Last night we watched "Girl in the Headlines"(1963), an excellent murder mystery featuring strong acting and character development. "Ursula Gray", a model, is found dead in her high-end London apartment. Scotland Yard sends "Inspector Birkett" (Ian Hendry) to investigate, along with his assistant "Saunders" (Ronald Fraser), a Dr. Watson type with a penchant for rummaging. They find some forensic clues at the crime scene, including the victim's appointment book, which has a lunch date listed, and a fountain pen that may have been dropped by the killer.
Their first interview is with the man who lives next door, "David Dane" (Jamie Villers) a handsome and popular television star. He's pompous and also very defensive, offering an alibi when none was asked for. Inspector Birkett takes an immediate dislike to him. "He may not have committed murder but he's up to something". Next, they visit "Perlita Barker" (Natasha Parry) the woman listed in the appointment book. She was a friend of Ursula's and had planned to have lunch with her, but her husband "Hammond" (Peter Arne) presents a far more suspicious connection. He's a painter - and a male chauvinist - who at first claims to have known Ursula only casually, through his wife. It comes out during the interview, however, that he not only knew her directly, but had painted a derogatory portrait of her.
Mr. Barker becomes suspect #1. As the detectives are leaving, a man screeches up in a Jaguar. Birkett, appalled at his driving, asks for his licence. He's Hammond Barker's brother "Jordan" (Jeremy Brett). Though the detectives can't hold either of them, the Barker brothers clearly have something to hide, and after visiting Jordan at his boat the next day (he's a fisherman), he confesses to having had a relationship with Ursula, the dead woman. "I hoped we were going to marry", he adds.
It comes out that Ursula was addicted to drugs, and that Jordan tried to cover up for her, to get her to go straight, but his efforts came to nil.
Inspector Birkett's family life is given a lot of screen time (Jane Asher plays his perky daughter), and his wife makes a discovery about the mysterious fountain pen. Don't ask why it's been left lying around (screenwriter's convenience), but she picks it up to write with, and when it runs out of ink, she unscrews it, and finds a note rolled up inside. On it are the letters TT and the numbers 2118. Could it refer to a licence plate? That's what I thought. This clue, and the drug connection lead the inspectors to a fancy, members-only club for the hoi polloi. There they meet the owner and his friend, a famous, retired opera singer. Inspector Birkett notices the acquaintance immediately, and if he hadn't, Saunders surely would've discovered it. He's always poking around in various registers and logbooks, not to mention going through the drawers and personal belongings of every suspect. Much to their chagrin he does this right in front of them. After re-interviewing Jordan Barker, Birkett surmises that the wealthy folks are all mixed up in a drug ring.
Then the television star is murdered in a jazz club. It turns out that he was blackmailing his neighbor Ursula, but over what? Her drug use? Her numerous men? "And why would he resort to blackmail, rich as he was"?, wonders Saunders.
It's a darn good question. The script was from a book written by Laurence Payne, who we saw in the recently reviewed and outstanding thriller "The Third Alibi". Interesting that we are seeing several films recently that were written by actors, including "A Matter of Choice" by Derren Nesbitt, which was also top notch. Perhaps because they're developed in a novel, the characters feel like real people, particularly Hendry's Inspector, who never lets on what he's thinking while on the job, but at home relaxes into his role as husband and father.
There's atmosphere to burn in "Girl in the Headlines", and multiple London locations. The plot is complex; this is no Ten Little Indians process of elimination. Ian Hendry carries the picture but the supporting performances are uniformly good. A fan favorite at IMDB is Jeremy Brett's "Jordan". Brett went on to star as Sherlock Holmes in the popular BBC version from the 1980s. This film is a straightforward murder mystery, a police procedural with the inspectors in almost every scene. It's gripping, gets Two Big Thumbs Up and the print is razor sharp. Don't miss it! /////
The previous night we found an Edward L. Cahn flick entitled "Guns, Girls and Gangsters"(1959). Just the essentials, right? It sounded hard-boiled; all it needed was Cahn's leading man Ron Foster. I'm sorry to say he's not in it, but Cahn has Gerald Mohr doing his Bogie tough guy schtick. We haven't seen Mohr in a while (you might say less is Mohr), but he's good as "Chuck Wheeler", a hoodlum who's just been released from San Quentin. He heads for Las Vegas to set up an armored car robbery, meticulously planned with his cellmate who's still in prison. A grim-voiced narrator intones for us the details. We see the bags of money, offloaded at the end of each day by the casinos, which add up to millions per week. Every Friday, an armored car takes the cash to a bank in Los Angeles. Mohr knows the route and goes to a hill at the California/Nevada border. There, above the highway, he takes pot shots at cars to flatten their tires. He's a crack shot and hits three out of three. Each car comes to rest directly in front of a gas station located next to an inn. This is exactly as Mohr wants it. He's staying at the inn, and practicing for the Brink's truck, but first he's gonna stop a local club owner.
"Joe Darren" (Grant Richards), is also a black marketeer. Mohr needs him to launder the stolen cash, which will definitely be marked, so he goes to Joe's club and obtains his whereabouts from the headliner, a singer named "Vi Victor" (Mamie Van Doren). Lo and behold, Joe uses the same highway to get to work. Mohr shoots out his tire, then "convinces" Joe to help. Next he forces Vi to be part of the job. It turns out she's the wife of his cellie. "I had to look at your picture every day I was in there", Mohr tells her. "It drove me crazy, but it's nothing compared to the real thing".
"Mike'll kill you if he finds out", Vi warns him.
"How can he? He's still locked up! And besides, he'd kill you too, now that you're demanding a divorce. Think I didn't know about that? Cellmates share everything, and believe me Mike's not happy. But since he's, er....'held up at the moment', you're mine for now. Don't worry, you can share in Mike's cut. This was his plan, he's gonna get paid". Vi's a tough dame, but no match for Mohr. She completes the core trio. Mohr adds two of Joe's associates later.
During the final preparations, Vi becomes close to the owners of the inn, a couple with two young children. She's always felt alone and subject to the whims of bad men. She admires the couple's faith and family values. This bond is strengthened when the wife invites her to their Christmas party. Mohr finds out and is angered. "What're you trying to do, get us noticed"?!
Meanwhile, Vi's husband Mike has escaped from San Quentin. Sure enough, as Mohr predicted, he's gone crazy with the news of divorce. He goes on a rampage, looking for Mohr and Vi, and as played by Lee Van Cleef, Mike is almost hilarious. I mean, he's scary as hell, but if you're a Van Cleef aficionado like myself, it's all you can do not to laugh at his over-the-top expressions and vocal manner. I love Van Cleef for his eccentricity, and you'll recall that he starred as a Mad Scientist (of all things) in "It Conquered the World", where he communicates with an alien by telepathy. So yeah, I'm huge LVC fan, especially when he's weird, and in fact I like him least as a squinty cowboy, in the Westerns he's most well known for. Here, he's wearing his sunglasses at night, and if the picture wasn't high octane enough already, Lee sends it into overdrive, killing Joe's associates so Mohr will be forced to let him substitute.
Mamie Van Doren is central to the movie and is more intelligent and a better actress than she might be given credit for. Though she won't be compared to Bette Davis, she's always been considered just a blonde bombshell, a second tier Marilyn Monroe, but she's quite good as the reluctant Femme Fatale who harbors a desire for normalcy. When the robbery takes place, with Mohr shooting out the tires on the armored car, she'll make a last minute attempt to protect the nice couple. I can't reveal what happens, but it'll hinder the criminals and their escape plans.
We've been watching mostly British crime films of late, with their naturalistic actors whom we've come to appreciate. Here, we're back to stylized Noir, and the contrast is stark, but of course we love it too. You certainly can't beat Hollywood B-movies for entertainment value, and "Guns, Girls and Gangsters" gets Two Big Thumbs Up. It's one of Edward L. Cahn's best films, even without Ron Foster. ////
Finally, I just finished reading "The President's Daughter", by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. This is the pair's second "President" thriller - both are top drawer and highly recommended - and I just wanted to say that I find it kind of neat that, back in 1998, I started to tell my story, a true story that I turned into a book. It was, in part, about the night I was kidnapped by my psychotic neighbor. I wrote about being rescued, and taken away in a helicopter, by a man who went on to become the President of the United States. Now, almost twenty five years later, that same man has co-authored two books about a President who goes on secret black-ops, flies in military helicopters and oversees daring rescues. In the latest book, he's rescuing a kidnap victim. Who'da thunk it, right? :)
That's all for this evening. I hope you're enjoying your weekend and I send you tons of love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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