Noir Nook: Autumn Noir
As the leaves once again begin to fall from the trees, we bid a fond farewell to the steamy days of summer and prepare to embrace shorter days, lower temps, and Halloween décor on department store shelves.
This month’s Noir Nook celebrates these changes by serving up six recommended noirs, each one corresponding with a letter for the spelling of the upcoming season. Grab a sweater and a cup of cider, and see how many of the following AUTUMN noirs you’ve seen!
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A is for Ace in the Hole (1951)
This feature focuses on Chuck Tatum (played to perfection by Kirk Douglas), an ambitious newspaper reporter whose bad decisions, trigger temper, and penchant for the bottle have landed him on a small publication in a sleepy town in New Mexico. Desperate for a story that will put him back in the big leagues, Tatum sees a possible path to restoration when he learns about a local man – Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) – who’s trapped by a boulder following a cave-in. But instead of working to free the man, Tatum teams with a corrupt local authority to prolong the rescue efforts and spearheads coverage of the incident, resulting in nationwide exposure. As Tatum rises in prominence, the scene outside the cave devolves into a circus-like atmosphere, complete with gaping tourists, rides and refreshments, and even a theme song – hence the alternate name of the film, The Big Carnival. The delayed rescue turns out to be a boon for all involved, including Minosa’s wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling), who can barely keep up with the customers who crowd into the family’s trading post – it’s a windfall for everyone, that is, except Leo.
Favorite quote: “I don’t go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.” – Lorraine Minosa
Trivia tidbit: The memorable nylon line delivered by Jan Sterling’s character was reportedly contributed by Audrey Young, the wife of the film’s director, Billy Wilder, who also co-wrote the screenplay.
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U is for Union Station (1950)
This feature is set primarily in the Chicago train depot of the film’s title, where William Calhoun (William Holden) works as a police lieutenant. Calhoun’s considerable investigative skills are summoned when a young blind girl (Allene Roberts) is kidnapped by a trio of hoods and spirited away into the bowels of the city’s municipal tunnel. Calhoun is aided in his search for the girl by his boss (Barry Fitzgerald) and an eagle-eyed train passenger, Joyce Willecombe (Nancy Olson, fresh off her co-starring role with Holden in Sunset Boulevard earlier in the year), whose employer is the father of the kidnapped girl. The film’s director was Rudolph Mate, who previously directed Holden in The Dark Past (1948); helmed the 1949 noir, D.O.A.; and served as cinematographer for the Rita Hayworth starrer, Gilda (1946).
Favorite quote: “I may have to beat your brains out. You’ll have to decide that.” – Lt. William Calhoun
Trivia tidbit: Both Alan Ladd and John Lund were considered for the role of Lt. Calhoun.
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T is for They Won’t Believe Me (1947)
If you only know Robert Young from the 1970s medical series, Marcus Welby, M.D., you’re in for a treat (or a shock, depending on your outlook). Here, Young plays Larry Ballentine, whose trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Verna Carlson (Susan Hayward), opens the film. In a flashback that lasts for most of the feature, we see that Ballentine is no saint – he steps out on his long-suffering wife Greta (Rita Johnson) with magazine writer Janice Bell (Jane Greer), then drops Janice like a hot poker when Greta finds out and insists on moving to another city. There, ever the skirt-chaser, Larry falls for his co-worker, Verna – in fact, he falls so hard that he plans to leave his wife, but when Verna winds up dead, all bets are off and all signs point to Larry. Deftly helmed by Irving Pichel (who began his career as an actor and makes a cameo here), this picture features one of my favorite endings in all of noir.
Favorite quote: “She looked like a very special kind of dynamite, neatly wrapped in nylon and silk. Only I wasn’t having any. I’d been too close to one explosion already. I was powder shy.” – Larry Ballentine
Trivia tidbit: Verna’s house in the film was also used in another RKO film released that year, The Devil Thumbs a Ride, starring Lawrence Tierney.
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U (number two) is for The Unsuspected (1947)
I don’t subscribe to the often-popular opinion that most films noirs have confusing, labyrinthine plots – but this one, directed by Michael Curtiz, is certainly no walk in the park. Claude Rains stars as popular radio personality Victor Grandison, who hosts a true-crime show which shares its title with that of the film. When we first meet Grandison, he has just murdered his secretary and staged the death to appear as a suicide. And that’s not the only dead body with which Grandison will be connected before all is said and done. The list of potential victims includes Grandison’s niece Althea (Audrey Totter), who’s a man-chaser from way back; Althea’s alcoholic husband (Hurd Hatfield); Grandison’s wealthy ward, Matilda (Joan Caulfield); and Steven Howard (Michael North), who claims to be Matilda’s husband. There are a lot of moving pieces here, but even if they don’t all fit together, there’s no denying that this is one noir you won’t soon forget.
Favorite quote: “The nicest thing about guests is their departure.” – Victor Grandison
Trivia tidbit: This film marked the big screen debut of Fred Clark, who played a homicide detective, and the final feature of Michael North, who went on to become an agent, with a client list that included Amanda Blake, Red Skelton, and Milburn Stone.
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M is for My Name is Julia Ross (1945)
One of my favorite underrated noirs, My Name is Julia Ross stars Nina Foch in the title role of a woman whose entire life is turned upside down (and inside out) by a malevolent mother-son duo – Mrs. Williamson Hughes and Ralph (Dame May Whitty and the uber-creepy George Macready). They accomplish this by hiring Julia – ostensibly – to provide live-in secretarial services to Mrs. Hughes at her London home. But Julia learns that all is not what it seems when she goes to sleep in London and awakens in a Cornwall coast mansion, where she is confined to her room and told that she is Ralph’s mentally fragile, emotionally incapacitated wife. Joseph Lewis – who would go on to direct two top-tier noirs, Gun Crazy (1950) and The Big Combo (1955) – helms this one with dexterity, keeping the viewer firmly perched on their seat-edge from start to finish.
Favorite quote: “The next time I apply for a job, I’ll ask for their references.” – Julia Ross
Trivia tidbit: Nina Foch once joked that the low-budget film was “shot in about three and a half minutes,” but she also acknowledged that it gave her “the first [role] that I really liked.”
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N is for New York Confidential (1955)
I could cheerfully watch Richard Conte sweep the front porch for two hours, but he does far more than that in this grim feature, starring as Nick Magellan, the coolest hitman this side of Jason Bourne. After he efficiently carries out a job for New York syndicate chief Charlie Lupo (Broderick Crawford), Magellan rapidly rises in the ranks of the organization, but all good things must come to an end, and this movie demonstrates that adage more than once. Others on hand include Lupo’s daughter, Kathy (Anne Bancroft), who tries to distance herself from her father’s criminal exploits, and Lupo’s mistress, Iris Palmer (Marilyn Maxwell), who doesn’t hesitate to make it known that she has eyes for Magellan.
Favorite quote: “Loyalty – that’s something you can’t buy. Half the pigs that work for us can’t even spell it.” – Charlie Lupo
Trivia tidbit: The film was directed by Russell Rouse and the screenplay was penned by Rouse and Clarence Greene. This team also played the same roles for the 1953 noir Wicked Woman, which starred Rouse’s future wife, Beverly Michaels.
And that’s AUTUMN at the Noir Nook – what are your “AUTUMN” noirs? Leave a comment and let me know!
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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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