Last night we had another crooked parole scam to deal with, in "Parole, Inc."(1948). This time, the mastermind wasn't Peter Lorre but Turhan Bey, who wouldn't bother with plotting a sinister demise if he wanted to get rid of you - he'd just make a phone call. What's Turhan Bey's deal, anyway? Is he even a real person? He looks like he emerged fully formed from the Suave Factory.
Well anyhow, the opening is nearly identical to the one in "Island of Doomed Men". G-Man Michael O'Shea is being briefed by his superiors on an undercover assignment, in which he'll investigate a group of gangsters who've corrupted the parole system. He will pose as an ex-convict (a bank robber) who wants to spring his buddy from The Slammer, so he can assist in a heist.
The next prisoner to be paroled is connected to a gin mill run by Evelyn Ankers. O'Shea goes there and approaches him. "Say, you just got out of Quentin, right"? "That's right - who wants to know"? "I do. Were you acquainted with a 'Joe Smith"? He was in there for safecracking". "Yeah. We was in the same cell block. Why?" "Well, I've got a job for him, and I heard on the grapevine that a parole can be had, er.......for the right price". "I don't know nuthin' about that. If you got any more questions you can go talk to Jojo (Ankers). She runs this joint. Me, I'm a free man and wanna stay that way". O'Shea then enters the back room and introduces himself to Ankers. She's running a casino racket that's enforced by hoods from the parole scheme. O'Shea's "bank robber" act fools her. He gains her trust. Still, she won't give out much info. "I don't know anything about buying a parole". In a subplot, we are shown that someone on the parole board is bought and paid for. Ankers must be connected to that person, but how?
O'Shea follows one of her henchmen to an office building, then observes him take an elevator to the fifth floo-ah. Rather than trail the guy too closely and risk discovery, O'Shea writes down the name of every tenant on that floor, then calls in all the names to headquarters. One name stands out : Turhan Bey, a high powered lawyer. I've gotta break in to say that we should just do a whole blog on Bey, to try and figure out what his trip is, but in the movie, the Feds are certain he's gotta be The Fixer, the payoff man between Ankers and the parole board.
O'Shea is directed to engage Bey personally, as Evelyn Ankers won't reveal their connection, and when he proposes a payoff to get his "friend" paroled from prison, Bey accepts. But before he makes the arrangements, he has two of his mugs break in to O'Shea's hotel room. "I'm not sure I trust that guy. Go in there, look for anything you can find - an address book, a briefcase, a badge - but don't toss the place. If he is with the Feds I don't wanna tip him off". What the lackeys find is some recording equipment. Bey's suspicion was on target. He feigns ignorance and gets the ball rolling on the parole of O'Shea's pal. In doing so he intends to draw O'Shea closer, to find out everything he knows before he kills him (or rather, has him killed; Bey would never participate in anything so vulgar as an execution).
"Parole, Inc." has a script worthy of an A-list release, the plot is well developed and has an interesting subthread about identifying the corrupted member of the parole board. The acting is uniformly good if not exceptional, and by all accounts everything adds up to an involving 71 minute crime film. The problem is that it could've been so much better, a minor classic even, if the director had cared enough to build some tension, and especially some character development with his bad guys. I mean, here you've got Ankers, a respected English actress (playing the American Jojo). She's invested in the role, yet we find out next to nothing about her character. Her mooks get more screen time. And then you've got Turhan F. Bey, Exotic Man of Mystery, so freakin' suave that Dennis Hopper would bow in admiration, so weird that we ourselves are mystified by him, and yet director Alfred Zeisler just allows him to die on the vine, characterwise.
So yeah, that lack of development in what was otherwise an excellent film was a letdown for sure. This leads me to do something I've never done before in terms of rating. I'm gonna give "Parole, Inc." a split verdict : Two Big Thumbs for overall entertainment value (including all ingredients mentioned above), but only Two Regulars for direction. It would've been a lot better with a top Hollywood Craftsman at the helm, but I still recommend it. The picture quality is good and it gave us a chance to tee off on Turhan Bey, who we aren't done with yet. Give it a watch. ////
The previous night we watched "The Embezzler"(1954), a crime film with a poignant sensibility. "Oh, really? How veddy Brrittish of you to say so". "Henry Paulson", a middle aged bank clerk (age 50, looks 65) is at the end of his rope. Every day for thirty years he's been on time, done his job, gone home and come back the next day to do repeat the routine. And for what? His lazy wife does nothing but complain, nagging him from her bed, from which she seldom arises. To say the poor man is henpecked is putting it mildly. And when he's finally offered a promotion after all this time, he experiences an attack of stress. When he goes to visit his doctor, the news is unfortunately not good.
The doc tells him he's got a heart condition : "You've got two years at most".
So he decides to say the hell with the entire bloody situation. He forgoes the promotion, leaves his witchy wife in the dust, and splits........without a word. He plans to live the rest of his life to the fullest, however long that will be.
To finance this final expedition, Henry embezzles a suitcase full of money. On his last day at work, he stays late at the bank - to "finish up some paperwork" - and when the other employees have gone home, he unlocks the vault and steals all the cash, stacks and stacks of large bills. In the middle of this load-up, the bank manager returns unexpectedly and surprises him, but he shoves the man into an office and locks the door. Then he leaves and boards a train. His first thought is to flee to Paris, but the train stops in a small town called Eastcourt, so he disembarks to spend the night in a hotel.
Right away, you know the plot has changed. The hotel is peopled with quirky tenants who - through their interaction with our beleaguered hero - will test his resolve to live out his adventurous fantasy. It's a karmatic twist that plays off his inbred guilt, instilled in him for decades by his wife and his place in society. He's never been anything but a cog in the machine, living a life of quiet desperation (it's the English way). Then, when he finally makes his first Bold Move, because he knows he going to die, he finds himself among people who need his help. Will he be able to change his spots, to live life on his own terms for the first time, or will he revert to a lifelong habit of service? And which is the more noble cause?
But he has so little time left. Surely God wouldn't begrudge him a single trip to Paris, if only for a couple of months.
One of the hotel guests is a woman who's husband is just out of prison. He's a hoodlum she wants nothing to do with. Now we'll have a surprise as to the real Embezzler of the title. The woman's husband finds out about Henry and his stolen bank loot. He wants the money for himself. If he can't have it, he's going to turn the Henry in to the police. Will Henry leave for Paris, or will he stay and face down his accuser? Part of him wants to do something good before he dies. Another part longs for one memorable experience.
"The Embezzler" is for the most part a "single location movie", in this case where Everyone Congregates at the Hotel. It's like a curveball on Ten Little Indians, because it's not a mystery, but the conversations among the guests are formulated to make Henry paranoid. Everyone is talking about a report in the newspaper of a bank clerk who embezzled thousands. The ways in which they point it out cause Henry to suspect "they know it's him". The action culminates at a children's party put on by the hotel management, which serves as a metaphor for the lost innocence of the adults. The peripheral characters all have that eccentric English charm you often see in Brit movies from this period, where light comedy is used to contrast the grimmer aspects of the situation (i.e. Henry's terminal illness).
I loved "The Embezzler" and give it Two Big Thumbs Up. It runs a brisk 61 minutes and was directed by (of all people) a man named John Gilling, who also made the horrific "Plague of the Zombies" for Hammer Studios. Talk about a 180 in style and craftsmanship! Wow. But yeah, don't miss this movie, it's an understated gem. /////
That's all for the moment. I hope you had a wonderful day. I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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