Hey! They got away with murder!

[slaytonf]

I'll have to check it out.

[Dargo]

25 minutes ago, cigarjoe said:

The Macamober Affair (1947)

This one leaves it up in the air at the end as to the outcome.  Joan Bennett and her husband Preston Foster are on safari with guide Gregory Peck  in Nairobi.  They are in a sort of estranged relationship. Hints of some type of  infidelity are implied.  Foster hopes the trip will revitalize their marriage.  Instead of regaining his manhood  he displays his weenie-ness when he throws away his rifle and runs  when the lion he wounded charges out of the brush. Back at the camp, Foster takes out his humiliation on the native crew. Its bad form, very bad form.   All that is witnessed by Bennett who is turned on to Peck. 

Eventually Foster shows hes got a pair and is able to shoot an antelope, he also is ready to give Bennett he walking papers. Bennett realizes shes gonna loose her sugar daddy.   Foster next shoots a couple of buffalo. One is only wounded and the same scenario with the lion plays out. They have to go in to dispatch it. When the buffalo rears up and charges  both Foster and Peck shoot at it along with Bennett but instead of hitting the buffalo she shoots Foster in the back of the head.  Was it an accident or deliberate.?  Peck fills out a report that it was an accident, but questions Bennett who admits that in her heart she wanted to kill him.

Not tryin' to start any trouble right here in River City (or on these boards) and while I think this might be a good example here CJ, I think you meant Robert Preston and not Preston Foster in the above, didn't ya.

[cigarjoe]

11 hours ago, Dargo said:

Not tryin' to start any trouble right here in River City (or on these boards) and while I think this might be a good example here CJ, I think you meant Robert Preston and not Preston Foster in the above, didn't ya.

Eagle Eye Dargo thanx for the heads up, I can't believe I screwed up my Prestons they are both probably spinning in their graves, that is unless one of them is not dead yet. What says the Preston expert?  BTW I used to put Preston anti freeze in my radiator.

[Sepiatone]

14 hours ago, cigarjoe said:

  BTW I used to put Preston anti freeze in my radiator.

 Silly me!

I used to use the more expensive PRESTONE anti freeze.   

 

Sepiatone

[cigarjoe]

Yea the tonier brand added the "e."

4 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:

 Silly me!

I used to use the more expensive PRESTONE anti freeze.   

 

Sepiatone

 

[Bethluvsfilms]

(SPOILER ALERT)

Even though he dies at the end, you could say that Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) in WHITE HEAT got away with his murderous rampage.

I have said this in the past, but even though he would have preferred to have gotten away free and clear with the robbery at the plant, he went out his own way....and totally  unrepentant of his past crimes (the murders of the train engineers, Big Ed and Parker).

He stands up, screaming that immortal line "Made it Ma! TOP OF THE WORLD!!!", blowing himself up and destroying any legal victory Fallon and the police force were hoping to achieve by bringing him down (alive that is). Cody's choosing his own method of going out was the ultimate 'screw you' to all the law enforcement witnessing his end.

[Dargo]

8 minutes ago, Bethluvsfilms said:

(SPOILER ALERT)

Even though he dies at the end, you could say that Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) in WHITE HEAT got away with his murderous rampage.

I have said this in the past, but even though he would have preferred to have gotten away free and clear with the robbery at the plant, he went out his own way....and totally  unrepentant of his past crimes (the murders of the train engineers, Big Ed and Parker).

He stands up, screaming that immortal line "Made it Ma! TOP OF THE WORLD!!!", blowing himself up and destroying any legal victory Fallon and the police force were hoping to achieve by bringing him down (alive that is). Cody's choosing his own method of going out was the ultimate 'screw you' to all the law enforcement witnessing his end.

Hmmm...interesting thought here, Beth. Gotta admit I've never thought of this in this sort of light before.

(...hey, and not only THAT, but Cagney does this a whole twenty years before Sinatra's 'My Way' came out, and so there's that TOO!) 

[midwestan]

19 minutes ago, Bethluvsfilms said:

(SPOILER ALERT)

Even though he dies at the end, you could say that Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) in WHITE HEAT got away with his murderous rampage.

I have said this in the past, but even though he would have preferred to have gotten away free and clear with the robbery at the plant, he went out his own way....and totally  unrepentant of his past crimes (the murders of the train engineers, Big Ed and Parker).

He stands up, screaming that immortal line "Made it Ma! TOP OF THE WORLD!!!", blowing himself up and destroying any legal victory Fallon and the police force were hoping to achieve by bringing him down (alive that is). Cody's choosing his own method of going out was the ultimate 'screw you' to all the law enforcement witnessing his end.

Then again, he would have been prosecuted and presumably sentenced to death or at the very least a long prison term.  Since Cody had already served a stretch in the jug, he probably had disdain for the 'been there, done that' aspect of prison life?  Of course, Ma Jarrett wasn't going to be around for visits or lobbying efforts to get her boy an early release either.  Maybe the prison food in 1948 really did suck!  Based on that, his demise at the end would have been sweet, sweet relief...even for a psycho like his character.

[Bethluvsfilms]

27 minutes ago, midwestan said:

Then again, he would have been prosecuted and presumably sentenced to death or at the very least a long prison term.  Since Cody had already served a stretch in the jug, he probably had disdain for the 'been there, done that' aspect of prison life?  Of course, Ma Jarrett wasn't going to be around for visits or lobbying efforts to get her boy an early release either.  Maybe the prison food in 1948 really did suck!  Based on that, his demise at the end would have been sweet, sweet relief...even for a psycho like his character.

Yes, I've no doubt that Cody probably would prefer death than having to rot away in prison for the rest of his life, or going to the gas chamber. But I still think his choosing his own demise was his way of sticking it to the authorities, maybe particularly to Fallon whom Cody had saw as the brother he never had only to find out he was an undercover cop and had been playing him for a sucker all this time.

[slaytonf]

Looks like Ann Sheridan as Kay in Castle on the Hudson (1940) gets away with killing a man.  Though the man she kills is trying to kill someone else at the time.  And he's really bad.  So is it murder?  Maybe not.

[LsDoorMat]

John Mills in "Mr. Denning Drives North"  (1952)  gets away with murder.  Actually, it was manslaughter. But that was a British film and Britain did not have a production code per se. 

[Dargo]

Haven't watched it for a while, but I think in the 1958 film The Quiet American, Michael Redgrave in effect gets away with the murder of Audie Murphy after he begins spreading false rumors about Murphy being a CIA operative on the streets of Saigon and after he becomes his romantic rival.

(...if I recall correctly, Redgrave does end up going insane, and similarly to how Edward G. Robinson ends up in the film Scarlet Street)

[slaytonf]

4 hours ago, Dargo said:

Haven't watched it for a while, but I think in the 1958 film The Quiet American, Michael Redgrave in effect gets away with the murder of Audie Murphy after he begins spreading false rumors about Murphy being a CIA operative on the streets of Saigon and after he becomes his romantic rival.

(...if I recall correctly, Redgrave does end up going insane, and similarly to how Edward G. Robinson ends up in the film Scarlet Street)

Dang! Soo close!

 

9 hours ago, LsDoorMat said:

John Mills in "Mr. Denning Drives North"  (1952)  gets away with murder.  Actually, it was manslaughter. But that was a British film and Britain did not have a production code per se. 

So, half credit?

[Dargo]

46 minutes ago, slaytonf said:

Dang! Soo close!

In what regard do you mean here, slayton?

Is my memory of The Quiet American's ending incorrect that you know of?  Like I said, my memory of the ending is a bit fuzzy, and so it could be.

Or, did you mean by this that because I said Redgrave goes nutty at the end, one couldn't say he "got away with it"?

OR yet again, did you mean because he doesn't actually pull the trigger on Audie but just sets up his killing, one couldn't say he "committed murder"?

(...just would like a clarification on this, that's all...bet it's probably the last one here, isn't it)

 

[speedracer5]

On 6/3/2020 at 6:27 PM, Bethluvsfilms said:

(SPOILER ALERT)

Even though he dies at the end, you could say that Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) in WHITE HEAT got away with his murderous rampage.

I have said this in the past, but even though he would have preferred to have gotten away free and clear with the robbery at the plant, he went out his own way....and totally  unrepentant of his past crimes (the murders of the train engineers, Big Ed and Parker).

He stands up, screaming that immortal line "Made it Ma! TOP OF THE WORLD!!!", blowing himself up and destroying any legal victory Fallon and the police force were hoping to achieve by bringing him down (alive that is). Cody's choosing his own method of going out was the ultimate 'screw you' to all the law enforcement witnessing his end.

I think if we use the argument of the criminal offing themselves as a means to undermine law enforcement's ability to formally charge them with a crime, then there are a lot of other films where the murderer "gets away" so to speak.

***SPOILER***

How about Agnes Moorehead's suicide in Dark Passage? Didn't she murder Bogart's wife and his friend?

[slaytonf]

42 minutes ago, Dargo said:

In what regard do you mean here, slayton?

Is my memory of The Quiet American's ending incorrect that you know of?  Like I said, my memory of the ending is a bit fuzzy, and so it could be.

Or, did you mean by this that because I said Redgrave goes nutty at the end, one couldn't say he "got away with it"?

OR yet again, did you mean because he doesn't actually pull the trigger on Audie but just sets up his killing, one couldn't say he "committed murder"?

(...just would like a clarification on this, that's all...bet it's probably the last one here, isn't it)

 

Um, well, kinda all of them.

[rosebette]

My husband and I just watched The Hatchet Man (1933),  which we found quite absorbing once we got past the white actors all in yellow face.  Edward G. plays the "hatchet man," basically a hitman in the Tong organization in San Francisco, essentially the Chinese Mafia.  He gets away with murder throughout, and is actually villified for not killing his wife's young lover to preserve his honor.  However, the ending is a real shocker and worthy of a Tarantino film.  Don't know how they got away with that one, even in Pre-Code days.

[slaytonf]

Yes, that ending is shocking, and is an example of an ending that makes an otherwise awful movie worthwhile.

[Bethluvsfilms]

13 hours ago, speedracer5 said:

I think if we use the argument of the criminal offing themselves as a means to undermine law enforcement's ability to formally charge them with a crime, then there are a lot of other films where the murderer "gets away" so to speak.

***SPOILER***

How about Agnes Moorehead's suicide in Dark Passage? Didn't she murder Bogart's wife and his friend?

She did, but I am not so sure that she actually did kill herself. This is has been debated about in the past. Some felt she deliberately jumped, others felt that she fell out the window by accident.

I can see a case for both sides, but she always struck me as the sort of woman who lived to cause trouble and didn't want to end that any time soon. In my opinion I think she would have been happy to have seen Bogey go back to the slammer forever, new face at all, and loving the fact she had gotten away with murder and had stuck it to him for good.

It's just the way I see the scenario though. Others have their own point of view on this.

[rosebette]

14 hours ago, slaytonf said:

Yes, that ending is shocking, and is an example of an ending that makes an otherwise awful movie worthwhile.

That and Edward G., fine even in this awkward film.  I couldn't believe all the actors in heavy makeup and eye pecil.  I felt like the entire eyeliner department at Walgreens had been used to make that film.