Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film Book Giveaway (via Twitter in Novemer)

Posted on October 29, 2017 by Annmarie Gatti

“Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film”
Book Giveaway via Twitter

Time for our next book giveaway! This time, CMH is happy to say that we will be giving away FIVE COPIES of “Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film” by Alan K. Rode, courtesy of University Press of Kentucky, from Oct 30 through Dec 2. (plus ONE more copy via Facebook and this Blog, details to follow in a few days).

In order to qualify to win one of these prizes via this contest giveaway, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, Dec 2 at 10PM EST. However, the sooner you enter, the better chance you have of winning, because we will pick a winner on five different days within the contest period, via random drawings, as listed below… So if you don’t win the first week that you enter, you will still be eligible to win during the following weeks until the contest is over.

  • Nov 4: One Winner
  • Nov 11: One Winner
  • Nov 18: One Winner
  • Nov 25: One Winner
  • Dec 2: One Winner

We will announce each week’s winner on Twitter @ClassicMovieHub, the day after each winner is picked at 10PM EST — for example, we will announce our first week’s winner on Sunday Nov 5 at 10PM EST on Twitter. And, please note that you don’t have to have a Twitter account to enter; just see below for the details…

If you’re also on Facebook, please feel free to visit us at Classic Movie Hub on Facebook for additional giveaways (or check back on this Blog in a few days) — because we’ll be giving away ONE MORE cop via Facebook/Blog as well!

Michael Curtiz A Life in Film by Alan K Rode

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ENTRY TASK (2-parts) to be completed by Saturday, Dec 2 at 1oPM EST — BUT remember, the sooner you enter, the more chances you have to win…

1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post

THE QUESTION:
What is one of your favorite Michael Curtiz films and why? And, if you’re not familiar with the work of Michael Curtiz, why do you want to win this book.

2) Then TWEET (not DM) the following message*:
Just entered to win the “Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film” #BookGiveaway courtesy of @KentuckyPress & @ClassicMovieHub

*If you do not have a Twitter account, you can still enter the contest by simply answering the above question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog — BUT PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ADD THIS VERBIAGE TO YOUR ANSWER: I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.

NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.

ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…

…..

About the Book: Academy Award–winning director Michael Curtiz (1886–1962)―whose best-known films include Casablanca (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Mildred Pierce (1945) and White Christmas (1954)―was in many ways the anti-auteur. During his unprecedented twenty-seven year tenure at Warner Bros., he directed swashbuckling adventures, westerns, musicals, war epics, romances, historical dramas, horror films, tearjerkers, melodramas, comedies, and film noir masterpieces. The director’s staggering output of 180 films surpasses that of the legendary John Ford and exceeds the combined total of films directed by George Cukor, Victor Fleming, and Howard Hawks. In the first biography of this colorful, instinctual artist, Alan K. Rode illuminates the life and work of one of the film industry’s most complex figures. He begins by exploring the director’s early life and career in his native Hungary, revealing how Curtiz shaped the earliest days of silent cinema in Europe as he acted in, produced, and directed scores of films before immigrating to the United States in 1926. In Hollywood, Curtiz earned a reputation for his explosive tantrums, his difficulty communicating in English, and his disregard for the well-being of others. However, few directors elicited more memorable portrayals from their casts, and ten different actors delivered Oscar-nominated performances under his direction. This meticulously researched biography provides a nuanced understanding of one of the most talented filmmakers of Hollywood’s golden age.

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Click here for the full contest rules. 

Please note that only Continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the territory of Puerto Rico) entrants are eligible.

And — BlogHub members ARE eligible to win if they live within the Continental United States (as noted above).

Good Luck!

And if you can’t wait to win the book, you can purchase the on amazon via the below link (click on image):

Good Luck!

…..

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Books, Contests & Giveaways, Posts by Annmarie Gatti | Tagged , | 45 Comments

Classic Movie Travels: Spencer Tracy and Milwaukee Wisconsin

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Annette Bochenek

Classic Movie Travels: Spencer Tracy and Milwaukee Wisconsin

“The kids keep telling me I should try this new ‘Method Acting’ but I’m too old, I’m too tired, and I’m too talented to care.” –Spencer Tracy

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy are one of the most notable on-screen duos in classic cinema. They could easily handle comedy and drama, and were both fantastic actors in their own rights. While Hepburn hailed from Connecticut, Tracy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was a difficult and overactive child with sporadic school attendance. His mother came from a wealthy Presbyterian family, while his father was Irish Catholic and worked as a truck salesman. Tracy also had a brother named Carroll, who was four years older than him. Tracy was raised Catholic and educated by Dominican nuns. He conceded to learning because he wanted to be able to read movie subtitles, and movies fascinated him immensely. Tracy would view certain films frequently so that he could reenact some of the scenes with his friends.

Tracy attended several schools in the Milwaukee area, which included Trowbridge Elementary School, among several others.

As a teenager, Tracy attended several Jesuit academies and his grades improved. He later attended Marquette Academy, where he met future actor Pat O’Brien. The two started attending plays together, causing Tracy to develop an interest in theater.

Younger brother Carroll Tracy, mother Carrie Tracy and Spencer Tracy. 1918 family photo Younger brother Carroll Tracy, mother Carrie Tracy and Spencer Tracy (1918 family photo)

Tracy enlisted in the Navy when he turned 18 and was stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago. He was still a student when World War I ended, and was discharged when he achieved the rank of seaman second class. Tracy returned to high school to finish his degree. In 1921, Tracy enrolled at Ripon College with the intent to study medicine.

young Spencer TracyA Young Tracy

At Ripon, Tracy was active in various school organizations and served as president of his hall. He was part of Theta Alpha Phi (theatre), Alpha Phi Omega, Eastern Debate Team, Phi Kappa Delta (Debate Honor Society), and the All College Prom Committee. Moreover, he was voted cleverest and most talented, and tied with a peer for most popular. He made his stage debut as the male lead in The Truth and was well received in the role. Tracy organized an acting company with his friends, called “The Campus Players” and went on tour. At Ripon, Tracy also performed in The Valiant (1921) as the prisoner; The Great Divide (1921) as Phillip; and in Sintram of Skaserack (1922) as Sintram. While touring with the debate team, Tracy auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City (AADA), where he was offered a scholarship after performing a scene from one of his previous roles.

Tracy began classes at AADA in 1922 and made his New York debut in The Wedding Guests. Three months later, he made his Broadway debut in R.U.R. and graduated from AADA in 1923. Tracy struggled in stock companies until his career took a positive turn when he partnered with actress Selena Royle. In 1926, Tracy was cast in the George M. Cohan play Yellow, and Cohan lauded Tracy’s acting skills. Cohan wrote a part just for Tracy in his hit play The Baby Cyclone. 

The Baby Cyclone Theater ProgramThe Baby Cyclone Theater Program

When the stock market crashed, Tracy considered abandoning the theater for a more stable life in Milwaukee, since many plays were closing. However, Tracy was offered a dramatic role in The Last Mile, which proved to be a hit. At the same time, actors from Broadway were being scouted for Vitaphone shorts. Tracy was scouted by director John Ford, who saw The Last Mile. Though Tracy was content working on stage, he was married at this point and had a son who was deaf and recovering from polio. His financial woes led him to sign with Fox and move to California.

At Fox, Tracy was typecast in comedies and appeared in mostly unpopular films. Though Tracy received some attention for his role in The Power and the Glory (1933), his next few films were unremarkable to critics. He began to struggle with alcoholism and his contract with Fox was terminated by mutual consent. His 25 films for Fox mostly lost money at the box office.

Nonetheless, MGM’s Irving Thalberg expressed interest in Tracy. His first film under the new contract was the quickly produced The Murder Man (1935), which also happened to be James Stewart‘s feature film debut. Thalberg began to strategically feature Tracy with MGM’s key actresses in order to build up his name, though Tracy did not receive top billing for these. Rather, Fury (1936) was the first film that demonstrated Tracy’s success as a lead actor. His next film, San Francisco (1936), was the highest grossing film of 1936. His public reputation grew with Libeled Lady (1936), starring Tracy alongside William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Jean Harlow.

William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy, Libeled Lady 1936William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy, Libeled Lady 1936

Tracy soon became an established actor, carrying out memorable roles in Boys Town (1938), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), and Father of the Bride (1950), just to name a few. He also appeared in nine films with Katharine Hepburn, which included Woman of the Year (1942), Keeper of the Flame (1943), Without Love (1945), The Sea of Grass (1947), State of the Union (1948), Adam’s Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), Desk Set (1957), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967). Tracy and Hepburn began a relationship while working on their first film, though Tracy never divorced his wife. His wife, Louise, stated that she would be Mrs. Spencer Tracy until the day she died. Tracy claimed that he could get a divorce whenever he wanted to, but he and Hepburn were content with the current arrangement. Hepburn never fought for marriage.

Tracy and HepburnTracy and Hepburn

Tracy was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor, and won it consecutively twice. When Tracy was working on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), he informed the press that this would be his last film. Tracy was in poor health and could only film for a few hours each day. Seventeen days after filming his final scene in the film, Tracy died of a heart attack.

Tracy and Hepburn Guess Who's Coming the Dinner, 1967Tracy and Hepburn, Guess Who’s Coming the Dinner, 1967

Today, Milwaukee possesses a few tributes and location that were of relevance to Tracy. Spencer’s childhood home address was 3003 St Paul Ave., in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Here is the property today:

Spencer Tracy's childhood home 3003 St Paul Ave., Milwaukee, WisconsinSpencer Tracy’s childhood on St Paul Ave. in Milwaukee

Trowbridge Street Elementary School is located at 1943 E Trowbridge St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I spoke with Principal Tom Matthews, the current principal of Trowbridge, and he shared that Tracy was asked to leave Trowbridge due to issues with behavior, as was the case for him with several other schools. In fact, when asked about his education, Tracy often joked that he had one of the best schooling experiences since he attended “all of them!” His family supposedly lived kitty-corner to the school at one point. The school continues to display a plaque that documents Tracy as a notable alum.

Trowbridge Street Elementary School, 1943 E Trowbridge St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Trowbridge Street Elementary School
Spencer Tracy Plaque at Trowbridge Street Elementary School 1943 E Trowbridge St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Spencer Tracy Plaque at Trowbridge Street Elementary School

Marquette Academy is now Marquette University High School, located at 3401 W Wisconsin Ave. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Marquette Academy is now Marquette University High School, located at 3401 W Wisconsin Ave. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Marquette Academy (now Marquette University High School)

Ripon College continues to exist as a university today, located 300 Seward St. in Ripon, Wisconsin. Tracy received an honorary degree from Ripon in 1940 in front of the college library.

Spencer Tracy received an honorary degree from Ripon College in 1940 in front of the college library.Spencer Tracy receives his honorary degree from Ripon College
Ripon College today, 300 Seward St. in Ripon, Wisconsin. Ripon College today

If you are ever in the Milwaukee area, I would highly encourage you to walk in the footsteps of Tracy throughout this historic city.

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–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub

Annette Bochenek of Chicago, Illinois, is a PhD student at Dominican University and an independent scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the Hometowns to Hollywood blog, in which she writes about her trips exploring the legacies and hometowns of Golden Age stars. Annette also hosts the “Hometowns to Hollywood” film series throughout the Chicago area. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies and is the president of TCM Backlot’s Chicago chapter. In addition to writing for Classic Movie Hub, she also writes for Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, and Chicago Art Deco SocietyMagazine.

 

Posted in Classic Movie Travels, Posts by Annette Bochenek | 31 Comments

Interviews with Classic Horror Stars from Hollywood’s Golden Era – Exclusive Post by Authors James Bawden and Ron Miller (You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet)

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Guest Post

You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet
Interviews with Classic Horror Stars

If you’re an actor best known for playing monsters, madmen or maniacal killers, how do you cope with a career image that’s so mired in the dark side of life?

Well, it’s interesting how many different solutions to that problem have been found by actors dealing with that particular dilemma. Here are some reactions to the problem from five famous actors known for their terrifying portrayals on screen — as reported in the new book You Ain‘t Heard Nothin‘ Yet: Interviews with Stars from Hollywood’s Golden Era:

frankenstein 1931 for you aint heard nothing yetBoris Karloff as Frankenstein (1931)

Boris Karloff, who came to fame in the 1931 Frankenstein, playing a monster built out of  body parts stolen from corpses, then jolted to life by lightning bolts put to use by the notorious Dr. Frankenstein. Karloff began by not seeing the character he was playing as a monster, but rather as a bewildered creature, struggling to understand how he fit into the world around him once Dr. Frankenstein had brought him to life.

“He was like a newborn baby, taking his first look at the world,” Karloff explained. “He wasn’t a monster then.”

Karloff refused to think of himself as a “monster actor’, saying “ I was never really a ‘horror’ actor because horror implies revulsion and my films were never gory or ugly. They were exciting, thrillers. I felt Frankenstein was more like a legend or a fairy tale.

Karloff was aware other actors felt sorry for him for being typecast as a horror movie star, but he had no regrets himself. The reason: He almost always had his name above the title in all his films after Frankenstein.

“I realized I was typed as a monster after the first film, but I’ve never minded,” Karloff said. “In fact, I’ve always been rather grateful to the Monster for it. Any actor who becomes typed is very fortunate.”

the wolf manPoor Lon Chaney Jr, as the Wolf Man

In contrast, Lon Chaney Jr. grumbled about the type-casting that ensued once he reluctantly turned to horror roles at Universal Pictures with Man-Made Monster in 1941 after winning great acclaim as a character actor for his 1939 portrayal of the dim-witted Lenny in Of Mice and Men.

Chaney especially resisted being pushed into horror roles just because his famous father, Lon Chaney Sr., had been the greatest performer of grotesque characters during the silent era. He disliked the long makeup sessions he had to endure to become his most famous monster, The Wolf Man, the werewolf he played in five films between 1941-48.

“I had to go in early in the morning and sit through four hours in the makeup chair for the scenes where I turned into a werewolf in stages,” said Chaney, “and those scenes only lasted a minute on the screen!”

And he wasn’t happy with the physical burden of playing Frankenstein’s Monster in the 1942 Ghost of Frankenstein.

“That Frankenstein outfit weighed 80 pounds“,  said Chaney, “so it was worse to have to keep it on so long and work wearing it.”

And he also scoffed at the silly ways his Wolf Man character kept being brought back to life for sequel after sequel.

Said Chaney, “It got pretty ridiculous after awhile. They would figure out some tricky way to kill me in one film and then have to think of something even more elaborate to bring me back to life in the next one.”

Still, like Karloff, Chaney was able to keep working steadily in such films, though he preferred to play straight character roles like the ones he played in non-horror classics of the 1950s like High Noon, Not As A Stranger and The Defiant Ones.

“I knew the only thing to do was to refuse all horror roles and go broke, “ Chaney said,  “ I didn’t like the idea of starving, though.”

billy-the-kid-vs-dracula-81 john caradineJohn Carradine in Billy the Kid vs Dracula (1966)

Yet another “horror actor” who had been a busy character actor in supporting roles until he began to get leading roles as monsters was John Carradine, who specialized in mad scientists, but also had his shot at playing the vampire Dracula on several occasions. He continued to play such roles in order to help finance his own Shakespearean stage company in Los Angeles, but he did have considerable regrets about some of the roles he played.

“There are pictures I wish I hadn’t done“, said Carradine. “One of them was Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966). I was broke and needed the money. Finally, I started turning down the bad ones. My conscience took over and I’d say I won’t read lines and vomit at the same time.”

Though his career was studded with great supporting roles, like the itinerant preacher in John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Carradine believed it also was a real challenge for an actor to bring some kind of dignity to the kinds of horror roles he often played in poverty row productions.

Carradine explained: “I would say it’s the most difficult thing to do and do well. A bad actor would over-do them.”

As for a horror role Carradine remembered proudly, it was the serial killer of women he played in Bluebeard (1944).

“I had a chance to play a fully-developed character and even play some rather romantic scenes,” said Carradine. “ It was also the first film in which I got single star billing. It was the biggest part I ever had in a picture and certainly not the easiest to play.

Carradine also remembered with a smile the fact that it was the only film in which he not only wound up with the girl, but several of them, “Except  that I killed them all.”

actors_vincent_price_movie_legends_1322x1800_wallpaper_Wallpaper_2560x1600_www.wallpaperswa.com_Vincent Price

The actor who supplanted Karloff as the reigning king of horror pictures after his performance in House of Wax in 1953, was Vincent Price.

In his real life, Price was a collector of fine art, a gourmet cook and a very elegant and literate man. He also had no time for horror movies when he wasn’t making them.

“I never watch horror movies myself, if I can help it,” he said. “Too scary for me.”

Price managed to keep his tongue in cheek through most of his horror roles and liked to remember the good times he had with fellow actors, including several who also were known for spooky characters.

“We got Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre for a merry threesome in The Raven (1963) and the last masterwork had Boris, Basil Rathbone, Peter and I in Comedy of Terrors (1963) and it was the biggest hit of all.”

antony perkinsAnthony Perkins

Probably the least typical of the five actors interviewed was Anthony Perkins, who began his movie career as a young leading man, but was propelled to cinema immortality when he played the maniacal killer Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 Psycho and followed it up with three sequels, including one he directed himself — Psycho III.

Perkins admitted it was a bit of a struggle to find something to identify with in Norman Bates.

“Norman and I really have a great deal NOT in common,” Perkins said. “Although I have to admit there are times when I feel that Norman directed the movie [Psycho III] while I enacted the role of Norman. And somehow we shared the responsibility.”

Perkins ultimately decided to focus on the more human side of Norman, which he finally found playing Norman after he‘d undergone psychological rehabilitation in the subsequent films.

“He’s essentially likeable,” said Perkins. “He’s optimistic and he doesn’t succumb to his own vices, his own weaknesses. He’s constantly trying to find alternative ways of  living and being with other people.”

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–James Bawden and Ron Miller for Classic Movie Hub

Retired journalists James Bawden and Ron Miller are the authors of You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet, and  Conversations with Classic Film Stars, two astonishing collections of rare interviews with the greatest celebrities of Hollywood’s golden age. Conducted over the course of more than fifty years, they recount intimate conversations with some of the most famous leading men and women of the era, including Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joseph Cotten, Cary Grant, Gloria Swanson, Joan Fontaine, Loretta Young, Kirk Douglas, and many more.

You can purchase the books on amazon by clicking here:

     

 

 

Posted in Books, Guest Posts, Interviews | Tagged , | 3 Comments

German Expressionism 101 – Part One

Posted on October 23, 2017 by minooallen

 

German Expressionism 101
Part One

In case you haven’t noticed, Classic Movie Hub is having a giveaway contest this month. Thanks to our long-standing partnership with Kino Lorber, we are giving away eight horror-esque movies every Sunday throughout October. Three of those of titles, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Metropolis, come from the groundbreaking and highly innovative German Expressionist movement. So, what better time than now to write about one of the most influential film movements of the silent era and beyond: German Expressionism.

nosferatu_shadow10 points if you can name the film this still is from!

In order to understand German Expressionism, you have to understand the historical context that birthed it. Like pretty much every other artistic movement since the inception of art itself, German Expressionism was a reaction to the harsh realities of its time. The movement emerged off the coattails of World War One – a war that had a profound effect on the German psyche.

After WWI much of Europe was left a ruinous heap of rabble and disenfranchisement. With many of its power Empires now lost to the dustbins of history, the future of many European countries were bleak unknowns and a source of constant collective anxiety.  This was especially true for Germany. You see, after the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, the Allied Powers pretty much forced Germany to “accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage.” This meant German people faced the entire economic brunt of the war – to the tune of $31.4 billion dollars AKA $442 billion in 2017 dollars…yikes!

The conditions laid forth by the treaty, coupled with the fact that Germany went headfirst into such a feckless and destructive war to begin with, caused the German people to grow increasing resentful of its leaders. They thrust their people into a war that caused nothing but devastation only to later be met with the prospect of absolute financial destitution. The future was bleak and collective malaise of despondency fell upon the nation.

Otto_Dix_The Wounded Soldier_1917Otto Dix, The Wounded Soldier, 1917

And here is where we enter the world of German Expressionism. The painting above is The Wounded Solider by Otto Dix. After serving in WWI, Dix returned home a broken, haunted man who suffered from intense PTSD. When it came to expressing the horrors of the trenches, Dix wanted his audience to react strongly to his work, feeling the mental pain and spiritual disillusionment brought upon by war. Rather than focus on painterly abilities to create an aesthetically pleasing composition and show the physical realism of war, Dix instead focused on the more abstract psychological experience of those who were part of it.

He painted a distorted figure with jagged edges, contrasted lighting and unnatural proportions that were ghoulish and horrifying in nature. Just look at the painting. Really look at it. The sunken eyes and too-wide mouth make him appear almost as a skull. His limbs and digits twist in unnatural ways and the earth around him is nothing but a black abyss of unknown shapes and textures. Heck, without the helmet on, it would be hard to even distinguish that we was a solider – for all we would know he could be an unnamed ghoul falling into madness as he descends deeper into hell.

Otto-Dix-Grossstadt-Triptychon-MitteltaI may have gotten a little carried away with that description, so enjoy this palette jazzy cleanser! (Otto Dix, Grossstadt, 1927/28)

Yes, Beautiful aesthetic realism was out and the haunting heavy stokes of expressionism was in. This movement would permeate into all aspects of German art of the time, including film, which we will discuss in Part 2 of this German Expressionist adventure.

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Minoo Allen for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Classic Movie Hub, Films, Posts by Minoo Allen | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Trick or Treat: A CMH Halloween “Universal Classic Monsters Collection” DVD Giveaway (Oct 22 – Oct 28)

Posted on October 22, 2017 by Annmarie Gatti

A Special Halloween Treat for CMH Fans!
The Universal Classic Monsters Collection DVD Giveaway!

Yay! The contest is over and the winners are:
Toby and Philip!

We’re so excited to be running a VERY SPECIAL giveaway this week, just in time to celebrate  Halloween… so prepare to be scared…

This week only, we’re giving away TWO COPIES of the classic (understatement) DVD Set, the “Universal Classic Monsters Collection.” Each DVD set contains six original Universal Classic Monster Movies: Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and The Wolf Man (1941). How’s that for a frightfully delightful Halloween treat!

dracula 1931 bela lugosiBela Lugosi as Dracula (1931)

In order to qualify to win one of these DVD sets via this contest giveaway, you must complete the following task by Saturday, October 28 at 9PM EST. We will pick two winners via random drawings, and announce them on Sunday October 29 at 9PM EST on Twitter or this Blog (depending how you entered).

Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1935.Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester in Bride of Frankenstein, 1935

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ENTRY TASK (2-parts see below) to be completed by Saturday, October 28 at 9PM EST…

1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post

2) Then TWEET* (not DM) the following message:
Just entered to win the CMH Halloween “Universal Classic Monsters Collection’ #DVDGiveaway courtesy of @ClassicMovieHub

THE QUESTION:
Who is your favorite Classic Movie Monster (or actor that portrays the monster) and why? 

*If you do not have a Twitter account, you can enter the contest by simply answering the above question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog — BUT PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ADD THIS VERBIAGE TO YOUR ANSWER: I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.

NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.

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Please note that only Continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the territory of Puerto Rico) and Canadian entrants are eligible.

And — BlogHub members ARE eligible to win if they live within the Continental United States or in Canada (as noted above).

…..

ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…

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And if you can’t wait to win the DVD Set, you can purchase it on amazon via the below link (click on image):

Good Luck!

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–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Contests & Giveaways, Posts by Annmarie Gatti | Tagged | 37 Comments

Silents are Golden: Learning To Love Those Title Cards

Posted on October 20, 2017 by Lea Stans

Learning To Love Those Title Cards

So there you are, a wide-eyed silent film newbie, getting ready to pop in a pre-1927 film for the very first time. With your popcorn and beverage at the ready, you settle into the couch and the film begins. There’s the black and white footage (or maybe it’s tinted sepia), running slightly faster than life, and you see women in dresses and men in straw hats, and maybe you catch a few Model Ts going by.

And then…the screen goes black. And there are words. Which you must read. This, my friend, has been your first — and rather sudden — exposure to that unwieldy thing known as a title card. (Or “intertitle,” if you’re feeling fancy.)

But are title cards really that unwieldy? Certainly they can distract you from the film at first, being as old-timey as organ grinders’ monkeys and all. But I can promise you that you will get used to them. And not only will you get used to them, but they will add a level of participation to your silent film viewings that you may not have experienced before.

A Flirt’s Mistake (1914) title cardAlso, your life will be enriched by title cards like this. From A Flirt’s Mistake (1914).

Just about every silent film had title cards (which are distinct from beginning or end credit titles, might I add), with the exception of the very oldest films, as well as some ambitious dramas and a chunk of the avant-garde. They came into use around the turn of the 20th century, once films had reached the sufficient length to require some means to keep audiences from becoming confused. The earliest intertitles that we know of might be from the 42-second British film How It Feels to Be Run Over (1900), which shows a car running straight into the camera followed by a black background with few scrawled white words exclaiming, in rapid succession, “!!! Oh! Mother will be pleased.” (Let’s just call this an example of that famous dry British humor.)

How It Feels to Be Run Over (1900) title cardPossibly the very first intertitles. (Image creator unknown.)

At first, filmmakers used title cards very sparingly and only imparted the exact amount of information audiences needed to know. Some studios used them to “announce” each shot and describe what would take place, rather like those long chapter titles for serialized Victorian novels (at that time title cards were called “leaders”). As films rapidly grew more sophisticated, decorative frames would often surround the words, with studio logos in the corners. Main characters were sometimes introduced with title cards, which would also contain the names of the actors playing them. At times, the actors themselves were announced via title cards, the film cutting to each one smiling and bowing at the camera–an early version of opening credits.

By the mid- to late -1910s, titles became more elaborate and were an integral part of the overall movie experience. Ironically, the more cinematic language fell into place the more title cards seemed to be in use — they weren’t just for dialogue. Dramas often used romantic-sounding language and even bits of poetry to help convey the mood of the film. Jokey titles added to the humor of comedies. Artsy films would try out edgy fonts. Some backgrounds might be textured instead of black, while others might have paintings or cartoons.

A humorous title card from Harold Lloyd’s Haunted Spooks (1920)A humorous title card from Harold Lloyd’s Haunted Spooks (1920). 

Not only did all this keep audiences from getting eye fatigue from the frequent switches to black title cards (a possible reason why filmmakers started tinkering with painterly backgrounds) but they added to films’ artistry, too.

Why, you might wonder, didn’t studios simply use subtitles right on the images themselves? The technology available to make subtitles did exist (although it was more difficult to do than it is today). The main reason titles stayed in place was to make it easier for theaters in other countries. Simply change the language in the title cards, and presto! The foreign language version was ready to go.

Forbidden Fruit 1921 title cardEasily changed up. (From Forbidden Fruit 1921.)

Today, flowery language and textured backgrounds tend to be lost on us at first, since it takes some time to get used to the picture being repeatedly interrupted by blocks of words. You might even feel like it’s a chore. However, there’s a definite rhythm to the way silents used title cards. Let yourself get swept away by the story, and in time you’ll start to sense just when one is coming up–and even look forward to the clarification it’ll bring.

In fact, I can almost guarantee that at one point there will be a magical “ah-ha!” moment. This is when a character begins to speak and for a second you wish you could hear them, and then you brighten, realizing that a title card must be on the way. And there it is, your savior in a vintage font. That, my friend, is the moment when you’ve gone from being merely a passive observer to a participant in the film itself.

Artsy titles absorbing us in the story of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)Artsy titles absorbing us in the story of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919).

If you think of the way many folks watch movies nowadays — half-listening, with a phone in one hand — silents are a welcome change of pace. They require our rapt attention. Miss even one title card, and the film might no longer make sense. And this is a good thing, for when distractions are put aside you can truly absorb the film in front of you. You can focus on characters and plot points uninterrupted, free for a time from the normal stress of modern life (if I may be so cliched). In a sense, silents can be a tonic.

And thus, my friends, I urge you: learn to love those title cards! Far from being just the tools that helped films limp by until the talkie era finally arrived, they were a unique artform in and of themselves. And today, they can help us to more fully experience and more deeply appreciate these wonderful, historic early films.

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–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.

Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.

Posted in Posts by Lea Stans, Silents are Golden | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

5 Things You May Not Know about Bela Lugosi

Posted on October 20, 2017 by minooallen

 

5 Things You May Not Know about Bela Lugosi

Bela_Legosi_HeadershotLike today is his birthday. Happy 135th Birthday to the legend Bela Lugosi!

..…

1) He was born to play Dracula

Bela_Legosi_Dracula

For real tho…

Bela Lugosi was born Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko in former Austria-Hungarian Empire. His hometown of Lugos was only about fifty miles away from the western border of Transylvania and the infamous Poenari Castle, main fortress to legendary Vlad the Impaler. In case you don’t know, Vlad the Impaler is the 14th century Romanian Prince that is the basis for the character of Dracula. So, it only makes sense the man who lives a day’s walk from the home of Dracula would give the definitive portrayal.

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2) From Grade School Drop-out to The National Theater

Bela_Legosi_National_theatreCan we just admire that tie for a moment…

As a child, Bela Lugosi was something of a rebellious boy who didn’t quite gel with authority. Before he was even a teenager, Lugosi had dropped out of the Hungarian State Gymnasium then ran away from home. He worked a series of odd jobs before returning home to his mother, whose husband was able to hook-up Lugosi with a local traveling theater company. Soon after, he was accepted into the Hungarian Academy of Performing Arts where he specialized in Shakespeare. After graduating, Lugosi spent the early 1900s performing Shakespeare in traveling troupes across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1913, he joined the Hungarian National Theater in Budapest, where he continued to play roles in plays like Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Not bad for a grade school dropout, am I right?

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3) Ski Captain (And the World of War 1)

Bela_Legosi_WWI_uniformGlad he took off the hat for this one…

With a strong love for his homeland, Lugosi took a break from acting to fight in The Great War AKA World War 1. He served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian Army for two years, rising to the rank of captain in the ski patrol while fighting against the Russians. He was awarded the Wound Medal and later discharged for injuries suffered while in battle.  Unfortunately, that injury would plague him for the rest of his life and lead his decades long battle with opioid addiction.

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4) Forced to Flee

Bela_Legosi_Forced_to_FleeDay dreaming of greener pastures…

Despite taking a hiatus from acting to serve his country, he was eventually forced to flee Hungary in 1919. Lugosi had left leaning politics in his youth and was an advocate for the actors union in Budapest. When the Hungarian Revolution took hold, his work with the union was seen as having communist, and therefore Soviet, sympathies. Seeing the writing on the walls, Lugosi fled his motherland, first going to Germany before finally settling in the US. He would become a naturalized citizen in 1931.

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5) Reports of his death were greatly exaggerated

Abbott_and_costello_meet_frankensteinBela Lugosi‘s final role in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948, director Charles Barton)

Rumor has it Universal studios originally almost hired Ian Keith to play the role of Dracula in the film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein because they thought Lugosi was dead! The film marked the final time Lugosi would play Dracula.

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Minoo Allen for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Birthday Legends, Legends Tribute, Posts by Minoo Allen | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Vitaphone View: Discoveries Galore “Down Under”

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Hutchinson, Founder of The Vitaphone Project

Discoveries Galore “Down Under” 

During the 1960’s there were a number of major film vault fires that destroyed the only known prints or negatives of silent and early sound films.  The worst of these was on May 13, 1967 at MGM’s Culver City studio Vault #7.  Nitrate film was ignited by an electrical fire and destroyed hundreds of short and feature films. The losses included Lon Chaney’s London After Midnight and  A Blind Bargain,  and much early two-color Technicolor footage from The Broadway Melody, Chasing Rainbows,  So This Is Marriage? and the last known print of the all Technicolor The Rogue Song with Lawrence Tibbett and Laurel and Hardy.  Also lost were many of the original release master prints of pre-1951 MGM cartoons.

Short subjects were not spared from the devastating losses. Most of the 1927-29 silent Our Gang and Charlie Chase shorts were burned, as was Laurel and Hardy’s Hats Off.

Even bigger losses were sustained in 1937 when the Fox Studio film vaults in Little Ferry, NJ caught fire, destroying most of the studio’s silent and pre-1932 films.

GDOB Gold Diggers of Broadway Lightner GranGold Diggers of Broadway, 1929

Yet, a number of these lost films have been rediscovered over the past thirty years, thanks in large part to Australia.

Australia and New Zealand had hundreds of theatres, per capita on par with the United States. As such the countries required a steady stream of most Hollywood releases to keep their theatres supplied. All of the major studios regularly shipped their shorts and features there, and had their own distribution centers in the country — essentially large warehouses that stored past and current releases.

MAMBA ad 1930 filmAd for the 1930 film, Mamba

The primary reason that so many previously lost American films have been found “down under” is purely economic: once a film had completed its run, it was too expensive to ship it back to Hollywood. So instead, prints went to the studio’s Australian distribution centers, often to remain there until they closed in the early 1960’s.

Enter film collectors. As television eroded movie theatre attendance in the early 1960’s,  many theatres closed and the studios decided to close their distribution centers. In most cases, the accumulated thousands of reels of film were trucked to the local landfill for disposal. There was no perceived value in films made before 1950. Fortunately, a handful of twenty-something film collectors learned of the landfilling plan, and in some cases were able to bribe garbage truck drivers to drop of reels of 35mm film at their homes. We can never know how many films were saved in this way, or how many met their fate in Australian landfills.

GDOB Gold Diggers of Broadway Frame Color Lightner GranGold Diggers of Broadway Frame, 1929

As film preservation efforts increased in the 1980’s, a number of films lost in US vault fires or through decomposition turned up “down under.” The first major discovery was in the late 1980’s when one Technicolor reel from the otherwise completely lost Gold Diggers of Broadway (WB/’29) was found in Australia. Subsequently, a full Technicolor print of the first non-musical Technicolor feature, Mamba (Tiffany/’30) turned up and has since been restored with its Vitaphone disks. A British produced/US filmed short featuring major jazz musicians Jack Teagarden and Jimmy McPartland, Me and the Boys (Wardour/’29), was found in 2011 and also restored.

MAMBA 1930 Title FrameMamba Title Frame, 1930

Perhaps the most prominent Australian discovery occurred in 2013 when one of the now eighty-year-old collectors who had diverted film from the landfill emailed me.  He said he thought he had a film that might be considered lost. It turned out to be the long lost Technicolor MGM 2 reel short, Hello Pop! This discovery was significant because it was the only lost film with the Three Stooges. The only previously known print had burned in the 1967 MGM fire, and became the holy grail of Stooges fans. I immediately confirmed this was indeed a lost film. The collector was extremely cooperative, and worked with my friend Paul Brennan (who had been instrumental in finding Mamba) to get the nitrate reels properly packaged and shipped to Warner Bros for restoration. The short is included on the Warner Archive DVD “Shorts From The Dream Factory, Volume 3”.

HELLO POP FRAME Three Stooges Title CardHello Pop Frame Title Card, 1933 2-Reel Short, The Three Stooges
HELLO POP FRAME Three Stooges Reading PaperHello Pop Frame, The Three Stooges

Efforts are now in progress to seek out the other elderly collectors or their collections — if they still survive in the often tropical Australian climate. There is huge potential for future discoveries there. We know, for example, that the still lost 1933 Pre-Code Warner Bros feature Convention City received extensive screening upon its initial release.  Were all prints returned or destroyed? I doubt it!

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– Ron Hutchinson, Founder of The Vitaphone Project, for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Ron’s Vitaphone View articles here.

Ron is widely recognized as one of the country’s foremost film historians, with special emphasis on the period covering the transition to sound (1925-30) and early attempts to add sound to film. As the founder of The Vitaphone Project, he has worked with Warner Brothers, UCLA, LOC and private collectors worldwide to find previously lost soundtrack discs and restore early sound shorts. Ron’s unique knowledge has  been sourced in over 25 books as well as documentaries for PBS and TCM, and commentary for “The Jazz Singer” DVD boxed set. He was awarded the National Society of Film Critics “Film Heritage Honor” for his work in film preservation and discoveries, and was the presenter of rare Vitaphone shorts at the 2016 TCM Film Festival. For more information you can visit the Vitaphone Project website or Facebook Group.

And, if you’re interested in exploring some of these newly discovered shorts and rarities, you can pick them up on DVD via amazon:

               

Posted in Posts by Ron Hutchinson, Vitaphone View | 6 Comments

Noir Nook: Little-Known Gems – Wicked Woman (1953)

Posted on October 11, 2017 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Little-Known Gems: Wicked Woman (1953)

Even classic film lovers who aren’t film noir aficionados have heard of such classics as Double Indemnity, Laura, and Out of the Past, am I right?

But what of those low-budget Bs that no one ever talks about? The ones that rarely show up on the Late, Late Show? Don’t they deserve their moment in the sun?

I’ll say they do! So every now and again in The Noir Nook, I’m going to make it my business to share some of these gems with you. And I’m kicking off the series with one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures: Wicked Woman (1953), directed by Russell Rouse and starring none other than Rouse’s wife, Beverly Michaels. It’s one heck of a flick that you’ve got to see to believe!

Wicked Woman 1953 Lobby CardWicked Woman Lobby Card

As the credits roll, we see the wicked woman of the film’s title, riding a bus through dusty towns, on her way to who-knows-where. And just in case we weren’t sure who this film was about, we’re treated to a jazzy theme song all about her as the credits roll, soulfully belted by Herb Jeffries (who, incidentally, was billed during his career as “Hollywood’s First Black Singing Cowboy” and the “Bronze Buckaroo”). (Just thought you’d like to know.) The words of the song tell us all we need to know about this dastardly dame: “You know that what she’s doin’ is sure to cause you ruin – and still, you listen to her lies.”

We learn that the dame’s name is Billie Nash (Michaels), and when she disembarks from the bus, she finds a rooming house and gives the landlady her last dollar, including a “good luck” coin – “All the luck that’s brought me shouldn’t happen to a dog,” she emotionlessly remarks. There’s something fascinating about Billie – from her uncommon name, to her blonde hair and all-white outfit, which puts you in mind of a poor man’s (I mean a REALLY poor man’s) Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice. There’s the syncopated rhythm record that she plays over and over (and over!) on her portable phonograph. The nearly empty pint of gin that she drains once she’s settled in her room. The astrology magazine that she reads to pass the time. She’s not beautiful, but she’s attractive in a brassy, I’ll-kick-your-ass kind of way. And she doesn’t just walk – she moves with a slow-motion strut that makes you wonder if she really wants to get where she’s going.

Wicked Woman 1953 Beverly Michaels and Percy HeltonBeverly Michaels and Percy Helton

We don’t know anything about Billie when we meet her, except that she’s flat broke and looking for a job. And also that she’s resourceful – not long after noting the frank appraisal given to her legs by her across-the-hall neighbor, Charlie Borg (the always great Percy Helton), she turns on the charm and winds up dining on the chop he’d been cooking for his own dinner. And then, after landing a gig as a waitress in a bar, she gets Charlie to loan her 20 bucks for a new outfit by suggesting they celebrate her new job by going out for dinner and dancing on her first night off (“I’ll teach you all the latest steps,” she promises with a dazzling smile).

The bar is owned by Matt Bannister (a hunky Richard Egan) and his wife Dora (Evelyn Scott), who’s just a little too fond of the product they’re selling, if you know what I mean. Before long, Billie is casting meaningful glances in Matt’s direction, taking suggestive puffs from his cigarette, and letting her hand rest in his just a couple of beats longer than necessary when passing money from the customers. And before you can say “Bob’s your uncle,” she’s ensnared Matt like a fly in a spider web, drawing him in with her fantasy of going to Mexico: “I want to dance and make love and be serenaded,” she purrs. “And lay out in the sun all day. And get tan. Not too tan, though. They like blondes with fair skin down there.” After lulling him into a stupor with her imagery, she only has to say three more words – ‘’Mexico City. Acapulco…” – and Matt’s a goner. Meanwhile, she keeps poor Charlie panting on the sidelines, getting favors out of him by continuing to dangle the promise of their future night on the town.

Wicked Woman 1953 Beverly Michaels and Richard EganBeverly Michaels and Richard Egan

Billie and Matt enjoy a brief interlude of stolen kisses and whispered endearments, but Billie’s soft and sultry side falls away like scales off a lizard when she insists that Matt sell the bar and run away with her south of the border. Matt’s appalled at the notion of leaving his wife in a lurch, and when he turns her down flat, Billie shows her true colors: “You can look for a new girl at the end of the week – I’m quittin’,” she tells Matt. “You stay in this hole you dug for yourself, but don’t expect me to hang around ‘til it’s six feet deep!” And Matt’s not the only one to suffer Billie’s wrath. Charlie encounters her upon her return to the rooming house and makes the mistake of trying yet again to get her to set a date for their outing. Instead, he gets pummeled with Billie’s screaming insults: “Do you think I’d go out with an undersized runt like you? Don’t make me laugh – I wouldn’t be caught dead with you!”

But if you know anything about film noir, you’ll know that this isn’t the end. I don’t want to completely spoil the film – you’ve really got to see it to believe it – but let me just say this: the last 20 minutes of Wicked Woman will leave you bug-eyed and on the edge of your seat.

Wicked Woman Beverly Michaels, Richard Egan and Percy HeltonWicked Woman Beverly Michaels, Richard Egan and Percy Helton

By the way, in addition to directing the film, Russell Rouse also co-wrote the feature with Clarence Greene. This duo also penned the screenplay for D.O.A. (1949) and, in a complete about-face, they were responsible for the story for Pillow Talk (1959), the first teaming of Doris Day and Rock Hudson. In addition, Rouse was the man behind the camera for another of my favorite noirs, New York Confidential (1955).

If you’ve never seen Wicked Woman, do yourself a huge favor and check it out – you can catch it on You Tube. And if you’ve already had the pleasure of seeing it, there’s no time like the present to it again!

You won’t be sorry.

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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

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.
If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:

 

Posted in Noir Nook, Posts by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry | Tagged | 15 Comments

Film Noir Review: He Walked by Night (1948)

Posted on October 9, 2017 by Danilo Castro

“Police work is not all glamour and excitement and glory. There are days and days of routine, of tedious probing, of tireless searching.”

Rarely have a director and cinematographer worked as succinctly as Anthony Mann and John Alton. During the late 1940s, they collaborated on a series of films noir that rank among the finest of their kind: T-Men (1947), Raw Deal (1948), Reign of Terror (1949), and Border Incident (1949). Key among these films, though perhaps less celebrated due to the uncertainty of Mann’s involvement, is 1948’s He Walked by Night.

Details surrounding the film get increasingly hazier with time, but here’s what we know for sure: Mann replaced original director Alfred L. Werker at some point during production, and shot a number uncredited scenes. Exactly which of the 79 minutes belong to Mann and which belong to Werker is another matter altogether. Some have claimed that Mann essentially remade the entire film, others claim he added the finishing touches at most. The most detailed estimation comes from Max Alvarez’s excellent book The Crime Films of Anthony Mann, which states that he shot all of the nighttime exteriors, or a total of one third of the film; including the iconic finale.

He Walked by Night !

One third. That’s all. What Mann and Alton manage to do with this one third supersedes what most other filmmakers were doing with feature-length runtimes. More than the grim, unsettling T-Men or even the brilliantly baroque Raw Deal, He Walked by Night shows the duo at the height of their visual prowess, revolutionizing the film noir as they went along.

The film opens on an appropriately grim note. We spot the titular He, Roy Martin (Richard Basehart), prowling the empty streets of Los Angeles. A background street lamp casts his figure in long shadows against the pavement. Theft, it appears, is on the agenda tonight, until Martin’s handiwork is interrupted by a patrol cop on his way home. The cop asks to see some form of identification, and Martin responds with three slugs from a revolver. The cop attempts to cut Martin off in his fleeting moments, but the elusive figure scampers away, back into the night.

He Walked by Night 2

Each of Mann’s sequences builds upon this opening note like a foreboding theme. Martin is constantly shown in fearful isolation, pacing his Hollywood bungalow, scanning police frequencies on his custom radio. The director keeps dialogue to a minimum, and instead relies on auditory and visual tactics to heighten tension. It works brilliantly. Stranded in silence, Martin jumps at every unfamiliar sound or suspicious growl from his dog. He shuts off the lights in order to see out the window, to the extent that we only catch glimpses of him through the blinds. As Martin’s chances dwindle, so too does our visual representation of him.

As Martin, Basehart offers the finest of his many film noir performances. Though bearing little resemblance to Erwin Walker, the real-life inspiration for the character, the usually charming actor frightens through his tightly-wound stoicism. He acts as though his affable facade could crumble at any moment, and subsequently delivers each line as if he were a coiled cobra, waiting– wanting– to strike. That we never know the motivation for his actions makes the character all the more threatening. In fact, the only time we catch a glimpse of humanity is when he’s forced to remove a bullet from his stomach after narrowly escaping the police. Framed in invasive close-up, it is a tour de force of suggestion, with Basehart’s short breaths and anxious expression erasing the need for any graphic detail.

He Walked by Night 3

Martin’s intensity is paralleled by the determination of the cops pursuing him. Chuck Jones (James Cardwell) and Marty Brennan (Scott Brady) are their names, and straight-laced justice is their game. These are not complicated men — we were still a few years away from seeing truly complex policemen in film noir — they are boy scouts, wooden as a baseball bat and seemingly just as patriotic. Their investigation makes for some of the film’s slower moments (Cardwell is forgettable, Brady lacks the gravitas of his brother Lawrence Tierney), but there is some fun to be had when Jack Webb shows up as a scene-stealing lab technician. Dragnet fans will get a kick out of his spunky performance.

The struggle between Martin and the police eventually culminates, in grandiose fashion, within the Los Angeles sewer system. It’s here, with eight minutes to go, that He Walked by Night all but overloads the ocular senses with its visuals. Chiaroscuro lighting is wielded with such precision that any subsequent use of it might seem underwhelming by comparison. The moist sewer floors (which were shot on location) allow for reflective glints of light to spike the camera at random, while the shot of Martin waving a flashlight in the darkness ranks among the most iconic and stylistically rich expressions of film noir ever put on display. I get chills just writing about it.

He Walked By Night 4

Let us now praise John Alton, who if it not for his painterly eye, many of these scenes would not be possible. Mann had an undeniable gift for camera dynamics and the staging of action, but Alton was the missing variable, the one who made his director’s feverish chases glisten in the moonlight. Alton’s cinematography method, which he described as “Painting with Light”, was never as daring as it is here. Characters are profiled to within an inch of visibility at times, pushing the very boundaries of the era’s technology. Furthermore, the frame is completely blacked out in an earlier murder scene, save for a few crucial details in the center that draw us in. Alton and Mann aren’t using imagery to aid the story, they are using imagery to tell the story.

While my praise could go on and on, I won’t pretend that He Walked by Night is without flaws. The police scenes are a bit wooden, and the police narration is a common shortcoming of the semi-documentary film noir. But Mann and Alton (and, to an extent, Werker) manage to supersede these flaws through sheer visual artistry– and that, dear readers, is a virtue that has only gotten better with time. B

TRIVIA: During production, Jack Webb was introduced to police advisor Marty Wynn, and the two thought up the idea for what would later become Dragnet.

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–Danilo Castro for Classic Movie Hub

Danilo Castro is a film noir specialist and Contributing Writer for Classic Movie Hub. You can read more of Danilo’s articles and reviews at the Film Noir Archive, or you can follow Danilo on Twitter @DaniloSCastro.

Posted in Film Noir Review, Posts by Danilo Castro | 6 Comments