Last night we watched "The Last Crooked Mile"(1946), a Noir starring Donald "Red" Barry as an insurance investigator looking for the loot from a bank robbery. The crooks made off with 300 Large but died in an ensuing car crash. The dough wasn't on scene; where the heck is it? The car itself has been bought by the owner of a carnival side show. "Come See The Bank Robbers' Death Car"!, reads the sign. Barry checks it out. What could've happened to the money? A tip leads him to the girlfriend of one of the robbers. She's "Sheila Kennedy", a nightclub singer. Because she's played by the great Ann Savage (of "Detour" fame), Barry should be careful who he's messing with.
Barry and Sheila hit if off, which doesn't sit well with "Bonnie", his sometime girlfriend. The last time Barry had a gal pal, Bonnie didn't see him for a year. She's loyal though, and fatalistic about the situation. Barry tells her about the payoff : "when I find the dough they're gonna pay me ten percent. That's thirty grand. We can go away to Costa Rica or anywhere you want". That keeps Bonnie happy. "And Sheila means nothing to me", he adds, but she doesn't believe him.
Two hoodlums are also in the hunt for the missing loot. One is tall and sharp (Sheldon Leonard), the other is a mook (Ben Welden). Barry figures they're connected to the dead robbers but that might not be all. At one point, they jump Barry and knock him out, but then both wind up dead. "Who hired those guys", Barry wonders. Through many plot twists, we'll find out. The movie features a lot of banter, mostly from Donald Barry who throws a Cagney-ish persona at all comers but saves his best barbs for Bonnie, his long suffering lady. Adele Mara, who plays her, has the bubbly blonde spirit for this kind of repartee. She gives as good as she gets, but the real star of the picture is of course Ann Savage, who you might already know. She's one of those performers who you can't take your eyes off of. Besides being a knockout, she has a dual vulnerable/tough quality. The toughness you've seen in spades, in"Detour", where she took on Hollywood Hard Guy Tom Neal and kicked his butt. In "Crooked Mile", she shows a softer side that's highly appealing. But she's always dangerous, so Red Barry watch out. I loved this movie, which has some great location shooting in what I assume is 1946 Los Angeles. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Last Crooked Mile". The picture is razor sharp. ////
In a similar vein, the previous night's flick was another Noir with light comic touches. "Step by Step"(also 1946) stars Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys as couple on the run from German spies in Malibu. They meet on the beach by chance. As the movie opens, Jeffreys has just been hired as the new secretary for "Senator Remmy", who we assume represents California, though it's never stated. The Senator seems to be involved with top secret work. Jeffreys answers the phone on her first day and the man on the other end talks gibberish. It's a coded message, so the Senator takes over the call. When he hangs up, he sends Anne out of the room. "Why don't you go down to the beach and take a swim? There's bathing suits downstairs in the closet".
The next we see Anne, she's diving off a cliff into the ocean. Who should come along at this time but beach bum Lawrence Tierney. We've all seen him as "Joe Cabot", the leader of the robbery gang in "Reservoir Dogs", where he was old, stocky and shaven headed, but if yooooouuu can be-lieve it, to quote David Lynch, he was once young, handsome and as physically fit as an athlete. He also possessed an ability for rom-com repartee like Red Barry, except Tierney is nonchalant if you can believe it. He walks around in a swimsuit for half the flick to show off his physique, but it's no big deal cause he's so low key. He drives a Woody and he's got a little dog named Bazooka. You've gotta love Tierny when he was young. He's not a gruff curmudgeon like he became later on.
What happens is that Anne Jeffreys emerges from the waves. Tierney tries a few pick up lines and she brushes him off. "Sorry but I've gotta get back to work". He watches her walk back up the bluff to the Senator's house on the hill. Not one to give up after the first try, Tierney follows her up there with Bazooka alongside. He talks his way past a butler, and finds "Evelyn Smith" (Jefferys' character) in an office. But it's not the Evelyn Smith he just met. This gal's a taciturn type with her hair in a wraparound braid. The Senator appears and asks, "Can I help you, Sir". "Yeah, I'm here to see Evelyn Smith and that's not her". "That's the only Miss Smith we've got". "Well she ain't the one I just met on the beach, and who I followed to this house. I just saw her walk in the door". "Uh, Sir? My butler tells me you're a Marine? And you just got back from Iwo Jima"? "Yeah that's what I told him. Nosy guy, wanted my life story". "Excuse me for asking, Sir, but is it possible you're........uh"..... "What're you sayin', that I'm suffering from shellshock? You think I'm crazy? I'm tellin' ya I just followed Evelyn Smith up here. That one in the other room is an impostor"!
What we the audience know but Tierney doesn't, is that the Senator is an impostor too! Yepperino, Mr. Shortino. He ain't the guy we saw with the real Evelyn Smith. So what in The Wide, Wide World of Sports is-a goin' on? Well, while Smith was at the beach with Tierney, a gang of Nazi spies snuck in to the house and replaced the real Senator Remmy. They've got him tied up in the basement, and when Evelyn comes back to the house they tie her up too. Then they gaslight Lawrence Tierney, or they try to but he calls the cops. Trouble is, they've already branded him as crazy from the war. The cops don't believe his story. The Nazis are gonna get away with their scheme.
But what is it they're trying to achieve? Well, they're looking for a list of German spies that has their names on it. That was the Senator's secret mission : i.e. to round up every Nazi who remained in America after World War Two. It's explained at the beginning of the movie that, for the Reich, the war never ended. The surviving Nazis just went underground. The Senator's job was to rout them out and arrest them. Now they've got him captive but they still can't find the list. That's because Tierney has it! He decided to get dressed while he was in the house (keep in mind when he got there he was only wearing swim trunks), and he borrowed some of the Senator's clothes. Sewed into the lining of his coat is the list of Nazi spies.
If all that sounds far-fetched, well.......it's supposed to be. The charm of this movie is it's offhand implausibility. Tierney's a typical beach dude, too casual to lose his cool or even notice the bigger picture at first. He's only upset because, a) he knows the "Senator" and his staff are giving him the runaround about Evelyn Smith, and b) because they have the nerve to suggest he's off his rocker. His mild outrage is reflected by Bazooka, who runs around the house looking for Evelyn, and......that's all I can tell you.
As with "The Last Crooked Mile", I enjoyed the combination of Noir and rom-com sassafrass. Like Ann Savage, Anne Jeffreys has a singular screen persona, replacing Savage's tough chick brass with a savvy, sweet resilience. Also like "Crooked", "Step by Step" has great lost Los Angeles locations. A long gone motel called "Fisherman's Village" (or something like that) is featured prominently. The movie gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and in this case I heartily recommend a double feature as the total running time for both movies is just 127 minutes. These are Noirs for Fun, there's a lot of it, and the picture for "Step by Step is also razor sharp. /////
And that's all I know for tonight. I hope you're enjoying the start of your weekend, and I send you Tons of Love as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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