Last night we watched a Noir, "Murder Is My Beat"(1955), the final film of the tragic Barbara Payton. I came across the movie because I'm reading her book "I Am Not Ashamed", and I'm reading her book because the story of her life includes her relationship with actor Tom Neal (another sordid life story), and because Tom Neal was Ann Savage's co-star in "Detour", well, that's how the whole thing started. No tragedy or sordid business with Ann. She was pure class through and through. But our Ann Savage mini-fest got me thinking about Tom Neal (who we saw recently in "Train to Tombstone"; he was a decent actor), and Tom Neal once got into a notorious punchout with Franchot Tone over Barbara Payton, whose life was the all-time Hollywood train-wreck. I Googled her and found out she had a book, which I ordered from the Northridge Libe. Her story's so sad and ugly that it caused me to look for her movies. We've already seen her in "Bride of the Gorilla" and "Four Sided Triangle" and she was a competent actress. She could've had a lasting career in motion pictures if her life hadn't been such a mess.
Well anyhow, her final film is a good one. As it opens, "Detective Ray Patrick" (Paul Langton) is trying to solve the murder of a man who was killed in his apartment in Hollywood. His head and hands fell in his fireplace, thus he is burned beyond recognition and has no fingerprints. An elderly neighbor lady identifies him as Fred Dean. She tells Detective Patrick he dated a woman who sings at a local bar. Patrick goes there, but the singer has left town on a train, heading for Modesto. He talks instead to "Patsy Flint" (Tracey Roberts) the bar's "picture-snatcher" (as she is called by the owner), a brassy photographer gal from the days when you could have your photo snapped at your table. Patsy is uppity with attitude to spare. I didn't like the character at first, but then I learned she has something to hide. She has a photo of the singer on her mantle, which she took. The singer's name is "Eden Lane" (Barbara Payton). Patsy won't say why she's on the train to Modesto. "I have no idea. Why don't you go there and ask her yourself?" Detective Patrick does just that, after calling the Modesto cops to have Eden detained at the train station. When he arrives, he finds out she eluded the police, so he has to track her down at a snowed-in motel in the mountains (are there mountains in Modesto? I don't think so) but anyway, he finds her there, and she confesses, but not to the murder. "Yeah, I dated Fred Dean. We got in a fight and I conked him on the head with a fireplace poker. But I didn't think I hit him hard enough to kill him".
Detective Patrick brings Eden back to L.A. for trial. She's convicted, and now he's taking her back on the train to prison. A prison matron is traveling with them. All of a sudden, while the matron is in the dining car, Eden looks out the windum and screams. "That's Fred Dean! I just saw Fred Dean on the platform!" They've just left a station, so the train is traveling slow. Detective Patrick, who's had doubts about Eden's guilt all along, decides in a split second to help her out. While the prison matron is still gone, they jump off the train together to find Fred Dean, who apparently isn't dead after all. Now Detective Patrick is complicit in Eden's escape, but he believes in her innocence and is willing to risk his futchum. He's also falling in love with her. The plot becomes convoluted after this, but in a good way, and you really have to pay attention to the details. There is indeed a murder victim, but if Eden is right, it wasn't Fred Dean, who she claims she just saw at the last train station. Knowing that the murder weapon was a ceramic statue, Detective Patrick goes to a ceramic factory in "Lindville", a nearby town. There, he finds the exact same statue being manufactured, OMG, am I right? He talks to the factory owner about the wholesale distribution of the statues. "Do you keep a list of who buys them?" But the factory owner seems suspicious, and then his wife shows up later at a church service in Hollywood, with Patsy Flint, the photographer gal from the bar. What in the world is going on here? Blackmail, is what.
While Detective Patrick is tracking down the murder weapon, and discovering a blackmail plot in the process, Eden leaves the motel and turns herself in at the prison. She doesn't want to live as a fugitive, and starts serving her prison sentence. "Maybe that wasn't Fred Dean after all", she thinks. "Maybe I really did kill him". But, she was right the first time. It turns out that Fred Dean is indeed alive, and that's not his real name. The dead man in the apartment is therefore still unidentified, and Detective Patrick has to start from scratch with the blackmail plot. He's in love with Eden Lane, and wants to solve the case so he can free her from prison, but he's in the doghouse with his chief, who's now protecting him from discovery. Remember that Patrick helped Eden escape, and is now facing arrest himself, if caught. He asks the chief for the proverbial "24 hours to solve the case". Man, oh man what a plot. Barbara Payton is in blonde bombshell mode, but there's something very inward about her onscreen persona. Her son, whom she never saw after he was seven years old, believes she was abused as a child. Something must account for the way she lived her short life, which is described in lurid detail in her book. in 1965, she was found laying by a trash dumpster behind a Thrifty in Hollywood, a broken down prostitute with her front teeth missing and presumed dead by her discoverers. She was still breathing, though, and went to live with her parents in San Diego, where she died two years later of multiple organ failure at the age of 39.
This is a woman who dated and slept with Gregory Peck, Bob Hope and Howard Hughes, among a hundred or more others, including women. Hollywood chewed her up and spit her out, but she willingly participated in her downfall and doesn't deny it, hence the title of her book. But it's as grim a story as you will ever read, and it's a shame because she was likely mentally ill. Be sure to see her in "Murder Is My Beat", which gets Two Big Thumbs Up. It's directed by Edgar G. Ulmer of "Detour" fame, and it's chock full of layers and plot twists. Very highly recommended, the picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night we were out on the trail with another new cowboy star, Johnny Mack Brown, in "Rogue of the Range"(1936). I've been aware of Johnny Mack for a while now, having browsed his Monogram dvd set at Amazon when I bought the Tim Holt collection. From what I read, he was supposed to be one of the best of the Western "White Hat" good guys, but it wasn't until now that I got around to seeing one of his films. Well, he lives up to the hype. In this movie, he plays an undercover federal agent posing as a stagecoach robber so he can get caught and sent to jail, where he gets friendly with a con who's part of an insurance scam on the outside.
As the movie opens, after robbing a stage to set up his cover as an "outlaw", JMB sees a runaway wagon, careening out of control down the trail in Placeritca Canyon, where the movie was filmed. A sign on the side reads "Gospel Wagon", at the reins is young "Tess" (Phyllis Hume), whose preacher father is deceased in the back. Johnny Mack doesn't have the heart to break her the news, so he leaves it up to the town doctor (Lloyd Ingraham). Tess is taken in by heart-of-gold chanteuse "Stella Lamb" (Lois January), who opens a cafe in town. She's protective of Tess, who's proposed to by "Lige Branscomb" (Stephen Chase), a banker who's running the insurance scam.
Johnny Mack plots an "escape" from jail, which is of course assisted by the Sheriff (Horace Murphy). JMB invites the con to escape with him, so he'll be led to the inner circle of the scam. When he finds out the banker Branscomb is behind the whole thing, and that he's trying to marry Tess in the bargain, Johnny goes into action. He's quick on the draw and fast with a horse, as he and Sheriff Tom tie everything up and bust the gang in the end. Stella the chanteuse gets mad at Johnny Mack because she thinks he's in love with Tess, but he's really in love with Stella, so everyone is happy at the end (except the Bad Guys).
I had a feeling I knew the name Johnny Mack Brown from somewhere else besides the movies, and after some Googling I discovered I was right. He was a star football player for the Crimson Tide of Alabama, where he led the team to a national championship in 1925, and helped them win the Rose Bowl over the Washington Huskies. That got him on the cover of Wheaties cereal boxes, and being that he was very handsome, it was only natural that Hollywood came calling. With his soft Southern accent and easy smile, he was a big hit in B-Westerns, making over 160 of them according to Wiki. I thought he was great in "Rogue of the Range", which - as mentioned - was shot in Placerita Canyon and specifically at Walker Ranch! I recognised some of the trails I've hiked on over the years, and a distinctive, white-faced mountain in the background that still looks the same, 86 years later (well, duh, Ad. 86 years is the blink of an eye to a mountain).
Two Big Thumbs Up for "Rogue of the Range". The picture is razor sharp. We're loving our western movies and we'll be looking for more from Johnny Mack Brown. ////
That's all I've got for this evening. I hope you had a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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