Remember Alan Baxter, the actor who starred in "Submarine Base", which we saw and reviewed a week ago? We said he redefined woodenness, but there was something about him that made it good. We added that he took being wooden to it's ultimate level, and because of that, he was highly watchable. Well, guess what? He was back last night, and we may have ourselves a new Ron Foster, one of those actors you get hooked on for some idiosyncratic quality they alone possess. With Foster, it was initially his standout banality on "Highway Patrol". He took vanilla to it's highest level. Then, when we found him in movies, we discovered he could act, and he had a whole new set of qualities that made him watchable. Well, now we've got Alan Baxter. I had a feeling he might hook us, and now we're gonna have to go on a binge.
He was almost literally reading cue-cards in "Submarine Base", but last night in "The End of the Line"(1957), a Veddy Brrrrittish Noir in the style of Dubble Indemnity or The Freakin' Postman Rings Twice, he's really good, in an Alan Baxter way (which we're still figuring out what that is). He's droll, that's one thing. He's low key, but he's a ladies man. Here, he's an American playwright working in England, and he's got not one but two beautiful English Roses after him, one being the stunning Barbara Shelly. Baxter is kind of dorky, but handsome in an athletic, 1950's crew-cut way. He's not conventionally handsome, but he has a smile that the gals like. Even the beautiful English hat check girl at his hotel is checking him out.
Baxter's problem is that the hotel owner's wife (Shelly) is his old flame. Hello, Mr. Screenwriter! Thanks for the co-incidence! Shelly seems to want him back, but she's married to Mr. Moneybags, twenty years her senior, who treats her as his property. He's got a jewelry-fencing business on the side. Luring him with lust, she enlists Baxter, at first, to help her steal the jewels so they can abscond and be together. Why the hell he isn't working on the play he signed on for is a real question. We never see him writing a single word! Also chasing him is "Ann" (Jennifer Jayne), a nice-girl stunner who's the daughter of the play's producer. She's young and naive and keeps turning up at inopportune moments for schemer Shelly, who has her jewelry theft all planned out, and of course she's got Baxter wrapped around her finger agreeing to do it. Move over Lana Turner and Barbara Stanwyck as chicks that get chumps to murder their husbands.
Well, Baxter pulls the jewel robbery, but he conks Shelly's hotel-owning hubby on the head in the process. The next day, Skeartland Yard does a murdalization investgation, and he is suspect #1, because he can't account for his whereabouts at the time of the killing. A private detective who's been following Baxter tries to blackmail him. The private eye was hired by the murder victim, who thought Baxter might be cheating with his wife Barbara Shelly. And, he was right! Now the P.I. wants a payoff to keep his trap shut, but then the Yard reports that the victim died by gunshot. Baxter didn't shoot him, he conked him! That means someone else did the shooting! (great googley moogley and Holy Joseph)
Baxter finds out, from Ann the play producer's daughter (who fancies him), that he's not the only extramarital guy in Barbara Shelly's life. Turns out she's got another lover, and she's only been using Baxter the whole time, to get rid of her husband. Barbara Shelly plays it gorgeous but ice cold. Nice guy dork Baxter wins in the end, and he does something weird throughout: he narrates the film like he's talking to himself in the mirror. "You could've just finished the play you were hired for. But no, you had to get mixed up with a girl who'd already dumped you once. Maybe now you'll learn your lesson." What kind of reference is that? Third person reflected? Hell, I don't know.
I can't tell you any more about the plot, once the Baxter blackmail attempt is set forth, but Two Big Thumbs Up for "The End of the Line." It's got style and a late-50s Be Bop Jazz score, and it's got Alan Baxter, our new Ron Foster. The picture is full screen and razor sharp. ////
The previous night we had a clever Shakespearean murder mystery, "The Phantom of 42nd Street"(1945), starring Dave O'Brien of 60 minute Western fame as a Broadway drama critic who turns detective after finding a body in a dressing room. An actor has been shot backstage. At first, O'Brien mentions it only in passing to his editor, who excoriates him for ignoring what would've been a major story. "But I'm a theater critic, I'm not on the crime beat," he says in his defense. "Besides, it was only a murder. Those happen every day." As punishment, the editor makes him solve the case. The first thing he does is to go back to the theater where the murder occurred and ask about the guns in the production, one of which he suspects was the murder weapon. "Could any of them have been loaded with live ammunition?" No, assures the stage manager. "We only use blanks." "Yes, but is it possible that a live bullet could be substituted?" "Yes, it's possible." "Who handles the guns before they are handed to the actors?" "My assistant."
Remind you of anything? If you said "Rust" and Alec Baldwin, give yourself a gold star. In the above paragraph, I am paraphrasing verbatim dialogue from a 78 year old movie. What I want to know is: why would there ever be a time when live ammo is necessary on a movie set? Can anyone answer that question? Why aren't blanks used on every occasion (and blanks are dangerous enough, ask John Erik Hexum). Well, at any rate, live bullets certainly wouldn't be used on a thee-a-tah stage, so O'Brien knows he's got a murder here, rather than an accidental death. The stage manager offers a theory about the dead actor's niece (Kay Aldridge) and why she may have wanted him dead. O'Brien interviews her; she swears she didn't do it (but the cops think she did), and they team up to solve her uncle's murder. Then the killer strikes again, and this time it's looking like there's a Shakespearean connection. The clues are in the lines of his plays. English actor (and actual Shakespearean) Alan Mowbray plays the leader of the acting troupe. The lead detective wants O'Brien out of the way because he thinks theater critics are overarticulate Fancy Dans, and O'Brien shows that, as an actor, he may have some Shakespeare in his past (at least in high school). Most of the movie gigs he got were 60 minute Westerns, as noted, but he has more range than that.
The main problem with this flick, which is deft for a PRC mystery, is the ending. I won't tell you why. Just be prepared to hit the rewind button several times. However, Two Big Thumbs Up for the elan with which it's pulled off, and the nitwit blonde who shows up mid-way to add comedic touches. It's got suave, it's got Shakespeare, it's got thee-a-tah, it's got muh-dah, and the picture is very good. ///
And that's all I know. My blogging music tonight is Mike Oldfield's "Hergest Ridge" and "Amarok". My late night is "Siegfried" by Wagner. I hope you had a nice day and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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