1956 Film Noir
From RKO
Directed by Fritz Lang
Starring
Dana Andrews
Rhonda Fleming
Ida Lupino
George Sanders
Howard Duff
Thomas Mitchell
Vincent Price
Sally Forrest
James Craig
John Barrymore Jr.
Fritz Lang was certainly known for his work in film noir. Good stuff, too. He made a trio of films in the fifties that he called the newspaper noirs. Of course he considered them to be noirs and they all had newspapers woven into their plots.
The first one, chatted up in these pages recently, was 1953's The Blue Gardenia. In 1956 came two of them. Both starred Dana Andrews, a noir regular. One was Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. I saw it once a long time ago and barely remember it.
In the early 40s some directors took crime dramas and dressed them up in a special way, gave them an unmistakable look and other salient qualities that left no doubt an audience was watching a noir.
I acknowledge that this film, in the year of Lang's last American work, is regarded as a noir but I have a hard time recognizing it as such. I do not see that distinctive noir look but it has one trait that is decidedly noir and decidedly Lang... its cynicism.
It seems a minor noir, at best, but that it not to say I don't like it as a drama because I do. And it absolutely holds my attention with its serial killer plot and the attendant squeamishness.
It's not only a newspaper story but a rare one with its intimate look at the dog-eat-dog world that seems to flourish in that world. I remember it well from my work some years ago as a reporter. Specifically, it concerns three execs, each of whom wants to be the one to break the story for the paper. Each is being looked at for the top job and each turns to someone else to do the legwork.
Of course for me a large part of the appeal is its large cast and some of them turned in very good performances.
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| Publicity shot of the three leading ladies |
Real-life oddball John Barrymore Jr. (later known as John Drew Barrymore) plays a mama's boy who by this point loathes her and as a result has a need to kill women as stand-ins for killing her. Dubbed The Lipstick Killer, he finds his victims as part of his job as drugstore delivery person.
Meanwhile at the news service in Manhattan, the owner dies leaving his inept son (Price) in charge. He quickly decides that he doesn't really want to dirty his privileged hands with actual work. He prefers to be an overseer who rarely comes into the office and who turns over the top job of actually running things to one of his underlings.
He looks to the managing editor of the paper (Mitchell) who is a hard-working and dedicated employee. He also looks at the manager of the company's wire service (Sanders), a capable fellow but also a conniving one who will do anything to get the job. And there's the head of the television division (Craig) who feels he has the best chance because he is sleeping with Price's wife (Fleming).
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| From left... Andrews, Mitchell, Price |
Since the serial killer's crimes take place in the general vicinity of the newspaper offices, each of these three competing men sees it as his gateway to the big job. If one of them can find the killer, it would cause such a sensation that Price would likely promote the man who accomplished it.
Mitchell and Sanders won't actually leave the building to go killer-hunting and their in-house presence is vital in running the daily operations but they do have reporters for the company they can turn to. Mitchell turns to Andrews, top in his field but worn out and a drinker. Andrews is intending to marry Forrest who works as Sanders's secretary. Sanders's behavior toward her would certainly not cut it in today's times.
Sanders turns to mink-draped Lupino, a reporter who seems to enjoy extra privileges the others don't. It would appear she and Sanders may have been involved at some point.
Craig doesn't do much toward securing the big job and most of his scenes are with Fleming who chillingly takes the time to make sure he knows he's her boy who will do what she tells him to do.
Andrews and Lupino meet at the local watering hole, as do a number of others, to discuss the case, dish on Price and throw a few down. Lupino calls everyone darling but sisters of the mink do that.
Andrews goes to his friend, a detective (Duff) working on the case and together they devise a plan to root out the killer. Andrews writes a taunting piece which we see Barrymore reading (while he seethes), done mainly to make public that Andrews is on the case. Another article addresses the issue of Andrews marrying a fellow staffer and Forrest's name and picture are put in the paper. Done with Forrest's permission, she agrees to be the lure. She will, of course, be assigned 24/7 police protection.
For the finale, we know Forrest is not going to be killed and we know Barrymore will somehow get his comeuppance. It does, however, get exciting. Barrymore spots Forrest and follows her to her apartment. He knocks on her door, she asks who it is but something about the answer alarms her and she doesn't open the door. (The cop is at lunch.... aha, 23/7.) The eager killer pounds ferociously, scaring her off even more.
Barrymore hears someone coming and he hides in a stairwell. Enter Fleming who is arriving at her love nest apartment across from Forrest's. Before she can shut the door, Barrymore has jumped her and they have a wrestling match with her screaming at the top of her lungs. As he's about to completely overpower her, Fleming hits him over the head. As he falls to the floor, she runs out of the apartment and into Forrest's who has just opened her door, reacting to the screams..
Andrews arrives just as Barrymore is fleeing and they end up in a subway tunnel (actually filmed in Los Angeles). After a scuffle, Barrymore climbs stairs and opens a manhole cover to an awaiting Duff.
Casey Robinson wrote the script based on Charles Einstein's novel, The Bloody Spur. (Odd title for a non-western.) I'm not aware of Robinson writing any other noirs but he certainly turned out a lot of good dramas such as Dark Victory, Kings Row, Now Voyager, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and more. The script focuses far more on those looking for the killer than the killer himself. I think it would have been a better movie had that been evened out a bit more.
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| Lupino with her suggestions to Lang and Andrews |
Andrews loved working with Lang, he said, despite the director's tyrannical ways. After all, he said, I have worked for Otto Preminger in four films (there would eventually be five). Lang was kind to Andrews who had long been an alcoholic and had one of his worst times with the disease throughout the fifties. It was probably a good thing he has a drinking problem in this film because it helped cover up the fact that he was actually frequently drunk on camera.
I found it interesting that while Andrews and Fleming are top-billed, they have no scenes together. It became odder yet when a few years later they were top-billed in The Crowded Sky and again had no scenes together.
Andrews was reunited for the second time with Price. They both figured prominently in the great Preminger noir, Laura (1944).
Andrews had a wonderful time working with his old friend Lupino for the first and only time. They seemed to have a secret language all their own, were big stars in the forties with acting careers dwindling by the time they made this one.
A scene that has always caused some attention is when the pair is sitting at the bar. They both drink too much. She's really there to pump him for info on the killer and he knows it. Seduction is her chosen weapon. The way she places an unlit cigarette in the center of her mouth, without holding it, waiting for Andrews to set it on fire, is just plain hot.
She looks good with her hair longer and that mink doesn't hurt at all. Her character has a certain worn-out glam that perfectly fits her job as a gossip columnist. She wants a promotion, too.
Sanders may think he's the one using and playing her but it's actually the other way around. She and one other costar turned their characters into living, breathing people and made this picture work for me.
Lupino and Duff were married at the time and they, too, shared no scenes together.
In the early 50s Lupino had taken on directing, made some interesting B movies/noirs and discovered her own stable of talent. Forrest was one of those shiny, new hopefuls. She was a pleasant and pretty actress who could act but I don't think she and Hollywood took much of a shine to one another.
I must do a piece on Sanders one day because he led an interesting personal life and was a definite pleasure to dislike in so many films. He really had little to do here but of course played it with his usual suave conceit.
Mitchell, Scarlett O'Hara's father and one of my favorite character actors, is the conscience of the office and the film. It didn't keep him from scrambling for the big job or made him sorry for quickly grabbing Andrews for the street work. This was a happy reunion for Mitchell and Lupino. They shared the screen in two noirs, Out of the Fog (1941) and Moontide (1942).
We have to believe that Fleming was just a gold-digger and that's why she married Price. There just can't be any other reason. As it was with Sanders, Price's snobby appeal always amused the hell out of me. Scenes with him in them, in most any film, were rife with wonderment over what he would say or do. Of course, I am thinking of his 40s' work, not the later horror movie period.
I realize that Fleming's character is an obvious gold-digger but it's difficult for my brain to accept that a woman like her would be married to a man like him. No, no, I just can't be more specific.
As she was given to do, Fleming accepted the decorative role (she never disappointed) and it's even more obvious in this talented cast. I cannot deny that the script didn't allow her some dramatic turns at the finale.
I suspect I have never mentioned James Craig before and I'm not likely to again. I took a mysterious and immediate dislike to the Gable-lookalike-and-wannabe right off. He generated no heat for audiences although he thought he did and his career went down the drain. Hollywood didn't much care for him either. His role, in a bit of typecasting, is blessedly small.
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| The Lipstick Killer |
Finally comes that other actor I admired so much in his role... young, crazy Barrymore himself. He looked the part, he sounded the part, he acted the part. He was menacing at times in real life and an oddball for all of it. It's high praise when I say I can't imagine anyone playing this role any better. He scared the hol... he scared me. I suppose I should do a piece on him.
Lang keeps the various plot intricacies cleverly interwoven and keeps the pace up while doing so. I haven't heard of any stories of who he hated or who hated him. He was careful and considerate of Andrews... maybe it spread to the entire production.
Again, noirs and cynicism are companion pieces but so are newspapers and cynicism. The film captured that world well. There's great fun watching these actors in a nice entertainment piece.
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