Film noir’s feline stars: The cat in ‘Sudden Fear’

October 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Happy Halloween everyone! More on the most famous kitties in film noir …

The Cat in “Sudden Fear” 1952

Name: Scair D. Cat

Character Name: Alcatraz Joe

His one-time acting role allowed Chicago-born Scair D. Cat to pursue his culinary ambitions on the West Coast.

Bio: Having grown up in the back room of Chicago’s Katnip Klub on Lincoln Park West (“where no puss gets the boot”), Scair D. Cat was on particularly friendly terms with bartenders, bouncers and cooks. In fact, it was by helping out in the kitchen that he perfected a secret steak sauce he hoped to introduce to a bigger audience.

After receiving the blessing of the Klub’s management, Scair decided the sauce was ready for the big leagues and on a chilly winter day in 1952 skulked his way to Table One of the famous Pump Room restaurant at the Ambassador East Hotel, seeking to snag the chef’s attention.

But as Fate would have it, Joan Crawford and director David Miller were the human guests at Table One that day, discussing their upcoming project, the melodramatic thriller “Sudden Fear,” set in San Francisco. Crawford’s role as a playwright, who marries a younger man (Jack Palance) but discovers his treacherous true colors and carefully plots her retaliation, was one of her most demanding.

Crawford, eyes bulging and brows arched, took one look at Scair’s bulging eyes and arched brows, and convinced Miller that he should be cast as Alcatraz Joe. Scair was not the least bit interested in acting or Hollywood but Crawford won him over by promising that she would help promote his steak sauce on the West Coast as soon as filming wrapped. And Crawford made the ideal choice – Scair lends a shocking fierceness and rugged theatricality to the intense chase scenes toward the movie’s end.

True to her word, Crawford made several important introductions for her feline co-star. At the same time, Scair fell in love with the West Coast and began creating seafood sauces and recipes. He set up shop in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and became a consultant to restaurants such as Alioto’s. He and Crawford remained close friends.

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Wendell Corey astonishes as a doofus turned dangerous

September 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Killer is Loose/1956/Crown Productions, UA/73 min.

Michael Wilmington

By Michael Wilmington

Budd Boetticher, who didn’t direct nearly as many films as he should have, made a lot of them in the ’50s. And in 1956, he directed both a classic Western (“Seven Men from Now”) and a neglected semi-classic low-budget noir, “The Killer is Loose.”

Joseph Cotten plays a dedicated if disgruntled LA cop, Rhonda Fleming is his unwisely feisty wife, Alan Hale and John Larch are fellow fuzz, and, very memorably, Wendell Corey is the escaped bank robber who blames Cotten (correctly) for the death of his wife during his arrest.

Corey was a dependable, if often unexciting, sidekick and secondary guy in the ’40s and ’50s. In 1947’s “Desert Fury,” he plays John Hodiak’s right-hand crook, another great noir role. Corey gives an astonishing performance here as the psychotic vengeance-seeker – playing the character not as the usual cold-blooded, relentless Lee Marvin or Jack Palance type, but as someone you’d probably trust.

Wendell Corey plays the psycho as a polite, trustworthy type.

He’s a polite, preoccupied, considerate, somewhat clumsy, nice-enough-acting doofus, not at all maniacal or dangerous-appearing. He’s also seemingly unstoppable, as he breaks out of jail and moves inexorably toward Cotten and Fleming and their home in the suburbs, killing everyone in his way.

Corey’s loose killer and his last disguise, which in some ways anticipates Norman Bates’ mother in “Psycho,” are both absurd and scary.

The movie, like a lot of Boetticher, is immaculately well executed, the work of an extraordinary genre-bending talent. By the way, Lee Marvin had one of his all-time best heavy roles in Boetticher’s above-mentioned gem “Seven Men from Now.” In that movie, it was hero Randolph Scott who was the relentless pursuer, out to avenge his wife.

The cinematographer of “The Killer is Loose” was Lucien Ballard, Boetticher’s good friend and great collaborator. Ballard, an ace at both Westerns and noirs, shot this movie the same year he lit Stanley Kubrick’s “The Killing.”

MGM Limited Edition Collection, available from online retailers. No extras.

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Love at its worst, noir at its best: ‘Sudden Fear’ sucks you in

July 13, 2011 By 8 Comments

Sudden Fear/1952/RKO Radio Pictures/110 min.

If you’ve never seen 1952’s “Sudden Fear” by director David Miller, you are in for a treat. I’m not sure why but this film isn’t mentioned very often as an example of noir at its best. It is precisely that – with delightful darkness at its core. And it was nominated for four Academy Awards: actress, supporting actor, b&w cinematography and b&w costume design.

Hmm, where to begin my gushfest? Well, first of all, it stars Joan Crawford as heiress and playwright Myra Hudson. Glamorous, successful and gracious, Myra has everything in the world, except a man.

Jack Palance charms Joan Crawford on a train trip.

But that all changes fast. While sitting in on a rehearsal for her new play’s Broadway opening, Myra fires actor Lester Blaine (Jack Palance; the part was also offered to Marlon Brando). After the show is a smash hit, she runs into him by chance on the train back to her home in San Francisco. By the end of the trip, Myra and Lester seem to be in love. Lester is an actor, after all.

The truth is he has some unfinished business, or more accurately unrealized schemes, with ex-flame Irene Neves (Gloria Grahame). They have expensive taste but no cash; that’s where Myra’s money and a tragic “accident” come in.

Myra isn’t fooled for long, though certainly she has her share of night sweats and shakes. Her playwright’s skill for crafting plot lines as well as a knack for stunts and a talent for forgery come in mighty handy as she painstakingly plans a way to exact her revenge.

Crawford is captivating as the writer/wife with a wickedly resourceful streak. The scene in which she learns of Lester’s betrayal is remarkable – it hinges completely on her wordless, visceral reaction. Grahame sizzles as a smooth operator working every angle she can. Crawford also served as the film’s executive producer; she and Grahame reportedly did not get along. Shocker! Tall, craggy-faced Palance, in his first major screen role, effortlessly exudes mystery and menace. It’s chilling to see Lester morph from solicitous to sinister at the drop of a hat.

Miller, an underrated director, borrows a bit from the horror genre (rest assured, there’s a screeching cat, among other creepy tropes) and outdoes himself with this subversive, scary melodrama that just oozes tension. Love the chase scene toward the end. Miller worked from a strong, clever script by Lenore Coffee and Robert Smith from a novel by Edna Sherry.

The visuals are magnificent, noir at its finest, courtesy of cinematographer Charles B. Lang Jr. Black stripes and bars invade every scene, suggesting the characters’ entrapment in their fate. Intense contrast and chiaroscuro lend a painterly quality. Elmer Bernstein’s score, part nerve-wracking and part lushly romantic, is also key to building the suspense. [Read more...]

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‘Sudden Fear’ quick hit

July 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sudden Fear/1952/RKO Radio Pictures/110 min.

All newlyweds face a few challenges. But successful playwright Myra Hudson (Joan Crawford) and aspiring actor husband Lester Blaine (Jack Palance) have deeper issues. For example, Lester really wants to be with his true love Irene (Gloria Grahame); Lester and Irene both want Myra’s money. Myra taps her creative powers to throw a few wrenches into the mix. Melodramatic, it’s true, yet tense and satisfying.

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FNB proclaims Gloria Grahame Day: July 13

July 12, 2011 By 5 Comments

Lately I find myself compulsively watching “Sudden Fear” from 1952 starring Joan Crawford, Jack Palance and Gloria Grahame. It’s on as I write, in fact.

Directed by David Miller, the movie has a lot going for it (regular readers know I adore Joan Crawford) but at the top of the list is Grahame, playing a femme fatale nonpareil who’s also rather skilled at mingling in high society.

Gloria Grahame shined in '50s noir classics.

With her feline face, flirty smile and hour-glass figure, Grahame was a stalwart of film noir. Besides “Sudden Fear,” she was in “Crossfire” (1947, Edward Dmytryk), “In a Lonely Place” (1950, Nicholas Ray), “Macao” (1952, Josef von Sternberg), “The Big Heat” (1953, Fritz Lang), “Human Desire” (1954, Fritz Lang), “Naked Alibi” (1954, Jerry Hopper) and “Odds Against Tomorrow” (1959, Robert Wise).

Commenting on her seductive powers, she once said, “It wasn’t the way I looked at a man, it was the thought behind it.” (Though she often played the bad girl, she was a Los Angeles native from a comfortable family.)

She had acting chops, too, winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her part in “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952, Vicente Minnelli). Her breakthrough role was Violet Bick in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1947, Frank Capra).

Her career faltered, though, when on “Oklahoma” (1955, Fred Zinnemann) she acquired a reputation as being difficult to work with. Her big number in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is “I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No.” Natch. Also harmful to her public image was the fact that in 1960 she married Anthony Ray, her former stepson from her marriage (1948-1952) to director Nicholas Ray. Nonetheless, she worked on the stage, in TV and occasionally in films until she died at 57 in 1981. She was married four times and had four children.

So, because I can, I am declaring July 13 Gloria Grahame Day on FNB and will be posting reviews of her noir classics in the coming weeks. (If you are in LA, try to catch “In a Lonely Place” at LACMA on Friday, July 22.)

OK, time to restart “Sudden Fear” and break it to my friend – who stopped by tonight, took one look at the alluring Grahame and asked if he could get a date with her – that request, alas, will have to remain in the realm of fantasy. Ah, men and their fantasies; it’s a kingdom Grahame ruled perhaps not wisely but well.

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