Re: Noir Films
Posted: January 26th, 2014, 11:13 am
20 Mysterious Clues...Plus 2 Beautiful Women!
With a leap faith because of my affection for 711 OCEAN DRIVE (1950) and DEATH IN SMALL DOSES (1957), I watched TWENTY PLUS TWO (Joseph M. Newman 1961).
Great opening: Daylight shots of a Hollywood and Vine sign, Capitol Records, the Brown Derby and Grauman's with a swingin' jazz score (I guess we're in Hollywood, Toto.) - then night and a shot of a door ("Julia Joliet's Fan Mail Service"), inside are the pictures of an actor seen due to a disembodied flashlight, a gloved hand opens a file drawer, rifling the file until a letter is withdrawn, and his legs step over a dead woman.
A detective who specializes in finding missing heirs senses a connection between this murder and an heiress who became missing 12 years ago when she was 16. A reunion with his former love (she gave him the ol' "Dear John" while he was in Korea, got married, and is now engaged - but wouldn't mind hooking up), his introduction to her beautiful blonde and well-to-do girlfriend (who somehow looks familiar to him, but he can't quite put his finger on it), the actor, a mysterious man who wants to engage the detective to find his missing brother, a washed-up alcoholic newsman who reveals that the heiress was pregnant when she disappeared (but never reported it at the time due to the threats of her father), the heiress' mother who believes her daughter is still alive and had just run away, and the detective's deus ex machina flashback to a dancehall in Korea where he falls for a beautiful brunette dancehall girl (who looks suspiciously like his former love's beautiful blonde and well-to-do girlfriend) all lead to the inevitable conclusion that....
For all of the convolution, it is tightly directed. Carl Guthrie (CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (Peter Godfrey 1945); FLAXY MARTIN (Richard Bare 1949); CAGED! (John Cromwell 1950); ALL I DESIRE (Douglas Sirk 1953)) shot it in that early-'60s crisp TV style. The swingin' sounds are provided by Gerald Fried, who early in his career scored Stanley Kubrick's first four feature films and the great Timothy Carey dance-and-musical vehicle, BAYOU (Harold Daniels 1957). And whatta cast!
Detective (looking for an heiress, not a one-armed man): David Janssen
Former Love: Jeanne Crain
Her Girlfriend: Dina Merrill (better as a blonde)
Actor: Brad Dexter
Mysterious Man: Jacques Aubuchon
Washed-Up Alcoholic Newsman: William Demarest
Heiress' Mother: Agnes Moorehead
In smaller roles: Robert Strauss, Carleton Young, Will Wright and...as a young man in the dancehall with a string of tickets, just trying to get a dance, any dance, with someone, anyone, a fellow by the name of Robert Osborne.
With a leap faith because of my affection for 711 OCEAN DRIVE (1950) and DEATH IN SMALL DOSES (1957), I watched TWENTY PLUS TWO (Joseph M. Newman 1961).
Great opening: Daylight shots of a Hollywood and Vine sign, Capitol Records, the Brown Derby and Grauman's with a swingin' jazz score (I guess we're in Hollywood, Toto.) - then night and a shot of a door ("Julia Joliet's Fan Mail Service"), inside are the pictures of an actor seen due to a disembodied flashlight, a gloved hand opens a file drawer, rifling the file until a letter is withdrawn, and his legs step over a dead woman.
A detective who specializes in finding missing heirs senses a connection between this murder and an heiress who became missing 12 years ago when she was 16. A reunion with his former love (she gave him the ol' "Dear John" while he was in Korea, got married, and is now engaged - but wouldn't mind hooking up), his introduction to her beautiful blonde and well-to-do girlfriend (who somehow looks familiar to him, but he can't quite put his finger on it), the actor, a mysterious man who wants to engage the detective to find his missing brother, a washed-up alcoholic newsman who reveals that the heiress was pregnant when she disappeared (but never reported it at the time due to the threats of her father), the heiress' mother who believes her daughter is still alive and had just run away, and the detective's deus ex machina flashback to a dancehall in Korea where he falls for a beautiful brunette dancehall girl (who looks suspiciously like his former love's beautiful blonde and well-to-do girlfriend) all lead to the inevitable conclusion that....
For all of the convolution, it is tightly directed. Carl Guthrie (CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (Peter Godfrey 1945); FLAXY MARTIN (Richard Bare 1949); CAGED! (John Cromwell 1950); ALL I DESIRE (Douglas Sirk 1953)) shot it in that early-'60s crisp TV style. The swingin' sounds are provided by Gerald Fried, who early in his career scored Stanley Kubrick's first four feature films and the great Timothy Carey dance-and-musical vehicle, BAYOU (Harold Daniels 1957). And whatta cast!
Detective (looking for an heiress, not a one-armed man): David Janssen
Former Love: Jeanne Crain
Her Girlfriend: Dina Merrill (better as a blonde)
Actor: Brad Dexter
Mysterious Man: Jacques Aubuchon
Washed-Up Alcoholic Newsman: William Demarest
Heiress' Mother: Agnes Moorehead
In smaller roles: Robert Strauss, Carleton Young, Will Wright and...as a young man in the dancehall with a string of tickets, just trying to get a dance, any dance, with someone, anyone, a fellow by the name of Robert Osborne.