TV The Magnetic Monster (1953), It Came from Outer Space (1953) Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)) as Martin Abbott, with Donald Curtis and Virginia Gregg rounding out a pretty small cast. Our story begins in a seaside mansion on a cliff above the Pacific. It's two years after Christine's husband Paul was incinerated in a fiery auto crackup along the Pacific Coast Highway. Christine finally is over mourning for Paul. She is convinced, by her younger sister Janet, to go out on a date with the persistent next door neighbor. He's equally wealthy, a lawyer, his name is Martin Abbott. He's in love with Christine and wants to propose. The date is for a show and later dinner at the Blue Angel. Martin calls in to Christine and tells her that he has been running late, a last minute client has caused the delay and he just arrived at his house. He offers to drive over as soon as he changes. Christine, in turn, suggests that she can walk over along the beach and meet him. Christine and Janet (Cathie O'Donnell) Martin (Richard Carlson) On the moonlit beach walk, below the cliffs, Christine thinks she hears Paul's voice hauntingly calling to her above the turbulent breakers and the rushing sea foam. She becomes a bit rattled, then more so after the wind swept hem of her dress, suddenly catches on a protruding nail sticking up from the bow of a beached dory. She unhooks herself from it's grasp, and runs to the base of the path that climbs to Martin's house. This whole beach and seaside cliffs sequence is gorgeously filmed quite noirs-ish-ly by Alton. Near the start of the path to Martin's house, she is startled by the squawking of a pet raven sitting on a branch of driftwood. Turning and running again she accidentally bumps into a man smoking a pipe. It is a very suave and mysterious gentleman. Alexis (Turhan Bey) The man is Alexis, and he immediately goes into his professional spiritualist spiel. He tells her just enough about her whole recent situation, regarding Paul's death, in a very charming way that she can't help but be convinced that this guy must be for real, how can he know all this. He kisses her hand and excuses himself. She asks if he lived around here? He's says he wishes, he lives way across town and gives her his card, he is a "psychic consultant." When she reads his title she is slightly befuddled. Christine: Oh! Alexis: I see you place me in the same category as fortune tellers, snake charmers, and magicians. Oh well, many people do. Christine: But you must know who I am, how else could you know all these things? Alexis: Perhaps because we are very much alike. You and I free spirits, like our friend here [points to the raven] you like the night, and the mist of the ocean. The wind whispers, the sand that is cool under our feet. We are not like, I hope I don't have his name wrong, Martin. Christine: There's nothing wrong with Martin, Alexis: Of course not, but if you will only understand how little he understands. Christine: Well Martin is very logical. Alexis: Yes that's why you should marry him. All free spirits must come out of the night sometime put on their shoes, pay their bills, go to the dentist, and of course family dinners on Sundays. You really shouldn't be so irritated by his little mannerisms, like when he clears his throat, announcing that he's going to kiss you in a minute. Or how he counts up all his plans on his fingers. I can't tell you how I know these things but it hardly matters. We are not going to meet again..... The hook is proverbially in. Martin has finally come down to the beach near the end of this meeting and is now calling Christine. She walks over to him. He clears his throat then kisses her. He asks what took her so long and she says she was talking to Alexis, but when she turns back to show him, Alexis has vanished. Getting back to matters at hand, Christine has to now go and change her torn gown. By the time they get back to her house, they decide it's too late for the show and dinner. So Martin and Christine decide to spend a cozy evening at Christine's. While Christine is changing Martin sets the mood he mixes drinks, and puts on a phonograph record. Its a piece that Paul always used to play. Christine hears it and gets upset with Martin. Martin calms her down, gives her the engagement ring, and proposes. That night, Christine faintly hears that same piano piece again and Paul's voice calling her name. She awakens and runs towards the window. She turns and sees a wilted bouquet, her wedding ring, Paul's picture on the floor, and then her wedding dress is floating towards her in her bedroom. She runs, screams, and feints. Janet runs into her sisters room. When Christine recovers, she finds the flowers are fresh, the engagement ring on the dresser instead of her wedding ring, and Martins picture in the frame instead of Paul's. Of course all these unexplainable phenomena now make her think of Alexis. He deals with this stuff professionally and of course she heads off to her psychic consultant. Alexis' house on 6200 Warner Drive is something else to see, outwardly it is quite normal. But Alexis has got lots of two way mirrors installed, that he uses to observe and read his clients. When Christine gets to his door she greeted by a skull doorknocker. She lifts handle to knock but it rings a chime. Alexis flips up a sliding panel to see who is at the door. The front door automatically opens onto a dimly lit interior filled with arcane artifacts. Christine walks in, the door closes and she is greeted with a squawk by the same raven from down of the beach. The raven and Alexis work together. While looking at the raven, a set of sliding door panels open silently, and the raven jumps off his perch and flies through them. Christine follows the raven. After stepping through the door panels they again close automatically. When she sees Alexis leaning against his fireplace, she tells him sarcastically, that she thought the "fog and the ocean were more effective." Alexis chuckles. He then goes again into his spiel. He tells her that he agrees, but that in his line of work he's dealing with all kinds of minds, and that three types of people come to see him. The first group comes to scoff, but sometimes they remain to pay. The second are childlike creatures of mind, they are tired and sad and need comfort. (They are the ones that go for all the histrionics). The third group is those of us who honestly explore the outer world. Alexis then tells her that "I feel that you have come here today to join that group." By this time he has manipulated her into sitting down at a table with a crystal ball. Alexis' Spook Parlor Alexis checking out the rocks on a new client So Christine is now under Alexis' spell so to speak. He sees her so much in the next coming weeks that Janet and Martin become concerned enough to follow her to Alexis' house. When Marin sees that all that Janet has been telling him is true he gets upset enough to hire a detective. He finds a detective named Hoffman (played by Harry Mendoza a real magician and actor), who specializes in exposing phony mediums. He tells them that he is a former vaudeville magician, who knows all the tricks in the spook trade. He is a crusader, much like Harry Houdini was starting back in the 1920s, and followed right through to the present by The Amazing Randi, Dorothy Dietrich, Penn & Teller, and Dick Brookz. Martin and Janet's visit to their hired detective provides for another amusingly interesting sequence. All the while they are speaking with Hoffman he is performing various "sleights of hand" tricks. It's very entertaining. Hoffman looks through his files and finds a spiritualist who looks a lot like Alexis with a swami hat. Janet decides to visit Alexis and try and get his finger prints to see if they are one and the same man. However, Janet falls instantly for Alexis' charms also. The elaborate hoax is all undone by a very unexpected twist that leads to Noirsville. Noirsville <spoilers below> What's interesting about this film is how we are dropped into the middle of the phony spiritualist story, though we don't realize it at the time. It's only later that it comes to light how elaborate the preparations, and the physical rigging's of the hoax actually were. The reason this film is not as highly regarded as Nightmare Alley is because one it's never seen and two, it's cast with lesser know talent. You can imagine Vincent Price, Paul Henreid, or say Clifton Webb playing the spiritualist, Joan Bennett or Ava Gardner, in the Christine role (originally it was supposed to go to Carol Landis (I Wake Up Screaming (1941)) but she committed suicide right before filming was to start). Martin could have been played by Howard Duff or say Mark Stevens. Margret O'Brien would have aced the Janet role. However Turhan Bey is, believe it or not, better at being the suave slimy type than say Zachery Scott, he's more believable, possibly because of his Turkish/Austrian accent. Lynn Bari is good as the manipulable widow as are Cathy O'Donnel as Janet and Richard Carlson as Martin. The Amazing Mr X followed right on the heals of Nightmare Alley. Other Crime and Noirs dealing with the same subject of spiritualists are Ministry of Fear, Fallen Angel, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Confidence Girl, and later Hitchcock's Family Plot, I'm sure there are a few more out there. The story is good and the cinematography breathtaking. It's John Alton, but not in his usual milieu of cityscape's. Here he makes a rugged moon lit seacoast, a cliff side house and a spiritualist's spook parlor his subjects. Images are from the French DVD. 8/10 Full review with more screencaps here Noirsville

Scene Of The Crime (1949) Shootout at the L.A. Corral Directed by Roy Rowland Witness to Murder (1954), Rogue Cop(1954), The Girl Hunters (1963). The film was Produced by Harry Rapf, It was written by Charles Schnee and based on the story "Smashing the Bookie Gang Marauders" by John Bartlow Martin. The great cinematography was by Paul Vogel (Lady in the Lake (1946), High Wall(1947), A Lady Without Passport(1950), Dial 1119 (1950), The Sellout (1952), The Money Trap (1965)). Music was by André Previn. The film stars "bland" Van Johnson in his only Film Noir as Mike Conovan, Arlene Dahl (No Questions Asked (1951), Slightly Scarlet (1956), Wicked as They Come (1956)) as Gloria Conovan, Gloria DeHaven as Lili the stripper, Tom Drake (Sudden Danger (1955)) as rookie Detective "C.C." Gordon, Leon Ames (the father in Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), as Captain A.C. Forster, John McIntire (seven Classic Film Noir) as Detective Fred Piper, Donald Woods (13 Ghosts (1960)) as Bob Herkimer, Norman Lloyd in Noir since Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942) and Spellbound (1945), Jerome Cowan one of the earliest Noir actors (The Maltese Falcon (1941), Moontide (1942), Street of Chance (1942), Deadline at Dawn (1946), The Unfaithful (1947), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), The Fat Man (1951) who then also segued into early TV. You can see why Van Johnson never made any more Noirs. He just doesn't seem quite hard boiled enough, another song and dance man who was trying to harden his image, sort of like Dick Powell, although Powell easily made the switch Johnson didn't. He's too vanilla. The rest of the cast are quite adapt in their rolls. Arlene Dahl is fine but wasted in the good girl role though she does look stunning. Gloria DeHaven is an eye opener. She's another refugee from musicals and she's quite believable as the stripper. In fact, she would have been good in Noir but she never appeared in another. However since this was 1949 her strip act is pretty tame. McIntire is doing a variation of his his usual shtick, and Norman Lloyd is very entertaining as Sleeper. The battle between the police and Turk's armored car is unusually detailed and quite drawn out. It is an interesting sequence that would be more at home in a 30s gangster flick, check it out. Screen caps in Film Noir Gangster pages, are from a DVDr. 7/10

Ever do any research on North Beach, Coney Island's Northern competition?

Scene Of The Crime (1949) Shootout at the L.A. Corral Directed by Roy Rowland Witness to Murder (1954), Rogue Cop(1954), The Girl Hunters (1963). The film was Produced by Harry Rapf, It was written by Charles Schnee and based on the story "Smashing the Bookie Gang Marauders" by John Bartlow Martin. The great cinematography was by Paul Vogel (Lady in the Lake (1946), High Wall(1947), A Lady Without Passport(1950), Dial 1119 (1950), The Sellout (1952), The Money Trap (1965)). Music was by André Previn. The film stars "bland" Van Johnson in his only Film Noir as Mike Conovan, Arlene Dahl (No Questions Asked (1951), Slightly Scarlet (1956), Wicked as They Come (1956)) as Gloria Conovan, Gloria DeHaven as Lili the stripper, Tom Drake (Sudden Danger (1955)) as rookie Detective "C.C." Gordon, Leon Ames (the father in Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), as Captain A.C. Forster, John McIntire (seven Classic Film Noir) as Detective Fred Piper, Donald Woods (13 Ghosts (1960)) as Bob Herkimer, Norman Lloyd in Noir since Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942) and Spellbound (1945), also in M (1951), He Ran All the Way (1951), and then off into a lot of TV work, plays Sleeper the stool pigeon, Jerome Cowan one of the earliest Noir actors (The Maltese Falcon (1941), Moontide (1942), Street of Chance (1942), Deadline at Dawn (1946), The Unfaithful (1947), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), The Fat Man (1951) who then also segued into early TV, ) as Arthur Webson, Tom Powers in films since 1911, who played Phyllis Dietrichson's husband in Double Indemnity (1944), and in The Blue Dahlia (1946), The Velvet Touch (1948), Chicago Deadline (1949) The Steel Trap (1952), I, the Jury (1953)) as Umpire Menafoe, Richard Benedict as Turk Kingby, Anthony Caruso as Tony Rutzo, Robert Gist as P.J. Pontiac, and Romo Vincent as Hippo. This is one of the rare Film Noir to feature an actual prolonged machine gun battle. Lieutenant Mike Conovan (Van Johnson), head of an LAPD homicide detective squad is assigned to the murder investigation of an off duty cop who is a member of his squad, Ed Monigan. The only clues they have to go on is the three eye witness accounts of what happened. Two teens smoochin' in the alley, and the owner of a all night place that makes book on the side. Their story: a guy looking to knock over the book joint, had a twisted left hand and blotchy face. The other hoods in the getaway car called him a "crazy lobo" after he shot the cop. Then he jumped in their sled and they burned rubber. A search of Conovan's body reveals that he had a G in his pocket. Was he on the take? All Conovan has to work with are a rookie detective named CC, and Piper, his oldest squad man who's coasting along with failing eyesight. Plus, Conovan's wife Gloria (Arlene Dahl), is putting pressure on the other end by getting anxious and upset over his dangerous line of work. Conovan, Piper (McIntire), Captain A.C. Forster (Leon Ames) He's trying to both solve the murder and prove that Monigan wasn't on the take. He finds out from an informer named Sleeper, that there are a pair of downstate "lobos" knocking over bookie joints in L.A. trying to muscle in on the book racket. They call themselves the Royalty Brothers. The local mob is also understandably looking for them too. Gloria (Arlene Dahl) Sleeper (Norman Lloyd) More tips from Sleeper take him to the Fol-de-Rol a night club with a burlesque act. A stripper named Lili knows the "Brothers" one of them is her ex-boyfriend Turk Kingby (Richard Benedict) the other Lafe Douque (William Haade). They are the ones knocking over the book joints. But neither of them has a twisted arm. Lili said they split up, and don't know where they are holed up yet. Conovan figures that one of the other will contact Lili eventually. Lili and Conovan hit it off, even though she knows he's pumping her for information. She lets Conovan know that Lafe came down to the club. Conovan asks Lili to lead Lafe on, get him good and drunk, get him to take her to his flop for a little "in and out." As soon as Lafe passes out he tells her to call him and give him the low down on where he's at, so that he can toss his flop. Lili (Gloria DeHaven) Sleeper is killed and his body is found standing, hooked to street pole with both his legs and his arms broken. He's got a dead pigeon in his jacket pocket. No more tip offs. Conovan gets the call from Lili, she tells him the name of residence hotel and a room number. Lafe's record shows that he's a guy who's a known hoarder, and Conovan thinks he may have some evidence in his room from the holdups that will connect to Monigans murder. Conovan tosses Lafe's room while he's three sheets to the wind passed out on his bed. He finds a .38 caliber revolver and a single dark latex glove, Monigan was shot with a .38. Lafe wakes up and after a brief fight is arrested by Conovan. Out on the street they catch a drive by, Conovan is wounded and Lafe is shot dead. Gloria flips out and makes Conovan resign from the department. His separation doesn't last long. Lili calls Conovan's phone. Piper picks it up. Lili tells Piper to give Conovan the address where Turk is holed up. Piper doesn't tell her that Conovan resigned, and he goes out there solo to the address. It was a trap. Piper gets gunned down. Of course Conovan gets his job back and and the poop hits the fan in Noirsville. Noirsville You can see why Van Johnson never made any more Noirs. He just doesn't seem quite hard boiled enough, another song and dance man who was trying to harden his image, sort of like Dick Powell, although Powell easily made the switch Johnson didn't. He's too vanilla. The rest of the cast are quite adapt in their rolls. Arlene Dahl is fine but wasted in the good girl role though she does look stunning. Gloria DeHaven is an eye opener. She's another refugee from musicals and she's quite believable as the stripper. In fact, she would have been good in Noir but she never appeared in another. However since this was 1949 her strip act is pretty tame. McIntire is doing a variation of his his usual shtick, and Norman Lloyd is very entertaining as Sleeper. The battle between the police and Turk's armored car is unusually detailed and quite drawn out. It is an interesting sequence that would be more at home in a 30s gangster flick, check it out. Screen caps are from a DVDr. 7/10 Full review with more screencaps at Noirsville

1492 ????

You wanna go back to the Puritans?, they would be part of what I think you are reffering to, those with original social attitudes. Or could go back to the Native Americans, they had a bit more liberal attitude, and they were the Natives, you could say it all when to hell when those illeagal aliens hit the shores......

It's great seeing him sort of reprise his gangster character in the film.

And Larry Cravat was his brother who was in Somewhere In The Night (1946)

I'm talking about the 1952 version in that quote, in the new version it wasn't as pervalent. Exactly...... it didn't have to be an ACTION MOVIE, The Emperor of the North was a freight train, there is a catwalk on the top of box cars etc., etc. You know which film is which, sorry If I included or left out "The" Sorry Action Movies are a different breed. I know them when I see them.

The club car, the dining car, the porters, visual cues in the background scenes, etc., etc. What's your point? My point is that THAT stuff is the interesting filler for a film that takes place in a cross country train, not additional implausible ACTION BS for a target audience (apparantely you), understand? And pretty much a staple of B.S., especially on a streamliner passanger train designed to areodynamic. In the old days (before air brakes) the brakemen had to walk from car to car to apply the hand brakes to each car, but the steam engines usually weren't going that fast, and the cars had a platform to walk on. The safety revolution created by the Westinghouse airbrake is irrelevant to the topic. They also walked on top of the train in Silver Streak with Gene Wilder. It's not irrelevant, every time I take Metro North I sure dont see railway personel walking around on top of moving trains, it was a common occurance once upon a time not nowadays. The Silver Streak, another ridiculous train film thanks for reminding me of it. If its going up a grade it won't be going that fast, even on a flat a steam engine isnt going to go usually more than 60 MPH, the world record for a steam engine is just over a 100 MPH. That was a highway they were driving on, they were crooks in probably a souped up rod, it could keep pace with a train plausibly enough. This movie is set in 1950 and at that time, passenger trains would likely be travelling at 75 MPH or more outside urban areas, where the scene was shown, even with steam power. Also, at that time a passenger train of the caliber of the one featured in The Narrow Margin would have actually been pulled by faster diesels. The exterior scenes showing the train being pulled by steam locomotives in 1950 is one of the discrepancies of the movie. Regardless, the cars at the time would have likely been in an accident travelling on that road at night at that speed. A caddy in 1950 could go 97 MPH (from the specs) a good wheel man could drive it, push it pretty good, sclose to that on the falsts and straightaways. Trains are limited to 3% grades. That means they got to a longer distance to maintain that grade to get from point A to point B. Highways are steeper usually topping at most 10% grades A car can go over the mountain range the train would have to wind up a river keeping at 3%. It's plausible that a car could keep up with the train. BTW, that car didn't follow them from Chicago Whatever, just more (then) Hollywood BS to take a great story and try and remake it into an ACTION MOVIE. So Hackman shoots it down from the top of an unstabe moving train. You need to watch the movie again. There was no train involved when the helicopter was shot down. Actually I'm not sure what brought the copter down. No thanks, I'll take your word for it, I'll never watch it again, as soon as it turned into an ACTION film it lost me. Hollywood staple? We don't need no stinkin' Hollywood staples, the repetition of stuff like this is predictable and ridiculous. We've seen it over and over. So, all the Hollywood staples in The Narrow Margin reduce it to a ridiculous and predictable movie? YES, YES, YES, and it everything that's wrong with Hollywood post the 1970s

The club car, the dining car, the porters, visual cues like the way communications were handled by the train/station personel in the moving train sequences, and other stuff in the background scenes, etc., etc. And pretty much a staple of B.S., especially on a streamliner passanger train designed to areodynamic. In the old days (before air brakes) the brakemen had to walk from car to car to apply the hand brakes to each car, but the steam engines usually weren't going that fast, and the cars had a platform to walk on to do that. If its going up a grade it won't be going that fast, even on a flat a steam engine isn't going to go usually more than 60-70 MPH, the world record for a steam engine is just over a 100 MPH. That was a US highway they were driving on, they were crooks in probably a souped up rod, it could go, it could keep pace with a train plausibly enough. Heres the specs for a standard 1950 Cadillac Series Sixty-Two Touring Sedan Hydra-Matic (aut. 4) I bolded the important info. Cadillac Series Sixty-Two Touring Sedan Hydra-Matic (aut. 4) , model year 1950, version for North America (up to December) 4-door sedan body type RWD (rear-wheel drive), automatic 4-speed gearbox petrol (gasoline) engine with displacement: 5425 cm3 / 331.1 cui, advertised power: 119 kW / 160 hp / 162 PS ( SAE ), torque: 423 Nm / 312 lb-ft characteristic dimensions: outside length: 5483 mm / 215.875 in, width: 2037 mm / 80.2 in, wheelbase: 3200 mm / 126 in reference weights: shipping weight 1861 kg / 4102 lbs estimated curb weight: 1940 kg / 4280 lbs how fast is this car ? top speed: 156 km/h (97 mph) (©theoretical); accelerations: 0- 60 mph 15.2© s; 0- 100 km/h 16.1© s (simulation ©automobile-catalog.com); 1/4 mile drag time (402 m) 20.7© s (simulation ©automobile-catalog.com) 1950 Cadillac Series Sixty-Two Touring Sedan Hydra-Matic (aut. 4) Detailed Performance Review fuel consumption and mileage: average estimated by a-c©: 21 l/100km / 13.5 mpg (imp.) / 11.2 mpg (U.S.) / 4.8 km/l, more data: 1950 Cadillac Series Sixty-Two Touring Sedan Hydra-Matic (aut. 4) Specifications Review Whatever, just more (then 1990) Hollywood BS to take a great story and try and remake it into an ACTION MOVIE. So Hackman shoots it down from the top of an unstabe moving train, huh?. Hollywood staple? We don't need no stinkin' Hollywood staples, the repetition of stuff like this is predictable and ridiculous. We've seen it over and over. The only part of the remake that was nice was the scenery, I'll admit that.

Kiss The Blood Off My Hands (1948) Robert Newton Sleeps With The Fishes An American film noir directed by Norman Foster noted for noirs (Journey Into Fear (1942), and Woman on the Run (1950)). This film was written by Leonardo Bercovici, Ben Maddow, and Walter Bernstein, with additional dialog by Hugh Gray. It was based on a book by English novelist Gerald Butler. The impressive cinematography was by Russell Metty (Whistle Stop (1946), The Stranger (1946), Ride the Pink Horse (1947), The Raging Tide (1951), Naked Alibi (1954), Touch of Evil (1958)). The music was by Miklós Rózsa (Spellbound (1945), Double Indemnity (1944)). The film was produced by Norma Productions which was Burt Lancaster's company. It was their first film. Staring Joan Fontaine (Ivy (1947)) as Jane Wharton, Burt Lancaster (seven Classic Noir) as William Earle "Bill" Saunders, Robert Newton (Odd Man Out (1947), The Hidden Room (1949)), as Harry Carter, Lewis L. Russell as Tom Widgery, Aminta Dyne as Landlady, Grizelda Harvey as Mrs. Paton, Jay Novello as the Sea Captain of the Pelicano. This is a nice moody, studio bound Film Noir. It has enough UK actors top loaded in the cast that along with its rat warren-ish sets and stagecraft the film convincingly portrays a very dark, damp, foggy London. The film in Russel Metty's capable hands looks marvelous, the blacks are inky. It has well directed fight and foot chase scenes. Both Lancaster and Fontaine are good, though this viewer didn't really detect any genuine on screen sparks between the two. Robert Newton pretty much steals all the scenes he's in, he's delightfully sleazy in that menacingly politely English sort of way. If you've just seen his pirate films this will be an eye opener. I wish he'd made even more noirs. Screen caps are from a DVDr of an old AMC cablecast, and they still look great. 7/10 Full review with some screencaps here in Film Noir/Gangster pages and with more screencaps in Noirsville

Kiss The Blood Off My Hands (1948) Robert Newton Sleeps With The Fishes An American film noir directed by Norman Foster noted for noirs (Journey Into Fear (1942), and Woman on the Run (1950)). Foster, who started out a s a cub reporter turned actor later focused on directing. He helmed six of the eight 20th Century Fox Mr. Moto detective series films starring Peter Lorre. He also directed two of the Charlie Chan detective films, and Scotland Yard (1941). This film was written by Leonardo Bercovici, Ben Maddow, and Walter Bernstein, with additional dialog by Hugh Gray. It was based on a book by English novelist Gerald Butler. The impressive cinematography was by Russell Metty (Whistle Stop (1946), The Stranger (1946), Ride the Pink Horse (1947), The Raging Tide (1951), Naked Alibi(1954), Touch of Evil (1958)). The music was by Miklós Rózsa (Spellbound (1945), Double Indemnity (1944)). The film was produced by Norma Productions which was Burt Lancaster's company. It was their first film. Staring Joan Fontaine (Ivy (1947)) as Jane Wharton, Burt Lancaster (seven Classic Noir) as William Earle "Bill" Saunders, Robert Newton (Odd Man Out (1947), The Hidden Room(1949)), as Harry Carter, Lewis L. Russell as Tom Widgery, Aminta Dyne as Landlady, Grizelda Harvey as Mrs. Paton, Jay Novello as the Sea Captain of the Pelicano. Post war London. The waterfront. Though it's not London at all, in reality shot entirely on the Universal back lot, with some stock London footage thrown in. Griffith Park is filling in for a country picnic shot and it's zoo (filling in for the London Zoo) and a race track sequence are the films only on location shots. Houses with occasional scaffolding and cross beam supports indicate the city is rebuilding after years of war. Harry Carter (Newton) tickling the ivories Bill Saunders (Lancaster) is a Canadian ex POW living in London. Suffering from what we call now PTSD, his personality has a hair trigger that can explode into violence at slight provocations. In his cups at The Anchor & Dolphin Pub at closing time, Bill is hunched over the bar. Bill Saunders (Lancaster) The Anchor & Dolphin looks like a local dive where the low company hang. At an upright piano is Harry Carter (Newton), a shady character who seems to fit right in with the crowd. The pub's owner, annoyed that Sanders hasn't moved, gives him a nudge to get out. Sanders reacts viciously. A fight erupts. The result is the owner on the floor dead, the back of his head bashed in by falling upon the buttressed piano leg. Harry Carter witnessed the whole thing. Saunders panicked, rams through a couple of men blocking his way at the door and out into the foggy night. He's pursued by some of the lingering patrons and eventually a couple of bobbies that the crowd attracts. Saunders through his own agility, manages to scamper up a scaffolding and into an open second story window. Jane Warton (Fontaine) The window puts Bill into Jane Warton's (Joan Fontaine) bedroom. He is momentarily stunned. When she begins to wake Bill grabs her and places his hand over her mouth. He tells her he won't hurt her if she remains quiet. She agrees and he lets her loose. Jane believes his story that he was running away from a fight. She is a nurse at a The Mary Wilson Institute a sort of medical clinic. After she leaves for work he studies her things he notices a photograph of an RAF officer. Bill slips out after dark mugs a pedestrian stealing his wallet with money and ration booklets. He buys himself a new suit of clothes. Checks himself into a "bed and breakfast" Hotel. He visits her at the institute the next day. She at first is standoffish and threatens to call a cop. He continues to be persistent. He follows her to the zoo. She's cool, he's hot, and eventually they warm to each other. They date. So Jane and Bill basically get it on. Into this nice rosy idyllic relationship slithers Harry Carter. When Bill and Jane go out for a day at the races Bill is spotted by Carter, who follows them back on the London train. Carter spying Bill having a smoke out in the passageway tells Bill he has a little proposition for him. Bill declines. a proposition Bill back in their compartment has a flare up with a fellow train passenger over a card trick, He knocks him out. Jane pulls the emergency brake and Bill and Jane run out of the train. Jane is frightened of Bills vicious flare up, and tells him that she doesn't want to see him again. After Jane splits Bill gets into another fight with a bobby. He's sentenced to a flogging and six months for the two crimes. When Bill's let out he runs into Cater at a pool hall. Carter asks him if he's low on dough, tells him he's got a scam going with petrol coupons and there's a tidy sum in it if he wants in. Bill just wants to make a bankroll and blow. Carter gives him his address. Lovesick Bill next wanders over to Jane's flat and sees her coming home from work. She tells him that she tried to see him but only relatives were allowed that privilege. Bill tells her that he thought about her every day. Jane asks him what he's going to do. He says, head back to Canada for a new start. She tells him that they need a lorry driver at the institute. Jane, through friends at the institute, gets him the job driving supplies to various satellite clinics. Carter again pops into the picture. He blackmails Bill with a threat. Carter declares that he wont inform the coppers of his identity in regards to the pub murder if he'll agree to hijack a load of penicillin during one of his delivery runs. They'll make it look like Bill was innocent by roughing him up a bit. Bill decides to do it and the plans are made. The night of the fake hijack, however, Joan decides to tag along to keep Bill company on the long run, so to keep Jane out of it, he cancels the job. Bill nixing the job Carter and his goons are not happy. Carter goes to visit Jane at her apartment, tells her about Bill killing a man at the Anchor & Dolphin, he threatens her physically and things get nasty. Jane grabs her scissors and stabs Carter. Jane, thinking she's killed him, heads out into the night and right into Noirsville. Noirsville This is a nice moody, studio bound noir. It has enough UK actors top loaded in the cast that along with its rat warren-ish sets and stagecraft the film convincingly portrays a very dark, damp, foggy London. The film in Russel Metty's capable hands looks marvelous, the blacks are inky. It has well directed fight and foot chase scenes. Both Lancaster and Fontaine are good, though this viewer didn't really detect any genuine on screen sparks between the two. Robert Newton pretty much steals all the scenes he's in, he's delightfully sleazy in that menacingly politely English sort of way. If you've just seen his pirate films this will be an eye opener. I wish he'd made even more noirs. Screen caps are from a DVDr of an old AMC cablecast, and they still look great. 7/10 Full review with more screencaps here Noirsville

Agree it's worth a watch.

I've seen it too it's like a soapy woman's noir, and not very stylistic.

It's all still there and Union Station is beautiful: Ramp to tunnel at rt. Tunnel to platforms Union Station Waiting Room

This where you got it wrong. Forbes was the one who tipped off the mob where Marie was hiding out, that's why the assasin was there. LAPD internal affairs wasn't sure about Brown, so they had Chicago PD give him undercover Marie to tempt him to take the bribe to see if he was as dirty as Forbe. She was seeing if he was gonna go for it. This makes Forbes last line to Brown question in the cab more poignant. Brown: "Well, what kind of a dame would marry a hood? Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: All kinds. " meaning that he's as good as a hood for taking the bribe.

I think the answers are all in the subtext, Meggs (Decoy Mrs Neal) is not only a decoy but an internal affairs cop, and she is looking for corruption in LAPD. The initial fact that the "safe house" is already compromized, indicates that the underworld has been tipped off by a mole in LAPD as to the whereabouts of Mrs. Neal and the two main LAPD suspects are Brown and Forbes. If you go with that angle the whole "Mrs. Neal and the list" plotpoint becomes irrelvant and the real plot is corruption investigation in LAPD and who is/are the informer(s). Like you say "Why keep Charles McGraw in the dark" or why not just mail the list. Now remember Forbes right at the get go tries to get Meggs (Decoy Mrs Neal) to give him the list. Once Forbes buys it, Meggs goes to work on Brown tempting him in the cab with sex and later on the train with money. Walter Brown: You're a pretty good judge of crooks, Mrs. Neall; the only place you slip up is with cops. I turned the deal down. Mrs. Neall: Then you're a bigger idiot than I thought! When are you going to get it through your square head that this is big business? And we're right in the middle. Walter Brown: Meaning you'd like to sell out? Mrs. Neall: With pleasure and profit, and so would you. What are the odds if we don't? I sing my song for the grand jury, and spend the rest of my life dodging bullets - -if I'm lucky! - -while you grow old and gray on the police force. Oh, wake up, Brown. This train's headed straight for the cemetery. But there's another one coming along, a gravy train. Let's get on it. Walter Brown: Mrs. Neall, I'd like to give you the same answer I gave that hood - but it would mean stepping on your face. My thoughts.... the real plot is LAPD corruption. One of the commentors on IMDb says that he's read that in the original script that Forbes was definitely on the take. The curious actions of Brown on the train also make you wonder about him, if he was truely that stupid or if he was deliberately exposing Meggs to the gangsters. Stanley Rubin (SR) What happened with "Narrow Margin" was kind of interesting. We finished the picture in '51. Howard Hughes had taken over the studio. He ran the finished cut, our cut of "Narrow Margin," one midnight, which was rather typical of Mr. Hughes. By the way, I never met him. I did get memos, but never met him in person. Hughes had bought the studio while we were making "Narrow Margin," but later he brought in Jerry Wald and Norman Krasna to head up production at the studio. In any case, Hughes ran the picture, which had gotten very good word of mouth already. I got a memo from Mr. Hughes, saying he thought it was a very good film, but that he wanted to hold it — instead of releasing it when it was due to be released, the memo stated that he wanted to hold it for a while and he wanted me to think about some way to turn "Narrow Margin," which we had shot for under $250,000 and in under 15 days, into an A-picture. Well, there wasn't any way to turn "Narrow Margin" into an A-picture unless you just scrubbed the picture and recast it with A-names and shot it all over again. I communicated that feeling to Mr. Hughes, but he persisted in thinking that there might be some way to turn it into a big picture. And he held it under his arm or in his vault for a year and that's why "Narrow Margin" was released a year, year and a half after it was finished. Five-O: Was the Hughes cut much different from yours and Fleischer's? SR: Hughes added at least one additonal heavy. I think Dick Fleischer shot those scenes. I was gone. I was already at Fox. Hughes added one heavy, and then he did another thing which was not smart, it was just an oversight, I guess, on his part and we didn't discover it until one night at Cinematheque at the Egyptian. They ran "Narrow Margin" and someone asked: 'How come Charlie McGraw and Jacqueline White didn't go to pay their respects to Marie Windsor, who'd been shot and killed in the line of duty?' And I said, of course they stop to see her, before you saw them sneaking off the train to go down the tunnel to get into town. Well, we looked at the picture again and that scene had been removed. That moment we had shot was gone. That was a bad, bad, bad oversight on the part of Mr. Hughes. Nontheless, the picture was a good picture. We were all very proud of it, and people were impressed with the performances, the pace, with the plot turns... The picture was screened by Darryl Zanuck and that motivated Fox to make me an offer to come over there. Dick Fleischer went on to do "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" for Disney. Both of those things came from "Narrow Margin." Full interview here

I've ridden trains from the East coast to the West, the original film covers all various vignettes overheard and visual impressions beautifully. Implausible: Running around on top of a moving train, how many times have you seen that? It's not exactly an unused trope, and one that would probably have a high percentage of fatalities. But that never happens in films. Predictable: If you got a plane or aircraft chasing a train it's gonna crash. They have the helicopter chasing the train around in the mountains. So which one happened there? Did the choper crash into the mountain side when the train went in the tunnel, or did it hit a tree, or high tension wires. I didn't like the film enough to want to remember?

The remake is pretty ridiculous, it spectacularly wastes the talents of J.T. Walsh and M. Emmet Walsh, and has way too many implausible and predictable train action sequences too boot, seen it all before, all that adds roughly, about a half hour of runtime. 5/10

I like: Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: Well, we get there just as fast, talkin'. What about this dame, Mr. Crystal Ball? Walter Brown: A dish. Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: What kind of a dish? Walter Brown: Sixty-cent special. Cheap, flashy. Strictly poison under the gravy. Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: How do you know all this? Walter Brown: Well, what kind of a dame would marry a hood? Det. Sgt. Gus Forbes: All kinds. And a dig at the railroads... Walter Brown: As soon as they pave this track accidents like this won't happen.

Colossus of Rhodes is your average sword and sandal peplum until Leone focuses in on the colossus itself, there you finally get hints of what is to eventually come in his Spaghetti Westerns, the shots of the sword fight on the Colossus's arm with the soldiers climbing out the ear are spectacular, the camera angles and the framing are precursors of shots to come, you know, the huge boot & spur steping down into the frame as a gunman stands off beyond it. There is a closeup of one eye of the colossus where two of the baddies are framed in the opening of the pupil. Another over the shoulder shot showing the side of the face (hommage to Saboteur & North by Northwest perhaps). Looks as if Leone replaced the colossus with human faces and iconic western artifacts, six-guns, spurs, hats, false front western towns making a WEST that was mythological. Its worthy of a view.

I've never been impressed with anything I've seen Nina Foch in she just doesn't stay in my mind as memorable, Raft is OK but not really that great, I like him best in Scarface, They Drive by Night, Red Light, and Some Like It Hot, with the two in the middle my favorites. Of course I haven't seen all his films, and there may be a few others I'd warm to.

It's subjective