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Trois NOIRS

      I've been watching old and not-so-old movies on TV since I was a child, consequently, I've seen a lot of movies.  So it comes as quite a surprise when I encounter a film which I haven't seen before that is so really good that I think, "How have I missed this?" Here are three movies that I didn't see until I was an adult that I am recommending and, strangely, all three can be considered film noir.

     This film, I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Warner Bros.), from 1932, is one that I must have passed by on TV years ago, thinking a film with such a title couldn't possibly be of interest to me.  When I finally did stop to watch it, I was absorbed from beginning to end in a surprisingly realistic film for its time. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and based on a true story, the film stars Paul Muni as a returning veteran from World War I  who becomes an unwitting accomplice to a robbery. He is quickly  sentenced to a chain gang in a southern outpost of the U.S. justice system.  Still seeking justice, he manages to escape after a time and build a new life in the north. He establishes a family, contributes to society, and is inevitably found out.  When his story is revealed, many supporters rally to his defense and law enforcement presents him with a deal that will lead to a pardon.  All he has to do is return to Georgia and serve a short sentence, a mere formality, and then he will be freed.  But the Georgia prison officials double-cross him and he is sent back to the chain gang. Muni's transformation from an innocent victim to a hardened survivor is one of the great screen performances.  This time when he escapes he knows there can be no place for him in legitimate society.  The last scene is devastating.

     Force of Evil (1948, Enterprise Productions) came on one night when I had the sleep timer on the TV.  I was dozing off into sleep when I heard such remarkable dialogue that I sat up and thought, "Who wrote this?"  I later found out that it was written and directed by Abraham Polonsky.  I was surprised that the name was unfamiliar to me because such excellent writing should certainly have made him well known. Well, it turns out that, sadly, Polonsky was another victim of the Hollywood black list and was unable to work under his own name for the next seventeen years.   The story revolves around a mob lawyer, played by John Garfield, and his brother, played by Thomas Gomez, who runs a small, but honest, numbers game.  Garfield's character wants his brother to sell out to the mobster's numbers racket which is taking over the city before things get rough. But his brother is not interested, and what's more, he condemns his brother for working for a gangster, particularly when he sacrificed his own ambition to put him through law school.  The scenes between the two brothers are riveting with an intensity reminiscent of an Odets play.  It has been suggested that this story was a metaphor for the corrosive effects of unfettered capitalism. Given Polonsky's political predilections, it may be so, but as a dramatic exploration of the conflict between brothers who want both to protect and reject each other, it is reason enough to make the trip.  The black and white photography is as dark as the theme.  Don't miss this one.

   

       

     And now for something completely different.  The only thing 'noir' about Leave Her to Heaven (1945, Twentieth Century Fox) is the plot because visually, this is one of the most beautiful uses of technicolor ever filmed.  It stars the lovely Gene Tierney who looks even lovelier than she did a year earlier in the black and white noir favorite Laura (1944, Twentieth Century Fox).

     In this story, she meets a young writer (Cornel Wilde) on the train who reminds her of her deceased father (for whom we come to realize she had an unnatural devotion).  She promptly decides to marry him while dumping her fiance (Vincent Price).  The dumping occurs in a driving rainstorm at the family's New Mexico ranch which contrasts with the glowing warmth of the interior shots. The set design is -- well, I could easily live there.  After they are married, the location changes to Maine and the north woods scenery is as wonderful as the desert.  They settle in a cabin along the lake with the younger brother of the groom, an arrangement that we see is not sitting well with the bride.  We worry for the crippled brother when she takes him out on the lake.  We slowly realize that she has a pathological resentment of any intrusion into the couple's life. This is an unusual exploration into the psychological realm for the forties. Some have expressed the opinion that the intense color distracts from the noir theme, but I disagree. The visual beauty makes the theme even more disturbing because it is not as immediately apparent.  Directed by John M. Stahl, this film could easily be dismissed as melodramatic eye candy, but every element is done with such excellence that it rises above any genre you wish to assign to it.