1956's The Killer is Loose

It's for the love of the genre, the style, the nostalgia that keeps me watching noir. They are what makes watching enjoyable. Those elements combined make the experience worthwhile. Some films have these and more. They have amazing story lines, innovative production techniques and some of the best acting ever filmed. But when they don't, a noir is often times still time well-spent. And so it is with 1956's The Killer is Loose.

This was directed by Budd Boetticher. Budd isn't known to me outside of this film except for one episode of the Rifleman (great TV by the way). In this film he directed Rhonda Fleming and Joseph Cotton.

Now Joseph Cotten I don't get. He is passable. His best trait is that he reminds me of Hamilton Burger (William Talman) from Perry Mason.

William Talman

Joseph Cotten

Joe Cotten is about as dynamic as he looks. There really isn't any energy in his performance and his pairing as the husband of a devoted Rhonda Fleming is laughable

Rhonda Fleming

What was going through the minds of the casting directors for some of these 1950's releases. At least with Dear Murderer, it was plausible that Greta Gynt's character was gold digging while fooling around, but Rhonda Fleming's character was a devoted policeman's wife.

I don't think the chemistry was there and if I have to wonder "wait a minute, why is she with him?", then I know they could have done a better job.




Now, not all of this film was challenging. Wendall Corey did a fine job as the psychotic murderer. He was chilling enough with his cool, confused portrayal of Foggy, and the supporting cast was top notch (except for Allen Hale - sorry, but I always see the Skipper).

As a nostalgia film, this was kind of fun. The calender in the kitchen during a particularly tense scene was Dec., 1954, so I wonder why it took so long to be released ('56). It had the gritty taste that 1950's films usually depicted, and it gave us visibility into the expected gender role definitions that hollywood promoted. By this I mean, poor Lila Wagner was protected, lied to and shuttled around to keep the poor woman from hysterics. Finally, she is shamed for her "selfish" feelings and for not supporting her cop husband who was only doing his best to protect her. OMG, it was enough to puke on. Fortunately, this is not typical in all noirs as we often see strong female leads like Stanwick and Bacall. But with The Killer is Loose, it's best to look at it as a period piece and educate yourself on how the media tried to shape our culture.

Watch The Killer is Loose Now

Dear Murderer & Witness to Murder

This weekend I got to enjoy to noir films from different periods.

Dear Murderer is a 1947 movie from director Arthur Crabtree.
It stars Eric Portman and Greta Gynt.

Watch Dear Murderer Now

All and all, this was a fun movie. Greta Gynt character (Vivian Warren) immediately inspired dislike. But it didn't take long for Eric Portman's character (Lee - Vivian's husband) to become distasteful either. It was fun to be routing for no one.

This movie almost lost me at the outset.
I understand that sometimes we must "suspend disbelief", but to have to do so in the first 10 minutes of the film is a hard pill to swallow. I give it the benefit of the doubt though, because the scene is between two 1940's era proper English gentlemen. So lets say I talked myself into believing (at least for 90 minutes) that people would be that kind or non-confrontative with each other. Problem: to believe otherwise ruins the bedrock of this film.

Once I got past that little speed bump, the film carried itself along nicely.
Greta Gynt was perfectly cast and performed well. Not only was her hair perfect and her costuming capturing, but she oozed femme fetale. Of course, no matter how good a job Eric Portman did (and he was good), it was hard to believe the two of them as a match i.e. Greta is out of his league. This worked for the film though, because it made sense with her characters choices.

Get Witness to Murder

Now, Witness to Murder is a whole 'nother class of noir.

Let me say that this film shows why I believe that Barbara Stanwyck embodies 1950's noir.

This is a psychologically tense film that plays with desperation by alienating a otherwise upstanding citizen.

This movie was directed by Roy Rowland for a 1954 release. What was fun was to watch it so closely after Dear Murderer. The contrast between the British film from a decade earlier showed the surprising change in the noir genre over time and across the continents. While the noir elements of shadow and suspense were present in Crabtree's Dear Murderer, the darkness was turned up several notches by Rowland's film from '54. Mainly, the introduction of the asylum scenes demonstrated the loss of innocence that film goers were expecting just 8 years later.

Now not perfect, Witness to Murder had a shabby Nazi theme underlying the main storyline. I cannot know how this felt to an audience that was so much closer to WWII as a current event, but in 2014 it seems forced or even pandering. But much like the allowed "suspended belief" in Dear Murderer, it was a forgiven for "Witness to Murder".

Craven / Raimi Poster Tieback

 The Evil Dead

Sometimes I am years/decades behind. Actually, based on my Dvorak discovery, sometimes I'm centuries behind. But these discoveries are all new (news) to me. One example is my recent deep-dive into The Evil Dead series.

I am happy to say that I had the chance to watch the original back in 1982 on VHS. I scared the crap out of me. Honestly, I remember thinking "how can this movie be so friggin' scary?!" But that was the last of it until this year (2014) when my 13 year old son started looking into the whole Ash mythos. That's when I discovered the cult status of the series and the superhuman Ash personality. [Bruce Campbell is The Man]. What I saw was the progressive shift from high-quality horror in the Evil Dead to comedy in Army of Darkness. I didn't quite understand what was happening and so I watched the series a few times to see if I could figure it out.

Watching a movie under a microscope is different than just enjoying a movie. It helps bring out a new level of detail. It was when I realized that everything in each shot was intentionally put there by the director. Maybe elementary to you, but new to me. And these are the eyes I used watching Evil Dead for the 3rd time.

Scene: Ash and his friend are in the basement of the cabin for the first time
This is a tense scene. We don't know what is going on yet and anything could happen. So after the jump scare Ash is introduced to the tape recorder and Necronomicon. But...what is the torn poster in the background?

I didn't notice it the first few times.
This time however I wondered "what is a movie poster doing in this basement in the middle of the woods?" Then I recognized it as a poster for The Hills Have Eyes.

I asked my son (who I was watching it with) if he had a clue. Nope. So I was on to something and immediately knew that The Hills Have Eyes would be the next showing. What was going on?

Watch Evil Dead Now

So, Saturday evening we ended up with Wes Craven and The Hills Have Eyes.
Now this is a neat film - from a kitsch perspective.
You probably won't be scared, the gore is super low...and I don't remember an over abundance of swearing. Also to a minimum is story, quality acting and budget. It was fun, the kind of fun you have seeing a cheesy movie at an old cinema. But I had already forgotten why I was watching it in the first place, until my son pointed out "oh, look at the torn Jaws poster".

Yes!

It went by quickly.
I would have missed it if he hadn't pointed it out.
Remember, I'm new at watching for this level of detail
So there it was!
Raimi in '79 was referencing Craven from '77 that was referencing Jaws from '75.

Now why?

Watch the Hills Have Eyes Now 

Though I had the threads, I now wanted to figure out what the message was.
My guess was that since I thought The Hills Have Eyes was a bit silly, that Raimi was poking fun.
From what I found online, that is wrong.

Sam Raimi is said to have really liked Craven's movie, and the torn poster wasn't a shot at him, but a tip of his hat. Ok...it was '79, I can believe it. But there was more:

In Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street, he continued the admiration by having a scene in which the kids were watching Evil Dead. Cool [I have to verify this for myself]. And then even more, after that Raimi admired Craven yet again by placing Freddie's glove into the tool shed that Ash uses in Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn.

This was a really fun Easter Egg to decipher.
I encourage all of you to check it out for yourselves.

The Lock Artist

Buy the Lock Artist

Steve Hamilton deserves the praise that he has received for this book. AND he has received a lot of praise in the form of awards awards (including a finalist spot in the 2011 Golden Dagger).

I've been having a lot of fun cherry picking from the Golden Dagger 

list and that's how I happened upon Steve's book.

It hasn't been a success every time, but this time it was.

 

Steve seems to be an interesting guy - working for IBM as a day job and writing at night. But lets talk about the book:

This is a novel with two story lines, both in the past and being told from the present. Steve switches between the two smoothly. Often times, I am attached to one storyline and get annoyed when I am switched to a second in order to create false tension. 

 

Alternatively, Steve has wound two intriguing narratives and they both held my attention. 

There was enough content around being a "lock artist" to appeal to my interests. It was fun to learn about a subject that I had never considered before. Steve has a knack in explaining the technical details in an exciting way. 

I felt that while there was an attempt at depth (explaining the psychological reasoning behind the main characters affliction), it was kept light. While this made for an easily consumed plot, I felt that a deeper exploration was missing. What wasn't missing was the building of the relationship between the main character and his love interest.

 

The development of this relationship was done in a very unique way. There communication method was one-of-a-kind and sucked me right in. 

We're coming up on summer 2014, and I think you could do your reading list a favor with The Lock Artist. We know sometimes our choices are risky, but with Steve Hamilton's book, you can guarantee your afternoon under the beach umbrella, or a Saturday by an open window (as I enjoyed it).