Noir and Pulp

by: Punchinello, May/07/06

I've been watching a lot of movies lately. A number of them have been vintage noir and old mysteries that are always called "classics" even if they stank up theaters the first time around. If you're reading this, I probably don't need to tell you how great Out of the Past is or how much fun William Powell can be in The Kennel Murder Case or The Thin Man series.

So here are a few you probably don't know about. Most of these are available on the 50 Mystery Classics Pack, which is how I saw them. I watched every flick in that collection and hardly regretted an hour of it, but there are definitely some reels that are better than others. Here ones I particularly liked.

The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

I can't say enough about this movie. Hamhanded as it is, it's got it all. It's set beautifully in the Orient and populated by prostitutes, gamblers, junkies, racists, and kinks. The plot revolves around pretty Gene Tierney as a spoiled tramp who gets off the boat and goes looking for trouble, but delves too deeply into China's den of iniquity. She meets up with a a boozy young slut that she has more in common with than she realizes and gets the full magilla of humiliation from Mother Gin Sling, the former prostitute and current owner of the gambling den, and "Doctor" Omar, the sleaziest physician since Doctor Mabuse. The local law, Sir Guy Charteris, threatens Mother Gin Sling with eviction, but she has a clever plan to stay in business (murder? no: a dinner party!). And every time you think the story can't get any pulpier, a new twist comes around that makes you say, "How'd they get away with that in that day and age?" This is the movie your grandmother warned your father about.

Bulldog Drummond series (late 30s)

This series of films is just cheerful old-time adventure, with Ray Milland and John Howard trading off in the lead role of Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, the perpetual fiance to Phyllis and pal of Algernon. Drummond gets himself into trouble again and again in spite of his good intentions, but loves the thrill of it. His friends tag along and are usually good help, sometimes good bait. Great fun for the time, with the occasional scrapes and cliffhangers, tho certainly pale in comparison to modern-day Indiana Jones adventure.

Kansas City Confidential (1952)

Here's a good old crime drama with a well-honed cast and a tense plot along the lines of Reservoir Dogs—if Reservoir Dogs had been made in 1952. It's about the aftermath of a carefully-planned bank heist. An ex-con gets accused of being involved and tries to clear his name... or cut himself in. The clockwork plot winds down when the principals gather in Mexico to split the take, but John Payne is good as the conflicted innocent. Preston Foster is very good as the mastermind. Coleen Gray is sweet as the unlikely dame who complicates things. The action is steady, altho it tends toward tough guys slapping each other around and holding guns on each other. The tone borders on noir (even the cops are heavies, leaning on our boy for a bum confession) until the story takes it on the lam to sunny Mexico. If you don't mind a bit of trite melodrama killing your noir buzz, it's a kick.

The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1950)

This clever suspenser from the French Maigret novels revolves around the murder of a wealthy woman and her maid one dark Parisian night. A dandy living off his aunt wishes her dead in public and catches the ear of Radek, a desperate fellow who is very clever but also a bit loopy. Radek engineers a fiendish scheme to implicate a simple tinker in the crime, collect his fee, and lead Charles Laughton as Inspector Maigret down the garden path. The details are delicious--if you can follow them--and the characters (the dandy, his wife, his mistress, the tinker and his wife, the inspector and his detectives, and the arrogant killer) are interesting enough for three movies. Radek's manipulation of the other characters is real genius (for example, he gets others to search for the murder weapon while the cops are tailing him). The Parisian setting is terrific, and the spectacular climax atop the Eiffel Tower is not to be missed.

Too Late for Tears (1949)

This is a clever, complex, well-executed drama with just about every trick in the book and then some. Lizabeth Scott is terrific as the depressive housewife who snaps to life when trouble falls in her lap. It's quite a trick to see her turn from moping domestic to sultry schemer; she's one of the most quick-witted women ever committed to film. And she proves stronger than her regular-Joe husband and even stronger than the thug who comes looking for his money. Throw in a suspicious sister and a mysterious old army pal (the wonderful Don DeFore, best know from TV's Hazel), and you've got a cracking noir with more twists than Scott's permanent wave. Few films could juggle so many characters popping up or dropping dead and still be coherent, but this does it well.

Quicksand (1950)

Wow. Mickey Rooney and Peter Lorre. Together. And with Jimmie from The Mickey Mouse Club and Jack Elam! I didn't know what to expect. Rooney proves he can act as a car mechanic looking to get in good with the new waitress at the diner. "Danny" starts down a slippery slope by copping a few bucks from the till at work, then lets Vera (Jeanne Cagney) steer him wrong. Danny's little white theft festers into a mugging, grand theft auto, a burglary, and worse. The wrong people keep finding out too much about Danny's activities, and soon the cops are crawling all over him. The wild improbabilities that have piled up threaten to topple the whole house of cards, from the convenient witnesses to the convenient cops to the convenient car trouble (Danny is an auto mechanic but he can't keep his own car in running condition?). Still, it's a treat to see Rooney in such desperate straits.

The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934)

Here's authentic 1930s crime pulp. The focus is on the villain, in this case Bela Lugosi as a Chinese(!) gangster tracking down the twelve coins of Confucius. The only mystery is how he will be stopped and whether or not he will escape to cause trouble another day. Wallace Ford is fun as the wry reporter (reminding me a bit of Chevy Chase). And Arline Judge is as cute as a button as the switchboard operator he's trying to romance. It all takes place in Chinatown, for some reason, with plenty of casual bigotry, altho it's sometimes turned around on the bigot for comic comeuppance (as when Ford talks pidgin to a Chinese girl only to be answered in fluent English). Not really a gem, but this is a fun film and a good example of the genre. It's got the menacing thugs, mysterious murders, and secret passageways you expect and a bit of sassy dialog to boot.

Punch Editor-in-Chief, Resident Film Critic

All Pulp Erotica Editorials:

On Forced Entry (Sep/17/2003)

One Year and Counting (Oct/18/2003)

Hitch's Cock (Dec/13/2003)

Too Helpful (Feb/06/2005)

Year Two in Review (Mar/01/2005)

Punchinello's Inspiration (May/17/2005)

Year Three: Holy Shit Time Flies (Jan/04/2006)

Noir and Pulp (May/07/2006)

Also check out How to Write Pulp Erotica.