Purely by chance I stumbled upon a treat this evening, a low-budget crime film about a serial killer, shot on the outskirts of Downtown Los Angeles, including Chavez Ravine, and.....(best of all)......written by that erstwhile baby photographer Bill Raynor! You remember him; I've mentioned Bill Raynor once or twice before. He was our neighbor on Hatton Street here in Reseda, and in fact, he lived just across the street from us and right next door to Mr. Reeves (Richard Reeves), the character actor of a hundred westerns, noirs and tv shows whom I've mentioned many times over the years. Thinking back on it, it's kind of neat that we had three movie business people all grouped together there on Hatton : Bill Raynor, Mr. Reeves, and Dad. And Bill was also an amateur photographer who had taken night classes at Reseda High School. He took some classic baby pictures of me (well, me at two years old), which I have also mentioned a time or two.
Please forgive all the preamble, but imagine my surprise when I clicked on the first movie I found tonight, and saw "Written by Bill Raynor" in the opening credits! Also, keep in mind that I am writing this blog at Pearl's, which is just around the corner from Hatton Street. I am perhaps 75 yards from Bill Raynor's old driveway as I write, so all of this is cool, especially since the movie turned out to be so good, even better than his sci-fi classic "Phantom From Space". It was called "Without Warning!" (1952, exclamation point included), and though there are no recognizable names in the cast, the acting is good and there are faces you've seen before. Likewise, though I don't know the director Arnold Laven, he keeps things tight and moving forward.
An actor named Adam Williams (a familiar face) plays a Psycho Killer who has it in for blondes who resemble his wife. We see him in operation, and he's as cold blooded as they come, though the editing avoids on-screen violence. The focus is instead on Williams' creepiness as he hangs around bars looking for victims. Very often it's a woman who picks him up, which is what sets him off.
Interspersed with the murders is the LAPD's effort to catch the killer, and what's interesting is the forensic aspects that are shown. Even back in 1952, they were doing microscopic investigation of fibers and chemical breakdowns of fluids and other crime scene materials. The director intercuts all of this as if you are right there, hot on the killer's trail. He lives in a shack at the end of a road in what looks like a Shantytown. It's up on a hill overlooking the freeway, which was brand new in '52. I was thinking, "hmmm, could it be what I think it is"?, and it was. It was Chavez Ravine ten years before Dodger Stadium was built. Now, Chavez is a featured location in many of the "Highway Patrol" episodes I've seen, though I've never seen this particular street before. It looks like a remnant from a poverty pocket in turn of the century Los Angeles, and it sticks out against the concrete bulwark of the surrounding freeway system.
The photography in this movie is exceptional, even artful in places, and that is due to the presence of the great Joseph Biroc, noted cinematographer of many a classic noir. What a blessing it is to have his work preserved in films like this, which capture a lost version of our city only available through the magic of motion pictures. There are scenes downtown in front of movie theaters that weren't even there in the 1960s, they'd been demolished by then, so this is Downtown as a "time capsule" even different from the one you've seen in earlier films from the 30s and 40s. The early 50s had it's own special look, with it's bulbous Dick Tracy cars. Biroc captures it all in perfect framing.
One last thing of note : at around the 1:09 mark, the cops are running down a list of names of suspects who've shopped at a certain garden store. It's a short list, only two or three names are mentioned. But one of the names is my last name, which is to say my Dad's last name. It goes without saying that it caught me by surprise, and at first I thought "wow, cool! Thanks, Mr. Raynor". It's happened before, with Uncle Rod, but this would've been the earliest one of these "namesakes" that I am aware of. But then I thought, "wait a minute.....the movie was made in 1952. We didn't move to Hatton Street until 1953". So either there's a mistake in the release date, or an overlap of some kind, or it's a total coincidence and Bill Raynor pulled our name, not a common name, out of a hat and then we became his neighbor a year later. Which would be weird.
I don't know, but then, in the immortal words Henry from "Eraserhead", "I don't know much of anything". //
Elizabeth, if you are still reading I saw your post and I hope you can get back to hiking soon, and your road trips. Are you guys on a state lockdown? Or maybe there's one in Michigan? I know how much you love Porcupine Mountains and I myself can't wait until you get back there, because I love it when you post your beautiful photographs of that amazing place, and I can then enjoy it too. In the meantime, I hope you can still hike locally, or in other places. I always look forward to your posts in any event, and I know things are gonna change for the better very soon. :):)
I hope you are having a nice Christmas Season. I am missing singing in church, but am enjoying listening to the Christmas music on Classical KUSC.
That's all I know for tonight. See you in the morning. Tons of love!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment