“Down this street raced dead-end violence!”
DOWN 3 DARK STREETS (1954)
“Down This Street Raced Dead-End Violence… Down This One Stretched Excitement Taut As Silk!”
Directed by Arnold Laven, this noir is part police procedural. It stars gruff he-man Broderick Crawford ( the pre-Tony Soprano alpha male, bull in the china shop cop) as FBI Agent John ‘Rip’ Ripley. Likable and mild-mannered Kenneth Tobey plays his partner agent Zack Stewart, who is gunned down from the shadows while juggling three cases that might be interrelated. John Ripley continues to hunt down the relationship between all these cases and find his partner’s murderer!
One connection involves gangster Joe Walpo as Ripley finds his hideout through Joe’s glitz and glamorous girl friend Connie Anderson played by Martha Hyer. Joe gets gunned down, and cleared of Stewart’s killing. Connie won’t be receiving anymore shiny things in the mail anymore!
The Second link involves a car theft ring. Ripley uses Vince Angelino’s (Gene Reynolds) wife to turn on his fellow thugs when Vince finds out that they have roughed up his gentle and blind wife, Julie, played by the beautiful Marisa Pavan.
The last and most disturbing case involves Kate Martell, the victim of an extortionist who says he’ll kidnap her little girl if she doesn’t fork over some cash. He calls using a creepy, threatening voice and sends her on wild goose chases, trying to break her down so she’ll pay the $10,0000 ransom.
Kate is played by the brassy Ruth Roman. There are a lot of dubious suspects surrounding her. The menacing uncle Max, played by Jay Adler, and the smarmy, drooling suiter Dave Milson, played by Max Showalter. How will this thriller play out in 3 dark streets!?
As the tagline says, it’s as taut as silk!
_____________________________________________________________________________________
THE MUGGER 1958
Directed by William Berke, Screenplay by Henry Kane, and based on the novel The Mugger by the great pulp mystery writer Evan Hunter as Ed McBain!
Starring again another likable actor Kent Smith who plays Dr.Peter Graham a psychiatrist who works for the police department, living in a dark city anywhere U.S.A.
“We need good cops, even if you are a psychiatrist now.”
There’s a mysterious masher stalking women, ritualistically slicing their left cheek and stealing their purses as a trophy. Pretty gruesome for 1958 filmgoers. The mugger escapes undetected until his last victim is actually murdered! The film stars Nan Martin, a cop who goes undercover as a dime-a-dance girl, James Franciscus, and Stefan Schnabel. With bit parts by Beah Richards as a ‘maid’ (god forgive Hollywood and their ever present stereotyping) a young George Maharis as Nicholas Grecco, a possible slime ball. And the first time appearance of Renee Taylor as a cheap hussy who is physically abusive to her wormy husband.
The film uncovers a lot of unsavory characters in the dark underbelly of a city that is diseased in a way that might breed a handbag, cheek-slashing maniac! As Dr.Graham tries to draw conclusions about the sort of man who would attack these women, we meet a handful of offbeat characters along the way as the likable police psychiatrist and his woman cop girlfriend are on the track of ‘the mugger’ terrorizing the city.
Very gritty and realistic slice of psycho=sexual aggression run amok in the city and hidden secrets within a small struggling American family!
“They all had one thing in common… The terrifying night they met!”
__________________________________________________________________________________
PRIVATE HELL 36 (1954)
“There’s a price tag on this woman… A big one!”
Written for the screen by Collier Young ( Former husband to Ida Lupino and Joan Fontaine and written by Ida Lupino and directed by Don Siegel, starring Howard Duff, who plays detective Jack Farnham, an honest cop with a beautiful wife, Francey (Dorothy Malone), who loves him. His partner Cal Bruner,(Steve Cochran) is a little more dark and brooding and rough around the edges. He’s hungry for something better than suburban living with ‘pay on time’ furniture and a small backyard with a grill and a white fence.
Both detectives stumble onto the hot cash while staking out a robbery in which $300,000 was stolen. Of course, Farnham wants to turn it into Captain Michaels, played by the meditative Dean Jagger.
But Bruner has fallen hard for nightclub singer Lili Marlowe, played by the one and only Ida Lupino. She’s great as the unattainable woman who’s been burned once before and is now wearing asbestos lipstick. Cal is just too swarthy and smitten with Lili and soon, they go up in smoke!. Lily has very high expectations for herself and loves nice, shiny things. Cal wants to give her anything she wants but refuses to live like Farnham on a cop’s salary, playing a nice little suburban couple struggling to get by.
Number 36 refers to the locker where the money is hidden, while Farnham roils and ruminates over his dilemma.
Does he become a rat and turn in his partner, or should he do what’s expected and go to Captain Michaels with the missing money and the truth?
“These are the Night Faces…living on the edge of evil and violence…making their own.”
TRY AND GET ME or The Sound of Fury (1950)
A man down on his luck falls in with a criminal. After a senseless murder, the two are lynched.
Directed by Cy Enfield and written for the screen by Joe Pagano, based on his novel The Condemned.
It stars Frank Lovejoy as Howard Tyler and Kathleen Ryan as Judy Tyler. Two ordinary people in this allegory about how a decent human being can be directed to do a desperate or violent act in order to survive and protect their own family. Taken over by a fanatical young con man, petty thief, and psychopath named Jerry Slocum, played by Lloyd Bridges. Slocum preys on the Tyler’s need for money, Slocum convinces Tyler to be involved in a kidnapping scheme that goes horribly wrong and ends in murder.
The narrative unfolds more deeply as a condemnation of sensationalist journalism that can incite a mob mentality which feeds off the lurid details, culminating in a destructive force, almost worse than the original crimes committed.
Richard Carlson plays Gil Stanton a newspaper man who eventually has a pang of conscience, although much too late!
The ending is quite potent, powerful and remains a stunning commentary. The imagery holds a very powerful message in the final moments of the film…
PS: it seems that both The Sound of Fury 1950 and Fury 1936 Fritz Lang’s film starring Spencer Tracy are based on the same true events -from TRIVIA IMDb:
Based upon the 1933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, son of the owner of Hart’s Department Store in San Jose, California. Two suspects were arrested and jailed, but a lynch mob broke into the jail, dragged out the suspects, and took them across the street to a city park, where they hanged them from a tree
I hope you get to see at least one of these lesser-known Noir/Thriller goodies!- Til next time!- Your EverLovin’ Joey