(this blog was begun the night of September 25, 2019)
Tonight, as predicted, I watched another film from Alpha Video : "Woman In The Shadows" (1934), which was originally released to theaters as "Woman In The Dark". It was produced by Biograph Studios in New York, so it isn't technically from Poverty Row, but Biograph was a close enough equivalent that we can think of it as such.
Ralph Bellamy stars as a convict who, as the movie opens, is awaiting his release from prison. Upon getting out, he takes ownership of a cabin - formerly belonging to his father - in upstate New York, near the small town of Denton. He intends to go straight and toe the line, having been admonished by the prison warden to watch his temper in the outside world, for it was that which landed him in prison in the first place - he got in a fight over a woman and his opponent died after a hard punch. Bellamy was convicted of manslaughter and spent three years behind bars but is now determined to put the past behind him. It won't be easy, however.
There is a girl in town who was sweet on Bellamy before he was incarcerated. She is the Sheriff's daughter. Bellamy only thought of her as a kid, but in the three years that have passed she has become an adult, and she shows up at his cabin with renewed romantic interest. He humors her infatuation because she's a "nice kid" (as he still thinks of her), but he won't let things go any further because he is well aware that her Dad is the Sheriff, and is also an S.O.B. at that, who would love nothing more than to put Bellamy back in prison for even the slightest violation of his parole. Though there would be no law broken by a romance, he wisely chooses not to mess with the Sheriff's daughter.
Not too shabby so far, right? And that's just the first five minutes.
Just as Bellamy has fended off the advances of the daughter, there comes a knock on the door. It is Fay Wray, wearing a silky dress not unlike the one she wore in King Kong. We have already witnessed her trek towards Ralph Bellamy's house, through inserted edits that show her crossing a field in a windstorm. She is obviously in distress and nursing a sore ankle, on the run from something. Soon we find out what it is. There is another knock at the door, and this time is it Melvyn Douglas who enters. I must jump in here to mention that, when you have a young Melvyn Douglas and a young Ralph Bellamy in the same picture, you know you are in Early Hollywood, as both actors became even more famous in my time for their roles as elderly gentlemen.
But back to the knock on the door. Melvyn Douglas enters, and in those days, from the few movies I have seen, he always played a suave bad guy pretending to be a good guy. This is what he does here. He is Fay Wray's suitor, her wealthy benefactor who buys her jewelry and wants to own her. She started out as a singer; Douglas got a grip on her by backing one of her Broadway shows, but his only intention was to possess her. It took Fay a long time to realize this, and by the time she did, and found out what Douglas was really like, she had to run for her life. Now she is hiding at Ralph Bellamy's cabin as Douglas, having tracked her, arrives at the door.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff's daughter has been in the cabin the whole time, so Bellamy not only has her Dad to worry about - now he is in the middle of an additional situation between a mobster (Douglas) and his moll. Holy smokes!
Not bad at all for an ultra low budget flick, I'd say.
The script is based on a book by famed mystery writer Dashiell Hammett, so the plot is well developed, and - considering the film's low budget and meager production values (static camerawork, lack of outdoor locations, etc.) - it actually plays closer to the quality of a standard "B" level Film Noir than it does a Poverty Row cheapie.
I give "Woman In The Shadows" Two Standard Thumbs Up, once again taking into consideration that is was made quickly at an independent, low budget studio. But it's even more watchable than last night's "Federal Fugitives", and therefore falls into the category of Halfway Decent. ///
Okay, I'm back and it is once again the following afternoon. Trump is toast, and the only way the Democrats can blow it now is if they go on their two week recess and take the pedal off the metal. We all know what happened with the Mueller Report, and we also know how hard it has been to make anything stick on the arch-criminal Trump, but this time it can be done if the Dems have the will to see it through.
That's all for now. See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment