I hadn’t planned on watching three movies from the fifties that fit the noir theme. That definitely wasn’t on the agenda. What I wanted to watch was The Graduate with Anne Bancroft which was not available on any streaming services I had. This led me to looking for another Anne Bancroft movie. After watching Mel Brooks’ documentary The 99-Year-Old Man, I became intrigued by how many movies she had been in–only really knowing her from Torch Song Trilogy as a mean-old homophobic mother.
While I didn’t want to watch a bunch of ’90s films with Anne, I decided that I’s focus on black and whites from this decade which Amazon suggested as similar. All films were police/mafia stories in full screen.
The Naked Street (1955)
Directed by Maxwell Shane
Why it is called The Naked Street is beyond me. The story is about a city mafia guy’s sister who gets knocked up by a punk, Nicky Bradna, who accidentally kills the owner of a liquor store in a robbery gone wrong. Phil Regal pulls strings to get Nicky off of death row and go straight for the baby. But Nicky can’t help but to want more money than the 9-5 job pays.
The film is decent, yet one dimensional. There’s no mystery to it. No who done its. While Anne’s part in the film is a top billing role, she plays very little more than a woman who wants to be loved by an uncontented boyfriend/husband.
I am pretty sure this isn’t even a top in her filmography. Slightly disappointed as a whole.
Cop Hater (1958)
Directed by William Berke
Someone’s killing cops and the cops are out to solve the murders of their own. That’s the plot. Nothing more. Nothing less. This is what I think of when I think of noir and police dramas. We have the dark streets. We have a crime. There’s a femme fatale and a detective on the brink of losing his mind.
When a cop is killed, Detective Steve Carelli and his department begin the hunt of looking at all avenues including a local gang, which the leader is played by a young Jerry Orbach. When another is gun downed, the manhunt really takes a toll. Add a third… Detective Carelli is determined to bring this to an end.
I liked it but I might have loved it if there was a little more suspense. This police drama wasn’t a thriller. Just a classic caper to solve the puzzle. What I didn’t expect was who was responsible and why. It was there that I felt let down because there wasn’t a grand finale of sorts. Sadly, the tagline gives it all away.
The Captive City (1952)
Directed by Robert Wise
Now, The Captive City was an interesting film in the sense of urgency from the very beginning. James Austin, a journalist played by John Forsythe, and his wife are on the run and rush into a police station in a small town looking for an escort to the capitol. Why?
We don’t know. Essentially, the film is shot as a flashback where Austin tells the story into a police tape recorder in case he and his wife are murdered along the way, there’d be his side of the story which is about a gambling mafia coming into a once peaceful community. No one wants to stop it except for the journalist, who wants to break the story of a lifetime.
Again, I think films from this era tend to be one note because they tell the story, not as a mystery but as here are the facts and here is what is being done and by who. There isn’t anything left to the imagination as we watch the main character. As a writer, this film is very 1st person POV, only a few scenes are without that main character’s eyes being ours.
And again, it was okay. I wouldn’t say this was blockbuster material here but it was enjoyable.
