Forties noir: Dead Reckoning

Humphrey Bogart is at his best as a hardboiled sleuth in this '40s film noir classic. In one of his most exciting roles, the inimitable Bogie plays Rip Murdock, an ex-G.I. trying to find out who framed his pal Johnny for murder - and then rubbed him out. Tracing his war buddy's shadowy past leads Rip to Coral Chandler (Lizabeth Scott) who was once Johnny's sweetheart. Now shes a chanteuse in a nightclub run by suave gangster Martinelli (Morris Carnovsky). Rip gets a taste of the beautiful blonde's seductive charms and soon finds himself ensnared in a twisted web of deceit and danger. Is Coral an innocent thrush - or is she a predatory siren leading Bogie to the DEAD RECKONING ?

as the dvd blurb says.

This 1947 noir is a nice discovery - a Bogie film I had not seen before and knew nothing about, but in the light of Lizabeth Scott's recent departure (at age 92) it seemed a good time to catch up with it. Its neat and very hardboiled, with some good dialogue, and director John Cromwell packs a lot into its 90 minutes - it has elements of THE MALTESE FALCON (with a duplicitious dame) and GILDA where the male bonds seem stronger than love for a female - Rip says he loved his dead pal more than he does Coral but he will get over his love for her ..... Riveting climax too and a surprise ending. That late 1940s ambiance is to the fore too, with those big cars and nightclubs, Scott wears some very 40s fashions including that snood for her hair.

Perhaps not one of Bogart's best - not another IN A LONELY PLACE or BIG SLEEP - but its filled with sharp witty dialogue and has all the noir trappings with lots of dark shadows, confessionals and voiceovers putting the murder plot in motion, as we see Rip (Bogie) looking at bodies in the morgue trying to find his lost pal - who was burnt to a crisp .... 

Poet and song-writer Fran Landesman (1927-2011) did a marvellous poem about Bogie, I love these particular verses:

With his five o'clock shadow / and his heart of pure gold /
He will always be Bogie / and he'll never grow old.

She's a girl who's in trouble / all her nights are like years /

She wears dresses of satin / and a necklace of tears.

She was Ida or Ingrid / till along came Bacall /
But he'll always be Bogie / and he's the king of them all. 

RIP continued ...

Louis Jourdan (1921-2015), aged 93. These Hollywood veterans certainly get to great ages. Jourdan was Hollywood's resident French heart-throb, after Chevalier and Boyer, and made quite a career with that charming facade and his good looks. His first Hollywood film was Hitchcock's THE PARADINE AFFAIR, and hits included GIGI, CAN CAN, THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN. He could terrorise too, as he stalks Doris Day in JULIE in 1956 (its the one where she has to land the plane) and he was an effective DRACULA in 1977, and a Bond villain in OCTOPUSSY. His most enduring classic is Ophuls' LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN in 1948. He was also in Minnelli's MADAME BOVARY, with Grace Kelly in THE SWAN, as well as films with Brigitte Bardot, Belinda Lee (my childhood favourite DANGEROUS EXILE, 1957), and as the gigolo in THE VIPs; he also acted on stage in the 1950s, in Gide's THE IMMORALIST playing gay, daring at the time, on Broadway with Geraldine Page.and the young James Dean (who left the production to film EAST OF EDEN). One of his final roles was in that Faye Dunaway trash classic we like, BEVERLY HILLS MADAM. and of course he was also the heel theatre director in our 1959 favourite THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. 

Lizabeth Scott (1922-2015, aged 92. The husky voice actress (real name: Emma Matzo) was a sensational 1940s femme fatale in films like THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS, DEAD RECKONING with Bogart,, I WALK ALONE, and I particularly relish her 1947 'noir thriller in lurid Technicolor' DESERT FURY (see my full review at Lizabeth Scott label). I first encountered her when I was about 12 in Elvis's LOVING YOU in 1957 (a reunion for her with DESERT FURY's Wendall Corey) where she was a fascinating presence with the young Presley. It was her last screen credit apart from a minor role in a minor thriller PULP in 1972. Its a fascinating life, she understudied Tallulah in THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH on Broadway, Hal B Wallis discovered her at her 21st birthday party held at The Stork Club in New York.

Michael Mason (1947-2015), aged 67, was one of the great gay rights campaigners and a key figure in the London gay publishing world. He was the editor of "Gay News" ( fatally wounded after their 1977 blasphemy court case with Mary Whitehouse).and later edited the free weekly "Capital Gay". At the colourful new venues, Bang and Heaven, young gay men were coming out via disco rather than politics, and the breezy new weekly set out to cover this “scene”. Its a fascinating life and Mason certainly achieved a lot.

Steve Strange (1959-2015), aged 55. Flamboyant nightclub host, leader of 80s group Visage and and a key figure in the New Romantic movement of the early 1980s. when the new electronic sounds replaced punk. In 1979, Strange and Rusty Egan opened Blitz club in Covent Garden. As club kids and scenesters battled to get through the doors, and Boy George acted as “the coat-check girl”, Strange (in leather jodhpurs and long overcoat) stood at the door and judged who would be allowed in. He enjoyed a huge publicity splash by denying admission to Mick Jagger. He appeared in Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" video, and scored a hit "Fade To Grey" with Visage, it still looks and sounds marvellous now. He later moved to Ibiza to get away from the London drug scene .... and died on holiday in Egypt.

Lesley Gore (1946-2015), aged 68. Lesley Gore was one of those teen singers of the early Sixties, who like Carole King, Brenda Lee or Connie Francis or England's Helen Shapiro, caught the moment perfectly. She was 16 when, in 1963, she rose to the top of the American charts with the song "It’s My Party" – a teenage drama about a girl’s birthday party ending in tears when her boyfriend, Johnny, walks in with another girl. ("You would cry too, if it happened to you"). Not just a one hit wonder, she had several other pop hits ("Judy's Turn To Cry", "You Don't Own Me" which was recorded by Dusty Springfield and others) as her prom queen looks suited the era. In later life she became a successful songwriter, and after coming out as gay, a prominent champion of women’s and LGBT rights, and she leaves a partner of 33 years. She received an Oscar nomination for "Our Here On My Own" one of the songs she composed for the film FAME. 

'40s noir in blazing colour

DESERT FURY - Sometimes an old movie surfaces which is so bizarre one has to rewatch it to see if one is getting all it's layers of meaning. Here is a 1947 Hal Wallis production, ostensibly a noir drama but in blazing colour set among the gambling community in Nevada - Chuckawalla to be precise! - where young luscious Lizabeth Scott returns to join her mother Fritzi (Mary Astor, perfect) a hard-boiled dame in slacks and usually with a cigarette holder, who runs the local casino The Purple Sage Saloon and who has a ritzy house nearby. Add in a young hot-looking Burt Lancaster as the local cop who is still in love with wayward Liz and two shady guys hiding out outside the town. Cue John Hodiak sunbathing topless while sidekick Wendall Corey does the household chores. There is a lot of innuendo here - the dialogue between mother and daughter, as someone on IMDB wrote, suggests an older lesbian and her young, restless companion.

Even more blatant are Hodiak and Corey as his insanely jealous sidekick - as he warns Lizabeth Hodiak will never leave him for her; later Hodiak tells her how he and Corey met and hooked up together (its rather suggestive, even for the '40s). Both Lancaster and (surprisingly) Hodiak fall for Scott. It seems, however, that Hodiak not only once romanced Astor (did they make it up as they went along?), but had a wife who died under suspicious circumstances, whom Lizabeth resembles, and then there is Corey keeping him on a leash; but is Wendall really just a devoted sidekick or the brains behind their plans for the future?

Astor seems to be enjoying herself (after being relegated to mother parts) as Fritzi keeping a tight leash on her willful daughter as the melodrama climaxes under the bright Nevada blue sky. Another star of the movie for me is that extraordinary "Town and Country" convertible Lizabeth drives around in. It was certainly that era of b-i-g cars. This farrago is scripted by Robert Rossen, with a good score by Miklos Rozsa and directed by one Lewis Allen and is of course delirious fun to see now, up there with ROADHOUSE or the lurid JOHNNY GUITAR! It was 10 years later in 1957 that I first saw Scott as Elvis's manager in LOVING YOU when I was all of 11 - she was still sensational then. Come to think of it, she was married to Wendall Corey in that one - they must have had a laugh reminiscing about DESERT FURY!