Noir Nook: A Low-Budget Holiday
When my daughters were little, I bought them a tabletop talking holiday tree named Douglas Fir, who had big, blinking eyes and a mouth that moved when he talked or sang. And, as Douglas would say every time we flicked his ON switch, “It’s Christmastime!!!!!”
To celebrate the holiday season (but stay within a budget – a LOW-budget, that is!) I’m gifting you with a list of five first-rate ‘B’ noirs that you may not have seen – because everybody loves a good ‘B’ movie, amirite?
The Great Flamarion (1945)
This Republic Pictures gem stars Erich von Stroheim in the title role of a talented sharpshooter who loses his head over a dame and lives to regret it. The dame is sweet-faced Connie Wallace (Mary Beth Hughes) who, along with her dipsomaniac husband, Al (Dan Duryea), works for Flamarion in his prestigious vaudeville act. It takes some doing to chisel through her boss’s granite exterior, but Connie manages to convince him that’s she desperately in love with him – and before you can say “Stick to your guns,” she’s also talked Flamarion into believing that Al is all that’s standing in the way of their happiness. Three guesses as to how this one turns out – and the first two don’t count.
Trivia tidbit: Erich von Stroheim is considered by many film critics to be one of the greatest directors of the silent era.
Decoy (1946)
I cannot get enough of this wild and woolly film from Monogram Pictures. The story focuses on Margot Shelby (Jean Gillie), the beautiful but conniving girlfriend of imprisoned gang leader Frankie Olins (Robert Armstrong), who’s on death row. But if Frankie gets the electric chair, as planned, he takes with him the secret of where he has hidden the proceeds from the heist that landed him in the pokey. And Margot isn’t having it. So, she uses her considerable wiles to get a local doctor, Lloyd Craig (Herbert Rudley), to help her break Frankie out of prison – after he’s been executed and then resuscitate him! Don’t ask me how this is pulled off. Just trust me when I say you’ve got to see it to believe it.
Trivia tidbit: The cast includes Sheldon Leonard, who went on to produce such successful television series as The Danny Thomas Show, I Spy, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Night Editor (1946)
Columbia Pictures released this feature starring William Gargan as police lieutenant – and family man – Tony Cochrane (William Gargan), who gets more than he bargained for when he starts stepping out with married socialite Jill Merrill (Janis Carter). After the cheating duo witnesses a violent murder (which Jill is inordinately excited about, by the way), Tony has to figure out how to carry out an investigation without revealing that he saw the commission of the crime – and what he was doing when he did.
Trivia tidbit: Night Editor was supposed to kick off a series of films that depicted stories told by reporters on the police beat, but the series never materialized.
The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947)
This film, produced by RKO, stars Lawrence Tierney as the devil of the title – also known as Steve Morgan who, at the start of the picture, robs and kills the night manager of a bank. He proceeds to hitch a ride with traveling salesman Jimmy Ferguson (Ted North) and convinces the jovial driver to pick up two women on the road (Nan Leslie and Betty Lawford). The foursome wind up at a beach house owned by a friend of Jimmy’s, where Steve flattens the tires on Jimmy’s car, disables the telephone, and proceeds to inflict a week’s worth of criminality and chaos in just a few hours’ time.
Trivia tidbit: Ted North was married for three years, from 1943 to 1947, to Great Flamarion femme fatale, Mary Beth Hughes.
Shed No Tears (1948)
The little-known Equity Pictures was responsible for this hidden jewel, which stars Wallace Ford as Sam Grover, who fakes his death so that he and his blonde bombshell wife Edna (June Vincent) can profit from the insurance payout. But what Sam doesn’t know is that Edna has a fella on the side – Ray Belden (Mark Roberts) – and has every intention of taking the cash from the insurance and skipping off into the sunset with Ray. But as crafty as Edna is, she didn’t reckon on Sam’s son, Tom; a loquacious private investigator Tom hires to look into his dad’s death – and Sam himself.
Trivia tidbit: The cast of this one has a slew of familiar faces, including Elena Verdugo, who I remember as Marcus Welby’s receptionist on the popular 1970s TV series; Mary Treen, who may be best known for her role as Cousin Tilly in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946); and Paul Maxey, who can be seen in several other noirs, including two 1947 features, They Won’t Believe Me and Ride the Pink Horse, but who I know best as the rotund train investigator who kept squeezing past Charles McGraw in the train corridors on The Narrow Margin (1952).
I hope you’re able to check out at least one of these underrated features – you only owe it to yourself, after all – and that you have a safe and beautiful holiday season! May the noir be with you!
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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
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