NFR Project: 'D.O.A.' (1950)

 

NFR Project: “D.O.A.”

Dir: Rudolph Mate

Scr: Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene

Pho: Ernest Laszlo

Ed: Arthur H. Nadel

Premiere: April 21, 1950

84 min.

It’s a great, gritty little noir that has a unique plot – in which a man must find his murderer.

How does this work? Well, the man was poisoned. Innocent accountant Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’Brien) is slipped a toxic drink one night while he’s out on the town in San Francisco. Feeling ill the next day, he goes to the doctor and finds that he has only days to live. He is a dead man walking.

This pushes Frank into a frenzy of activity. Working against time, he tracks down the motive for his murder, thumbing through witnesses and trying to get a straight answer out of the people involved. On the way, he meets Beverly Garland in her first film role (billed as Beverly Campbell) as a tough dame; tough-guy Neville Brand gets his first credited screen appearance here as a psychotic enforcer for a criminal boss.

O’Brien is compelling as a man working against the clock to find justice. The filming itself is a little on the crude side – this was an independent production with a small budget. However, United Artists was impressed by it and distributed it. It sports an excellent score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Of most interest are the long tracking shots that director Mate captured on the sly in San Francisco. In them, the camera tracks O’Brien as he dashes down the sidewalk, upsetting unknowing passersby.

Does Frank find his killer? What does he intend to do with his last precious few hours? How can he explain all this to his beloved Paula (Pamela Britton)? The movie is lean and fast-paced – it’s a headlong rush through a criminal’s milieu that doesn’t let up until the last possible second.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: In a Lonely Place.

NFR Project: 'Born Yesterday' (1950)

 

NFR Project: “Born Yesterday”

Dir: George Cukor

Scr: Albert Mannheimer, Garson Kanin

Pho: Joseph Walker

Ed: Charles Nelson

Premiere: Dec. 25, 1950

102 min.

Born Yesterday is a showcase for the talents of the effervescent Judy Holliday (1921-1945).

Comedian and actress, she began life as Judith Tuvim in Queens. In 1938, she joined a performing troupe called the Revuers, which providentially included that great lyric-writing team Betty Comden and Adolf Green. (Leonard Bernstein used to play the piano for their act, long before he became a name.) They became successful on New York’s nightclub scene, and soon Holliday was working on stage and in film.

Born Yesterday was written by Garson Kanin (with the help of his wife, Ruth Gordon) for Jean Arthur. When Arthur turned the opportunity down, Holliday was picked in 1946 to play the part of Billie Dawn. She got rave reviews, and was a natural to tackle the role onscreen in 1950. She did such an amazing job that she won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Actress.

She plays Billie Dawn, a supposedly ditzy chorus girl turned kept woman. She is the companion of Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford), a fabulously rich, abrasive junk dealer who is in Washington, D.C. to make some crooked deals and influence legislation in his favor. She is, seemingly, a classic dumb blonde – squeaky-voiced, obsessed with her looks, unfamiliar with anything complex or ambiguous. Brock wants her to mingle with polite society, so he commands that she get an education.

Enter Paul Verrall (William Holden), a journalist seeking an interview with Brock. Brock takes a shine to him and convinces him to tutor Billie, and he does – taking her on a whirlwind tour of the U.S. capitol, and assigning her a load of books to read. Unexpectedly, Billie proves to be much sharper than anyone took her for. Soon she is questioning Brock’s habit of hiding assets under her name, which entails her signing many documents she doesn’t understand. She balks at this, and declares her independence and her contempt for him. Meanwhile, she and Paul fall for each other.

Holliday plays a shallow person who develops depth; she combines sheer daffiness with a sharp emotional intelligence that makes her appealing and fascinating to watch. Billie transforms herself from a dumb bunny into a smart cookie, and the film can be read as a proto-feminist fable. However, Billie marries Paul at the film’s conclusion, and one wonders how liberated she will really become.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: D.O.A.

NFR Project: 'The Asphalt Jungle' (1950)

 

NFR Project: “The Asphalt Jungle”

Dir: John Huston

Scr: Ben Maddow, John Huston

Pho: Harold Rosson

Ed: George Boemler

Premiere: May 12, 1950

112 min.

It’s one of John Huston’s best films, and an absolute film noir classic. In it, Huston changes his visual style completely, creating a dark, claustrophobic world in which very few can be trusted and things don’t break the protagonists’ way.

Our heroes are the criminals, and this story is told from their perspective. We in the audience are their conspirators; we can’t help but root for them. They are regular Joes, and would be considered working stiffs if it weren’t for the fact that they break the law instead of punching a clock.

A dangerous criminal mastermind, Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe, in a fantastic performance) is released from prison. He has a plan to steal $500,000 in jewelry in a big Midwestern city. To do this, he needs $50,000 in seed money. He goes to a crooked lawyer, Emmerich (Louis Calhern in his greatest role) to get his backing. Doc assembles a team – safecracker Louis (Anthony Caruso), getaway driver Gus (James Whitmore), and a strong-armed “hooligan,” Dix (Sterling Hayden). The plan is excellent, and everything goes like clockwork – until it doesn’t.

First, the explosion that blows the safe sets off the alarms for all the businesses in the area. A watchman intrudes and is struck down by Dix, but not before Louis is accidentally shot. Doc and Dix go to collect the money for the job, but it seems that Emmerich is secretly broke and plans to take the jewels from the team and flee the country. His private detective Brannom (Brad Dexter) tries to shoot it out and gets killed – and now Dix is wounded, too.

Doc and Dix escape and make their plans to get out of town. Emmerich is cornered by the police and kills himself. Doc is arrested; Dix drives with his girlfriend Doll (Jean Hagen) to his boyhood home in Kentucky. He makes it, but dies in a field outside his house. The horses he loves gather around his dead body.

The top-notch script, adapted from W.R. Burnett’s 1949 novel, gives us three-dimensional characters with something to say for themselves. Marc Lawrence is great in a small role as Cobby, a sweaty fixer, and Barry Kelley plays a corrupt cop to perfection. Each character has a point of view, something to shoot for, and their fair share of weaknesses. Doc is attracted to underage girls, which proves his downfall; Emmerich bankrupts himself by keeping a teen mistress (Marilyn Monroe in a sharp early role).

And Dix is an honorable man in a dishonorable profession. He sticks to his word; he’s reliable and decent. His dream of buying back his family farm is a good one; he’s simply fated not to see it happen.

In the end, the best-laid plans go awry and the guilty are punished. Order is restored. But our protagonists are all destroyed.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Born Yesterday.