You don't always get the best results from director W. Lee Wilder, but this time we got lucky, with "Three Steps North"(1951), an Italian/American production starring Lloyd Bridges as an ex-G.I. looking for loot he stashed in Naples. He narrates the start, to give us some background on how he came to hide the dough in the first place. During the war, he drove a truck for the Repple Depple and found out money could be made by delivering contraband. Nothing hard core - just everyday stuff like cigabutts, chocolate and liquor, but over the course of his tour, he earned himself a nice chunk of lira - four million to be exact. Now, don't get too excited cause that translates to just six thousand dollars, but still, that was a fair little nest egg in '51.
So here he is, back in Naples, after serving four years in an American military prison. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he got caught on his final contraband run, but before the MPs could arrest him, he buried his money in a field, "three steps north" of a tree he used as a marker. Now that he's out of prison, he's come back to Naples to dig it up. The trouble is, that the field has since been turned into a cemetery. His tree is still there, and hopefully so is his buried loot, but now it's surrounded by hundreds of white crosses, standing over the graves of fallen soldiers. Every time he starts digging, a visitor appears, causing him to stop and slink away. So he starts to dig at night, but then the caretaker of the cemetery sees him and comes out to investigate. Bridges gives him the excuse that he was visiting "his brother's grave". The caretaker, an unsuspecting man of good conscience, believes him and invites him back to his cottage for a glass of wine.
From this meeting, a friendship develops, though it is one-sided. Bridges needs to access the cemetery to dig up his dough, so he humors the friendly caretaker. But now the man wants to be his pal. He can't get away to dig.
During all of this, Bridges pays a visit to a Neopolitan gal he knew during the war. They were an Item then. He'd like to start things back up but she won't have him : "You broke your promise, Frank. You left without saying goodbye. I thought-a you loved me, you were going to take me to America". He explains that he got thrown in prison for four years, but that doesn't work either. "How are we a-gonna settle down? You're a-never gonna be able to get a job with-a your record". He then tells her about his hidden money : "I can set us up real good, Elena. I'll even buy you that house you wanted". Now she trusts him again.
But then something happens. You see, to get to Naples, Bridges sailed over on a ship. He didn't have a red cent, so he borrowed a couple hundred simoleons from a fellow passenger, a tough guy who told him he'd better pay it back. Now this tough guy has turned up dead; murdered for his money. The obvious suspect is Bridges, but the Italian cops can't prove he did it. But more to the point, now nobody's gonna believe him about his own buried treasure. If he's able to finally dig it up, everyone's gonna think it was taken from the dead man. That will be all the cops need to nail Bridges. And his girl will doubt his tale of selling contraband. So how's he gonna get his money now, and more importantly, how will he account for it?
"Three Steps North" is a real pot-boiler with a hard nosed performance from Lloyd Bridges. Time and again, he's frustrated in his attempts to recover his money. His "pal" the caretaker keeps turning up at the most inconvenient times. And to make matters worse, now some hoodlums also think he murdered the tough guy. They think Bridges stole his dough and is hiding it (same as the cops), so now they're stalking him, too.
As noted, you don't usually get good work from W. Lee Wilder (Billy's brother), but this time he got one in his wheelhouse and hit a home run. A minor caveat is that this particular print seems chopped up, as if a minute or two of important exposition is missing here and there. This is not extraneous, however, and you will be able to fill in the missing data just by paying attention to the dialogue.
Two Big Thumbs Up for this one, then. It has the feel of an Orson Welles noir like "Touch of Evil", with kooky, exaggerated characters and lots of close-ups. Very highly recommended! /////
The previous night I found a minor classic entitled "The Strange Mrs. Crane"(1948). A B-Grade Noir with a Grade A script, it runs only an hour but it's no-fat : every detail is an important piece of a puzzle that, when put together, will complete the mystery just as time runs out.
Marjorie Lord stars as "Gina Crane" the attractive young wife of an elderly gubernatorial candidate (Pierre Watkin). She married him, obviously, for his money and power, but makes a good show of being devoted to her husband and his candidacy. At parties and political gatherings, she deflects all attention away from herself to promote his campaign.
"Clinton Crane" so appreciates Gina's commitment that he buys her a mink coat, at a high end boutique in town. Working there as assistant manager is one "Floyd Durant" (Robert Shayne). He has his eye on Mrs. Crane during the transaction. When no one is looking, he sidles up to her and says : "Hello, Jenny. I knew we'd run into each other again. You know I need to talk to you, why don't you meet me at my apartment tonight at 9"? It's not really a request, more like an order. He gives Mrs. Crane his address, then her husband appears and is ready to go home. "The mink is yours, my dear. They'll deliver it tomorrow morning. I see you were talking with Mr. Durant.......do you know each other"?
"Oh, no Clinton. We were just making small talk". But the audience knows better. What we don't know, yet, is why he called her 'Jenny".
Now, Floyd Durant is a ladies man who's also involved with an employee at the shop, a model named "Barbara Arnold" (Ruth Brady). He's really just stringing her along, but now - because of his chance meeting with Mrs. Crane - he's gonna try to dump Barbara. It doesn't go down well. She shows up unannounced at his apartment just before 9pm, and an argument ensues. A nosy neighbor is watching through his window. At one point Barbara picks up a knife......and I can't tell you any more without ruining an exceptionally clever plot.
I can tell you, though, that Mrs. Crane arrives at Durant's pad at precisely 9pm, as ordered. Inside, the argument between Durant and Barbara Arnold is boiling over. Mrs. Crane can hear it, so instead of knocking, she eavesdrops.
I can also reveal that 'Jenny' is Gina Crane's real first name. Durant knew her before she married her husband. Finally, something will happen that will lead to a criminal trial. An innocent person will be accused of the crime, and - in a brilliant twist - the guilty party will end up seated on the jury. How's that for turnabout as unfair play?
I was originally gonna give you much more of the plot, but because of the way it's structured - with random details slowly forming a picture - I decided that my usual approach would spoil not only the mystery but the ingenious way it's stitched together.
"The Strange Mrs. Crane" is a dandy little tale of deception and comeuppance. The Youtube print this time is a bit on the soft side, but that shouldn't stop you from watching this fine-tuned fuse burner . Two Big Thumbs Up and, like "Three Steps North", it's very highly recommended. You've got you a double-feechum for tonight! /////
Sorry I'm late. This blog was supposed to be published last night, but yesterday I was out shopping with my sister and missed out on my usual writing time. I've got a couple extra movies in the tank, though, and I'll try to get 'em out asap, maybe even tomorrow, to get back on track. I look back at previous years, and my home page on Blogger shows that I was doing upwards of 340 blogs a year from 2014-2019, and I think "how the Hell did I manage that"? Maybe I was just jabbering away, haha, but with my movie reviews I wanna do a decent job and (especially) write good sentences. That's easier said than done. I've found after years of writing blogs (and one book) that writing is entirely different from talking. I always use the "dude" example : If two Dudes are having a conversation, they can use a single word, and yet because of their "in person" proximity, which includes inflection and body language, each Dude will understand what the other is talking about.
It may go like this : "Duuude.........".
"Dude"!
"Oh yeah, Dude"!
"Doooood........".
And so forth. I was with my Mom once at the car wash on Lindley near Parthenia, and we overheard the following conversation:
" Damn, Dog - that's some f-ked up sh-t".
"Hell yeah, Dog. It is some f-ked up sh-t".
Mom and I never forgot that conversation, not only for it's economy of words, but because each of the two Dogs appeared to know exactly what was being related. But it doesn't work that way with writing. You have to use correct sentences, otherwise you may not only fail to convey the intended message, but you may also get your meaning confused, or accidentally change the tense. On top of that, you've gotta try and be creative, get a good rhythm going, and not use words twice in the same sentence or paragraph (a bad habit of mine that I edit out).
Well anyhow, all of this is to say, again, "sorry I'm late". I do love to write, hope it's not boring to read. Speaking of reading, I've just started "The Little Sleep", a narcoleptic detective novel by Paul Tremblay, and also "Bomber Offensive", the memoirs of Sir Arthur Harris, Commander-in-Chief of the RAF during World War Two.
Hope you're having a nice day. Tons of love as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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