Last night, we found a low budget Noir called "Female Jungle"(1956), directed by Roger Corman regular Bruno VeSota, starring Lawrence Tierney, John Carradine and Burt Kaiser (who wrote and produced), and featuring the debut of Jayne Mansfield. Good cast, eh? The whole thing takes place in one night, beginning around 1 am when an actress is strangled after leaving a bar. "Sgt. Jack Stevens" (Tierney) is late to the scene, because he's getting hammered in the same joint. When he leaves and sees the investigation already underway in the street, he stumbles over, only to get chewed out by the Captain of Detectives. After the case gets assigned to another cop, Stevens apologises and asks for a chance to redeem himself. The captain says, "okay, but you better stay off the sauce, and no more breaks when you're on the job". Tierney, doing his patented God Cop with a Dark Side thing, says "Thank you, sir. I'll stay here all night if I have to."
Meanwhile, an artist named "Alex Voe" (Kaiser), who was watching the crime scene as a bystander, heads home to his apartment a few blocks away. When he gets there, his wife "Peggy" (Kathleen Crowley of "Target Earth" fame) is waiting, but they're interrupted by the sudden and unexpected arrival of a tall, well dressed man (Carradine), who wants his portrait drawn. Alex is a talented caricaturist. "I'm sorry for the late hour", says the tall man, "but I don't know when I can return. I've seen your work and would be honored to have you draw me. Is there a chance you could squeeze me in before you go to bed?" Alex can use the ten bucks (his fee) so he agrees to make the drawing. His caricatures will become important in the plot.
But he's been drinking, too (so has everyone in the movie), and before he can start work on his late night guest, he gets into an argument with his wife. Carradine is sitting at the dinner table and hears the whole ugly thing unfold. After Alex leaves, he makes a move on Peggy: "That didn't sound too good. Would you like to go out for a drink? I think you could use one." But instead of taking her to another bar, he drives her back to his place, a nice pad on Mulholland Drive. It turns out he's a well known newspaper columnist, specializing in movie gossip, and he knew murdered actress. After pouring their drinks, the next thing he does is blast his expensive stereo (with speakers embedded in the stonework.) He's playing a symphony at full volume, and Peggy asks him to turn it down, but he won't because "it's meant to be played this way!" Director VeSota has set the scene just right, and you're thinking that Carradine has got to be the murderer. I mean, c'mon: he's just driven off with a married woman he only met ten minutes ago, he's got his stereo cranked and won't turn it down, and he's John Carradine. It's gotta be him.
Back to Alex, we discover he's a lousy husband. After storming out on Peggy, he goes straight to the apartment of "Candy Price" (Mansfield), who's wearing her tiger-print stretch pants. Now, her name is apt, 'cause there's a price for Candy. She's a bit of a bimbo; we've already seen her with Sgt. Stevens (her other boyfriend), but he's still coming off his drunk and doesn't remember being at her apartment that night. His memory loss will play into the finale. Alex tells Candy he loves her, and that he just had a fight with his wife. "Good", she replies, "Then you'll finally get that divorce you've been promising." "Yeah maybe. But I'm worried about Peggy, because I left her with that weird guy in our apartment, and I think he may be the killer the cops are looking for."
Things get more twisted as the hours pass. The bar stays open all night to accommodate the police, and the janitor (Davis Roberts) mops up blood from Sgt. Stevens' dripping hand to cover for him, because the Sarge is his pal, and because the lead detective thinks the killer has a scratched-up hand. Is Stevens the killer? He's played by Lawrence Tierney, so he could be. Good guy/Bad guy, which is it? Wanna guess? With Lawrence Tierney the only thing you know for sure is that it's in his contract to Go On the Wagon. The dialogue sync is terrible in this flick.. At first, its distracting to the point where you wonder if you should continue watching, but after the first five minutes, your eyes and brain adjust and you don't notice it too much. John Carradine is less craggy than usual, suave even, and he proves once again that he could act, within range, when he felt like it. Jayne Mansfield was being groomed as a Monroe, she did what they wanted her to do, but she doesn't look like a dum-dum (man, they taught those Blonde Bombshells how to flare their nostrils when they whispered sweet nothings).
VeSota's whole deal, as would be any director's in such a film, is to keep you guessing as to the identity of the killer, and in fact there could be more than one, which is what I was thinking. And of course, when the killer or killers is/are finally chased down, the face off takes place in a power station, because, naturally, there's always an open-all-night power station conveniently located nearby, whenever a movie killer is escaping. And he always goes straight to the catwalk. "The Catwalk Must Be Accessible To The Killer": Motion Picture Codebook. "Female Jungle" is a weird little competent movie, slightly sub-Cormanlike in its professionalism. Two Big Thumbs Up, the picture is very good. ////
The night before we watched a made-for-BBC film starring John Huston in his final role, directed by his son Danny. "Mr. Corbett's Ghost"(1987) is a Dickensian, Scrooge-like tale of an apothecary shop owner (genius actor Paul Scofield) whose apprentice wishes him dead. Mr. Corbett (Scofield) is a stern old taskmaster. It's 8pm on New Year's Eve, 1727, but he won't let young "Ben Partridge" (Mark Farmer) go to a midnight party. Ben usually gets off work by 6, its as if Mr. Corbett is keeping him late on purpose, so he'll miss out on the fun. He hectors Ben, following him around the shop: "Polish this bottle"! "There's a spot on that table, wipe it down again!" "I need your heart and soul, Ben Partridge. You're no good to me otherwise." When Ben asks, "Can't I go home to at least be with my family?" Corbett answers, "They can wait. And they'll appreciate you more for the waiting."
Finally, a late night customer knocks, wanting a prescription sent to a house three miles away. Corbett sends Ben, who protests. "But sir, it's freezing and snowing outside. I'm scared I shan't make it there and back." "Here now, Ben Partridge! You're a young and hearty lad, stop complaining." "But sir, there's robbers on that road." "Yes, and what would they want with a lad with obviously no money, by the looks of your coat?" "Please sir, don't make me travel. There's ghosts on that road."
Mr. Corbett scoffs at this, as would Scrooge: "Ghosts, you say? What kind of boy are you? Get going or I'll keep you here all night. You can go on your way after you've finished the delivery."
Upset that he's missing New Year's Eve, Ben curses Corbett on the way, wishing him dead. While walking on the ghost road in the forest, he's startled by the sudden appearance of "Mad Tom" (Burgess Meredith), the village lunatic, whose "mistress is the Moon". Tom has overheard Ben's curse on Mr. Corbett, and tells him, "there's a man who can make your wish come true". Tom directs him to a house in a nearby town, where a strange man lives who calls himself a Soul Collector (Huston). He's also a potion-ist and spell caster, who charges "one quarter of your earnings for as long as you live. I only deal in quarters." Ben tells him about Mr. Corbett, what a mean old man he is, and The Collector asks if he has anything from Corbett's possession, a cloth, a hair? "I have nothing, sir." But that's no impediment, the SC can improvise. He captures Corbett's spirit in a vial jar, which he ties with a black ribbon, before uttering an incantation.
"You man will soon be dead upon the road" he tells Ben. "If you leave now, you can watch him die. But remember, one quarter of your earnings, for as long as you live." Ben does arrive in time to see Corbett drop dead, but then he gets scared and tries to dispose of the body, to avoid being accused of murder. He encounters a gang of road criminals who have their own code of ethics, and when he won't join them, they stone him and threaten to expose him. "But I didn't even touch the man," Ben protests. He wishes Mr. Corbett were alive again and goes back to see The Collector. "I can't do that, but I can make him a ghost. He'll be your ghost. Only you will see him." So Corbett comes back as a spirit, humbled now, but in Hell, which is "very cold," he reports. Now Mr. Corbett is at the mercy of Ben, who finally goes to his New Year's Eve party with the ghost of Mr. Corbett tagging along. Corbett warms his frigid hands by the fire. Now he wants to visit his own family, an ironic twist of what he denied Ben earlier.
But Ben can't take the madness of Corbett's ghost following him around, so he goes to see The Collector a third time, and that's all I will reveal. We don't usually do post-1960s films here at the blog (nor many films in color), but this one looked good and it was. Two Huge Thumbs Up and a very high recommendation for "Mr. Corbett's Ghost". Few actors were on the level of Paul Scofield, who won an Oscar for "A Man for All Seasons", one of the greatest films ever made. He's tremendous here, and John Huston is very good also. The picture is soft but watchable. ////
That's all for tonight. My blogging music is Traffic's "John Barleycorn" again, my late night is still Handel's Rodelinda Oratorio (it's three plus hours). I hope you enjoyed your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo
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