Man oh man, the postman rang twice or even three times in last night's potboiled Noir, a maze of twists and turns directed by the great Michael Curtiz, called "The Scarlet Hour"(1956). Before he gives up acting to write horror novels, handsome Tom Tryon, as real estate salesman " 'Marsh' Marshall", is fooling around with his bosses wife, "Pauline Nevins" (Carol Ohmart), a hottie he can't keep his hands off of. As the movie opens, they're parked on Mulholland Drive, fooling around in the bushes ("Stay! Out! Da Bushes!" : Jesse Jackson, circa 1992), when two cars drive up from opposite directions. They signal each other by flashing their headlights, then the occupants get out; two hoodlums from one car, an older, suave bossman from the other. Seeing that something sketchy is going down, Marsh and Pauline hide, ducking down in the brush. From their position, they overhear a plan by the hoods to rob a mansion, located right behind them on the other side of Mulholland. The bossman details the job for the hoods - a jewelry heist that's he's scoped out (the victim is a rich doctor) - then the parties drive away,
Tom Tryon, who by now has plotted out his story for "The Other", is hugely relieved that he and Ohmart weren't caught and murdalized by the jewel thieves, and she drives him home, promising to call him the next day. When she does, he's stunned by what she tells him. She wants to ambush the thieves in the middle of their caper. "It'll give us enough money to run away and leave the country." She wants to get away from her domineering real estate husband (James Gregory), and live with Tryon on some island paradise forever. But in truth she's a desperate nutcase, and doesn't know what she wants. Tom thinks the idea is nuts. He knows he's about to have a bestselling book and tells her, "Look, I'm about to quit the movie business. I just wrote 'The Other' for God's sake! I can support you. We don't need to steal. And, what if we get killed? We'd be going up against experienced criminals!" Ohmart says it'll be easy - she's got a street mentality cause she grew up in the projects - and because Tom can't control his lust for her, he agrees to stage the ambush, of professional jewel thieves mind you, which, if successful, will net them 350 grand.
What could possibly go wrong? Well, for one thing, Carol Ohmart's hubby isn't as stupid as she thinks. He's been suspecting she's cheating on him, so he rents a car and tails her, and on the night of her jewel theft ambush with Tom Tryon, he follows her car to the rich doctor's mansion, and in the confusion of trying to figure out who she's cheating with (some millionaire in the hills?) he starts slapping her around, then pulls a gun. Terrified, she wrests it away from him and shoots him dead. Meanwhile, Tom Tryon is hiding in the driveway of the mansion house. When the jewel thieves come out, he ambushes them and says "stick em up". They do, but when he absconds with their suitcase full of stolen jewels, they turn back and try to shoot him. Tom and Carol get in their car and split, but in the confusion, it isn't clear to Tom what just happened. Carol tells him her husband showed up and tried to kill her. "He found us out, and at exactly the wrong time!" Tom figures he was killed by a stay bullet from his shootout with the jewel thieves, and because this supposition lets Carol off the hook, she goes along with it. "Yeah, that must be what happened. Let's get outta here and let the police figure it out. Don't worry, there's nothing here to trace us."
Unfortunately for the duo, detective EG Marshall is on the case, and the weird thing is, that the full name of Tom Tryon's character is "E.V Marshall". He and Carol are in boiling hot water now, because the cops keep paying them visits. Both are closely connected to the dead man, as his wife and junior partner. Carol hides out with her friends, a former barmaid and her down-to-earth hubby, while Tom takes refuge at work, pretending to know nothing while he works at the real estate office. His loyal secretary "Kathy" (Jody Lawrance), a beautiful blonde good girl, stays late to help him readjust after the terrible death of their boss. It's clear she's in love with Tom, offering to make him dinner, and as they spend more time together, he decides that it's in his best interest to stick with Kathy and ditch Carol Ohmart.
This enrages Carol, but she's got worse problems, because the bossman of the jewel thieves is back, and is not happy about the ambush. He wants his 350 gees worth of stolen jewels back, and his henchmen have tracked Carol through a bracelet of her own. The bossman pays her a visit at her Beverly Hills house, and makes her an offer she dare not refuse. That's all I'm gonna tell ya, but Good Lordy Moses, the webs folks weave! "The Scarlet Hour" features quite a tangled plot, and just when you think you've got it straightened out, they chuck another twist at you. Carol Ohmart, who worked mostly in TV, is tremendous in the lead role in what was her film debut. One critic called her "the female Brando". It's strange that she didn't become famous, but then those are the breaks of Hollywood. As for Tom Tryon, he might've been Stephen King before Stephen King was Stephen King, but he sold so many copies of "The Other" that he wrote just one or two more books and then quit writing just as he'd quit acting. He excelled at both, however, as did Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca") at filmmaking, and when you've got that kind of talent on board, you've got a winner. "The Scarlet Hour" gets Two Huge Thumbs Up. It's one heck of a crime flick and is highly recommended. The picture is very good. ////
The previous night had us hanging out with Tim McCoy in "Gun Code"(1940). In the town of Miller Flats, a protection racket is making life miserable for the shop owners. The ultimatum is "either pay up or go out of business", the old Mafia extortion scheme, and the local parson has had enough of it. Every Sunday at church, he sermonizes against the "protectionists". "They're protecting you from themselves", he says, though the townsfolk already know this, and he aligns with "Betty Garrett" (Inna Gest) the publisher of the the local paper, to print editorials against the racket. They also put up posters around town, detailing the scam. We don't know who is running the racket, we've only seen it's enforcer "Slim Doyle" (Carleton Young), who shows up at the stores and demands money. But whoever the boss is, he's nervous about the parson. One Sunday at church, the curtains part behind the pulpit, a pistol pokes out, and bang, the parson is shot dead.
The next thing you know, "Tim Hammond" (McCoy) rides into town. When he opens a shop as the new blacksmith, Doyle and the protection racket tries strong-arming him, which of course is a big mistake. After Tim takes down three of their enforcers in a major-league punchout (sped up, Sam Newfield style), they leave him alone, but he knows it'll take a lot more than that to break up the racket. The rest of the townsfolk are just too scared to resist, but he convinces Betty Garrett and her little brother "Jerry" (Robert Winkler) to join him, and that's a start. They keep printing the paper, in honor of their Dad who was killed by the protectionists, and they announce town meetings, which gradually the citizens attend. Whoever is running the protection racket is leery of taking on Tim McCoy, so they use a dirty tactic instead. They kidnap little Jerry, Betty's kid brother. Man, that's lowdown. But by now, Tim McCoy has Sheriff Ted Adams on his side.
What's that you say? "Sheriff Ted Adams?" (you just said that). "Surely its a double cross! Ted Adams can't be a good guy". But he is in this movie, and he's so good as a good guy, that we wish he'd play one more often! He and Tim team up to stop the protection racket, and find the hideout where the kidnappers are holding little Jerry. He's a plucky kid who escapes on his own, so now - when Sheriff Ted and Tim discover this - they set their sights on the leader of the gang, whoever he might be. There is some great horse riding footage of the "camera in back of a pickup truck at 35mph" variety. I mean, everything must've had to be perfect for those shots, even in a low-budget PRC movie. Because you're dealing with very large and strong animals, riding fast, you had to keep the speed of the camera truck steady and just a bit faster than the horses are running, and they're hauling ass, and the truck wasn't that far in front of them. Yow! And the actors are riding the horses. I think the horses should've gotten credits in all of these films, but anyhow, because I digressed, the movie ends with Tim and Sheriff Ted pulling a ruse on a henchman to have him lead them to the top man.
Two Big Thumbs Up for "Gun Code", another great Western from Sam Newfield and Tim McCoy. It's recommended and the picture is soft but good. ////
That's all I know for the moment. I hope you had a nice weekend. I'm still listening to Dio and Wagner, and reading Tony Iommi's book, and I send you Tons of Love as always!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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