Rififi, A Perfect Heist in Paris

Right! What could go wrong? The smartest dudes in all of France have a perfect plan. Yep, they're so smart that they have police records and every women they know yells at them. French dames...good luck. They have some in this film and they're as stupid as their guys. However, our mistakes make us smarter, so just maybe this will work. From France, we have a Jules Dassin Film Noir epic, 1955's "Rififi." What does that word mean in English? Tough-guy posturing or a violent brawl. Yeah, that's about right.

Tony (Jean Servais) gets out of prison. He took the rap for his younger cousin Jo (Carl Mohner), who had a family. So what does he do after five years in the joint? Finds his sultry ex-GF Mado (Marie Sabouret). She looks fine in a wonderful evening gown and expensive jewels. Tony will strip her, then whip her and leave her scarred. Let's not be judgmental here...it is France. Jo has an idea and brings him to meet Mario (Robert Manuel). A jewel heist! Yep, ice worth a quarter of a billion Francs. The planning is meticulous. The execution? Well, Mado leaves town and this ticks off her present BF, the sadistic killer Pierre (Marcel Lupovici).  Him and his family are real psychos. Another dame, the nightclub songstress Viviana (Magali Noel) seduces Mario and Cesar. Cesar? An expert with alarms from Italy, brought in just for this job.

The scene in which they sneak into the jewelry store after hours is an extensive one. It looks like a perfect heist except for...well, same old story. One of the four gets just a little bit greedy...just a little bit. Now, Viviane has herself a diamond ring worth almost as much as the Hope diamond. Oh, Mado...she returns to town and Pierre presses her for information. Tony? He can't believe his fortune...until he realizes one of the gangsters is being a bit too generous with his share of the take. Now Pierre puts two and two together and wants Tony dead and all the jewels. Much killing, shootouts, chases, and women getting slapped and abused follows. Is there any way for this to end well?

The dark streets of Paris make this almost a perfect Film Noir film.  The dames are beautiful though they will be endlessly beaten and abused. The eroticism is rampant, and the violence is almost extreme.  Alas, will greed end the night for our gang of thieves? Will any of the dames find happiness with one of these vicious thugs?  Will Tony allow the cops to take him or will he get real desperate? This is a grim and action-packed Film Noir film. See "Rififi" and take it as a moral lesson on greed and treachery.    

Night Without Sleep, Did he Murder Her?

Murder who?  Good question. Hopefully he murdered the Linda Darnell character.  Sure, she's beautiful but oh, is she annoying!  Just murder her and get it over with.  Oh, please...let her be the one who was murdered.  That is, if anyone is going to be murdered. Yep, one of those Film Noir films where some schmuck wakes up with no memory of the night before. As the viewer, we so hope that he did murder someone...someone in particular in fact.  Our feature today is 1952's "Night Without Sleep," directed by Roy Ward Baker.

Six years ago, Dick (Gary Merrill) was a successful Broadway composer. He falls in love with a wealthy woman who finances his play, Emily (June Vincent). They wed. Uh oh...alcohol rears its ugly head and Dick's career goes down the toilet. Emily must be like a mother to him now and Dick resents her. As the film begins, Dick wakes on his sofa from a drunken stupor with no memory of the night before. Remembering as much as he can, he deduces he murdered a dame. Which dame? Well, we can't expect guys like Dick to only have one. He quarrels with Emily.  Then he remembers more. A party at his buddy's (Hugh Beaumont) home. There he sees Julie (Darnell), an actress.  he falls in love with her and goes out with her.  The two have a great time and Julie is so touched he noticed her. Julie has always been a fan of his and is sad to learn he no longer composes. She goes on and on about fantasy dreams she had about him falling in love with her.

Did he murder Julie? Wait, there's more. Because of romancing Julie, he is late for a date with his mistress, Lisa (Hildegard Knef). She's sultry and crying at dinner. She yells at him and back at her apartment, Dick gets mad and approaches her as if he is going to strangle her.  Did he murder Lisa? Then Julie almost misses her boat, the Queen Mary is taking her to England.  She comes to Dick's estate and further professes her love for him. Now, does he murder her?  He murdered someone and he does not yet know who he murdered. Dick has murder in him, so his psychoanalyst (Donald Randolph) tells him.  Dick is scared.  Did he murder anyone?  Will he murder anyone?

Will Julie make her cruise on the Queen Mary, or will Dick off her?  Did Dick kill all the dames in his life?  Is killing the annoying Julie, if it happens, a mere mercy killing (mercy for the viewing audience)?  Linda Darnell is a lovely and talented actress, but I challenge you to watch this film and not desire her fiery demise.  See "Night Without Sleep" and see who gets murdered and why.

The Human Jungle, She's a Tramp and that's Just Fine

"I'm a tramp, okay!" Yes! This declaration by Jan Sterling in her role as a...tramp. Too strong of a word? Hussy?  Slut? Skank? No matter...we like her...what a dish. In this film she is a stripper. Okay, more than a stripper, a nightclub singer/ exotic dancer. She is actually described as a "Tassel Tossing Teaser." Really. Uh oh...former Boston Celtic and Los Angeles Dodger legend Chuck Connors wants her dead. Today we look at a gritty police Film Noir classic, "The Human Jungle," directed by Joseph M. Newman, from 1954.

Intending to leave the force, John "Danny" Danforth (Gary Merrill) is convinced to stay and clean up a demoralized precinct. The precinct is located in an area of the city which is overrun with violent crime.  Now captain of the precinct, Danny institutes changes. Arrest everyone! Shake things out. The murder case in question is stripper/nightclub singer Lilian Dean. No one is talking and Danny suspects the behemoth boyfriend, Ear Swados (Connors). He won't talk and either will anyone else. His new GF is another hot blonde singer/stripper, Mary (Sterling). She has a couple of musical numbers and the makers of the film push the censorship envelope with some of her routines. You'll like those. Danny knows she is the weak link and need her to roll over on Earl and the ownership of the club in which she performs.

Mary knows the score and will not talk. Now the crime boss who owns the club, Leonard (Florenz Ames), and his henchman Mandy (Claude Akins) begin framing Danny's detectives for police brutality. Now Danny needs to clean this case up before City Hall guts his precinct as the newspapers have turned public opinion against tough policing. Oh...Danny's conscious is his wife, the beautiful Pat (Paula Raymond). Always good to see Paula Raymond. Now Mary, proud to be a tramp, makes fools of Danny and his men as she is steadfast against helping them. Uh oh...poor Mary...she will play the sap now.  However steadfast she is, the mobsters realize she is a weak link, and so does Earl.  Little does Mary know, she has more to fear from Leonard and his boys than she does from Danny and his detectives.

Will the beautiful Mary get into a vicious catfight with Pat?  Okay, silly question...but we can always hold out hope.  Will Mary ever decide to help the detectives bust the crime syndicate operated out of the nightclub?  Will Earl murder Mary just as he did Lilian Dean?  This is a gritty one with little humor or diversion.  Police Film Noir all the way with car chases, shootouts, and a nice tour of the Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery...you'll see.  See "The Human Jungle" and enjoy a dame who knows she is a tramp!  Something refreshing about that...just saying.   

 

Behind Locked Doors, Love Among the Insane

Can insane people fall in love? Okay, I hear you!  Sure, one might say only the insane fall in love. Whatever your experiences are with falling in love, never a too rational endeavor, we will see it play out in our film today.  Kind of.  Set in an insane asylum, always a good metaphor for the society we live in, a private eye is falling in love...and not with Tor Johnson. Tor Johnson?  The guy from "Plan 9 from Outer Space"? Yep, he's in it...but fear not...he won't be falling in love.  Our feature today is 1948's "Behind Locked Doors," directed by Budd Boetticher.

Corrupt Judge Finlay Drake (Herbert Heyes) is now a big ally of the mob. Wanted, he is in hiding. His buddy, Dr. Clifford Porter (Thomas Browne Henry) runs an insane asylum and fixes up a luxury room in the locked ward for the judge. No one will look there. Some good investigating reporting work by the sultry Kathy (Lucille Bremer) follows the judge's hot GF, Madge (Gwen Donovan) to the asylum at night and theorizes she is there to see the judge. Now Kathy hires hunk private eye Ross (Richard Carlson) to pretend to be insane, get admitted to the asylum, and snoop around for the judge. He does, only because Kathy is really pretty and he wants to kiss her a lot. Once in the asylum, Ross sees weird stuff...I know, it's a loony-bin...but beyond that, other weird stuff.  A brute attendant, Larson (Douglas Fowley) roughs up, or has roughed up, inmates that yell and misbehave.

Ross sees the locked ward is off limits to all but Larson and Dr. Porter.  Inmates who scream or snoop too close to the locked ward are taken into it by Larson and put in a cell with Tor Johnson who believes he is a heavyweight boxer.  Tor pummels them, sometimes to death. Meanwhile the pretty Kathy, posing as Ross' wife, keeps snooping and every few days comes to see Ross. Now Kathy has a line when Madge is due back for a nighttime visit. Sadly, Dr. Potter and Larson are on the verge of figuring out that Ross is a plant. Fearing the press, or the cops are on to the judge's whereabouts, they act.  Yep, Tor Johnson is part of their plan to do away with Ross.  Uh oh again, Kathy has fallen in love with Ross and knows he is in peril, so she...well, see the movie and see how a nubile babe acts when the man she loves is in trouble.

Will Tor Johnson pummel Ross? What exactly is the judge doing in the locked ward in addition to hiding from authorities?  Will the beautiful Kathy save her man, or will she find herself in Tor Johnson's cell?  This is a good one and perhaps an all too obvious metaphor about falling in love.  See "Behind Locked Doors" and sample a world filled with the insane.