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VOL. I NUMBER 11 CCCC**** A PUBLICATION OF THE FILM NOIR FOUNDATION MONTHLY 2 CENTS FEBRUARY, 2007 Noir’s Not-So-Nice Guys Universal buys Chandler novels for Brit Star NEVILLE CLIVE OWEN BRINGS BRAND By Eric Beetner MARLOWE BACK TO Special to the Sentinel MOVIE SCREENS eville Brand came out of WWII as a highly decorated hero, and with the It’s been nearly thirty years since Philip The plan is to keep the spirit of the money he had saved from his G.I. Marlowe has been a movie headliner (Robert Chandler books, and (best of all) keep the bill he took acting classes with Stella Adler. N Mitchum’s valiant but slightly tired rendition mysteries set in 1940s Los Angeles, with Working in several films for the Army Signal of Chandler’s knight-errant in a disappoint- Marlowe remaining in character as a hard- Corps, Brand had become comfortable in ing remake of The Big Sleep.) drinking, wisecracking gumshoe. front of the camera. In no time at all, But all that is about to change, thanks Owen is exactly the right age (42), Hollywood beckoned. The face of the new Philip Marlowe. to British actor Clive Owen, Universal and, for our money at least, possesses both When your film debut has you brutal- Pictures and Strike Entertainment. the looks and acting chops to pull off a satis- izing an already-dying Edmond O’Brien in Strike made a deal with Phil Clymer at fying portrayal of noir’s most potent icon. D.O.A. (1950), your career in noir is off to a U.K.-based Chorion to obtain rights to the Once thought to have the inside track in the NOIR CITY 5: wonderful start. As Chester, the wild-eyed entire Chandler mystery series. Marc running to be the next James Bond, Owen muscle behind the outfit that has poisoned Abraham and Eric Newman will produce the might just be a better fit with Marlowe. NIGHT BY NIGHT O’Brien, Brand’s character is summed up by film for Strike, with Owen acting as execu- If we had a vote, we’d love to see a his boss, Majak (Luther Adler): “He’s an tive producer. The project is still in a nascent remake of The Lady In The Lake, with unfortunate boy. He’s psychopathic. He’s By Haggai Elitzur stage, with “compatible” writers and film- Naomi Watts as Adrienne Fromsett, Charlize unhappy unless he gives pain.” Special to the Sentinel makers being courted—and word is that they Theron as Mildred Haviland, and (in the role haven’t decided which novel to adapt first. he was born to play) Michael Madsen as Lt. For those of you unable to attend San But Owen’s enthusiasm for Chandler DeGarmo. Without the first-person camera Francisco’s annual love fest to noir, here is a and his performance in Sin City sparked the gimmick that bogged down the first version, night-by-night recap of Noir City 5: executives’ imaginations, so things are look- you’ve got a first-rate nail-biter, with some ing a lot darker for fans of Chandler and noir. of Chandler’s kinkiest plot twists. Friday, January 26 And yes, that’s a good thing. —Don Malcolm Opening Night was a gala tribute to Marsha Hunt, a double bill showcasing Anthony Mann’s classic Raw Deal. The audience was enthralled by the hard-edged Emigrés and the Film Noir: Part Two script, rough violence, and John Alton's dream-like visuals. Kid Glove Killer, costar- ring Ms. Hunt and Van Heflin, charmed with appealing chemistry between the two leads EXPRESSIONISM and some running gags that pay off nicely in a satisfying ending. The lively, still lovely Brand braces O’Brien in D.O.A. AND THE DISPOSSESSED Ms. Hunt was the evening’s special guest, Thus are instant legends born. interviewed onstage by “Czar of Noir” Eddie Neville Brand had a way of acting By Marc Svetov Muller. She shared filmmaking memories, with his hair. His thick black locks would Special to the Sentinel talked at length about her experiences with start out neatly groomed in a wave, but as the Blacklist, and discussed her long-term soon as the fists started flying, out it would “The analogy to the films of the postwar activism on behalf of the United Nations. flail, wildly flopping to the rhythm of the period is obvious: it was their expressionis- fisticuffs. It splayed every which way as he tic nature which impelled many a German Saturday, January 27 obsessively socked O’Brien in the gut; then, director of photography to breed shadows as Night #2 feted late screenwriter in Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950), the hair rampant as weeds and associate ethereal William Bowers, justly prized for his wise- once again comes undone during his phantoms with strangely lit arabesques or cracking dialogue. Cry Danger showcased workover of Dana Andrews in the heat and faces. These efforts were designed to bathe Bowers at his best, with non-stop badinage humidity of a Turkish bath. all scenery in an unearthly illumination brilliantly delivered by Dick Powell and the His off-screen life edged into notoriety marking it as scenery of the soul.” evening’s guest star, Richard Erdman. via occasional sparring aided by a few belts —Siegfried Kracauer, Onstage, Erdman was sharp and funny, of liquor, often with drinking buddy Lee From Caligari to Hitler recounting half-century-old incidents in Marvin. Still, the reviews were great, and impressive detail. A lovely, unscripted there was hope for something more. or its most significant visual and the- The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari reunion between Erdman and Bowers’ son Ultimately, though, his “lived-in mug” matic elements, film noir reaches back Tony occurred onstage, adding more fasci- would relegate him to being one of the gang to Weimar Germany and the silent and and the great forerunner of it all: M (1931), nating memories for the audience to absorb. behind the big guy, all variations of Chester: earlyF sound cinema produced from 1919 by director Fritz Lang, were representative Next up was Abandoned, with Bowers Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950), where he until 1933. These films had been a fertile of this German cinematic tradition. as uncredited “script doctor.” Eddie's intro works under James Cagney; The Mob breeding ground for what came twenty years Thematically, Expressionist films dur- included an anecdote from the director, (1951), as the muscle for Broderick later in Hollywood; titles as wide ranging as ing that epoch reached back to German Joseph Newman, who claimed the script was Crawford; a hit man hired by Ed Begley Sr. The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1919), Dr. romanticism but that is another subject in junk until Bowers worked on it: “Everything in The Turning Point (1952). It looked as if Mabuse the Gambler (1921/22), Destiny itself. Emphasis was placed on psycholo- in it that’s good was from him.” The audi- he might never get away from playing a (1921), The Student of Prague (both ver- gy—threatened individuals, urban settings, ence enjoyed this briskly paced “baby racket “tough guy with a hair-trigger temper.” sions, 1913 and 1926), Nosferatu (1921/22), dreams gone wrong, the inexorable nature of noir"”with its witty banter, some surprising- He lamented his fate to the L.A. Daily The Golem (1920), onward to Warning fate, the dissolution of the self. The patholo- ly intense violence, and a gripping finale. Shadows (1923), Metropolis (1925-27) as gy of existence, of the Krafft-Ebbing and One of the most memorable lines of the (continued on pg. 4, col. 1) well as The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) (continued on pg.4, col. 2) (continued on pg.3, col. 1) 4 Noir City Sentinel Feb., 2007 Brand (cont’d from pg. 1) EMIGRES (cont’d from pg. 1) News: ”I thought acting would take me away Freud variety, was amply illustrated in from guns. So now I’m always cast as a sol- Expressionism. Stories with a fear-laden dier or a killer and I’ve never played a scene atmosphere were symptomatic of the period, with an actress. What do you have to do to epitomizing an inchoate, threatening fatality. kiss a girl in a movie?” Perhaps it didn’t help In this angst and anxiety was a premonition that even the studios that employed him of doom, which Kracauer traced so well, cul- weren’t exactly doing wonders for his public minating in the rise of Hitler—which eventu- image. A Warner Brothers press release once ally pushed the film exiles out of Europe, stated that Brand had “a face that would put finally, fleeing to America. a rutted detour to shame.” One says “Expressionist,” because Now one of Hollywood’s go-to bruis- there was enough in common among these ers, Brand’s next outing in crimeland teamed German films to unite them under one rubric; him with arguably the finest assemblage of but other labels occurred, like the New tough guys in screen history. In Kansas City Sobriety (late ’twenties); there is ample evi- Confidential (1952), Brand joins a young but dence, too, that the lighting technique actual- still menacing Lee Van Cleef and Jack ly stemmed from Max Reinhardt’s experi- Elam—one of few actors whose mug could ments in German theater preceding World make Brand’s features seem less-than-harsh. War I. German émigré Curtis Bernhardt displayed an Expressionist style in The High Wall, When these three get together on screen, it’s Chiaroscuro, deep dark-light con- the 1947 thriller starring Robert Taylor and Audrey Totter. definitely the Mount Rushmore of thuggish- trasts; incessant use of spotlights—for ness. Brand’s hair once again becomes fabu- instance, lighting from the ground up, following the end of the conflict. What they interior world. They were dark, obsessive, lously unkempt as he and Van Cleef dish out emphasizing reliefs and contours, warping brought to Hollywood – German film tradi- shadowy, fatalistic movies—and their narra- a beating to John Payne while wearing suits and transforming the forms of objects into a tions and techniques for mise en scene tives were awash with a pervasive pes- and ties in the heat of Borados, Mexico. throng of bewildering streaks and shapes, or (which means a totality of atmosphere), for simism. In many ways, this was reflected the Just as his chance to play a lead role by their placement off to one side, at a slant, lighting, for camerawork and for scenery-- wrenching, hopeless political situations in materialized with 1954’s Riot in Cell Block in order to inundate surfaces with an illumi- was what cemented Hollywood’s new visual which the exiles had often found them- 11, two drunk driving accidents chilled the nation that creates shifting and competing style for American crime stories. selves—they and millions more. buzz from a riveting performance. As close shades of light and dark; shadows and sil- Albeit there had been visual forerun- Pathological behavior is another key as he got to kissing, however, was an houettes; use of the subjective camera; ners in the early Universal horror films, the- thematic link between Expressionism and attempted rape of Inger Stevens in 1957’s extreme close-ups—all these stemmed from matic predecessors in the ’30s gangster films noir. A few examples: violence as a direct Cry Terror. His drinking nearly got the best the repertoire of German Expressionist cine- as well and a similar use of visual and the- cause of sexual excitement in the female pro- of him but Brand took control of his life and ma, and only from there. matic elements reflected in many of the films tagonist played by Janis Carter in Night found success on TV as Al Capone in The Concentration on mood and environ- produced contemporaneously by Val Editor (1946) and Peggy Cummins in Gun Untouchables (1959-63). ment; motifs like staircases, glistening win- Lewton, there was nothing to compare with Crazy (1950); perversion of feelings along He was finally allowed to show his dows, mirrors, all manner of shimmering the new film noirs except the German prece- with an intimation of evil in the soul in the tender side inside prison walls as a sympa- glass surfaces; electric signs, streetlights, dent. These Expressionist elements provided portrayal of Phyllis Dietrichson by Barbara thetic guard to Burt Lancaster’s Birdman Of gloomy corners, automobile headlights, a a dreamlike half-life to the films, moving Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944); the Alcatraz (1962), which brought Brand his few isolated lighted windowpanes on a lone- them beyond any gangster or horror films mother fixation of James Cagney in White first and only Oscar nomination. ly street where menacing dark mysterious from, say, the ’30s; the émigrés in turn found Heat (1949); father fixation in Angel Face In 1966, Brand wrote an assessment houses line the way in the early morning themselves and their experience capable of (1952) with Jean Simmons; the deranged of the “tough guy” that is dead-on: “Guys hours, as light reflects off wet sidewalks, and being expressed in many ways through the young man holding hostages in Dial 1119 like me will be around this town a lot longer Destiny is calling; these were all part and American hardboiled crime story, which por- (1950). This trend has continued into neo- than the pretty boys because we are...special parcel of the standard imagery of German trayed the dark side of the American dream noir, where the use of color has taken us models, unique and one of a kind. Nobody film. As the emigre film critic/historian Lotte of success and happiness. away from shadows and toward a bright, car- forgets our faces once they’ve had a good Eisner put it, “German film-makers, haunted All this was different from the toon-like palette of gratuitous violence. look at them. We may produce more night- by the desire to break beyond the shallow Depression era— what was found in these Could film noir have evolved as it did mares than pleasant dreams, but we aren’t dimensions of their art and of human exis- new films, with their flawed heroes and hero- without the exiles? Is it imaginable without forgotten.” tence through the manipulation of shadows, ines, plots portraying a relentless fate bear- directors Preminger, Wilder, Siodmak, Lang Not forgotten, but increasingly neg- did succeed in infusing life into surfaces.” ing down upon them, appears to be a massive and their seminal work in 1944-45—without lected, Brand would find only sporadic work Anyway, there is no question that disillusionment. And in the exploitation of Laura, Double Indemnity, Christmas in film and TV from the 70s on. Emphysema German and Central European émigrés car- the new American hardboiled crime narra- Holiday, Fallen Angel, The Woman in the eventually got the better of him, and he died ried this cultural baggage when they arrived tives, we saw the nation’s psychic underbel- Window, Scarlet Street, Phantom Lady? The in 1992. But even now, Brand’s odd combi- in America—we might say, without extra ly shamelessly exposed to light (or dark)— exile contribution was so important that of nation of sadism and sensitivity is testament charge at Customs. In establishing the film how it was done was the key—in a trance- the 300 films most often mentioned as to a talent that still leaps out at you with noir style, said to have begun about 1940, the like, oneiric manner. belonging to the central canon, 75 were disheveled energy, like his wildly flailing influence of these exiles was immense, espe- Émigré directors utilized those visual directed by émigrés. hair. cially during the war period and initial years techniques to convey the film characters’ OBITUARIES Alfred Isaac “Buzz” Bezzerides, a novelist options to be exercised every six months,” turned Hollywood screenwriter best known Bezzerides wrote in the afterword to the 1997 for the post-World War II film noir classics University of California Press republication like Kiss Me Deadly, On Dangerous Ground of his 1949 novel “Thieves’ Market.” and Thieves' Highway, died. Jan. 1 at the Bezzerides’ first film credit was Juke Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Girl, a 1942 story of migrant farmworkers Woodland Hills after a brief illness. He was starring Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan. 98 years old. After leaving Warners, Bezzerides, Bezzerides was working for the L.A. wrote or co-wrote films such as Beneath the Department of Water and Power when his 12-Mile Reef, Desert Fury, Sirocco and Track 1938 novel “Long Haul” was turned into of the Cat. They Drive by Night, a 1940 melodrama with He got into television in the 1950s, George Raft and Humphrey Bogart as truck- writing for such series as Bonanza, Rawhide, er brothers hauling California produce. 77 Sunset Strip, and The Virginian. He creat- After Warner Bros. paid him $2,000 ed The Big Valley specifically for its star, for the rights to his novel and put him under Barbara Stanwyck. contract as a $300-a-week screenwriter, A longtime resident of Woodland Bezzerides discovered that a script based on Hills, Bezzerides was married to film and tel- his book already had been written. evision writer Silvia Richards until her death “I had no idea whether it was guilt or in 1999. conscience, or greed to swindle more stories In addition to his daughter Zoe, he is out of me, for peanuts, that motivated Warner survived by another son, a daughter, a grand- Brand gets the drop on Broderick Crawford in The Mob. Bros. to offer me a seven-year contract, with daughter and four great-grandchildren.