Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Dark City
Dark City
Paramount Pictures 1950
Directed by William Dieterle
Danny Haley (Charleton Heston)
Fran (Lizabeth Scott)
Victoria Winant (Viveca Lindfors)
Captain Garvey (Dean Jagger)
Arthur Winant (Don DeFore)
Augie (Jack Webb)
Barney (Ed Begley)
Soldier (Harry Morgan)
Swede (Walten Sande)
Billy Winant (Mark Keuning)
Sidney Winant (Mike Mazurki)
The Story:
Cynical Danny Haley has his bookie joint raided (again). The shut down results in lean times. When he goes to see his girlfriend Fran who works as a lounge singer, he meets Arthur Winant at the bar. He sees a cashier's check for $5,000.00 in Winant's wallet and invites him to come and play poker with him and the boys. The boys include Augie and Barney. They allow Winant to win but invite him back again to get even the next night. Winant soon loses his money and signs over the cashier's check. Unfortunately, the money didn't belong to Winant. He hangs himself and is found by his psychotic brother Sidney. The police find Winant but not his brother. The other poker players soon begin to turn up at room temperature with ropes about their necks. Danny poses as an insurance adjuster to obtain a picture of Sidney from the dead Winant's wife Victoria. He romances her but never can get the picture because she has burned all the pictures of the murderous Sidney to protect her son. Danny reveals his true identity to Victoria and she kicks him down the road. He does leave her the cashier's check. Danny goes to Vegas and wins $5,000.00 at the craps table to send to Victoria and her son Billy. Fran shows up and passes on a warning phone call from Victoria to Danny that Sidney has learned from Billy that Danny is in Vegas. Danny waits with his pistol in his room for Sidney who already lurks in the room; Danny is saved from strangulation by the arrival of Captain Garvey and cops who have used Danny for bait. Sidney Winant takes some lead, goes out a window, and catches some more bullets for good measure. Danny decides he is over his commitment problem and it looks like he and Fran will get married.
About The Movie:
This movie reminded of one of my favorite movies, Five Card Stud (Paramount Pictures 1968, directed by Henry Hathaway), which starred Dean Martin, Inger Stevens, Robert Mitchum, and Roddy McDowell. Five Card Stud was a simpler and better movie; it also benefitted from a western setting and a bouncy, haunting little piece of theme music; even the revenge-killer had charisma.
One of the lounge songs, Letters from a Lady in Love, stands as the only memorable music from Dark City. I understand that Trudy Stevens sang for Lizabeth Scott for the soundtrack. Although the vocalization for the song is outstanding (every "L" in the title of the song receives a sensuous caress of the tongue), the visuals for the performance are distracting. In the black and white contrasts, The strapless dress coupled with Scott's arm motions give the impression of a hovering octopus. Actually, Scott's character doesn't do much that is memorable in the film. Scott herself brings to mind Lauren Bacall but the role never provides her a chance to make an adequate comparison.
Had the movie not been Heston's debut in a starring role it might easily have been forgotten. The role bears little resemblance to his roles in The Greatest Show on Earth, Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments. His portrayal of Danny does foreshadow his performances of cynical heroes in Soylent Green and Planet of The Apes. If Heston hadn't been in the picture, I would have had any reason to like Dark City - apart from the resemblance to Five Card Stud.
Harry Morgan's small role in the film is nice but unremarkable. It is interesting to see him with Jack Webb outside of the Dragnet series. Jack Webb is credible as one of the poker players. I just kept expecting him to ask for the facts or to launch into a monologue about the evils of drink or gambling. Ed Begley gives a convincing performance as a loathsome character. Viveca Lindfors beauty shines through her character. It's unfortunate that her role in the film was not more prominent. Mike Mazurki had a rather one dimensional role as Sidney Winant; he has few lines and his face is never visible until the end of the film. Of couse, the psycopathic-revenge-killer tends to push the story along, evoking emotion and motivation from the potential victims rather than providing a great role for the actor who gets to tag the others for their death scenes. All or nearly all of the deaths take place off camera so Mazurki only gets a minute or two of screen time.
The best scene comes early in the film when Arthur Winant has reached the bottom and has to endorse the cashier's check over to the poker players. The camera shot moves around the table to take in the expressions of each poker player as the broken Winant submits to the collective will. Ed Begley's hungry-wolf attitude contrasts nicely with the cowardly call his character makes to Heston's character after one of the players has been found dead and he fears that he is next.
Memorable Lines
Danny: "Playing cards with you is like washing your feet with your socks on."
Fran: "Don't you want to know what's going on in the world?"
Danny: "What's going on in the world stinks."
Fran: "Danny, was the game on the level?"
Danny: "A guy like that defeats himself by just sitting down."
Soldier to Danny: You're worse than the rest of them. They don't know better."
Fran: "Why didn't you answer the phone?"
Danny: "There was no body I wanted to talk to."
Paramount Pictures 1950
Directed by William Dieterle
Danny Haley (Charleton Heston)
Fran (Lizabeth Scott)
Victoria Winant (Viveca Lindfors)
Captain Garvey (Dean Jagger)
Arthur Winant (Don DeFore)
Augie (Jack Webb)
Barney (Ed Begley)
Soldier (Harry Morgan)
Swede (Walten Sande)
Billy Winant (Mark Keuning)
Sidney Winant (Mike Mazurki)
The Story:
Cynical Danny Haley has his bookie joint raided (again). The shut down results in lean times. When he goes to see his girlfriend Fran who works as a lounge singer, he meets Arthur Winant at the bar. He sees a cashier's check for $5,000.00 in Winant's wallet and invites him to come and play poker with him and the boys. The boys include Augie and Barney. They allow Winant to win but invite him back again to get even the next night. Winant soon loses his money and signs over the cashier's check. Unfortunately, the money didn't belong to Winant. He hangs himself and is found by his psychotic brother Sidney. The police find Winant but not his brother. The other poker players soon begin to turn up at room temperature with ropes about their necks. Danny poses as an insurance adjuster to obtain a picture of Sidney from the dead Winant's wife Victoria. He romances her but never can get the picture because she has burned all the pictures of the murderous Sidney to protect her son. Danny reveals his true identity to Victoria and she kicks him down the road. He does leave her the cashier's check. Danny goes to Vegas and wins $5,000.00 at the craps table to send to Victoria and her son Billy. Fran shows up and passes on a warning phone call from Victoria to Danny that Sidney has learned from Billy that Danny is in Vegas. Danny waits with his pistol in his room for Sidney who already lurks in the room; Danny is saved from strangulation by the arrival of Captain Garvey and cops who have used Danny for bait. Sidney Winant takes some lead, goes out a window, and catches some more bullets for good measure. Danny decides he is over his commitment problem and it looks like he and Fran will get married.
About The Movie:
This movie reminded of one of my favorite movies, Five Card Stud (Paramount Pictures 1968, directed by Henry Hathaway), which starred Dean Martin, Inger Stevens, Robert Mitchum, and Roddy McDowell. Five Card Stud was a simpler and better movie; it also benefitted from a western setting and a bouncy, haunting little piece of theme music; even the revenge-killer had charisma.
One of the lounge songs, Letters from a Lady in Love, stands as the only memorable music from Dark City. I understand that Trudy Stevens sang for Lizabeth Scott for the soundtrack. Although the vocalization for the song is outstanding (every "L" in the title of the song receives a sensuous caress of the tongue), the visuals for the performance are distracting. In the black and white contrasts, The strapless dress coupled with Scott's arm motions give the impression of a hovering octopus. Actually, Scott's character doesn't do much that is memorable in the film. Scott herself brings to mind Lauren Bacall but the role never provides her a chance to make an adequate comparison.
Had the movie not been Heston's debut in a starring role it might easily have been forgotten. The role bears little resemblance to his roles in The Greatest Show on Earth, Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments. His portrayal of Danny does foreshadow his performances of cynical heroes in Soylent Green and Planet of The Apes. If Heston hadn't been in the picture, I would have had any reason to like Dark City - apart from the resemblance to Five Card Stud.
Harry Morgan's small role in the film is nice but unremarkable. It is interesting to see him with Jack Webb outside of the Dragnet series. Jack Webb is credible as one of the poker players. I just kept expecting him to ask for the facts or to launch into a monologue about the evils of drink or gambling. Ed Begley gives a convincing performance as a loathsome character. Viveca Lindfors beauty shines through her character. It's unfortunate that her role in the film was not more prominent. Mike Mazurki had a rather one dimensional role as Sidney Winant; he has few lines and his face is never visible until the end of the film. Of couse, the psycopathic-revenge-killer tends to push the story along, evoking emotion and motivation from the potential victims rather than providing a great role for the actor who gets to tag the others for their death scenes. All or nearly all of the deaths take place off camera so Mazurki only gets a minute or two of screen time.
The best scene comes early in the film when Arthur Winant has reached the bottom and has to endorse the cashier's check over to the poker players. The camera shot moves around the table to take in the expressions of each poker player as the broken Winant submits to the collective will. Ed Begley's hungry-wolf attitude contrasts nicely with the cowardly call his character makes to Heston's character after one of the players has been found dead and he fears that he is next.
Memorable Lines
Danny: "Playing cards with you is like washing your feet with your socks on."
Fran: "Don't you want to know what's going on in the world?"
Danny: "What's going on in the world stinks."
Fran: "Danny, was the game on the level?"
Danny: "A guy like that defeats himself by just sitting down."
Soldier to Danny: You're worse than the rest of them. They don't know better."
Fran: "Why didn't you answer the phone?"
Danny: "There was no body I wanted to talk to."
