Last night we found a good one: "On the Night of the Fire"(1939), an English thriller in which a barber (Sir Ralph Richardson) commits a robbery he seems sure to get away with. It's a chance opportunity. As he's walking to his shop, he passes an open window at an office building, glances in, and sees money on a desk. Lots of money; the room is a payroll office. No one is around. "Why the bloody hell shouldn't I?" he thinks, and climbs through the window to steal it. Back at his barber shop, he stashes the cash (100 pounds) and no one is the wiser. The robbery makes the papers the next day, but he figures, "Big deal. They can afford the loss and I needed that money. I'm barely squeaking by." Before this, he was an honest man who never committed a crime. It's an "oh what a tangled web we weave" plot. I'm sure we've seen very similar ones in other pictures, but they don't all have Sir Ralph, who I think is one of the greatest actors England ever produced. This film qualifies as Enlish rather than Veddy Brrrittish, because the latter requires a national and cultural self-consciousness on the part of the filmmakers and actors; an acknowledgement that "we know we're a funny/quirky/smart/nutty/stuffy people, i.e "we're Veddy Brrrritttish"! A Veddy Brrrittish film, no matter the genre, has an element of the Brits making fun of themselves, which they do better than any other country. But British and English are two different things (and don't get me started on the whole UK/Great Britain/England thing).
But anyhow.
A customer (pronounced Koos-tah-ma, as in "Penny Lane, the barber shaves anotha Koos-tah-ma") comes into the shop the next day, talking about the robbery. "The coppers say whoever done it left a button behind, with a bit of thread". Yikes. Richardson wasn't aware of that detail. "You know", the man continues, "they've got microscopes these days that can find out where that button came from." Soon, the robbery is the talk of the town. Ralph's wife goes to hang up his coat one night, and notices a missing button. Worried, she says nothing to Ralph but goes to the local tailor to buy a set of buttons to entirely replace the ones on Ralph's coat.
The tailor is also usurer. He's fronted Ralph's wife some fancy dresses so she could "keep up" in fashion with her best friend, whose husband is a wealthy champion boxer. But he charged her exorbitant interest and now she owes him big time dough. When she comes in to buy the buttons, the tailor knows something is up. He puts two and two together because the button clue is the talk of the town, and after she gets home, she asks Ralph if he was indeed the robber. He confesses and gives her the stolen money, to pay the tailor and get him off her back. But the stolen bills are marked, and now the cops think the tailor is the robber. The situation gets worse instead of better for Richardson, because the tailor doesn't like being under suspicion. "Your wife gave me that money and both of you know it." But being a man of low character himself, he starts blackmailing Ralph. "Pay me and I won't tell what I know".
One night, there's a building fire that draws the attention of the police force and the entire town. Richardson uses the opportunity to go to the tailor's shop and kill him. End of blackmail problem. But soon, the tailor's body is found, and Ralph slips up when interviewed by a detective. "Why would anyone want to strangle Mr. Pilleger?" "How do you know he was strangled?" Richardson gives an alibi of being at the fire that night, and hopes the cops can't prove otherwise. His wife can't take the pressure and goes to live with her best friend, the boxer's wife. Richardson hides out in the attic of a flophouse, where a homeless man named "Jimsey" (Romney Brent) acts as his screen. Jimsey is a friend of a crazy street lady named "Lizzie", who makes drinking money by handing out flyers for merchants. Lizzy saw Ralph entering Mr. Pilleger's shop on the night of the fire (hence the film's title), but she's schizophrenic, so the police don't pay her much mind. Jimsey takes Ralph under his wing after Ralph becomes surrounded. But then Ralph's wife, who is hiding out at her friend's house, decides she needs to see him before he gets caught and hanged. Reporters are waiting outside the house; they follow her and do a Princess Di. Now she's in the hospital with slim chance for survival. When Ralph hears the bad news from Jimsey, he decides he needs to visit her before she dies. Expert direction keeps the sudden changes flowing toward the end, as Richardson becomes increasingly cornered. You'l feel you are trapped in the attic with him and Jimsey. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "On the Night of the Fire". The picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night, we saw a screwball rom/com directed by Douglas Sirk called "No Room for the Groom"(1952). Wait a minute..what?
You: "Did you say Douglas Sirk?"
Yes I did, directing a goofy movie, not a taboo-laden melodrama. One Sirkian trait is intact: the whole thing looks fabulous, with the velveteen textures he's noted for. Stony Curtis stars as "Alvah Morrell", a WW2 soldier on leave who elopes with his sweetheart, "Lee Kingshead" (Piper Laurie, only 20 here). They elope because her mama (Spring Byington) might have a "dizzy spell" if she knew Lee was marrying Alvah, who she doesn't like. Byington is doing her highfalutin' Mom thing as per usual: "But dear, I have your best interests in mind."
So they don't tell Mom, and don't plan to until Alvah gets leave again, or the war ends, whichever comes first. But what happens is that his return to base gets put on hold, because on their wedding night, in Las Vegas, Alvah comes down with chicken pox right after checking into their motel. It not only interrupts his army service, but also his.......ahem.......wedding night if you get my drift. He has to spend it quarantined in another motel and when his two weeks are up with the chicken pox, he's gone for ten months with the army. (Didja ever have chicken pox? I did, when I was seven. Man, did it itch. I had to take epsom salt baths for two weeks. Or was it baking soda?)
When Alvah finally gets his army leave, he goes back to his family wine farm (which he inherited from his Dad) to find not only Lee waiting for him but her entire extended family. They've all moved in, including some hick cousins, two newborn babies and a bratty kid that Alvah is ready to kill (you would be too). This is where the title kicks in, because there's "no room for the groom" (Alvah). He's in-lawed out of his own house. Because he wants privacy for himself and Lee, they have to finally tell her mama they are married, her dizzy spells be damned. Naturally, she doesn't like it, and tells Lee, "You know Mr. Strouple adores you! Why didn't you marry him?" Mr. Strouple (Don DeFore) is Lee's boss, she's his secretary at his successful cement contracting firm. Strouple does want to marry Lee, though he's twice her age, and he's also just secured a bid to run the railroad through Rockridge, er, I mean, the wine country. Alvah's land is in the way, and Strouple needs him to sign a release form to buy the rights. But Alvah won't sign, even when Mr. Strouple offers him big money and a high paying job. Alvah tells him to stick his money. "This was my grandfather's property, and my father's and now it's mine. Nothing will entice me to sell it."
This is the only bit of moral compass Sirk squeezed out of the producers. The rest is non-stop silliness, except for when Mr. Strouple hires a shrink to try and have Alvah committed. "He's suffering from a nervous breakdown, doctor. Effects of the war, I imagine." Nervous breakdowns are trademark Douglas Sirk. "Unless you put one in the picture, I won't direct it!" We love Tony Curtis as an actor, a movie star, and creator of the Elvis hairdo, but boy was he a lowlife. I Googled him after the movie was over and some of the things he said about people are just disgusting. A low-class guy all the way. Piper Laurie was very cute as an ingenue. Watching her here, all sweet and chirrupy, you wonder how she acquired that insouciant, overbearing low voice she used in "Carrie" and "Ruby". Smoking maybe? Drinking? Or just good acting? She's very good in this movie, even if it's mostly a trifle. The Sirk touch earns it Two Big Thumbs Up, however, and the picture is dvd quality. ////
And that's every doggone thing I know. My blogging music was Traffic's "Mr. Fantasy" again. I'm in danger of that whole album becoming an earworm. My late night is the second half of Handel's Scipione Oratorio. I finally was able to go for a walk after years (months? weeks? or was it days?) of rain, but it was freezing tonight; L.A. Cold has set in. Only the penguins will survive.
I hope you had a nice Monday and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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