Cinema Junkie presents Midday Movies and Dark City Dames to die forBonus episode
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ANDREW BRACKEN So I was sitting in the Midday Edition studio about 12 noon. I couldn't sleep the night before thinking about how the Padre season opener would play out. Then who knocks on my door? The usual suspects are midday movie critiques. They're here to take us down a dark alley to explore film noir. So who are these unsavory characters? My one is KPBS cinema junkie, Beth Acomando herself. Well, well, well, Beth, we meet again.
BETH ACCOMANDO Yes, we do.
ANDREW BRACKEN The other is Moviewallas podcaster, Yazdi Pithavala. Fancy meeting you here, Yazdi. Now, Beth, you never need a reason to talk about film noir, but there's something that makes this discussion timely. So what's that?
BETH ACCOMANDO That's true. I love film noir, but right now, ongoing at this very moment is Noir City Hollywood, and that is running through Sunday at the Egyptian. This is put on by the Film Noir Foundation, and they run classic noir films. In addition to that, Eddie Muller, who is the TCM Noir Alley host, he also programs and is key with Noir City Hollywood, has just revised his book Dark City Dames. So he's added 10 more actresses to the initial list of six. So I feel that that is reason enough to talk about some noir dames. And for those of you who may not know exactly what noir is, this is a term that was coined by French film critics to describe a style of cinema that's rooted in hard-boiled crime fiction like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammet. And this was fiction in the '40s. It revealed a real cynicism that challenged audiences at that time. And classic noir is usually defined as films made between 1941 and the late 1950s, and the term literally means black film. And that darkness comes not not just from the visual look, but also from the dark motives of the characters.
BETH ACCOMANDO So I love this genre because women really get to take charge a lot of times, and they have a lot of agency in these films, and they get to use sex as a weapon and as a means of manipulation. They get to operate in a man's world using men's rules, and I love these films for that. But since we're using Eddie Muller's book as a starting off point here, I decided to pull a clip from one of our interviews, and this is where he explains what makes noir unique, aside from just the stylistic elements.
EDDIE MULLER But for me, Beth, the key to what made noir so unique and special and a bit subversive in Hollywood of that era was that it was the first time that the people who were doing the wrong thing were the protagonists of the films. To me, looking at it from a writer's perspective, that's what really makes something noir. A crime movie in which the central character is a police officer trying to run a crook to ground, and you spend most of the movie with that law enforcement officer who's trying to do the right thing, that's not a film noir. The film noir is where that officer gets tempted into becoming a criminal, just like the guy he's pursuing, and it's usually for a woman, and then everything goes to hell and it all turns out badly. Then you're talking film noir.
ANDREW BRACKEN And these do tend to turn out quite badly in the end, right? Usually. We're going to be talking more about noir, and it's hard to do that without its Fem Fetales, Noir Dames. And Yasdi, you have a favorite from the book Dark City Dames. That's Jane Greer. And she's what you can describe as a classic Femme Fatales. Is that right?
Speaker 5Yeah. Listen, I'm no expert in film Noir, but as Femme Fatales go, I think no one was as fetal as Barbara Stanwick in Dublin Indemnity. So she, for me, is the top of the crop. But I think there were so many actresses from the 1940s and '50s who really come close to Stanwick. And I'm learning it's an education for me as much as I continue to watch those movies. And I think Jane Greer was one such amazing Fem Fetal. She was only 22 years old when the movie Out of the Past was shot. And with Robert Mitchell and Kirk Douglas in it, the film becomes this wonderful study into the art of persuasion. I think all femme fatales can be distinguished by one characteristic, which is they're women who take their problem and make it the problem of the man they have just ensnared. And Jane Greer does this so beautifully in Out of the Past. She plays Cathy Moffat, who is someone who lies, who steals, who commits crimes, and even then ultimately has her will prevail unapologetically. And you, as the audience member, somehow stay with her. So as much as you are transfixed by her childlike face in the movie, you stay with her through all of the machinations of the script. Here is a clip of her character interacting with Robert Mitchell on the Beach.
CLIP It was a little business, about $40,000. I didn't take it. How did you know it was taken? It's what you meant. I don't want anything of his or any part of him. Except his life. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know anything except how much I hated. But I didn't take anything. I didn't, Jen. Won't you believe it? Baby, I don't care.
ANDREW BRACKEN What a great line at the end there, too. Beth, Jane Greer is one of your favorites as well, right?
BETH ACCOMANDO Yes, she is. Robert Mitchum's response There is something absolutely irresistible about her, even though he knows. I mean, the name of this book is Build My Gallows High, and he knows where he's going, but for whatever reason, he can't resist her. And this is one of the reasons why I love noir so much. It sometimes gets labeled as misogynistic, especially with a character like this, where she is very predatory, and she's bringing all these men to their ruin. But the thing is, she's in total control, and I love that. And that's not something you saw a lot of in movies. And granted, she's not a role model, but role models are boring. I don't want to watch people who are doing good and being nice. Movies are meant to expand your horizons and make you think about other things. And so I love her for this. And there's a scene here that I want to play. This is my favorite lines in this film, but she's double-cross Robert Mitchell, yet she has not given up on the idea of still manipulating him.
CLIP Can't you even feel sorry for me? I'm not going to try. Jeff. Well, just get out, will you? I have to sleep in this room. Let's just leave it where it all is. Get out.
ANDREW BRACKEN So there's Jane Greer still pulling his strings, as it were.
BETH ACCOMANDO She still pulls them till the very end.
ANDREW BRACKEN And Beth, you have another femme fatale for us. Who's that?
BETH ACCOMANDO Yes. So one of the things I love about this Dark City dames book is that Eddie Muller highlights a lot of actresses who are not as well known to the general public as someone like Jane Greer or Barbara Stanwyck. So Audrey Totter is amazing, and she's been in quite a few films, but I think her most memorable role was in a film called Tension. And here she plays this young wife to a very mousy Richard Basehart. I'm not exactly sure how they got together. She alludes to the fact that in uniform, he looked pretty cute, but out of uniform, he's not nearly as attractive. So there's a scene where he promises her, he says, I got a surprise for you, honey. And she's all excited. She goes, A new car, a new bracelet. And he's like, It's even better. And he takes her out to show her a very quaint little house. And here's the scene.
CLIP Isn't that a beauty? Are you kidding? Gee, it'd be wonderful to live out here, dolly. Fresh air, room to entertain. It's a great spot for kids. You want to know something? I think it's a miserable spot. It's 30 minutes from nowhere. I thought this was what you wanted. What do you think I took the night share for? Saving and doing without things just so we'd have enough money to do this. We still don't have enough. The FHA even approved the loan. Fine. Let them live here. Come on, darling. At least look at it. You love it. It's got everything you want. It's got a big living room. It's got a real dining room. It's got full-size, fives, a wonderful kitchen up and back there. It's even got a garbage that's pulled.
BETH ACCOMANDO That's her honking the horn, censoring her husband there. She's amazing. She played classic Fem fatals, but she also had the range to do other noir dames. Sometimes, in a film like the setup, she was the very loyal supporting wife to this aging fighter. So again, this is another reason why I like the book so much is that it doesn't just focus in on what is most commonly thought as the female characters in these movies. It's not just about femme fatales. There's this wide range of women characters, and Audrey Todtert was great at bringing those to life.
ANDREW BRACKEN Yazdi, your next pick from the book is Joan Bennett. Is she a classic Fem fatal or something different?
YAZDI PITHAVALAI think she still falls in the classic Femme Fatale category. One of my favorite films of Joan Bennett is The Woman in the Window, which is one of the earlier film noirs from 1944. And in this movie, Bennett plays a woman who invites a man she has just met to her home for a drink late in the night. And remember, this was post-Hays cold. So the character she plays somehow has to seem virtuous even while she's doing that, or at least for you as the audience to not have questions about her morality, and she makes it work. And more than anything else, she, of course, plays a classic Fem fatal where she makes a crime that happens because of her. She passes it on to this man who's caught in her web, so to speak. But more than anything else, this movie is just such a clever, nifty thriller. It's directed by Fritz Lang, who made M in Metropolis, and it features this atypical a quiet lead turned by Edward G. Robinson. And it just plays with suspense so well. And so you can almost feel like the screws tighten on all of these characters. And it's It's a 90-minute, efficient movie where your heart is pacing the whole way through it. It's free on YouTube, and everybody should really check it out. It's amazing what was done in 1944. We could still learn so much from it. And here's the clip from the movie, which describes the first time that the Joan Bennett character meets Edward G. Robinson as he's staring at a picture of her in the window of a shop, and hence the name of the movie.
CLIP Is it yours? No. I wish it were. Then I wouldn't have to come over here every so often to watch people's faces. Is that what you do? No, I'm there when I'm lonely. Tonight? I was alone. I don't like to be. Did you watch my face? Oh, yes. Did I react properly, normally? Well, there are two general reactions. One is a solemn stare for the painting. And the other? The other is a long, low whistle. What was mine? I'm not sure, but I suspect that in another moment or two, you might have given a long, low, solemn whistle.
BETH ACCOMANDO I just love how all this dialog is dripping with innuendo. So much. Yes. There's so much fun. I do want to point out about Joan Bennett. She's in the classic femme fatale role but she also was in this amazing film a few years later called The Reckless Moment. And this is an interesting hybrid of film noir and the woman's picture. It's by Max Ofels, and she's this suburban mom, taking care of her kids, cooking meals, and she ends up getting caught up in this blackmail situation. And it's like she's just adding one more thing to her list of to-dos for that day. But it's It's an interesting film because when she tries to get the money for the blackmail, she can't get a loan from the bank without her husband's signature. So she can't even find a way to pay this money. James Mason plays the Blackmailer, a very sympathetic, nice blackmailer her. And in this scene, she reveals how suffocated she feels by her family as she's trying to deal with just this to-do list item of getting the blackmail money.
CLIP It's going to be hard for me to go to Los Los Angeles and get the money. I promised Father and David the car tomorrow. If I wanted, there'll be questions. I've been to Los Angeles once this week. That means more questions. You don't know how a family can surround you at times. No, I don't. I have to have time to think. I can't just get the money like that.
ANDREW BRACKEN Beth, your final pick from the book is someone who pretty much challenges some of these stereotypes you've been talking about, about Noirne dames. Tell us about her.
BETH ACCOMANDO Yeah, Marie Windsor is great, and she's somebody who also has range. She gets to play the Fem fatals. She gets to play just the tough dames. She was in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing as a genuine, really nasty little femme fatale.
YAZDI PITHAVALAI'm sick, call an ambulance. The door's behind you. Take a cab.
BETH ACCOMANDO She had a more nuanced dame in Force of Evil.
CLIP If That's what you want for love. You can't use me. You're not strong or weak enough.
BETH ACCOMANDO But there's a really interesting role that she had in Narrow Margin, which is a classic noir. And as Yasmin mentioned about the length on these films, they're so tight and efficient. It's amazing what they can do in 90 minutes and less. So in Narrow Margin, here she shares a scene with Charles McGraw. He's a cop. She's a mobster's wife who needs protection on a train because she's heading to court to to testify. But this is a film that's all about misdirection and misidentifying people. And so this scene just gives you an idea of who she is, but also maybe not taking everything at face value.
CLIP It I'm beginning to show real genius. Will you smooth that out a little? Making this other game the target shows you're using your head. For your information, I didn't rig it that way. Well, if you didn't, the DA is entitled to a refund. Sister, I've known some pretty hard cases in my time. You make them all look like putty. You're not talking about a sack of gumdrops that's going to be smashed. You're talking about a dame's life. You may think it's a funny idea for a woman with a kid to stop a bullet for you, only I'm not laughing. Where do you get off being so superior? Why shouldn't I take advantage of her? I want to live. If you had to step on someone to get something you wanted so bad, would you think twice about it? Shut up. In a pig's eye, you would. You're no different from me. Shut up. Not till I tell you something, you cheap badge pusher. When we started on this safari, you made it plenty clear I was just a job and no joy in it, remember? Yeah, and it still goes double. Okay, keep that way. I don't care whether you dreamed up this gag or not. You're going right along with it, so don't go soft on me. Once you handed out a line about poor Forbes getting killed because it was his duty. Well, it's your duty, too, even if this dame gets murdered. You make me sick to my stomach. Well, use your own sink.
ANDREW BRACKEN What a line there. I wonder if you can just share what your favorite film noir movie. What should I watch this weekend, Yasdi?
YAZDI PITHAVALAGosh, Detour. Detour is a film which I absolutely I love. I think it just does everything perfectly. It's so dark. From the beginning, nobody has any virtue, and I love that.
BETH ACCOMANDO I mean, Out of the Past is my go-to noir. Whenever I feel the need for a little sip of noir, that will always satisfy my craving. And we're only talking about the American ones. I mean, noir was done all over the globe, and there are amazing ones from France, in Italy, and even Japan. And Mexico. Mexico, yeah. So there's a huge world of noir out there.
ANDREW BRACKEN World to explore there.
BETH ACCOMANDO And it never gets old.
ANDREW BRACKEN Well, that wraps up our noir edition of Midday Movies. Hope you've enjoyed traveling the streets of this dark city. Eddie Muller's book, Dark City Dames, is available now, and the Noir City Hollywood Film Festival continues through Sunday at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles. If you want to dive more into this dark world, you can find more podcasts on Film Noir at kpbs. Org/cinema junkie. I again want to thank our usual suspects, Kpbs cinema junky, Beth Acomando, and Moviewalas podcaster, Yazdi Pithavala. Until next time, watch your back out there.
BETH ACCOMANDO Don't land in a wooden kimona.
CLIP It's a bad joke without a punchline..
