 |  | LUPINO NOIR FLICKS ARE OK . . . AND DON'T EARN A KISS OF DEATH |  |
The two new additions to the Fox Film Noir series are really fun and interesting. Neither could be called strictly noir, but with lots of noirish elements, both films will reward with a first or second viewing. Road House (1948) was dubbed a "sordid slashing melodrama," by one critic, and has Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde and Richard Widmark in a love triangle dripping with lust, betrayal and violence, as well as Celeste Holm along for the ride. Widmark continues his slightly-off, mostly insane characterizations that started with Kiss Of Death, and Lupino plays a bar canary who warbles Mercer's "One for My Baby" with B-girl authority. Moontide (1942) also stars Lupino and is illuminated by the performance of the great French actor Jean Gabin. Deeply moody and atmospheric, with a sense of doom and fate playing over all of the action, the film, set on the docks of a Pacific seaside town, seems like a dream half remembered. Co-starring Jerome Cowan, Claude Rains and Thomas Mitchell, it's a strange---but very compelling---movie.
September 30, 2008 | | Great acting takes usual story up a notch | |
The basic story of Road House is the love triangle, but Cornell Wilde, Richard Widmark and especially Ida Lupino give the story a royal treatment. The atmosphere creates the 'noir' feel. Lupino is the best under playing her femme fatale role. WIdmark as always is the heel, but this movie is no pat rendering of the basic themes.
September 29, 2008| | | Diners, drive-ins and dives | |
Not to be confused with the trashy 1989 Patrick Swayze mullet fest that shares the same title, this was the fourth and final genre pic from director Jean Nugulesco, who had previously helmed The Mask of Dimitrios, Nobody Lives Forever and Johnny Belinda.
Noir icon Richard Widmark stars as the mercurial Jefty Robbins, who owns a road house called (wait for it...) "Jefty's". He has hired his longtime pal Pete Morgan (noir beefcake Cornel Wilde) to help with day-to-day management. The fussy, protective Pete feels that his main function is to be the voice of reason and steer the frequently impulsive Jefty away from making potentially reckless business decisions. When Pete is dispatched to the train station to pick up Jefty's "new equipment" Lily Stevens (Lupino), a hardened chanteuse who starts cracking wise from the moment they meet, he becomes convinced that this is one of Jefty's potentially reckless business decisions. The tough, self-assured Lily laughs off his attempt to offer up the advance money "for her trouble" and then steer her onto the next train heading back to Chicago. Now, you and I know that these two are obviously destined to rip each other's clothes off at some point; the fun is in getting there.
Although the setup may give the impression that this is going to be a standard romantic triangle melodrama, the film segues into noir territory from the moment that the Widmark Stare first appears. Suffice it to say-when you see the Widmark Stare, it is very likely that trouble lies ahead. As his character becomes more and more unhinged, Widmark eventually employs all his "greatest hits" (including, of course, The Demented Cackle). His performance builds to an operatic crescendo of sociopathic bat$#!+ craziness in the film's final act that plays like a precursor to Ben Kingsley's raging, sexual jealously-fueled meltdown in Sexy Beast.
Widmark and Lupino are both in top form here. Wilde is overshadowed a bit, but then again his "boy toy" role isn't as showy as the others. Celeste Holm is wonderfully droll as one of Jefty's long-suffering employees. Lupino insisted on doing her own singing in the film; while she was not a technically accomplished crooner, she actually wasn't half bad in a husky-voiced "song stylist" vein (she really tears it up on "One For My Baby"). The film sports an excellent DVD transfer and amusing commentary from noir experts.
September 18, 2008That's how Cornel Wilde's Pete Morgan describes Ida Lupino's Lily Stevens, the new headliner at the rural roadhouse of the title this 1948 noir classic that is finally out on DVD. Lupino's Lily is the latest in a long line of women the road house's creepy owner, the memorably named Jefty Robbins (Richard Widmark), has wooed with short-term contracts; all of the previous ones have been disasters, but Lily turns out to be something different. For one thing, despite her self-described "small voice" (that one character describes as "the sound of gravel"), Lily turns out to be a sensation at the road house, and you see and hear why. Either despite or because of her strange tiny sound and her strange way of gulping down her words like swigs of scotch, Lupino has an amazing musicality to her, in a way that might remind viewers of such other screen icons who didn't have great voices but are also forever memorable for their way with a song (such as Dietrich or Marilyn Monroe). For another, she's Ida Lupino, and she is astonishingly sexy, skinny little figure and all. Had Bette Davis not been at Warners in the early 40s Lupino would have been their top female star. One of the greatest female figures in noir, here she is memorably paired with one of the top male figures, Richard widmark, in one of his very earliest screen appearances showing his great gift for playing detestable gigglers (when he finally gets it at the end of the film, you're really ready for it). The film also boasts terrific mise-en-scene work from Jean Negulesco, superb photography by Joseph LaShelle, and Cornel Wilde at his dreamiest. The screenplay is seriously marred by one of the stupidest plot twists ever devised for a noir when Wilde is framed by Widmark for stealing his receipts; not only is he found guilty (with absolutely no evidence other than Widmark's word), but the punishment Widmark has the judge devise is one of the most unbelievable ever devised. it takes a while for the film to get back on track again, but it does so quite memorably in the film's famous denouement, when the characters stumble after one another through a forest during a muggy and foggy dark night. The film also has one of the greatest barroom brawls ever filmed, with Wilde trying to protect Lupino from the advances of a drunk who is an absolute mountain of a man. Beware the audio commentary: although Eddie Muller's comments on noir films are always welcome, he is unfortunately paired here with Kim Morgan, who has very little insight to offer.
September 16, 2008Sometimes something can be so spectacularly bad as to hypnotize the audience into staying with it just to see the grizzly end (such as a train wreck or say "Showgirls"), no I'm not referring to this middle of the road noir, but rather the most god-awful commentary track I've ever heard, which plagues this disk. Let's face it, Fox was a long way from being the Mount Olympus of what would later be called film noir (as evidenced by the fact that they are currently trying to sell any old movie by slapping the "noir" label on it: I'm looking at you "Daisy Kenyon"), however that being said this film is a solid entry into the genre, and boasts wonderful performances by Ida Lupino and Richard Widmark, a poorly thought out plot, some good dialogue, and cinematography that captures nothing of the noir atmosphere (no high contrast German Expressionism here, just flat greys). In short it's not bad, well worth seeing for fans of the genre, but nobody will confuse this with a classic like "Out of The Past", "Night and the City", "A Touch of Evil", or even "Kiss of Death" (with which it shares a similar Widmark performance). No the really remarkable thing about this disk is the rank commentary by Kim Morgan and Eddie Muller. I really can't do justice in words to the trite vapidity of Muller and Morgan's effort, but I'll give it a try. Muller spends the bulk of the commentary verbally drooling over Ida Lupino in such a way that crosses the line of creepiness well within the first twenty minutes, while Morgan likes to describe for us Lupino's wardrobe ad nauseum. I realize that allot of commentators fall into the trap of narrating for us that which we can plainly see, but this commentary brings it to a whole new level with insights such as "LOOK it's Ida Lupino!" or "... I forgot what I was talking about, just LOOK at Ida Lupino...", variations on this theme take up the bulk of the commentary. However when the pair do tear themselves away from Ida Lupino we get insightful theories such as "I think Richard Widmark's character is a virgin...", or "I want to name my cat Jefty.", it just has to be heard to be believed, and the realization that these people were paid actually money for their inane babbling is a terrible shock to the system.
In closing if one wishes to sample a solid but far from classic noir with a train-wreck of a commentary, this effort from Fox will make your day.
cheers.
September 13, 2008More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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