The Dark Corner

I’m guessing that if someone else besides Mark Stevens played the detective in “The Dark Corner” (1946) it would be better known today. Nothing against Stevens, who is fine but comes off a bit bland. Cast someone with an interesting face like Dana Andrews or Richard Conte in the role, and you would have a noir for the ages.

Stevens isn’t a total demerit however, and what we have is really nifty little noir, filled with enough colorful characters, gloriously moody black and white photography and on-location shooting to make it a prime entry in the post-war noir sweepstakes.

Stevens plays Bradford Galt (a terrible name for a detective, don’t you think?), who years before had taken the rap for his former partner Anthony Jardine (Kurt Kreuger). Jardine is now a big-time lawyer carrying on an affair with Mari Cathcart (Cathy Downs), younger wife of Hardy Cathcart (now that’s a name!), the city’s most prestigious art dealer.

 

 

Cathcart is played by Clifton Webb, who I will happily watch in anything. It was first role after his star-making turn in “Laura” (1944) and his Hardy Cathcart possesses as keen a wit as Waldo Lydecker, if not as barbed. Waldo had to bow to no one, but Hardy has to make nice to his customers. But he’s still the magnificently superior Clifton Webb we all know and love. Some people have said how it was an honor to have been insulted by Groucho Marx. Me, I would have liked to have been sneered at by Clifton Webb.

It looks like Jardine is looking to ensnare his old partner in another web of murder and deceit, with the help of Stauffer (William Bendix), an ex-detective with a penchant for white suits. Galt has a loyal secretary Kathleen (Lucille Ball) who helps clear him of a murder charge.

 

I’ll admit to not seeing all of Lucy’s movies, but I’ve never seen her as warm as she is here. She’s not the manic Lucy we all know, but a quiet, working girl possessing lots of street smarts. Her honest working girl character stands in strong contrast to all the upper class duplicitous characters here.

Galt also keeps a bottle of booze which he keeps in his bottom desk drawer, which is one of my favorite staples of detective fiction. I had a grin a mile wide when he pulled out that bottle. All detectives should have a bottle of rye in their desk drawer. I’ve thought about becoming a detective just so I can keep a bottle of rye in my bottom desk drawer, and I don’t even drink.

Director Henry Hathaway rarely made a film that I haven’t liked. He may not be a critic’s favorite – not enough of an “auteur” - but his films move with nary a wasted scene. His films are always so unfussy, and I mean that in the best way possible. Hathaway had scored a monster hit the year before with “The House on 92^nd Street”, a semi-documentary film, based on a true story about how the FBI cracked a nest of Nazi spies in the early years of World War II.

“The House on 92^nd Street” was celebrated for its use of on-location shooting, a rarity at the time, and in “The Dark Corner” Hathaway and his camera crew returned to the Big Apple’s streets for some fascinating on-location photography, even a car chase through the busy downtown streets. I’m not talking “The French Connection” here, but pretty good all the same.

I don’t want to talk too much about the plot, because there are some intriguing twists to be had here. Without giving anything away, what I liked about this movie is how tight the script is. So many mystery movies feel there has to be a never-ending series of twists and revelations that sometimes the story’s main focus gets lost. Here, everything happens for a reason and makes sense. It’s not contrived and one can see how the events could happen as they are playing out. 

A good script, taut direction, moody photography, a fine cast and the always watchable Clifton Webb make “The Dark Corner” a real winner.

To the Last Man

“To the Last Man” (1933), a western about two feuding families and based on a Zane Grey novel, has one of the most unusual opening credit sequences I’ve ever seen.

The technical credits come up, but there’s no cast listed. The movie begins, and lo and behold, there’s a credit. Each time a major character is introduced in a scene, the actor’s name and the character he or she plays shows up at the bottom of the scene.

Randolph Scott appears in the 20-minute mark, which means we’re still reading credits 20 minutes into the movie. It’s odd, and it’s no wonder that this never became a favored practice.

This approach, though, heightens the fun of seeing who shows up in the cast. I didn’t look at the back of the DVD box, so didn’t know who was in it save for Randolph Scott and Esther Ralston. Imagine my surprise at what a rich cast the movie offers.

The Hayden and Colby families have been feuding and killing each other for years, with no let up. The meanest of the Colbys (Noah Berry) kills one of the Haydens in cold blood, and is sentenced to 15 years in jail.

His daughter Ellen (Esther Ralston) hates all the Haydens as well. That is, until she meets Lynn Hayden (Randolph Scott), not knowing he’s a Hayden. Their feelings for each other grow stronger, to the chagrin of the Colby family. The Haydens are more accepting of her and want the feud to be over.

On the Colby side is Noah Berry and Jack LaRue. Nasty, nasty men.

On the Hayden side is Barton MacLane, Buster Crabbe, Gail Patrick and Fuzzy Knight. They all get a credit card as they are introduced. At the 34-minute mark the youngest of the Colbys has her first scene, five-year-old Shirley Temple. She doesn’t get a credit card, but in only a few years she would be one of the biggest stars of the 1930s. Why the Colbys are so mean, they even take a pot shot at Temple while she’s outside playing!

This was filmed one year before the Production Code was enforced, so there’s some scenes that would not have been approved a year later. Randolph Scott first spies Esther Ralston as she’s taking a nude swim. The camera is kept at a discreet distance when he first spots her, but he rides closer to get a better look. Way to go, Randy!

When Noah Berry finds out his daughter is in love with a Colby he takes a whip to her and his face transforms into an ugly visage of hatred. That scene no doubt gave some 1933 youngsters a few nightmares.

Director Henry Hathaway was a master at outdoor adventure movies, and “To the Last Man” is no exception. No backlots here, this was filmed entirely on location at Big Bear Lake, California. Beautiful countryside, and a fitting backdrop to this engaging tale of feuding families.

Randolph Scott was born for these kinds of western roles. Esther Ralston makes a most fetching barefoot heroine. She was the leading lady in one of my favorite silent films, “Old Ironsides” (1926), a thrilling tale of the U.S. Constitution and its campaign against the Barbary Pirates. Anyone who thinks silent movies are dull should see “Old Ironsides.”

“To the Last Man” is exceptionally well photographed, has a splendid supporting cast and a pair of very likeable lead performances. There are far worst ways to spend 70 minutes.

Rating for “To the Last Man”: Three stars.

Rawhide

“Rawhide” (1951) is a taut and terrific hostage drama that happens to take place in the Old West. It’s lean and mean, and runs a trim 86 minutes without a wasted scene (thank you, director Henry Hathaway). Good performances abound, especially Jack Elam as a particularly nasty bad guy who offers a piece of violence that possibly wouldn’t get past nervous studio executives today.

The film’s first several minutes are deceiving. The title music is the rousing march that Alfred Newman composed for “Brigham Young, Frontiersman” (1940), hardly indicative of the drama to follow. Then we get several minutes of footage about the importance of the Overland Mail, and how it helped transform the West. Sequences of stagecoaches traversing the countryside, while full-blooded orchestrations of “Oh Susannah” play in the background, leads one to think we’re in for one of those “transportation winning the west” epics like “Wells Fargo” (1937) or “Union Pacific” (1939).

But soon the mini-history lesson disappears, and we’re ready for the story to begin.

“Rawhide” takes place at a stagecoach station, a stopping point for passengers to stretch their legs and have a meal while the horses are changed. The station is an isolated one, a tiny spot amidst the towering mountains. Four escaped convicts, led by Hugh Marlowe, take over the station to hijack a gold shipment coming in the next day. Caretakers Edgar Buchanan and Tyrone Power need to act normal for the other stages that stop by, while passenger Susan Hayward and her infant niece are held hostage. Buchanan is killed trying to resist, and Power and Hayward knowing they will be killed since they witnessed Buchanan’s slaying, attempt to forge an escape plan before the next day’s stage arrives.

Good stuff on display here, and like I said, not a minute of wasted footage. It’s an atypical role for Power. No heroics here, just a scared greenhorn trying to stay alive. Hayward is always a pleasure to watch and she’s particularly well photographed here.
Marlowe initially appears to be a little too civilized, a little too “nice” to be the leader of outlaws, until it’s revealed that he’s the black sheep of a prominent banking family, so his good breeding becomes more understandable.

But bug-eyed Jack Elam easily steals the show. He’s scary good here. He can’t resist pawing Hayward despite continual threats from Marlowe. You just know he’s going to explode one day.

In the film’s climax, Power and Elam are shooting it out when Elam sees the infant girl walking innocently through the courtyard. Elam begins shooting at the little girl to draw Power out into the open. It’s an agonizing scene to watch as the little girl screams with her arms up in the air, turning this way and that way while the bullets hit the ground at her feet. I don’t think that would occur in a big budget studio film today. (I’m not talking about cartoon, CGI-inspired violence like last year’s “Shoot Out”, which boasted a coming attractions trailer so loud and stupid that I couldn’t see myself paying to support it. I understand there’s a baby in distress throughout the whole movie, but when people are flying through the air, twirling around and shooting guns while defying the laws of physics, all credibility goes out the window. The baby was probably CGI anyway.)

I’m a sucker for thrillers set in isolated settings or in confined areas, like an airplane, train or ship. “Rawhide” combines the two, contrasting the isolation of the stagecoach station and the majesty of the surrounding mountains. The film was shot in Lone Pine, California, a famous locale for westerns, and its beautiful, if desolate, countryside. Even if Power, Hayward and baby escaped from the outlaws, there’s really no place to escape to.

Alas, the coming attractions trailer shows the film’s climax, proving that Hollywood’s penchant for giving too much away in trailers is nothing new. Due to the film’s paucity of action, its likely 20th Century Fox sold the film as a traditional western shoot ‘em up rather than a tense suspense drama. Still, I can’t believe westerns fans who went to see “Rawhide” would go home disappointed.

Rating for “Rawhide”: A strong three stars.