TomJH

There's nothing conservative about not wanting to see Winston Churchill naked. Which reminds me of the time FDR accidentally walked in on him when he was in the bathtub and Churchill said, "As you can see, I have nothing to hide from you."

It was like a fever coming over me after I saw that film, Dargo. I used to go to seedy little stores in run down parts of town and ask the clerks in a whisper if they had any Edna May Oliver films. They would invariably answer "Who?" and then tell me they had some dumb sounding item like "Betty Bonanza Does The World". So then I would ask them, "How about Blanche Yurka?" again in a sweaty whisper. Same kind of reply. One day I was in a store and saw a COLOUR film (!!!) on sale with Edna May Oliver, Drums Along the Mohawk. I eagerly bought it and hurriedly carried it home in a brown paper bag. Humphhh! Hottest thing in that was a flaming arrow! So my elusive search for Edna May (and Blanche) films goes on. Well, you know what they say, good to have a hobby.

I'll never forget the first time I saw Blanche Yurka and Edna May Oliver rolling over on the floor together in A Tale of Two Cities. It changed my life forever.

Janis Carter initially hoped to be a singer in the movies. She can be briefly glimpsed as one of a chorus of beauties in I Married An Angel, a Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy operetta. While I agree with you that she doesn't have that extra magical charismatic something in Night Editor, one of her first major efforts, neither did Rita or Ava in some of their earliest roles. That doesn't mean it necessarily would have come with time either but the truth is Carter never got the star push by a major studio that Hayworth and Gardner eventually received. It's been years since I saw it, though, so I could stand to be corrected, but I saw her in a crime drama, Framed (1947), with Glenn Ford, and she favourably impressed me. You got to give her credit for one thing, though. She took a very nice publicity shot.

I don't know that anyone here was ranking Janis Carter alongside Rita or Ava when it came to the female oomph factor (for that matter, didn't you once question what guys see in Ava Gardner, too, MissW?). But her psychopathic portrayal (along with her undeniably attractive appearance) clearly makes her a more interesting (as well as intriguing) character than the detective. And Carter's performance is effective, even if not in quite the same league as some other screen femme fatales. The fact that her character is wackier than most (heck, who's wackier?) plays a big role. William Gargan is not the most interesting or charismatic of actors though his largely deadpan portrayal is serviceable and doesn't hurt the film. To be honest, though, I half wondered what Carter saw in Gargan in the first place. Just the element of danger by doing it with a married man who's also a cop, I suppose. This is a character in a constant search for the newest psycho erotic thrill ride (as opposed to, say, Gilda who turns out to be a "good girl" who likes to tease).

I suppose but you have to know about its radio origin (which very few today will know), otherwise it makes little sense.

Yeah, I think Eddie may have said that. But the title of the film is still a misnomer, in my opinion, since anyone would assume the film to be a newspaper drama.

It might not have been her story but she's still the most interesting character in it. Immorality and perversity does that.

"Janis had numerous close friendships while locked away and only stabbed two of them."

I think that when it came to her relationships Janis Carter's character was decidedly, shall we say, adaptable (and looking for any kind of thrill that was different). It would have been interesting to see how she would have responded to her prison cell mates. Unfortunately, it would never have gotten past the censor.

Well, Eddie never did say which scene he was talking about but since we've seen femme fatales stab or shoot guys in other films and I can't think of ANY other '40s movie in which a woman screamed that she wanted to see a dead body (kinky, for sure, with possibly a hint of n e c r o p h i l i a) I'm pretty sure the earlier scene was probably the one on his mind. Certainly to me it's the most noteworthy illustration of Carter being a woman "with a difference," even if the scene could have been developed more in the film (but, keep in mind, the film makers were trying to get this scene past the censors). Having said that, though, I agree that stabbing a guy while kissing him is pretty perverse, as well, as it does combine a desire for an erotic experience with violence (even if you don't find the execution of the scene that erotic). As for my small font selection after the Spoiler Alert, it was just an added assurance that someone would not unintentionally read major plot giveaways.

The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970) A 70 year old man, while visiting an old friend in his pawn shop, witnesses a stranger beat his friend with a rubber hose and then himself. When he comes to his friend is dead but a witness insists she saw his friend suffer a heart attack and police dismiss his story of his friend being murdered. A paranoia inducing TV movie with a gritty street feel, it deals with the helplessness of a senior citizen who is believed by no one, including loving family members who want him to receive psychological help. Meanwhile the stranger suddenly appears again and makes a deadly throat slitting gesture towards the old man. He is the only one to see the stranger, though. Engrossing drama, with a superlative performance by Edward G. Robinson in one of his final roles as the senior citizen, with fine support by Martin Balsam as his concerned son. Ed Asner, in the same year in which he would gain TV immortality as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, is effective as a psychiatrist, while Percy Rodrigues is cold bloodedly chilling as the stranger. Diane Baker appears as Balsam's wife, along with Ruth Roman as a hooker whose heart is not made of gold and Sam Jaffe as Robinson's murdered friend. Adding to this ABC Movie of the Week's gritty feel is some effective on location shooting on run down metropolitan streets. But it's Robinson's anguished, fearful portrayal that remains the centre piece of a film which eventually leads to a stark, uncompromising ending. There are currently copies of this TV drama available on You Tube. 3 out of 4

Assuming Carter goes to prison it would be interesting to know with how many of her inmates she has affairs and whether, if someone gets killed inside the pen, she screams that she wants to see the body.

I was a little disappointed by the writing of the film's resolution. We don't know what happens to Carter or the murderer. And after the film was over I was still trying to figure out the title. Okay, a night editor tells the story. So what? His character rates being the title of the movie? Still, I thought it was a good little film, with Janis Carter effective in her role. It's always enjoyable making discoveries of good, unpretentious little films like this that are rarely seen.

Did anyone else experience the picture rolling during the broadcast of Night Editor (briefly during the murder scene near the beginning), as well as, far worse, during Eddie's closing comments? I've near seen TCM technically mess up like that before.

SPOILER ALERT (there are a lot of giveaways here for those who haven't seen the film): It's a scene in which the film's beautiful but cold blooded femme fatale screams in an almost sexual frenzy manner that she wants to see the body of a woman just beaten to death. She will later stab a man in the back but waits until they are kissing before she does so.. She also makes a man her latest boy toy after finding out he is a murderer. Janis Carter is quite the memorable sado masochistic wacko in this film.

Murder, He Says (1945) A bizarre combination of hillbilly comedy and mystery thriller, with secret passages in an old house, an escaped convict, a money treasure hunt and a nonsense lyric song that is the answer to a mystery, director George Marshall's frantic black comedy works far better than one would expect, even if it may not be to everyone's taste. Fred MacMurray plays a pollster in backwoods country (the Ozarks?) in search of another pollster for his company who had disappeared who unwittingly encounters a hillbilly family with a decidedly casual attitude about homicide, especially when it comes to prying strangers. Marjorie Main delivers a strong performance as the whip cracking matriarch of the family, a sort of homicidal Ma Kettle two years before she played that role. Peter Whitney is hilarious in dual roles as her twin sons, Mert and Bert, both dumb though they're good at knocking off strangers. This film, part mystery thriller, part broad slapstick comedy, has a very funny lead performance by MacMurray and an engagingly appealing one by Helen Walker as a woman hunting for money who poses as an escaped convict. There are some great comedy set piece sequences, including a family dinner in which a luminous poison that glows in the dark is in a meal on a Lady Susan rotating table and a finale in a barn involving a truck powered hay machine. Perhaps no other scene is quite as hilarious, though, as the one in which MacMurray poses as a dumb hayseed with short legs. By the way, the optical effects of any of the scenes involving Whitney as twins are absolutely first rate. Particularly impressive is a scene in which Whitney as one twin lands a punch on the jaw of the other one. 3 out of 4

So, in turn, does that make Winchester '73 kind of a swashbuckler without swords? At least we're in agreement that your logic here is a bit of a stretch, old buddy. "Dang it, I missed him again. If only I had my sword with me."

Well I agree the film has a moat but i would never have thought of it as a European style western. Fairbanks is charming and completely immoral, your classic back stabber with a smile on his face as he did it. Juicy roles like this brought out the conniving best in some actors.

Nope, ya got me, Dargo. I don't known your European style western with a castle.

Anything to do with a big sewer?

"I'm stealin' this film, don't ya think, ya squirt?"

McNally is fine in the film, with his emphasis upon being grim and ruthless. But it's a more conventional bad man portrayal, I think, than Duryea's Waco Johnny which makes the latter the more interesting and memorable of the two. Waco Johnny is a fast gun and cocky about it, too, but also smart enough to bid his time if he thinks someone else may be a little faster. Duryea's a snake but he also plays the part with some charm, even if it's of the slimy variety. This is one of my very favourite Duryea performances.

Probably my favourite film of the Stewart-Mann westerns, too, Dargo. Among other things it has a great cast, with Dan Duryea having one of his most flamboyant roles as gunslinger Waco Johnny Dean. I recall the moment when Shelley Winters first meets him and refers to him as "Waco Johnny Dean, the fastest gun in Texas." "Texas," Duryea replies, "Lady, why limit me?"

Jimmy Stewart was great in his five Anthony Mann westerns made during the '50s, perhaps surprisingly do. But during that decade the actor brought more of a down to earth cynicism to his parts, as well as a hard edge, that worked well in his roles as westerners. And violence was very much a part of the world of Stewart's westerns. It didn't start off that way when Jimmy initially played a peacenik lawman (who was still handy with a gun) who tried to charm his way with opponents in Destry Rides Again. Parallels can be seen between his role as Destry and the idealistic Ransom Stoddard in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance over two decades later. But it was during his Mann westerns that I think Stewart reached his peak as a westerner. One of his best, The Naked Spur in which he gave a particularly strong performance as a bounty hunter