A Tribute To Slimy Dan

[TomJH]

 

Oh, I'm back alright, mrroberts. And look who brought me back. Sarah, sweet Sarah, who had taste to create that great Dan Duryea Central website:

 

http://www.sarahbethonline.com/danduryea/

 

They put a lot of effort into that baby. And ain't I worth it? Called me "the greatest heel of the Silver Screen" too. Well, I do my little bit to live down to that title, I like to think.

 

 

I don't believe it! It looks like that nogood Waco Johnny Dean is back. I'll get him right between the eyes!

 

 

Calm down, Jimmy, calm down. See folks? That's the effect I have on some people. Soon I'll be back at my old slimy ways.

 

 

See what I mean?

[mrroberts]

Just when you think this guy's been put away for good, he comes back to town. Just like those reoccurring villains on the Batman tv show. There's a thought, Dan would have made a great arch criminal for Batman and Robin to spar with.

[TomJH]

At first, mrroberts, I was a little taken aback at the suggestion of Dan Duryea appearing as some kind of cartoony villain on Batman.

 

Now that I think about it, though, smiling Dan might have made a great Joker. He sure would have enjoyed continued being up to no good.

[mrroberts]

As corny as the Batman tv show was (even as a little kid I knew it was way over the top) there were a lot of veteran movie actors who did the show and seemed to enjoy doing it. And I don't think anyone regretted it later on.

[mrroberts]

 "Slimy Dan" Duryea  has returned !    I  just had to go back and resurrect this thread, its worth a revisit and maybe some new members will enjoy reading it.

[TomJH]

Thanks for resuscitating this thread, mrroberts, from one Slimy Dan fan to another.

 

 

This is the western in which Duryea has one of his best lines:

 

"Nobody gives me a loaded gun. I'm Whitey Kincade. I shoot people in the back."

 

I've yet to see this film but, for those who care, it is available free on You Tube.

[TomJH]

I finally got around to watching Ride Clear of Diablo which, as I stated in the previous posting, is available for viewing on You Tube.

 

It's an Audie Murphy western, something that does not stir too many embers of excitement in my heart, though capably done in a routine sort of way. Murphy is out for revenge to track down the cattle rustlers who killed his father and brother. Sound familiar? Well, that's because it is.

 

The great blessing of this film, however, is our own Slimy Dan Duryea as bad guy Whitey Kincade, the fastest gun around, for whom Murphy goes hunting. Duryea brings colour and delight to his glib characterization, constantly laughing, even when a gun is pointed directly at him. He's the kind of self confident rogue that simply doesn't break into a sweat no matter what the odds appear to be against him.

 

And he and Murphy do have a certain rapport in the film, as Whitey eventually takes a liking to the straight arrow fast shooting leading man. The audience can never be quite certain if Duryea is going to shoot someone in the back or not, maybe Murphy. Duryea brings a bit of an edge to the film that, quite frankly, it badly needs.

 

As a fan of Duryea, routine as this film may be, I was quite pleased with it because smiling, slimy, laughing Dan easily steals the whole show. His Waco Johnny Dean characterization in Winchester 73 is more memorable because Waco Johnny is a real serpent compared to Whitey Kincade here, just as Anthony Mann's western, also a tale of a man hunting the killer of his father, is an infinitely stronger western. Without wanting to give anything away, Duryea does have one scene in this film which is clearly reminiscent of a similar moment in the Mann film. And it works effectively here, as well.

 

Clearly a programmer, Ride Clear of Diablo would be just an adequate but minor time waster if it wasn't for laughing Dan as a villain. Duryea is simply having too much fun in his role for the audience to not have a good time with him.

 

[mrroberts]

Here I go again, resurrecting this Dan Duryea thread. Its like opening Dracula's coffin and pulling the stake from his heart.  I like going back and reviewing some old threads and for me this was a fun one.  Its been a full year since the last posting, maybe we can stir up some new interest or its just good for a quick review. I don't believe TCM has ever  given Dan a proper  tribute day, we have to start lobbying for one. We got a salute to McCrea, how about one for Duryea?

[jamesjazzguitar]

Here I go again, resurrecting this Dan Duryea thread. Its like opening Dracula's coffin and pulling the stake from his heart.  I like going back and reviewing some old threads and for me this was a fun one.  Its been a full year since the last posting, maybe we can stir up some new interest or its just good for a quick review. I don't believe TCM has ever  given Dan a proper  tribute day, we have to start lobbying for one. We got a salute to McCrea, how about one for Duryea?

 

Wow,  a full year.   Does time fly.  I'm not sure if Dan as ever been part of Summer Under The Stars;  He clearly deserves that if not Star of the Month.     If the focus on noir in June and July Dan is getting more exposure but as you know Dan was great in multiple genres \ styles.

[TomJH]

Here I go again, resurrecting this Dan Duryea thread. Its like opening Dracula's coffin and pulling the stake from his heart.  I like going back and reviewing some old threads and for me this was a fun one.  Its been a full year since the last posting, maybe we can stir up some new interest or its just good for a quick review.

 

Free . . . FREE! He set me FREE!

[TomJH]

Actually, mrroberts, it is time to revive slimy Dan Duryea again. On July 17 at 8pm (EST) Eddie Muller will host Too Late for Tears on TCM. And I will bet every penny that I took off that guy I mugged on a dark street last night (just kidding, film noir fans) that it will be a restored version of the film that we will be seeing.

 

For those who have yet to see this film (or even those have seen it), Too Late for Tears has one of my favourite Dan Duryea performances. While it can be said that the film belongs to Lizabeth Scott (probably her best performance ever), Duryea is highly effective playing a street wise tough guy who doesn't turn out to be quite as tough as he thinks he is. Duryea is vulnerable in this one, folks, and does a darn good job of it, too, in my opinion.

 

 

There’s no more hardboiled screen duo than Dan Duryea and Lizabeth Scott in Too Late for Tears (1949).

 

Too Late for Tears, directed by Byron Haskin, is a cult noir film that currently only survives in truly terrible Public Domain DVDs that can only be watched for archival purposes – if you watch one of these versions, you’ve sort of seen the film, but you haven’t really experienced it. Splices, scratches, rips, tears – they’re all part of the Public Domain print, and it provides only an approximation of the watching the 35mm original. You see, the copyright for the film expired long ago, so anyone can put out a DVD – using any materials at hand, and what’s available – until now – has been really substandard.

 

However, as Rick Paulas wrote on August 6, 2014, in Pacific Standard Magazine, one man is making it a lifetime mission to track down and preserve these genre gems before they’re lost forever. As Paulas notes, “Eddie Muller is the president and founder of the Film Noir Foundation, a non-profit working to locate and repair films from the classic era. His work has led to 12 years of film festivals in San Francisco’s Castro Theater, the rescue of six films, and a badass nickname from legendary noir novelist James Ellroy: ‘The Czar of Noir.’ But when it came to restoring Too Late for Tears, The Czar was nearly crying tears of his own. ‘It was by far the toughest,’ he says.

 

While Internet streaming may make it seem as if we can watch anything whenever we want, that’s just not the case. Every migration to a new medium relegates a portion of films to the dustbin of history. There’s a triage that occurs when 16mm leads to VHS, to DVD, to Blu-ray. Conversion takes time and money, two resources that movie studios aren’t going to waste on titles that don’t generate sales. ‘It’s a funnel,’ Muller says. ‘It may seem like there are more titles than ever before, but I guarantee you this is an illusion.’

 

Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation estimates that half of all American films made before 1950, along with over 90 percent made before 1929, are gone for good. While there are high-profile ‘Holy Grail’ lost films that collectors have been obsessing over for years—Erich von Stroheim’s nine-hour director’s cut of Greed, which only 12 people ever saw; Lon Chaney’s detective/horror movie London After Midnight, the last print reportedly burned in the tragic MGM vault fire of 1967—there are crates more on nobody’s radar. The hardest to locate, by far, are ‘orphans’: independently produced films seemingly not owned by any studio [. . .]

 

The first move for Muller during any restoration is to ask the community for any and all elements they have. This means 35mm prints, 16mm, good digital transfers. Anything but circulation prints—prints that have been sent out to theaters—which have wear-and-tear that makes a restoration nearly impossible. The prize is an original negative or duplication that’s been created for the sake of protection, but those are nearly impossible to come by.

 

Eddie’s calls for Too Late for Tears elements netted him a few nibbles. One was a 35mm print from a private collector, the quality of which was uncertain. Another was a 35mm print that somehow ended up in the Jones Film Archive at Southern Methodist University. (‘You can fall down a rabbit hole when you start investigating this stuff.’) UCLA also had a print after a French collector dumped loads of canisters on them. (‘Luckily, their print didn’t have subtitles.’)

 

But the question at hand was whether or not Muller wanted to pour his limited funds into a restoration using this unproven trio or hunting the rumors of a Baltimore projectionist’s pristine nitrate print [. . .] Under the watchful eye of UCLA restoration manager Scott MacQueen, the best parts of the three prints were spliced into one. Finally, on January 25, 2014, Muller premiered the restoration of Too Late for Tears at the 12th-annual Film Noir Fest in San Francisco to rapturous applause.”

 

But for those of us not in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, I have a simple question; when is the restored version of Too Late for Tears, one of the toughest and most unrelenting of all noirs, going to be available on DVD? Another noir film that Muller was instrumental in saving, Robert Parrish’s acerbic Cry Danger (1951), starring Dick Powell, was restored in 2011, screened theatrically, and then made the jump to DVD, and it goes without saying that I bought one of the first copies of the restoration available.

 

But now Too Late for Tears has been restored, yet as far as I can find out, no DVD or Blu-ray release is imminent. So, as Johann Sebastian Bach might ask – and indeed ask, although obviously in another context – “oh, when will that day come?” Too Late for Tears is one of Haskin’s finest films, one of Dan Duryea’s most desperately corrupt performances, and surely one of Lizabeth Scott’s most brutal turns as a femme fatale, one who really knows what the term means – she’s lethal, in every sense of the word. So it’s great that Too Late for Tears has been rescued and restored – cue the applause for Eddie Muller, seriously – but when will we get the DVD?

 

http://blog.unl.edu/dixon/2015/03/05/why-isnt-the-restored-version-of-too-late-for-tears-on-dvd/

[mrroberts]

Looks  like Tom is gonna hafta answer to the boss for screwin' up. That's JULY 17, not JUNE. The boss don' like screw-ups, he's funny that way.  Nice knowin' ya Tom.  

[mrroberts]

On a more serious note,  it would seem that with a prime time slot and a notable host for commentary this would be a perfect  TCM introduction to a much needed long anticipated restoration of this film. It is a goody, with two of noir's more notable actors in the lead roles. And we have to acknowledge the two other principles, Arthur Kennedy is Liz's husband and another fall guy for the femme fatale.  Kennedy's part is somewhat minor, but he's a very good actor and he makes the most of it.  Don DeFore is the outsider who is wise to Liz and becomes her antagonist. He surprises me by his performance, he's quite good. Like many people I suppose, I think of him mostly  as Hazel's tv boss.  And credit must be given to TOO LATE FOR TEARS director Byron Haskin, who also worked with Lizabeth Scott on I WALK ALONE.  I see on IMDb that Haskin worked on a lot of notable films, some as the  director , others as an assistant (special effects) to very good directors.

[TomJH]

Oops, my mistake. Thanks for the correction, mrroberts.

 

That's JULY 17 at 8pm (EST) on TCM for the restored print of Too Late for Tears, one of the more noteworthy film noirs, in my opinion, with sterling work by both Lizabeth Scott and our own slimy Dan.

 

Finally, we will see a print of this film as it should be seen.

 

[mrroberts]

"Oops"?  I don't think  the boss is gonna'  take that as a good enough excuse.  Only question now is, who's he gonna' send over to Tom's place to settle business.  Slimy Dan? crazy Tommy Udo?  McGraw and Conrad?  I got it. Kathie Moffat!

[film lover 293]

TomJH--Thanks for the history lesson (seriously!).  That's why I hang on to all my old VHS tapes.  Will make certain to watch Too Late for Tears (1955) when it airs.

 

Another film not to miss if it airs on TCM again--The Vikings (1928)--a part-talkie (it has laughter on the soundtrack in a scene where everyone's getting drunk--that's all it took to be qualified as a part-talkie, was to have sound effects on the soundtrack), it was also one of the first 2 strip/tone Technicolor films--the version TCM showed was fully restored, as far as I could tell--the color was vivid and gorgeous--a piece of the past worth watching, especially if 90% of films made before 1929 are gone.

[laffite]

Would someone please provide an alert prior to July 17 for To Late for Tears, please. Either here or on the Hits and Misses thread? If you happen to remember.  I'll try myself and make a note but I'm not too organized.

 

Thanks

[TomJH]

"Oops"?  I don't think  the boss is gonna'  take that as a good enough excuse.  Only question now is, who's he gonna' send over to Tom's place to settle business.  Slimy Dan? crazy Tommy Udo?  McGraw and Conrad?  I got it. Kathie Moffat!

Guess you're right, mrroberts. "Oops" probably doesn't quite cut it with that kind of crowd.

 

Say "Oops" to Tommy Udo and he'll respond by saying it back to you as he straps you into a wheelchair and pushes you down some stairs. Oh, yeah, there might be a lot of giggling as he does it, too.

[AndyM108]

Would someone please provide an alert prior to July 17 for To Late for Tears, please. Either here or on the Hits and Misses thread? If you happen to remember.  I'll try myself and make a note but I'm not too organized.

 

Thanks

 

I haven't done this myself for years, but can't you still request TCM to send you an e-mail reminder for any movie you wish?

[mrroberts]

I used to use the TCM reminder service (they would e mail you a reminder one week before and one day before a broadcast) but its been awhile . It always worked for me but right now I am not sure how to access that function or maybe its gone away. Jot the film and time its scheduled on one of those "posties" and put it on the fridge.  If you go up top of the screen to the 'search  "TCMDb" function enter "Too Late For Tears" . There are excellent articles on the film and the career of Lizabeth Scott. Lets all ban together here and keep on the alert  for the July 17th broadcast , I will  set up to record it but I may be home and watch it "live".

[TomJH]

Yes, best to jot down the title of Too Late for Tears for July 17 on TCM someplace. Because if you miss this film noir, especially with its newly restored print, it really will be then . . . ahem . . .

 

. . . too late for tears.

[mrroberts]

This question has probably come up before.  When a film falls into the category of "public domain" what happens when that film returns to private ownership/control?  How is it determined who gets those rights, who now is entitled to royalties?  Since Eddie Muller's group did a restoration of the  film they should be able to get compensation from the film's new owner, I would think.  If the new owners won't give proper compensation to Muller they shouldn't get access to the restored print. And  Muller may get stuck with that print, unable to show it to the public. We the public get stuck in the middle, unable to see the restored version or by a dvd copy.  Hopefully no complications arise here and all parties get a fair deal for their efforts.  And we get to view the restored film and it will be easily viewed in the future.

[laffite]

Yes, best to jot down the title of Too Late for Tears for July 17 on TCM someplace. Because if you miss this film noir, especially with its newly restored print, it really will be then . . . ahem . . .

 

. . . too late for tears.

 

To late for tears, maybe ... but it's never too late to whine.

[mrroberts]

"Hey, its five minutes to eight. Just calling to tell you to turn on TCM. ---  What do you mean you're busy?  I'm TELLING you to turn on TCM and make sure you watch the whole movie.  When its over I'm calling back and giving you a quiz."

[mrroberts]

Only a little more than a day left before the TCM broadcast of TOO LATE FOR TEARS, one of Dan's more memorable films and a noir classic.  And finally a chance to see Lizabeth Scott (as a deliciously evil femme fatale, one of the best  ) in a bright, clear restored print of this film.