Do you remember Hugo Haas, the quirky Czech actor/director whose film "One Girl's Confession" we reviewed a few months back? If you do, you'll recall that we got a kick out of his idiosyncratic style. The movie was about a waitress who quits her job because her boss sexually harasses her, but she winds up with a half-crazy gambler. There was a lot more to it than that, and the plot was about revenge, but it was also a weird kind of morality play, in fact we compared it to an off-Broadway version of the Morality Tales of Eric Rohmer. Most importantly, we thought Hugo Haas was something of an original. He delivered his lines as himself rather than his character and spoke them offhand, like he was having a real, i.e. non-theatrical conversation. We made a mental note to look for more from Haas, then he slipped off our radar.
Well, now he's back. Last night we saw a fantastic Noir called "The Other Woman"(1954), directed by and starring Hugo Haas. He actually acts in this one, playing an artistic movie director pressured by his producer father-in-law to make a commercial hit. But that's only a subtheme. In this movie within a movie, the real game is blackmail. Haas gets set up by an extra to whom he's given a bit part. The gal flubs her lines and is dismissed from the set. It's standard Hollywood procedure due to production schedules and budgets, but she feels humiliated and swears revenge on director Haas, who she calls a "Continental phony". The extra is played by Cleo Moore, who appears to be Haas' main leading lady. She also starred in "One Girl's Confession". Besides being a blonde bombshell, she's great at playing the "wronged woman".
Stewing over her loss of the role, she sets up a blackmail scheme for the director. She shows up for the wrap party when everyone is drunk, and cadges a ride home from Haas. "I know I flubbed the part", she tells him. "It's okay, no hard feelings". When they get to her apartment she conveniently leaves her sweater in his car. He knocks on her door to return it. She invites him in for a nightcap - drugged of course - and then sets it up to look like he spent the night and slept with her, so she can threaten to tell his wife. Now, his wife's father is Haas' producer, who can make or break his career. The old man is already fed up with Haas' insistence on being an artiste. "You've got to start thinking about selling tickets"! Cleo Moore knows she can use this for a wedge.
She uses her boyfriend to insinuate blackmail to Haas. He shows up at Haas' office at the worst possible times, when he's in meetings with studio bosses. His father-in-law is there, too. The boyfriend walks in, pretending to know Haas from Cleo's pad. "Don't you remember? We met that night when you two were.....(wink wink). She's been asking about you, you oughta call her sometime (wink wink)". The father-in-law overhears what is said. "Who's the woman that nitwit was talking about"? Haas tries to downplay it. "Oh, just some actress who wants a part in the movie. You know those bit players, especially the women". Still, Dad-In-Law is suspicious. Is Haas cheating on his daughter? He's also got the success of the picture on his mind. It's looking like it's gonna be another flop. "If you were as interested in story as you are in camera angles, you might have a hit someday". Haas is in hot water. Why doesn't he just come clean? Because, a) He really doesn't know what happened that night at Cleo Moore's apartment. All he knows for certain is that he woke up there the next morning with lipstick all over his collar. Her boyfriend walked in as a witness. And b), if he can't get his father-in-law off his back, he's gonna lose his career as well as his marriage.
Things get worse when Moore ups the ante. She calls to tell him, in so many words, that she's pregnant. She hints that she'll get an abortion (no way you could say that outright in a 1954 film), "but it's gonna cost you. Fifty thousand dollars". Now, she isn't pregnant (Haas never slept with her) but he doesn't know that. Now he's panicking. "I haven't got that kind of money"! "Well then I'll just have to go to the newspapers".
With his back against the wall, his father-in-law suspicious and hounding him about the movie, Haas comes up with a plan. I can't tell you what it is, but it leads to one of the best conclusions we've ever seen in a Noir. Remember that I mentioned this is a movie-within-a-movie. The ending is absolutely perfect. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Other Woman". Big league stuff from Hugo Haas. The picture is a little soft, but the plot is razor sharp! It's very highly recommended. ////
And that's not all from Hugo. Our rediscovery of him actually began the previous night, when we found "Bait"(1954). We weren't looking for Haas movies, it just showed up as a Youtube recommendation. Once again it stars Cleo Moore, playing - once again - a waitress (as she did in "One Girl's Confession"). Co-starring, of course, is Hugo Haas himself. Those two alone would've been enough for me to click "play", but would you believe the other star is John Agar? You read that right, and think about it, fellow Agar-ians : 1) When was the last time we saw him?, and 2) Did you think we'd ever see him again? I didn't. I thought we'd mined all the Agar there was available, that we'd run out after "The Brain from Planet Arous". So I ask you to take a step back, and imagine finding a Hugo Haas movie (weird as you know it's gonna be), starring Cleo Moore and Haas himself as usual........and then with John Freaking Agar as the third star. "That's gold, Jerry! Pure gold"!
Well anyhow, I'll shut up and tell you what the movie is about. It opens, I kid you not, with an introduction by The Devil. As played by Sir Cedrick Hardwicke, he's a theater star ascending a wooden staircase. Up into the rafters he goes, pursued by his adoring fans. As they hold out their autograph books, and he signs, he explains the perils of temptation.
Then we cut to a small town cafe. Enter John Agar, who greets the owner (Roger Corman vet Bruno VeSota). Agar orders breakfast from waitress "Peggy" (Cleo Moore), and settles in to wait for "Mr. Marko" (Haas), a man who's heard about a gold mine. Agar meets with Marko, who offers him a 50/50 split "if you'll help me locate the mine shaft", which is hidden in Bronson Canyon. With luck, they find it and head back to town, where they stock up on supplies for the winter (it gets cold and snowy in Bronson Canyon donchaknow). Of course, they keep quiet about the gold mine. "Don't want a stampede up there, now do we"? But when they start mining the gold, all of a sudden Haas reneges on his deal. "You can't do that"!, Agar cries. "You promised me a fifty/fifty split"! Well, the problem for Haas is that Agar is young and fit. He's not likely to win a fight with him, in other words. So, he cooks up an Elaborate Plan. What's a Hugo Haas movie without an Elaborate Plan, right? What he does, is to go back to town on his own. "I forgot to order bacon", he tells John Agar. "I'll give you your fifty percent - just keep digging while I'm gone".
When he gets back to the cafe, which doubles as the general store, he tells Cleo Moore about the gold mine, and offers to cut her in.......if she'll marry him! Now, Haas is middle aged and paunchy, and Cleo tells him she's "not that kind of girl". But he has another reason for proposing (or so he says). "Just think of your baby. It would have a last name". Moore has an illegitimate child, which in 1954 is a big no-no. Hmmm. She reconsiders his offer and accepts. Now Haas returns to the mine with Cleo Moore. "Meet my new wife"!, he tells Agar. But you see, the marriage was all part of his Elaborate Plan. He wants to get rid of Agar so he won't have to give him half the gold. So, he starts to set things up so Agar and Moore will cheat on him. Then he'll have an "excuse" for killing Agar which he thinks "any jury will accept".
While the script for "Bait" isn't flawless like that of "The Other Woman", and while Haas is back to playing himself (more or less) and delivering his lines ad-lib, you're still gonna love this movie. For one thing, John Agar is A-plus great. You know how in some movies he's smug, and in others he's sincere? It's one of the main reasons we love him, and if he could do everything in between, he'd have the range of Sir Laurence Olivier. Well, he may not have that capability, but in this flick he does both Smug and Sincere. How amazing is that? It's one of the greatest performances we've seen from Agar, and that's saying something, as incredible as he's been in all his other movies (and by the way, this is not backhanded or false praise. Like Agar, it's entirely sincere!). We love John Agar because - like Hugo Haas - he's a total original. And Cleo Moore, who we hadn't heard of pre-Haas, turns out to be a world-class Bad Girl. Apparently she has a cult following for her roles in these movies (and other B-flicks), and while she's a knockout, that's not her only asset; she's actually a good actress for these roles.
I'm gonna give "Bait" Two Big Thumbs Up, but more than that, I'm just gonna recommend you see every Hugo Haas movie there is. Yep, sight unseen. The three we have now watched are evidence enough that the guy's a genius in his own unconventional way. The picture on "Bait" is razor sharp. Watch it and "The Other Woman" back to back and thank me later. ////
And that's all I know for tonight. Here's a question for ya : is this the longest Indian Summer we've ever had, or what? It's December 1st and I'm still wearing a t-shirt on my nightly walk. I'm gonna head out right now. Feels like it's about 80 degrees. "That's some Weird Wild Stuff, Ed"! "You are Correct, sir"! ("That's Gold, Jerry! Pure Gold"!)
I wish you a nice evening and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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