Last night's movie was a Noir with a plug-and-play "framework script" called "For You I Die"(1947). Tell me if you've heard this plot before. Two cons break out of the slam. They hide from the cops in a schtorm drain for three days. One is dominant and slaps the other guy silly, telling him, "We're gonna split up now. You go to this joint in Sausalito, it's called Maggie Dillon's. Ask for girl named 'Hope Novak' (Cathy Downs). She knows me and she'll take care of ya. Don't tell nobody nothin'. I'll join ya there in about a week. Gotta take care of some business in San Francisco."
So, Johnny the weaker convict does as he's told. He goes to Maggie Dillon's Cafe and Cabin Rentals and checks in under a fake name. A hot-tomato chick named "Georgie" (Jane Weeks) meets him getting off the bus. He assumes she's Hope Novak, the other convict's girl, and because she's savvy she goes along with his assumption and learns that he's one of the two escapees the cops are looking for. Meanwhile, the real Hope is a nice girl who works at the cafe. Georgie tries blackmailing her after she learns Johnny's secret, but her heart isn't in it. Instead, she tries cozying up to Johnny (Paul Langton), and pulls a "let's you and me leave this crummy town" routine on him. But Johnny can't leave the crummy town (and it ain't crummy, just a nice place in the mountains) because 1) he's waiting for his buddy 2) a pair of cops regularly stop at Maggie's cafe for lunch and have been poking around asking questions, and 3) lives are about to converge, especially Johnny's and Hope's.
As for the plug-and-play, here we go: now that he's settled in and not leaving, because the cops can't figure where they've "seen him before", he becomes attached to the characters who live in the cabins, including Mischa Auer (who produced), playing a Borscht Belt Russian-American theater comedian. As producer, Auer (a brilliant early character actor) gives himself and his onscreen wife two separate performance vignettes, lasting about three minutes each, which are fun but have little to do with the story. The heart of this particular framework is that Johnny is gonna be put into a position where he'll become A Hero. "Escaped Convict Does Good". Didn't we just see that in another picture? Who was the actor who played an escapee and saved a kid from drowning, about two weeks ago? Ahh, yes; Warren Hull in "Desert Escape." Well, anyway, I'm not gonna tell you what happens with Johnny, but it turns out he was forced to participate in the prison break by the dominant bad guy "Matt Gruber" (Don C. Harvey). Johnny was a trustee with a spotless record who only had a year left on his sentence. He didn't wanna escape, but now he can't go back. So he's found a hiding place in the small town where he now Affects Lives, and he never wants to leave. Same deal as in "Desert Escape".
But then his bad buddy Gruber returns from San Francisco. "I told ya I'd be back!" A punchout ensues that's way too violent, and a cabin resident named "Smitty" (Roman Bohnen) intervenes. Saving Johnny's life serves as redemption for Smitty, an alcoholic who was once a war hero. Smitty gets killed in the shootout that follows, and there's a huge twist at the end that makes the film a cut above. The plot has onion skin layering, and had it a bigger budget (for better production values) we'd be talking Two Huge, even with the formula script. But the actors and the direction are fine, so Two Big Thumbs Up with a very high recommendation. The picture is slightly soft. ////
The previous night we began another chapter serial, "Drums of Fu Manchu"(1940), in which Fu is seeking the keys to Genghis Khan's tomb to obtain his scepter so he can rule all of Asia. How'd you like to have a mustache named after you? Man, I thought Robert Mitchum was a tough hombre for having a deodorant to his name. But a mustache? That makes Fu the baddest man alive. I think Joe Namath was the King of Fu Manchus in the modern era; Fu's own 'stache is a little thin and droopy, but then Asian men aren't known for their facial hirsuteness.
Jim Kiick once said something in a Sports Illustrated interview that I've never forgotten. It must've been in 1972 when he and the Dolphins were getting a lot of press for their perfect season. I had a subscription to SI that year, and anyway, Kiick was known as a clothes horse, a stylish dude in the mode of Joe Namath. But Kiick was known for his shoes (as opposed to his mustache, even though his was pretty good), and as a running back, that might not be unexpected. His shoe collection was his pride (he rivaled Imelda Marcos, apparently). But what he said that I never forgot was, regarding shoes, was that "if you have a brand new pair of shoes and a sharp-looking haircut, you're gonna look good even if you're wearing old blue jeans and a dirty t-shirt, whereas you could be wearing a 2000 dollar suit, but if your shoes are worn out and your hair is greasy, and you're gonna look terrible."
I never forgot that, and Kiick (a great runner who was paired with Larry Csonka) was right. It's the Bookend Theory: if the top and bottom look good, the middle won't matter (so long as it's not atrocious or garish, like neon orange pants.) But if the bookends aren't sharp, it doesn't matter how shiny and stylish the middle is. And Larry Csonka had a Fu Manchu to (almost) rival Namath.
Fu's own Manchu may be droopy, but Fu himself is all bidness. He kidnaps "Professor Randolph" (Tom Chatterton), an archaeologist in possession of The Dalai Plaque, an ancient tablet that's reputed to have symbols leading to the location of Khan's tomb keys. Now Fu's about to torture the Professor in The Coffin of Seven Windows, into which go rats and increasingly worse critters. The guy playing Fu is spooky. He has henchmen throwing knives in every direction. The good guys are ducking, Jim Kiick is running through a hole in the KC line, and at one point, Fu's men - wearing silk pajamas and slippers, use high voltage power cables to pull themselves across a gap between two buildings so they can get at "Sir Dennis Nayland Smith" (William Royle), a nobleman who is trying to rescue the Professor. All of this happens in the first chapter. The entire serial is 15 chapters and 4 1/2 hours long. Fu plays a drum solo every time something bad is about to happen, hence the title. Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is very good. ////
That's all for tonight. My blogging music is "Elegy"by The Nice. My late night is Handel's Rodelinda Oratorio. I wish you a great weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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