Noir Alley

[jamesjazzguitar]

Tonight's Noir Alley film is Storm Fear (1955). This United Artist film stars Cornel Wilde, who also directed the film, Wilde's wife at the time, Jean Wallace, and iconic noir actor Dan Duryea. Running at 88 minutes its worth seeing but not nearly as good as the first film the couple was in The Big Combo (with iconic noir actor Richard Conte).

Storm Fear also features Lee Grant (in her 3rd film), Dennis Weaver (who joined Gunsmoke also in 1955), and Stephen Hill (better known for Law and Order).

[CinemaInternational]

It was ok. I thought the happy ending was a cop out. I wish the film had been a little longer and fleshed out, but you can't complain it dragged! I wanted to slap Lynn's son silly though. I started FF'ing any scene with him in it. I also found Harry Morgan's character annoying. I kind of guessed who was responsible a little before it was revealed, but the film does keep you guessing. Martha Scott come to think of it was annoying too in some ways. Who goes to their bosses home the day after he dies to pay their respects? Seemed a dumb way to get Lynn over there so he could be grilled by the detective.

That happy ending was erased in the decades later Murder, She Wrote episode. In that one, Lynn was finally released after spending almost forty years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. And then it was up to Jessica to fully clear his name. It's one of the best MSW episodes I think, although one moment near the end throws things off for looking, shall we say, inaccurate or implausible.

[jamesjazzguitar]

I was surprised that Eddie Muller trashed STORM FEAR as much as he did. It's not even one of the weakest films he's presented recently on Noir Alley. SHOCKPROOF, for instance, wasn't nearly as good. He is certainly right that Horton Foote's script is problematic with too much 1950s family melodrama and that Cornel Wilde as a beginning director hasn't learned how to use the camera effectively. On the other hand, Elmer Bernstein's music is excellent, and Joseph La Shelle is a veteran cinematographer.

Some pluses and minuses: Wilde may be a beginning director, but he elicited a much better performance from Dennis Weaver than in TOUCH OF EVIL (where Weaver has to execute a dreadful directorial concept). However, this is the only poor performance I've ever seen from Dan Duryea. The character is poorly written, one-note, and perhaps because Duryea is shot from below much of the time in this film, he seems to have gained a lot of weight in the face. Perhaps he's using prosthetics? David Stollery, the boy actor, is tolerable, which is all I ask of child actors. He has to say "Yes 'm" so much you'd think he was Hattie McDaniel.

It was fun to see the young Steven Hill as Benjy, the dumb and violent sidekick. Benjy was the idiot in Faulkner's THE SOUND AND THE FURY, so the character name tells us to make the connection. Muller really trashes Hill's performance, as you'll hear in the outro. He praises Lee Grant as the blonde floozy Edna, who has the best line. I laughed out loud at this: Edna pours some booze in her glass of milk, to which Benjy reacts in horror. Edna defends herself: "I can't drink it straight!"

For my taste, Jean Wallace gives the best performance. She didn't make much impression on me in THE BIG COMBO, but here she has the richest, most complex character, and she does justice to it. In looks and voice she often reminds me of Grace Kelly, and this might be the intention of the filmmakers. Eddie pointed out that Cornel Wilde is trying to expand his range by playing a crook rather than a hero. I have no complaints about Wilde's acting in this film, and he is handsome, manly, and likable, which the part calls for. He's shirtless in several scenes, and not buffed up to meet today's standards of hunkitude, which is fine with me.

SPOILER ALERT: I also laughed out loud at Edna's expression as she falls off the cliff, which is probably not the intended reaction. I also have to wonder about the "happy" resolution when the boy will soon have to be the stepson of the man who killed his father.

Well said. I also found the film better than Eddie. I agree that Jean Wallace gave the best performance. Yea, she was rather bland\static in The Big Combo but so was the character (a gal had to lack emotion to be a gangster's moll to a sadist like the Conte character).

I agreed with Eddie's take on Steven Hill especially his comparison to a similar character in Nightfall, Red, as played by Rudy Bond. The way Hill played the character was clownish and for me can only be explained via gay subtext. This relates to the Lee Grant character which was also needless the way it was handled by the script. She was sleeping with Wilde. She was his gal. After a while, she had to realize Wilde was in love with Wallace and that he came to the house to see Wallace (I assume she didn't know the child was Wilde's). If she was nasty to Hill because she knew he loved Wilde, like she did, she would surely have been nastier to Wallace. The Big Combo has a very overt gay theme. Here it is unclear as it relates to the lead hood's stooge. Bottom line here is that everyone but his brother was in love with Wilde!

As for the direction: Nightfall was directed by Jacques Tourneur and is one of my favorite, late-in-the-cycle, noir films. I do wonder what a director like Tourneur would have done with Strom Fear. Eddie was right-on when it comes to too much dialog instead of using visuals; e.g. facial expressions to communicate what the characters were feeling. I.e. that Wilde didn't trust the intelligence of the audience.

As for the ending: I believe it was realistic but that depends on how one interprets it. The Weaver character was already the stand-in-stepfather of the boy. This is made clear in the opening scene. Yea, he was in love with mom, but he didn't come off as only being nice to the boy to get to the mom. E.g. the gift of the 22. This came off as genuine affection toward the boy.   Who knows if the widow would now take up with the Weaver character. It was the boy that grabbed the hand of Weaver and not Wallace.

[Cinemaspeak59]

The Maltese Falcon (1941) We’ve all seen this, so there’s not much more to add. The score by Adolph Deutsch is very effective, alternating between ominous and lighthearted. I also like the set for the Hotel Belvedere (probably used in other WB productions). I wouldn’t mind spending a couple of hours in the Belvedere lobby, with a coffee and newspaper in hand, watching the comings and goings.

[jamesjazzguitar]

The relationships among the gang members in STORM FEAR needed to be clarified. A characteristic of some Horton Foote scripts is to have too much largely irrelevant dialogue and too little attention to key characters or plot points. That's true of BABY, THE RAIN MUST FALL, and THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, based on one of his early plays, is about half an hour too long.

I understood, perhaps wrongly, that Edna (Lee Grant) was the girlfriend of the gangster who had been shot and captured. Charlie (Cornel Wilde) seemed to despise her. Benjy (Stephen Hill) was lusting after Liz (Jean Wallace), though it's not impossible that he was also attracted to Charlie. How the gang got together was one of the details that the script could and should have clarified. Cornel Wilde seems like he would have been the leader, but perhaps the unseen gangster was the leader. Again, this could easily have been established.

Thanks for reminding me of the guy who was shot and captured. Maybe he was Liz's guy, as well as the guy that shot the cop. But it would be odd for the lead hood to allow an underling to have a gal, and not have one himself. But then maybe the guy who was shot was the lead hood and Charlie only became the lead after he was captured? (I don't think that was the case since clearly Charlie dominated Benjy and sure acted like he was in charge of the entire gang).

[Hibi]

I thought the film was pretty mediocre. So drawn out and talky. Over and over Jean Wallace trashes WIlde than has the hots for him. Make up your mind!!! It's obvious early on that the kid is Wilde's. Who's bright idea was it to make Lee Grant a blonde??? She looked ridiculous! And she seemed to age a decade or more from Detective Story. Dan Duryea was totally miscast as the self pitying "good guy". Steven Hill was so over the top bad. Dunno if it was the direction or just the writing. What was the point with Wilde's stutter?? It came and went and seemed like he couldn't remember his lines! (not the intention, I'm sure!) The ending sequence wasn't too bad. Too bad it took so long to get there. All in all not a film I'd ever want to watch again.

[nakanosunplaza]

[. All in all not a film I'd ever want to watch again.
[/quote]

I totally agree with you Hibi ,watched it about 2 years ago,since Wilde was footing the bill,there was a very B movie look, in the settings etc.Wilde did most of his later films as a producer with Jean Wallace in the cast,none of them made money, one of his worst was as Lancelot,Wilde was pushing 50 in 1963 and Wallace as Guenevere was almost 40 ! it was a financial disaster, the best film he produced and direct is The Naked Prey i have seen it on a the bottom of a double and Iwas really impressed,seen it many years later still very good.In many of his films Cornel Wilde like to show his physique and he had reasons to do it,he looked great with a trim body ,but as Lancelot he was a bit long in the tooth, He was a sort of Pygmalion with Wallace and I think Cornel Wilde was an insanely jealous man !!!! But I like him-I must-as I have seen almost 40 of his films..

[Hibi]

[. All in all not a film I'd ever want to watch again.

I totally agree with you Hibi ,watched it about 2 years ago,since Wilde was footing the bill,there was a very B movie look, in the settings etc.Wilde did most of his later films as a producer with Jean Wallace in the cast,none of them made money, one of his worst was as Lancelot,Wilde was pushing 50 in 1963 and Wallace as Guenevere was almost 40 ! it was a financial disaster, the best film he produced and direct is The Naked Prey i have seen it on a the bottom of a double and Iwas really impressed,seen it many years later still very good.In many of his films Cornel Wilde like to show his physique and he had reasons to do it,he looked great with a trim body ,but as Lancelot he was a bit long in the tooth, He was a sort of Pygmalion with Wallace and I think Cornel Wilde was an insanely jealous man !!!! But I like him-I must-as I have seen almost 40 of his films..
[/quote]

Agree, Naked Prey was good and Wilde was in great shape considering he must've been mid 50s at the time. I haven't seen any of the later Wilde/Wallace pairings.

[Andree]

I saw this one a few years ago on YT. It hasn't improved with age. I doubt that a change in director would have
any more than minor results. This is just a routine crime flick of the bank robbers on the lam plot with a sibling
rivalry and a love triangle thrown in. The claustrophobic setting of all these folks in a small house is slightly
interesting, but that's all. I found Steven Hill to be scary even if he wasn't very smart. Neither was Neville Brand in
most of his crime flicks, but he was still spooky. Poor Dan Duryea spent half the time coughing up a lung, the other
half looking very depressed, which is certainly understandable. When I see someone muffled up in a scarf I am
sometimes reminded of Aubrey Mather in the SH movie House of Fear. Of course Aubrey was much more jolly
and likeable than Dan. I also wondered where the dough came from since Dan sure didn't make any by his writing
and Jean couldn't make any by turning tricks in that out of the way location. The ending was the best part of the
movie, though I wonder how Weaver managed to catch up with them when they had a three hour start, even taking
into account the number of times they stopped and rested. Got a kick out of the ending. Jean will be alone with
a son to raise (and taking everything into account the kid was not as annoying as he could have been) and who's
there to help her through it but good ol' Chester. He never had such luck with the ladies on Gunsmoke.

[jamesjazzguitar]

I found Steven Hill to be scary even if he wasn't very smart. Neither was Neville Brand in
most of his crime flicks, but he was still spooky. I also wondered where the dough came from since Dan sure didn't make any by his writing
and Jean couldn't make any by turning tricks in that out of the way location. [/i].

Hill was a coward. As soon as Wilde said boo, he would `back off like a scared 12 year old.

As for how the family had the money to live: Wilde does say that he provided thousands of dollars to his brother to buy the place and support them.

It is safe to assume Wilde got the dough by robbing banks and other places.

[Andree]

Hill was a coward. As soon as Wilde said boo, he would `back off like a scared 12 year old.

As for how the family had the money to live: Wilde does say that he provided thousands of dollars to his brother to buy the place and support them.

It is safe to assume Wilde got the dough by robbing banks and other places.

Yes, he was a coward when faced with someone more powerful than himself. But absent that he was a bully
who likely took out some of the humiliation he felt with people like Wilde on the weaker people he could boss
around, which makes him scary in my book.

I remember Duryea or Wilde saying that the money to buy the place came from Wilde, but it would have been
kind of naïve to depend on a bank robber to pay your everyday bills. I know it's not a big part of the story
and part of Hollywood money magic, but it's fun to spot these things. The "other" Dan Duryea would have
taken that money and been long gone.

[jamesjazzguitar]

This week's Noir Alley is Black Angel (1946) - Universal, with Dan Duryea, June Vincent and Peter Lorre.

Running at 81 minutes I believe this is a TCM premier. I've never seen the film. After I see it, I've have seen all Duryea noirs (since this film and last week's Storm Fear were the last two on my Duryea bucket list). With Brodrick Crawford, as a cop, and Wallace Ford (an iconic noir supporting).