It's a Conspiracy

IT’S A CONSPIRACY! As a Cautionary Remembrance of the JFK Assassination—A Survey of Films With A Paranoid Edge Dan Akira Nishimura with Don Malcolm The only culture to enlist the imagination and change the charac- der. As it snows, he walks the streets of the town that will be forever ter of Americans was the one we had been given by the movies… changed. The banker Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a scrooge-like No movie star had the mind, courage or force to be national character, practically owns Bedford Falls. As he prepares to reshape leader… So the President nominated himself. He would fill the it in his own image, Potter doesn’t act alone. There’s also a board void. He would be the movie star come to life as President. of directors with identities shielded from the public (think MPAA). Who are these people? And what’s so wonderful about them? —Norman Mailer 3. Ace in the Hole (1951) resident John F. Kennedy was a movie fan. Ironically, one A former big city reporter of his favorites was The Manchurian Candidate (1962), lands a job for an Albu- directed by John Frankenheimer. With the president’s per- querque daily. Chuck Tatum mission, Frankenheimer was able to shoot scenes from (Kirk Douglas) is looking for Seven Days in May (1964) at the White House. Due to a ticket back to “the Apple.” Pthe events of November 1963, both films seem prescient. He thinks he’s found it when Was Lee Harvey Oswald a sleeper agent, a “Manchurian candidate?” Leo Mimosa (Richard Bene- Or was it a military coup as in the latter film? Or both? dict) is trapped in a cave Over the years, many films have dealt with political conspira- collapse. With the collusion cies—some realistically, others using allegory or fantasy. Here’s our of the corrupt sheriff (Ray Top 40 by year of release (for an extended discussion of the epic Teal), the crisis is extended Dallas-to-extraterrestrial conspiracy hatched on the legendary 1990s and becomes a circus, the “big carnival” of the film’s alternate title. television series The X-Files, the reader is directed to Ray Pratt’s ex- New York editors bite at the story, giving Tatum an exclusive. Lo- cellent book, Projecting Paranoia). cally, his editor Jacob Q. Boot (Porter Hall), who’d hired him with misgivings, suspects something but can’t prove it. Mimosa’s wife (Jan 1. The Wizard of Oz (1939) Sterling) succumbs to Tatum but also contributes to his downfall. Seeking disaster relief Billy Wilder’s film is an indictment of the media’s drive to make news after a tornado, Kansas (and money) rather just reporting on it. state representative Doro- thy (Judy Garland) flies 4. Pickup on South Street (1953) to Oz. Finding the capitol Samuel Fuller’s fast-paced noir stars in gridlock, she caucuses Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and with fellow reps (Bert Thelma Ritter. Widmark plays Skip Lahr, Ray Bolger, Jack McCoy, a pickpocket who acciden- Haley) who turn out to tally lifts a coded message being lack courage, brains, and transported by an attractive brunette heart. Suspecting a con- (Peters). This may be the best of the spiracy and realizing it’s 1950s anti-Communist pictures. It up to her to uncover it, Dorothy pulls back the curtain on the au- generally avoids preachiness and ex- tocratic chief executive (Frank Morgan). She discovers that the man newsman Fuller’s dialogue rolls off who made a lot of promises at election time is not as all-powerful as the tongues of the actors. Ritter is everyone thought. poignant as Moe, the doomed grift- er who puts herself in harm’s way 2. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) against a Commie spy ring due to After a lifetime of sacrifice and hard work, George Bailey (James a simple, but elemental, thought: “I Stewart) is faced with having his family savings-and-loan going un- don’t like ‘em!!” 92 NOIR CITY I FALL 2013 I filmnoirfoundation.org 5. Bad Day at Black Rock (1954) Scottie doesn’t realize is that the woman who perished was switched In an essay about the widescreen theatri- prior to her fall from the church bell tower. Scottie is the proverbial cal experience, Colin Root writes of the “fall guy,” inadvertently aiding in the “suicide,” his inaction caused opening scene of this modern day West- by “vertigo.” Paralyzed with fear, he forgot Lesson #1 in the detec- ern: “Spencer Tracy is swallowed by the tive manual and left without checking the body. Judy Barton (Kim open space that surrounds him… We Novak) was the “honeytrap,” Gavin’s accomplice in his wife’s mur- primarily notice the negative space: the der. The coroner (Henry Jones) who leads the inquest exonerates blue sky, the hills, and the endless train Scottie but not-so-subtly blames him. The cover-up is complete. tracks and fences.” When John J. Mac- reedy (Tracy) arrives in the desert town 9. Touch of Evil (1958) of Black Rock, he mentions to residents While it really isn’t the “last film that he’s looking for a Japanese-American noir” as often claimed, Orson who lived nearby. Their reaction tells him Welles (in a glorious but ill-fated something is wrong. Robert Ryan’s Reno Hollywood comeback) takes the Smith, ringleader of the local coverup, is “bad cop” sub-genre to its ultimate as mean a bigot as one can imagine. He doesn’t frighten the handi- extreme with this luridly flamboy- capped Macreedy, who continues his fight to learn the truth. ant tale of corruption and dynamite. Donning a “fat suit” in his quest to 6. The Wrong Man (1956) portray outsized evil, Welles turns Manny Balestero (Henry Fon- Hank Quinlan into the biggest con- da) is a jazz musician charged spirator in film history. Charlton with bank robbery. Directed Heston, who lobbied for Welles by Alfred Hitchcock, this to direct the film, plays his harried is mistaken identity, not a Mexican law enforcement counter- frame-up. And the stakes are part Miguel Vargas, who must go lower than if it were a murder against Quinlan’s legendary police case. Still, try telling that to record to expose his systematic cor- poor Manny who gets caught ruption of justice. He soon finds out that Quinlan has a multitude up in “the system.” As we of “dirty tricks” up his sleeve, many of which get played on Vargas’ saw with Oswald, once the blonde, buxom wife (Janet Leigh). authorities get it in their head that someone is guilty, all clues seem to lead back to him. The “wrong man” motif exists in many manifes- 10. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) tations of noir, not just the government conspiracy sub-genre. Henry Raymond Shaw (Laurence Fonda gives an opaque performance and has a deer-in-the-headlights Harvey) returns from cap- expression for most of its running time. tivity in Korea programmed to kill. Surviving P.O.W’s 7. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) from his unit know the Hitchcock revisits his 1934 British thriller with good results. The ex- truth about what happened, otic locations take full of advantage of Technicolor and wide screen but it’s only remembered VistaVision. The assassination plot gets the story moving. Will the when they dream. When innocent couple who stumble onto it prevail in the end? With stars one of them, Captain Mar- James Stewart and Doris Day, one would hope so… co (Frank Sinatra), begins his own investigation and 8. Vertigo (1958) starts getting close to the truth, he’s put on leave. Using the template Not a commercial suc- of The Wizard of Oz, there’s a good witch (Janet Leigh), whom Mar- cess at the time, Ver- co meets on a train and a bad one (Angela Lansbury), the mother of tigo is now considered Raymond Shaw. Adapted by George Axelrod from Richard Con- Hitchcock’s master- don’s novel, it’s a movie that unites the McCarthy-era past with the piece. John “Scottie” 1962 cold-war present and a future full of assassinations. Ferguson (James Stew- art) is a former detective 11. The Trial (1962) who suffers from acro- Adapted by Orson Welles from the novel by Franz Kafka, this is phobia. At an inquest a spectacular visualization of Kafka’s supremely dark universe. in a California coastal Anthony Perkins is Josef K., a bank clerk arrested one morning at town, (a Chappaquid- his rooming house. Although he’s not jailed, neither is he told the dick hearing before its charges (in some ways, Oswald faced this predicament when he was time), he stands accused of negligence in the death of Madeleine arrested for but not charged with the killing of the President). In Elster, the wife of his college chum, Gavin (Tom Helmore). What Josef’s case, the behavior of the authorities ranges from whimsical filmnoirfoundation.org I FALL 2013 I NOIR CITY 93 to sadistic to murderous. He receives legal advice from the Advocate 14. Point of Order (1964) (Welles) who appears to be working for the other side. When Joseph McBride’s parents, both Welles got caught up in his own Kafkaesque nightmare during active Wisconsin Democrats, put a the filming of the allegoricalMr. Arkadin (1955), a complex, bizarre “Joe Must Go” bumper sticker on the variant of the cover-up/conspiracy tale. He told Peter Bogdanovich it family station wagon, the six-year-old was “the best popular story I ever thought up for a movie.” Making namesake of Senator McCarthy pan- it, however, “was just anguish from beginning to end.” Three differ- icked (temporarily).

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