Runtime: 85 minutes
Directed by: Stuart Heisler
Starring: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Brian Donlevy, Bonita Granville, William Bendix
From: Paramount
Last night I saw this noir on TCM; in the Letterboxd review I copied and pasted below, I first assured anyone worried that nothing happened with me concerning what happened in Orlando this past weekend. Thank goodness things seem to be setting back to normal now. Anyhow, here's the review:
Before I get on with this review, I hope I did not alarm anyone in the Letterboxd universe who knew that I lived in Florida, specifically about a half hour west of Downtown Orlando and thought the worst when I did not post anything here yesterday. I actually WAS in that part of Orlando Saturday night, but a few miles north and I was home long before the tragedy started. Between that and the shooting on Friday night in a venue I had driven by many times before, what a miserable weekend all around.
This noir was on TCM last night and as it's not available for streaming and I had actually never seen a Veronica Lake movie so I figured this was something I had to check out. Based on a story by Dashiell Hammett, this is about all the machinations surrounding a reform candidate for Governor (Moroni Olsen); crooked political boss Brian Donlevy is interested in candidate's daughter Lake but she likes Donlevy's right hand man Alan Ladd instead. From there, various murders happen and sadistic William Bendix is also involved. From what I understand, in the novel the character Bendix plays (Jeff) is a homosexual and well, the movie certainly has its homoerotic moments, especially with Jeff's character.
Even though there are plenty of characters to follow, it is a very interesting tale to follow and it's never too complex, although at times you're more paying attention to the characters than the story. While an early example of a film noir and not as hard-boiled as later examples, this is still not only a pretty good movie but it certainly is a noir, between the plot and all the tough characters that are followed, some great dialogue, and all the scenes set at night. The fact that Lake is a breathy dame means that she fits right in with the genre. Her role isn't extensive, but that is OK, even if she and Ladd were the most memorable aspects of the picture.
I have seen multiple people note that this is similar to Yojimbo; I realize that Kurosawa himself stated that this was an inspiration, but it was possible he was confusing it with another Hammett novel, Red Harvest. Even then, I still see the similarities between this movie and Yojimbo. Also, I've seen people compare this with Miller's Crossing; as I've never seen it (I know, I know) I'll have to take everyone's word for it. Come to think of it, considering The Man With No Name Trilogy, Dashiell Hammett had quite the impact on motion pictures with all the works he wrote that were made into movies or the themes/plots of novels that were inspirations for famous movies years later.
Anyhow, this was a noir worth seeing.
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