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Home , Ann Blyth, Dick Powell, Farley Granger, Jane Wyatt, John Payne (actor), Karl Freund

LATEST NO STOCKS DVD NO SPORTS NEWS ™ ALL NOIR www.noircity.com www.filmnoirfoundation.org VOL. I NUMBER 8 CCCC**** A PUBLICATION OF THE FOUNDATION MONTHLY 2 CENTS NOVEMBER, 2006 On the Director’s Centennial First Installment of a Regular Sentinel Series Otto Honored By EUROPEAN EXILES IN ’40s : The Academy THEIR IMPACT ON FILM NOIR By Alan Rode By Marc Svetov Turhan Bey, Steven Geray, Philip Van Zandt, Special to the Sentinel Curt Bois, Walter Slezak, Ernst Deutsch; also “…So there will be no Christmas trees, , Martin Kosleck, Helmut but there will be delousing with undamentally, forties films featuring Dantine, Otto Waldis, Carl Esmond, Paul ice water from the hoses.” émigrés haven’t dated. They still speak Lukas. to us, strongly. Shall we make a list? Actresses: Marlene Dietrich, Hedy That line, delivered by in a F Directors: Otto Preminger and Billy Lamarr, Lilli Palmer, Micheline Chierel. clip from his famous role as the camp com- Wilder; Robert Siodmak and Fred Zinne- European scholars tend to overstate mandant in , opened a two week mann, John Brahm, André de Toth, Michael what the émigrés brought to noir in terms of tribute to the legendary director this month at Curtiz, , Anatole Litvak; Max “Old World” styles, while American scholars the Motion Picture Academy in Hollywood. Ophuls, , William seem to understate this influence — or, at (The same series played last month at the Dieterle, Curtis Bernhardt, John Auer, Alfred least, mischaracterize it. We need a fresh per- Museum of Modern Art in New York; other Zeisler, Max Nosseck; Charles Vidor, Edgar spective. versions are scheduled around the country.) G. Ulmer, Douglas Sirk, Rudolph Mate. However we begin to approach the Preminger’s life and career was artful- Was it coincidence that Austrian actor Cameramen: Karl Freund, , influence these Europeans had, we need to ly articulated by program host Peter Bog- Paul Henreid chose to make his debut as a Franz Planer, Theodor Sparkuhl, Boris understand that their talents fit into a trend in producer with the fatalistic crime story danovich on opening night, November 2. His Kaufman, Eugene Scheftan, Hollywood filmmaking at the time. We have Hollow Triumph? Or that he chose commentary was interspersed with guest and Mate; two sides meeting: European exiles and Hungarians Steve Sekely and John Alton to interviews and excerpts from the director’s Film composers: Miklos Rozsa, Max American filmmakers, taking account of a direct and photograph the film? films. Steiner, Franz Waxman, Erich Wolfgang nebulous but palpable mood — filtering it, Korngold, Daniele Amfitheatrof, Frederick expressing it as it coalesces as historical in American filmmaking. They became part Hollander, Bronsilau Kaper, Hans Salter; serendipity — both sides enriching and rein- of an unnamed movement, co-creating a new Art director: Hans Dreier. forcing each other. What dark fruit was type of crime film. Finally, those who had the hardest lot brought forth! That they had influence cannot be dis- in America due to the loss of their native lan- Whatever artistic effects these film- puted. However, an influence was not a suf- guage: makers exerted — reaching back to aesthetic ficient explanation of why these films started Actors: Paul Henreid, , and intellectual roots in German Expres- being made when they did, by them and oth- , Fritz Kortner, Oscar Homolka, sionist and Weimar film — they did so with- (continued on pg.4, col. 3)

DICK POWELL – NOIR ICON? The Jury’s Still Out

By Don Malcolm

hen it comes to “noir heroes,” Otto Preminger we have a few actors — , Robert The audience at the W Mitchum, , Robert Ryan, Theatre in Hollywood got a keen sense of — who are clearly in the Preminger as a consummate auteur, but one top echelon. There are several more who whose life resembled an ad-hoc version of can play both sides of the law — Dan Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Duryea, Edmond O’Brien, , Otto’s well-earned reputation as a who reside in a special niche because their directorial autocrat was balanced by the screen personas seem to mesh so perfectly enduring friendships he had with Bog- with the noir sensibility. danovich and guests and And then there’s . Carol Lynley. He was also a doting husband Like , Powell started his and father according to his widow, Hope, and film career as a crooner, but made a switch daughter Victoria, also in attendance. to “tough guy” roles. For many noir fans, More than his paradoxical personality, Powell’s transformation remains problem- the evening’s tribute focused on Preminger’s atic, while Payne — younger, more sullen diversified body of work. and physical — seems to fit seamlessly From his breakthrough 20th Century- into the harder-edged universe of ’50s Fox classic, Laura (1944), Otto Preminger noir. plumbed noir depths with films such as Powell, a pioneer in the evolution of Fallen Angel (1945), Whirlpool (1949), the noir hero, was the first actor to portray Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), The onscreen, in Murder, My Thirteenth Letter (1951) and Angel Face Sweet. Despite that, Powell’s subsequent (1952), before moving into different genres Powell in his 1940’s hard-boiled debut as forays into noir don’t seem to have the with varied, if frequently spectacular, suc- Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet and requisite “oomph” that many fans desire in cess. his earlier incarnation (inset) as a fresh- a credible noir icon. faced 1930’s song and dance man. After his landmark hit The Moon is Is that really the case? Or is some- Blue (1953) was released without a MPAA thing else at work here? Let’s look at code approval due to the director’s insistence Powell’s noir performances in a bit more on using such robust language as “virgin” depth, and see what we discover.l and “pregnant,” Preminger insisted on inde- (continued on pg.3, col. 1) (continued on pg.4, col. 1) 4 Noir City Sentinel Nov., 2006 EXILES (continued from pg. 1) ers; what was European became something such a world scale. Americans watched the (continued from pg. 1) Otto American, that is, the resulting product was a newsreels and war documentaries, but at a pendently producing his own projects. hybrid. remove that was almost surreal. Notice of a According to Bogdanovich, Prem- 1940: It was as America was about to loved one’s death appeared almost at ran- inger’s work from the middle to the go to war that these films began to appear in dom, in a telegram from the War early 1960s represents some of the best movie theaters. From 1940 to 1945 we see a Department. In this numbed environment, American filmmaking of that or any other flowering of the émigrés, coinciding with the wives and daughters worked shifts at the period: initial burst of creativity producing American defense factory. Jones (1954), The Man with film noir. And these half-dozen years were Newsreel documentaries — as well as the Golden Arm (1955), Anatomy of a arguably its darkest years, a classic period — crime films — were most emblematic of Murder (1959) — Boganovich: “one of the visually, psychologically, thematically. what was occurring to the American psyche. best talking pictures of the last century…” Why did pessimism and darkness The movies we now call film noir were being (1959), Exodus (1960), become the dominant mood and overriding eagerly seen by American audiences; they along with Advise and Consent (1962) and In theme? What happened? Was this a were the war era’s condensed spirit. Wartime Harm’s Way (1965), are emblematic exam- European implant? Hardly. noirs (including those notable hybrid noir- ples of Preminger’s most creative period. One obvious cause was purely practi- horror films produced by Val Lewton) were All of Otto Preminger’s motion pic- cal: wartime production conditions. It dictat- informed by a brooding sense of loss and tures display the style of a highly disciplined, ed smaller budgets, and increased austerity in despair. but artistic auteur. The supple camera move- “B”-rank productions. Art directors had to As the war progressed, film censor- ment, his long continuous takes (Preminger re-use sets already created; studios employed ship lifted: American audiences saw more described a cut as an “interruption”), the Where the Sidewalk Ends tarped-over studio back lots, because black- graphic violence. This slackened censorship, nuanced performances of his actors, and his outs prohibited shooting at night outdoors on too, had an objective influence on the mak- attention to detailed composition. acting opposite the legendary Laurence the West Coast. Cameramen cloaked film ing of crime films, as noir scholars as differ- Nonetheless, the director did not make Olivier. sets in darkness, which facilitated further ent as Sheri Chinen Biesen and Arthur Lyons movies to please himself, but crafted films When Preminger asked why she was employment of the same for other projects. point out. For émigrés, this was an entry that he believed people wanted to see. As so “stiff,” Lynley confessed to being intimi- What did a blacked-out point into a widened zeitgeist, a continuation Bogdanovich put it, “Otto always had the dated by Olivier. downtown street look like in 1943 if not like of their pre-war experience. highest respect for the audience.” Otto pointed to a blonde-haired, blue- a burg in a German Expressionist film, with Visual effects that had conveyed the Through the generosity of the eyed ingénue standing off-set. its long slanting shadows, pitch dark corners, crisis of the European soul — sinister shad- Preminger family, negative elements and “You see that girl over there? You buildings leaning crazily this way and that, ows, chiaroscuro effects, bizarre camera original prints of several of the director’s have until after lunch to get over this. If you the whole chiaroscuro spiel? Émigrés and angles, portrayals of individuals caught in a wholly-owned productions have been donat- don’t, she is going to start playing your part.” America were meeting each other. The con- net of circumstances, going deeper into ed to the Motion Picture Academy for preser- Otto then walked away. ditions in which they worked had, so to mortal entrapment — these transferred seam- vation and presentation to future generations. Miss Lynley laughed and said, “I went speak, merged together. lessly into American wartime life and its The Academy’s tribute includes new and had a long talk with myself and I got What made European exiles suitable lurking uncertainty. European exiles in prints or restorations of Laura, Where the over it before lunch ended.” to make these films? An émigré was par Hollywood already knew this backwards and Sidewalk Ends, , Daisy • excellence one who had experienced the forwards. Kenyon, The Man with the Golden Arm, existential sensation of having absolutely no More specific examples will follow as Bonjour Tristesse, Whirlpool, Bunny Lake is For more about the Otto Preminger ground under his feet. He or she knew what we develop portraits of the most notable émi- Missing and , with all Centennial Tribute, go to: it was to have all certainties lost — to live grés from the list. As we’ll see, the German screenings scheduled at the Academy’s http://www.oscars.org/events/preminger/ind continuously in danger. Indeed, in much of cinematic tradition, with its visual, intellec- Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood. ex.html. his recent experience, the world had been a tual and spiritual themes, complements the Even though the director’s work was FNF members in the Bay Area can place where certain human beings were sim- American hardboiled crime story. And it’s paid deserved tribute, there was still time for see a portion of the series at the Rafael ply doomed, without escape; what for many clear that European exiles had a unique affin- family and friends to remember Otto as … Film Center in early December, including a might seem pure coincidence worked out for ity with these shadowy, laconic, doom-laden well, Otto. screening on 12/1 of the restored Where the them as fate. American movies as they emerged from Asked by Bogdanovich if she remem- Sidewalk Ends, hosted by Eddie Muller and In the 1940-45 time frame, radio was a Hollywood. bered any specific direction from Preminger Susan Andrews (Dana’s daughter). completely deficient medium for conveying A formed in hell had heaven- during the filming of Bunny Lake (1965), http://cafilm.org/06_Preminger/06_pre- any requisite images of the war. Newspapers ly results, which resonate to this day. actress Carol Lynley recalled being nervous minger.html could only hint at the violence occurring on OBITUARIES

PHYLLIS KIRK, 79, died from a post-cerebral Hollywood in 1950. After her screen debut Her propensity for playing the ful- aneurysm at the Motion Picture and with and in Our some spouse led to her iconic TV role as Television Country House and Hospital in Very Own (1950), she appeared in several ’s wife, “Margaret Anderson” Woodland Hills, Ca. MGM titles before being signed by Warner in Father Knows Best. Although later Kirk’s notable noir credit was Andre Bros. in 1952. Kirk starred on television as knocked by critics as unrealistic and syrupy, de Toth’s Crime Wave (1954). She played “Nora Charles” opposite in the family comedy ruled prime time during Gene Nelson’s wife, Ellen Lacey, who is The Thin Man from 1957-59. As her film and the 1950s and earned Wyatt three Emmy memorably held hostage by the tender mer- television career declined, she started a sec- awards. cies of teeth-gnashing heavy Timothy Carey. ond career as a publicist for CBS. The seemingly ageless actress would She was in 1967 play Mr. ’s mother in the orig- best remembered and Lee J. Cobb in the 1951 inal TV series and reprise the part for being stalked JANE WYATT, 96, one of last surviving lead- noir The Man Who Cheated Himself, a nearly two decades later in Star Trek IV: The by mad sculptor ing ladies of the 1930s and an Emmy-win- rare femme fatale role for Wyatt. Voyage Home (1986). in ning actress on Father Knows Best, died in Wyatt worked steadily into her eight- House of Wax her sleep last month in her Bel-Air home. Shangri-La sweetheart in Lost Horizon ies, including a recurring role on the series (1953). A seminal Wyatt’s career encompassed seven (1937). Wyatt was the last surviving cast St. Elsewhere. She made her final television 3-D film that decades of work on stage, screen, radio and member from this early ‘mega-production,’ appearance in 1996. remains on the list television. She was also a socially conscious which established Columbia as a major film of the top 100 grossing films (inflation- member of the Committee of the First studio. QUERIES & SUBMISSIONS adjusted) of all-time, Miss Kirk originally Amendment who went to Washington with Her noir credits are topped by Pitfall If you wish to submit an idea wanted nothing to do with the production. , , Marsha Hunt, (1948) a superb André de Toth picture with or a finished article, please email In a 2000 interview with writer Tom and others to protest the House Committee Dick Powell, whose postwar midlife-crisis Managing Editor Donald Malcolm at: Weaver, Kirk recalled: “I bitched and on Un-American Activities in 1947. affair (with Liz Scott) wrecks his sedate sub- [email protected] moaned and told [Warner’s executive] Steve Born to a well off family urban existence. Wyatt was terrific as the Finished articles, no longer than Trilling that I was not interested in becoming in 1910, Wyatt became more of an accom- cuckolded wife who reacts with dignified 750 words, are subject to editing for the Fay Wray of my time. And I was told, plished actress than a movie star. She made outrage at her husband’s betrayal. She played space and content. Press releases will “Tough titty, you’re under contract’ … I her screen debut in One More River at a more traditional spouse in Boomerang! be edited to conform to style guide- went on to have lot of fun making House of Universal in 1934 and eventually appeared in (’47) opposite , a rare femme lines. The SENTINEL does not pay Wax.” more than 30 movies, while dividing her fatale in The Man who Cheated Himself (’50) for articles; all content is contributed. Born in New Jersey, Kirk studied act- time between the stage and Hollywood. and strove to escape the clutches of a mur- We claim no rights on material con- ing in New York under , Wyatt’s most memorable screen role derous in Fritz Lang’s gothic tributed for publication or posting. appearing in several plays before heading to was as “Sondra Bizet,” ’s House by the River (1950).