Last night, for something different we watched a crime film with George Raft called "Loan Shark"(1952). The setting is unusual: several employees at a tire factory have been beaten up for failing to make their payments to a loan shark (Paul Stewart) who works out of a bar across the street. The factory owner is at a loss about how to stop it. The shark gets the employees indebted to him through an illegal gambling den run in the back of the same bar. When they lose at cards, he offers them loans to tide them over, at outregis interest rates. Finally, the factory owner calls in The Professor, who works as a shift boss on the tire assembly line. The Professor doesn't wanna name names, but he's aware of the gambling and that some of his guys are in trouble with the loan shark. A union rep named Mr. Howell is present at the meeting, and is worried that one of the workers will eventually be killed. The Professor promises to keep an eye on the situation and forward anything he finds out.
Meanwhile, George Raft has just been paroled from prison (typical Raft). He wants to go straight and visits his sister (Helen Westcott), who's boyfriend happens to work at the tire plant. She says he can get George a job there. He accepts, and soon is working on the tire line. Raft is then approached by the factory owner (Charles Merideth), who asks him to work undercover to try to find out who is heading up the loan shark operation. He asks Raft because he knows of his prison background and figures he's tough enough to handle it. Raft doesn't want to at first, because he's trying to go straight. He wants no association with crime, but when his sister's boyfriend is murdalized in a tire machine (for failing to make a payment), he changes his mind and accepts the job. The Professor is suspected of the murder. Raft wants to bust him right there, but the factory owner wants to nail the top dog. Meanwhile, Raft has already met and wooed the owner's secretary (Dorothy Hart). Her brother "Paul" (Henry Slate) also works on the assembly line, and doesn't trust Raft, because he's 25 years older than Dorothy, but she falls in love with him and there's not much Paul can do about it because it's in the script.
But because Raft has accepted the owner's proposal to infiltrate the loan gang, he has to pretend to be a criminal mastermind, which - being George Raft - he's good at. As an aside, his great newphew Bob Raft used to hang out at the Wilson's house in 1986 when we jammed there. He was a friend of Sean's, and he went with Grim, Mr. D, Sean and I to see Celtic Frost at Fender's in Long Beach in 1986. Back to the movie, as he rises in the loan shark hierarchy, Raft gets an idea to swindle housewives by having the sharks take over the home laundry delivery business. This gets him in good with the bossman "Vince Phillips" (John Hoyt), and Raft starts demanding a percentage of the cut. It's the old "rise up the ladder and challenge the boss for power" trope (I hate that word), but it's pure Raft, and because he's working undercover, he's getting closer to who the real boss is. It's not Hoyt, who has a penthouse pad complete with smoking jacket and blonde hot pants bimbo who blasts jazz on the record player. By now, Dorothy Hart, her brother Paul and Raft's sister won't talk to Raft. They think he's loan shark scum, gone back to his criminal ways. He can't tell them that he's working undercover, and to test his loyalty, Vince Phillips forces him to beat up Paul, to make an example out of those who make trouble for the gang. Raft finally gets the goods on Phillips by tallying the numbers in his books, which don't add up and are therefore evidence for the cops. After Paul Stewart tries and fails to stop him, he goes to Phillip's penthouse and forces him to take him to the real boss, a silent partner who, in a huge surprise twist, is someone you'd never suspect. They shoot it out inside of the Phantom of the Opera theater at Universal Studios for a doggone cool finale.
It's great stuff, if a little too long at 79 minutes. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Loan Shark", especially for using an actual tire factory for the main location. The legendary Joseph Biroc is the photographer, so the whole thing looks fantastic, and in an interesting detail, 2/7ths of the Gilligan's Island cast is presaged by 11 years. "Loan Shark" is highly recommended! ////
The previous night we found another new cowboy, Rex Bell, whose name I've seen kicking around for a while. In "Idaho Kid"(1936), he's the estranged son of rancher "Clint Hollister" (Earl Dwire), who gave him up as a child to be cared for by another rancher named "John Endicott" (Lafe Mckee) after his wife died. Bell ran away from Endicott when he was a lad, and now as an adult he's back in town, hoping to reunite with his biological Dad, Mr. Hollister. But Dad and rancher Endicott are now involved in a range war, with Dad trying to fence Endicott's cattle away from the water hole. As the movie opens, Bell sees a young kid trying to pull off a stage holdup. The kid only manages to rob one passenger (Charles King) of 7 dollars and 38 cents. When King gets back to town, he claims the amount to be 307.38, but the sheriff doesn't believe him. King figures it was worth a try to inflate the figure, but when he sees Bell and the kid in the local restaurant eating dinner, he says "let's let bygones be bygones" because he's the foreman at Clint Hollister's ranch and they need men to help put up the fence. Bell and the kid (David Sharpe) are also offered jobs at John Endicott's ranch, but Bell tells the kid he's been hoping for a job at the Hollister spread. He doesn't say why, but in an expository scene with Endicott's family and the old Town Geezer, we find out that Bell was raised by Endicott and his wife, but he's really Clint Hollister's son.
Now that he's returned as an adult (and a gunslinger) he wants to reunite with his birth dad. And he and the kid get jobs at Dad's ranch. But when Bell sees how crooked his Dad is, and how he's trying to screw John Endicott out of water, he turns against Dad, who ends up firing him. The range war escalates, as Endicott's cattle have no water to drink. Bell and the kid are now working for Endicott, and Charles King sets up an ambush to kill them. He brings a henchman along with him, and he actually says "let's cut them off at the pass". Had he said "head them off at the pass", then I'd have invoked Mel Brooks and Headly Lamarr, but this is another movie that you know Brooks must've seen. At any rate, Charles King makes a big mistake by cutting Rex Bell off at the pass, because Bell shoots him and his henchman dead. Now Clint Hollister, Rex's Dad, is really cheesed off. He challenges Rex to a showdown. Dad actually says "this town isn't big enough for both you and me". If he'd said "this town ain't big enough for both of us", I'd be invoking the Mael Brothers, but at any rate, when John Endicott finds out that Hollister has challenged Rex to a duel, he feels bad that Rex is fighting his battles for him. He rides over to Hollister's and challenges him to a replacement duel in place of Rex Bell. So as it plays out, it's two old guys, two classic B-Western actors - Earl Dwire and Lafe McKee - shooting it out in one of the most classic endings of any 60 minuter that you are ever gonna see.
Lafe actually tells Dwire, "leave town one half hour before sundown". If he'd cut it shorter and just said "leave town by sundown" I don't know who I'd be invoking, but it would be another perfect Western cliche.
The script is well developed this time, though Rex Bell is a little stiff and California Jock looking, compared to the greats we've become fans of. He's still very good, so don't get me wrong, but he's no Tim McCoy or Tom Tyler or Johnny Mack Brown in the acting department.
But - and did you know this about Rex Bell? : he was married to Clara Bow, the It Girl, for over 30 years. So it turns out, by association at least, that he was something of Hollywood royalty. He also became the Lieutenant Governor of Nevada in later life, and was a close friend of Clark Gable and Ronald Reagan. This means that Bell was a bigger deal than I thought, which is probably why his name was kicking around in my head. And, he's a good cowboy when all is said and done. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Idaho Kid", with Clauda Schilling as Bell's beautiful sister. The picture is very good. ////
That's all for tonight. I'm listening to "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys and "Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble" by Uriah Heep. I hope you had a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.
P.S. (added at 10:23 pm) : did you see the Red Moon Eclipse tonight? I just saw it on my walk. The Moon looked like a big marble, like you could grab it right out of the sky. And have you seen the recent NASA photo of the "entryway" on Mars? It's a mindblower! Wow and good grief, Charlie Brown.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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