One of the most famous Hollywood directors of the 40s and 50s is Michael Curtiz. He was the director of the Bogie/Bergman classic "Casablanca." In 1956, this titan of movie directors did something unusual. He used three brand new peeps to star in a film that also had plenty of already famous talent. The three top-billed folks were all "introduced" in this Film Noir film. The most famous was Carol Ohmart, the sultry blonde. She is the femme fatale in our feature today, but you will know her as Vincent Price's grouchy but beautiful wife in 1959's "House on Haunted Hill." She, clad in a negligee, was backed into a pit of acid by a skeleton. Will she fare any better in this one? Our feature today is 1956's "The Scarlet Hour."
Paulie (Ohmart) is married to rich real estate guy, Ralph (James Gregory). She is having a torrid affair with Ralph's #1 guy, Marsh (Tom Tryon, also introduced in this film). Ralph is onto them but wants his wife back. Sadly for Paulie, Ralph has a temper problem and beats the daylights out of Paulie in some very hard to watch scenes. Paulie and Marsh decide to do something about it. They plan to rob jewel thieves after the thieves hit a mansion, and steal the stolen ice. Brilliant! Like, what could go wrong? With the $350,000 in jewels, the cheating duo plan to go away together. You got it...this plan fails badly. Ralph follows Paulie to the job, believing she is there to meet Marsh. He beats up Paulie as she waits for Marsh to rob the thieves. In self defense, Paulie shoots Ralph...now marsh runs out being shot at by the thieves.
Okay, they have the jewels, but Ralph is dead. The cops investigate. Lt. Jennings (E.G. Marshall) is a good cop and he will conduct a fine investigation that proves Kathy (Jody Lawrance, also introduced in this film) is the killer. What! Who is Kathy? Kathy is the sultry secretary of Ralph and Jennings automatically assumed the two of them were having an affair. Kathy is a good soul, but could face hard time. Uh oh...the thieves want the jewels back and they find out who has them. Uh oh again, Kathy professes her love for Marsh, taking him by surprise. Jealous, Paulie gets desperate as cops and thieves close in. Marsh realizes that Paulie's best days are over, but Kathy's are still in front of her. Where this all goes is that all the plot points will converge. Jealousy, love, and deceit will rule the final half of this film.
Will there be a catfight between the two new, blonde Hollywood starlets, Ms. Ohmart and Ms. Lawrance? Will Marsh have a shot at ending up with both of them? Will the armed jewel thieves get to them before the cops do? This is a good one and Ms. Ohmart is quite the seductive femme-fatale, and Ms. Lawrance is the perfect counter to her. Poor Marsh...he needed to stay away from dames. See "The Scarlet Hour" and see how a brilliant director breaks in three very talented newcomers. Oh, by the way, Nat "King" Cole is in this, too.
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