Tonight's Noir - the third of four from the Central Libe - was called "Between Midnight And Dawn" (1950), once again released as part of the TCM Vault Collection. Unlike "The Burglar" and "Drive A Crooked Road", "Between Midnight And Dawn" did not feature an introduction by Martin Scorcese, which may tip you off that it wasn't quite the classic that those two films are. However, it was still very good once it got going. Noir stalwart Edmund O'Brien stars as an LAPD patrol officer who works the nighttime beat (LAPD is not specified, but the locations are all L.A. so one can assume as much). His partner is the wisecracking Mark Stevens, who is more interested in tracking down the voice belonging to the female dispatcher than he is in responding to her radio calls. The serious O'Brien chides him to focus on the job, to make a real cop out of him, but that doesn't stop Stevens from searching the dispatch office whenever they are at the station. Soon of course, he discovers that the lovely voice belongs to Gale Storm.
The street action seen from the pov of the two cops in the patrol car, which takes up the first ten minutes and looks fantastic - real 1950s cop action - gives the impression that this movie is gonna be a super hard boiled crime classic. But then after ten minutes, the story veers off to focus on the development of the relationship between the young dispatcher Gale Storm and the two older police officers. The younger one, Mark Stevens, is in love with her, but he lives with his partner, the older O'Brien who keeps a close watch on him and doesn't want him taking undue advantage of Miss Storm, whose father was an officer killed in the line of duty. Ultimately, she ends up going on dinner dates with both cops, who treat her with deference. But Stevens keeps making his moves, little by little, until she falls for him.
The restaurant they regularly dine at belongs to a young hoodlum the two cops are looking to bust. The punk is a pseudo-stylish Mafiosi in a pinstripe suit with slicked back hair (no, not Trump Jr.) ; he hates that the coppers constantly dine at his establishment, where his girlfriend sings ballads with the piano man. They aren't there for the food, and the kid knows it. He feels empowered enough in his ego to threaten them to their faces. To him, they are just flatfoot cops and he is a Big Time Capo.
Other Capos, however - who are actually Big Time - are closing in on his turf. Now he has to defend himself not only against the cops but against rival mobsters. We are now at the halfway point in the 90 minute movie and this is where things start to roll. The relationship aspect between Storm and Stevens is set, O'Brien's focus on the young mobster has paid off. The cops are setting up to bust him.
So a lot of conflict will soon arrive. The plot, which had a breezy tone for the first half hour, is now going to turn very dark in the final 30 minutes. This is where the film earns it's points, in classic Noir territory.
I can't reveal any more, except to say that an actor named Donald Buka turns in an outstanding performance as the hoodlum restaurateur. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Coppola used him as an inspiration for characters and scenes in "The Godfather", or if Scorcese did too, for that matter.
While it's not a masterpiece of filmmaking as were the previous two movies, it's still a very good police procedural that begins by letting us ride along with two officers as they patrol the nighttime streets of greater L.A., answering calls both routine and dangerous. The story then diverts toward relationship for the second half hour, and into a dragnet during the third.
It's good stuff, and an extra bonus that you often get with Noirs is that there are some great locations, in this case of Los Angeles and environs circa 1950, shot at night in slick black and white.
Two Thumbs Up, then, for "Between Midnight And Dawn", which - come to think of it - describes my blogging schedule pretty well, haha. ////
The other Sunday news, in brief, included that there was good singin' in church, that the Rams won big and demonstrated Super Bowl potential, and that I finished the Dirac book.
That was the most important of the day's events to relate, because the book and Dirac's story had quite an effect on me. It was interesting the way in which I came to read it, as mentioned in a previous blog, like it was stuck in my mind : "you must read this book, if not now then one day". Three or four years passed from the time I saw it on the shelf until something reminded me to read it.
At the end of the book, the author throws a curveball nearly out of the blue, though in hindsight it makes sense and seems likely, as to the nature of Paul Dirac's unique genius.
This revelation blew me away and left me quite touched.
If you have an interest in physics or even just an overall interest in science, and want to read a great biography about one of the most important men of the 20th century, then I recommend this book very highly.
See you in the morn. xoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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