Last night's movie was an entertaining whodunit called "Three Steps in the Dark"(1953), about a mean but wealthy old man who calls on his younger relatives to attend a reading of his will. Fave gal Greta Gynt stars as "Sophie", the niece of "Arnold Burgoyne" (Nicholas Hannen). She's a crime novelist by profession. Uncle Arnold hates her books, but she's the only member of the family he tolerates. He detests his two nephews, "Philip" (Hugh Sinclair) and "Henry" (John Van Eyssen), one of whom's a cad (P), the other's broke (H). Nevertheless, perhaps because they're men, he's planning to leave them his estate, in a certain order. Henry is first. He gets the mansion, if he can produce an heir. This will give him stability and a place to live. Uncle Arnold knows he can't fend for himself. Henry has a fiance, so the question of a scion looks promising. But Uncle Arnold says she's not who she claims to be. He's got evidence.
The fiance, humiliated, storms out of the house. Henry follows to console her. While they're outside, gunshots are heard. Someone's blasted Uncle Arnold. Who could it have been? Henry and his bride-to-be aren't above suspicion. "Mrs. Riddle" (Katie Johnson), Uncle Arnold's maid, says the shots came from outside his window. This film is just for the fun of it, a Shortino running 57 minutes. We haven't had a short film in a while, and this one's a Ten Little Indians, but it has a great British atmosphere and a lot of canny interplay between the Inspector (Alastair Hunter) who arrives to solve the murder and Sophie, who has her own theories based on the plots of her books. It's one of those mysteries where No One Is Allowed To Leave The Premises. The Inspector leans hard on nephew Philip, who seems to have the most to gain. With Uncle Arnold dead, and Henry having not yet had a son, Philip stands to inherit the estate. He's also got a secret; the affair he's been having with cousin Sophie. Does his wife know about it? Maybe she shot Uncle Arnold. Did she do it for Philip? Maybe so, to win him back by obtaining the mansion.
Or maybe The Butler did it. We see him on the phone. He hangs up when he notices we're watching him. And what about Greta Gynt? But what reason would she have? Yes, she and Philip have a long-standing affair, but she's trying to break it off. Well, how about this : maybe she did it in the service of a book. Maybe she's trying to write the perfect murder. You're going to like "Three Steps in the Dark". Me, I loved it. Again, it's not a movie you have to heavily invest in, it's strictly an escape, but hey - an hour of Greta? What's not to like? One caveat; the ending is abrupt. Some fans at IMDB say it's indeterminate. I disagree. I think it's pretty clear what happens, though it's very sudden and the movie ends there. If you have any trouble figuring it out let me know. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Three Steps". It's recommended and the picture is razor sharp. ////
Now then : before there was James Dean, there was John Barrymore Jr. He starred in the previous night's picture, a melodramatic Noir called "The Big Night"(1951). Barrymore plays "Georgie LaMain", a handsome but nerdy young man. He's coming home from school on his 17th birthday when some neighborhood punks rough him up. It amounts to no more than a hazing but it's a precursor of what's to come.
Georgie puts his books away and goes downstairs to his Dad's bar, where he works behind the counter. Dad (Preston Foster) is there with his business partner and their roommate "Flanagan" (Howland Chamberlin). The evening regulars are on their stools, in a homogeneous state of inebriation. Dad, a somber steadfast man, brings out a birthday cake for Georgie, who's all raw nerves. Georgie manages to blow out all the candles but one, as the barflies serenade him with the traditional song.
Then the door slams open. The meager party is over. Three men enter the bar, one older, two hoodlums. The older man, besuited and walking with a cane, orders Dad to come out and take his medicine, in the form of a vicious beating. Dad complies by removing his shirt and kneeling. The older man whomps him on the back with the cane as the bar denizens look on, glumly. Georgie cries out - "Stop"! Dad's partner Flanagan holds him down. "Don't look, Georgie, don't look". Then it is over. The thugs leave the bar. Dad hobbles upstairs to lie down in bed. His back is raised with welts. Who were those men, and who was the one who beat him? Was he a Mob boss? Did Dad owe him money? Is that why he gave in without a fight?
Well no, not exactly. The older man with the cane, crippled but savage, is in fact "Al Judge" (Howard St. John), a sportswriter. Yes you read that right. What the hell's going on? Why would a sportswriter have such (forgive the pun) clout? Maybe he's an enforcer for the Mob? Hmm, that's what I was thinking. I thought Dad was maybe late on an "insurance payment", and took his beating to avoid being killed. But that's not how things shake out, as the plot kicks in and young Georgie finds his inner Bronson. He steals Dad's gun and heads out into the night, vowing to kill Al Judge. His odyssey takes him to a boxing arena, where he and his Dad were supposed to attend the evening's fight. That was before Dad got beat up. Georgie figures Judge will be covering the match. After getting swindled out of his extra ticket by a strong-arm hood (in a scriptural red herring), he takes his seat and meets "Dr. Lloyd Cooper" (Phillip Bourneuf). Dr. Cooper is a philosophy professor who is also a lush. He seems to know why Georgie is there. "So you're gonna get Al Judge, are you? Hit him with a right, then an uppercut. But watch out for that cane of his". Again we wonder, what's going on? Who is this Dr. Cooper? Is he leading Georgie into a trap?
If you've been reading the blog for a while, you'll recall that we've hammered on about the art of screenwriting, and how - in a well done script - there is no "fat", no extraneous material or characters, especially ones the director may have favored in order to present his "vision" but who, when the end result is viewed, serve only to distract from the forward motion of the story or act as red herrings. For a perfect script, see "Taxi Driver", which wastes nothing. Every scene and line of dialogue leads into the next one, right up to the resolution of the movie. Here, in "The Big Night", director Joseph Losey seems confused. He's got a hard core Noir theme (revenge) and he's got John Barrymore Jr. knocking it out of the park as the teenage Georgie. It's too bad Barrymore Jr. went crazy in real life because he was one hell of an actor (and he was Drew's Dad, by the way). But director Losey can't choose between style and substance, and so the plot becomes a mishmash. Georgie ends up wandering through the night. He can't get to Judge at the boxing match, so he enters a nightclub, where he becomes infatuated with the African-American chanteuse. Outside, he tells her she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen : "for a.....". He leaves out the "N" word, and then he's embarrassed. "I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it! I meant you're the most beautiful woman, period"!
But it's another red herring, and really not even that. There's simply no reason whatsoever for the scene to be included, except to inject the subject of racism into the story. Yet the thing is, it doesn't fit with Georgie's character. Being a nerd who get's picked on himself, and being an ultra-sensitive young man, he seems unlikely to be the type who would use the "N" word, especially to a lady's face, and while he holds back from actually saying it, it still seems out of place. Why have Georgie, teary eyed, slather the woman with compliments, only to finish with an epithet? Well anyhow, maybe it's the kind of language he hears at the bar, and is too immature to know he shouldn't use it.
Later on, he obtains Al Judge's home address. Georgie's pretty drunk now, he's gonna walk up the stairs and shoot him. But Judge isn't home. A woman hears him pounding on the door. She's "Marion Rostina" (Joan Lorring), Judge's neighbor. She invites Georgie in and calms him down. A tentative romance evolves as the hours pass. Georgie needs Marion. She's older and represents the mother he thinks is dead. We'll find out differently later on. It turns out Marion is living with Dr. Cooper. Remember him? He's the wisecracker Georgie met at the boxing match. When he gets home, we find out he's not as nice as we thought. Georgie finds himself back out on the street. When he does finally meet up with Al Judge and confronts him about the beating of his father, Judge tells Georgie "it's not what you think". We might never have thought of it either. In the end it's for you to decide : did Dad deserve the caning or didn't he? There's evidence enough that it shouldn't be ambiguous, but because it's not a linear plot, the story seems more about Georgie's coming of age at this point than in does about Judge and his Dad.
Though it's muddled, "The Big Night" still gets Two Big Thumbs Up, due to the performance of John Barrymore, Jr. who's only nineteen here, making his accomplishment all the more impressive. Everyone knows James Dean's rebel "Jim Stark", one of the most iconic characters in motion picture history. That's the better film of the two, an undisputed classic, but I think Barrymore Jr.'s portrayal at the very least equals Dean's, and in some ways goes him one better. That's because Georgie isn't pretending to be a tough guy; deep down he knows he's a wimp, therefore his character is more defined than Dean's. Barrymore has to go through every stage of realising this lack of grown-up manhood. He's trying to stick up for his Dad and in the end he just can't do it. Two things happen that will bring him face to face with the consequences of his Big Night. I can't tell you what they are, but the ending makes up for the wayward storyline, and style-wise the movie is tremendous. It's a shame about John Barrymore, Jr., whose life you should read about on Wiki. To me, he could've been one of the great actors of all-time. We also saw him last year in "While the City Sleeps"(1957), as a hotshot conniving reporter - an entirely different type of role but with equal onscreen charisma. Joan Lorring, who was excellent as the strumpet "Bessie" in "The Corn is Green", is also very good here as "Marion" the older woman who gives Georgie respite for a short time. As with John Barrymore, Jr., she shows great range, playing a polar opposite character from one film to the other. "The Big Night", despite it's flawed plot, is very very highly recommended. Don't miss it, the picture is razor sharp. /////
And there you have it for the evening, a short-but-fun mystery and a gut-wrenching melodrama with great acting. I hope you had a nice day and I send you Tons of Love as always!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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