The Films of Noir City 2014 - Part II

Day two was the Mexican caravan, with four of the five films shown being from and/or set in Mexico. This post will focus on the two films from Mexico, both of which were from 1951. First up was En la Palma de tu Mano (AKA In the Palm of Your Hand), followed by Victimas del Pecado (AKA Victims of Sin). Palma I would say is very much a film noir, while Pecado, though very worthwhile for all sorts of reasons, is not.



Palma stars Arturo de Cordova - who you may recognize from any number of American films as diverse as For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) and Duffy's Tavern (1945) - as Professor Jaime Karin, a handsome fake fortuneteller and con man who preys on wealthy women. His wife, Clara (Carmen Montejo) works in a beauty parlor that caters to said women, where she picks up useful information to feed back to Karin. When he crosses paths with the recently widowed Ada (Leticia Palma), he gets involved with her romantically, and is drawn ever-deeper into her plot to make sure that she is the sole beneficiary of her late husband's will. This plot hinges on getting rid of her husband's nephew, Leon (Ramon Gay), with whom she is also romantically involved, and who is also named in the will.

As I've explained before, my personal definition of film noir is a story in which a character (or characters) are obsessed with something, be it revenge, money, or another person, to the point of self-destruction. A subset of that would be the character who is simply obsessed with more in some way. That description fits de Cordova's character perfectly. Karin clearly wants more out of life than his cheap cons and fake crystal ball, but it's never clear exactly what he wants. He's open to conning his way into more money. He's open to leaving his wife to make that happen. And one step follows another until Ada has led him down the path from lies to murder to grave robbing. Karin's lack of focus puts him at a severe disadvantage when he gets involved with the extremely focused Ada. He may not know exactly what he'll do, or how far he'll go in this scheme; but it's clear from the start that Ada knows just how far she'll be able to push him - and she takes him right to the edge.



This film had a number of great, unexpected and audacious moments that will stick with me. (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!) One occurs after Karin has just murdered Leon in a remote cabin, and hears someone at the door. Thinking it's Ada, he blurts out that he's just killed Leon - only to discover it's not Ada at all. It's a lost American tourist, a Shriner, who is looking for directions. Fortunately for Karin, the tourist's Spanish is obviously not so good.



Later, when Karin and Ada (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!) have had to dig up Leon's body, and are driving with it in the trunk of the car, a tire blows out. As they're fixing it, a motorcycle policeman pulls up to help. Wanting to get the replacement tire ready, he goes to open the trunk. Ada, desperate to distract him, does the only thing she can think of: She tips his motorcycle over on her leg! It's a funny and tense moment, and the audience roared with approval at this scene. (And now my wife and I have a new shorthand catchphrase to use for trying to distract someone: Tip the motorcycle.)

This is a film full of rich characterizations, beautiful photography, and driven by a classic noir plot. For me, it only ran out of steam in the very last few minutes, with a "twist" ending that I saw coming, but that was still satisfying. This may well have been my favorite out of all the films we saw at the festival.

(Technical note: There were no English subtitled prints of this film available, so the festival organizers arranged for "live" subtitles to be digitally projected along with the movie. It was a smart and well-done workaround.)

Moving on to Victimas...All I can say is WOW! I wouldn't call this a noir, but it is muy loco, and extremely entertaining. Right from the first few minutes, you're seeing things that you'd never have seen in an American film from the same time period: A pimp is getting dressed for the evening, and heads out to the bar where some of his girls also dance. And when they dance, they show a lot of flesh, panties and passion - all forbidden in such quantities in American films from the time.



Our heroine in this film is Violeta, played by Nino Sevilla, and she's an actress/dancer/singer/whirling dervish. The plot revolves around her rescuing a baby that was abandoned - in a trash can! - by a fellow dancer/prostitute, and her efforts to rescue the baby boy, and perhaps herself, from the grim life on the streets.

If you can imagine Lucille Ball at her most antic, crossed with Carmen Miranda, you might be getting close to Sevilla's performance here. I don't necessarily know if it was "good" acting or not, but she sure was compelling to watch. She gave 150% in every scene, whether dancing, crying or just holding the baby. (She shakes it so much I thought the kid was at risk of shaken baby syndrome.)

Victimas is a fairly pure strain of melodrama liberally dosed with music and dancing. And what dancing! It's sexual and highly energetic in ways that would have been strictly forbidden in the U.S. at that time - especially given the sometimes different skin tones of the people dancing together. It's also notable that the male villain of this film is a pimp - and the male hero is...a slightly nicer pimp. Again, you'd never have seen this in an American film in the 50s.



Like Palma, this film also had a number of unique and memorable moments, such as the pimp who wanders the streets followed by his own Mariachi band. But the most incredible scene comes late in the film, when Violeta (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!) comes bursting through a window and shoots the evil pimp dead. The scene just comes out of the blue, and there's no reason given for why Violeta comes through a window rather than the door - but it sure was memorable. Like the tipping motorcycle scene, this one had the audience roaring with approval.

So, to sum up, for pure manic energy and a unique cinematic experience, I can highly recommend this film should it ever come your way.

However, it seems unlikely that the print we saw will be coming your way. Apparently it used to be Sevilla's personal print of the film, and it sounds like a great deal of work went into arranging for it to be in San Francisco for the festival. I'm glad they made the effort because, even though it's not film noir - it doesn't have a happy ending, but it is hopeful - it's a great film that deserves to be seen.

More to come on other films later...

The Films of Noir City 2014

Let me begin by saying that I will not be attempting to write something about every film at the festival, or even every film my wife and I saw. I have already touched on the first film, 1943's Journey Into Fear, which is a slight, enjoyable film, but not one I'd classify as film noir. If it is film noir, well then, it seems like every espionage movie from the 40s must be film noir as well - and I doubt even the most ardent noir hound would go there. It seems obvious that the festival programmer(s) wanted an Orson Welles double feature, so they stretched the definition so that this could play with...

 

The Third Man (1949), about which so much has already been written, I will not waste your time here. It's a classic. Harry Lime. Climatic chase through the sewers. If you have never seen it before, please do so.

 

 

Day two kicked off with the rock solid drama Border Incident (1949), which is a film that fires on all cylinders. First, you've got a script by John Higgins, who also scripted such classics as my favorite noir, Raw Deal (1948), the highly influential He Walked By Night (also 1948), and wrote the original story for 1943's The Adventures of Tartu (AKA Sabotage Agent), which is a great British World War II film.

 

Directing, you've got the legendary Anthony Mann, who had just directed the previously mentioned Raw Deal, and would follow this up with more classics such as Side Street (1949), The Tall Target (1951) and The Naked Spur (1953), which was the best of his collaborations with actor James Stewart.

 

Rounding out the technical side, Border Incident features the truly beautiful cinematography of the Academy Award-winning John Alton. He too had worked on Raw Deal and He Walked By Night, and would go on to work on films as diverse as Father of the Bride (1950), Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) and Elmer Gantry (1960). Alton's cinematography has always stood out to me, and his work is well served by being seen on the big screen. He often would set a small spot to reflect in an actor's eyes in close ups, creating a little star of light that would be visibly reflected in their pupil and that, to me at least, serves as his personal trademark. In any case, his work is almost always striking and memorable.

 

Meanwhile, in front of the camera, you've got certified noir heavyweights like Charles McGraw (especially nasty here), Howard da Silva (soon to be blacklisted after the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, at which he was smeared by fellow actor Robert Taylor), Jack Lambert (a heavy, per usual), as well as the unexpected appearance of Sig Ruman, who is probably best known for his appearances in several Marx Brothers movies. And as leading man and hero, Ricardo Montalban, playing the one thing he always said the studios never let him play - a Mexican. Here, he is a Mexican police officer who goes undercover to expose a criminal gang that smuggles Mexican workers across the border into the U.S. to work as agricultural laborers. George Murphy is second-billed as Montalban's American counterpart, who also goes undercover as a criminal seeking to sell stolen visas for farm workers, in an attempt to put the squeeze on the gang from both sides of the border.

 



Though the subject of the film isn't really dated so much as more evolved, this is still a pretty hard-hitting movie. It makes it clear that, much as it still is, Americans are absolutely dependent on illegal labor to put food on their tables. With that being the case, it also makes it crystal clear - without ever stating it directly - that the typical American's diet is pretty well fortified with crime and human suffering. Not exactly a path to feel-good commercial success (see my previous musings on last year's The Counselor), but it makes for compelling viewing.

 

Sure, some of the gee whiz heroic angles of this are dated, but this film still goes to darker places than most from this period - and from MGM at this time, too. The bad guys here con Mexican workers into paying to be smuggled into the U.S.; then, when they're coming back across the border with the money they've earned, the hoods rob them, kill them, and dump the bodies into a pit of quicksand. Without saying anything specific, I'll also mention that, surprisingly, one of the main characters meets a particularly grisly end.

 

Montalban is good in his role, and given the racial and studio politics of the time, it's a pleasant surprise to see him top-billed. George Murphy is adequate in his role, though not ever entirely convincing (as a character) or that compelling (as an actor). But any inadequacies he may have are more than compensated for by the strong supporting cast, and the forward momentum of the story.

 

I had seen this film before, but never on the big screen, and size does matter. For one thing, as stated above, Alton's cinematography is stunning. Sure, there are some bad matches between beautifully captured location shooting and some fairly obvious studio sets, but overall, this is a real visual treat. Also, the scene where - SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! - Murphy's character is menaced by a giant field tiller is one that is much more effective on the big screen.

 

As a crime drama, this is pretty top notch stuff, and as a political drama, it's noteworthy as well. And those two categories are how I would file this, much more than film noir. But it does fit into that category as well, in my opinion, but it would be a secondary way of classifying it. Still, call it what you like, this is an extremely well done and gripping film. How much did I like it? Enough to sit through it in a theater after having already seen it. And enough that we picked up a used copy of it on DVD a couple of days after watching it in said theater.

 



Note: Border Incident was the first film of five on the first Saturday of the Noir City Festival. The last film that day was The Hitch-Hiker (1953). Both featured actor Jose Torvay in supporting parts. It gave the day a nice bookended effect.





Report from Noir City 2014 - Part V

Alright then...Though the Noir City Festival isn't quite over yet, my wife and I are back home. We couldn't stay for the entire week and a half of the festival, so we found two nice ladies to pass our passes off to, and we hopped back on Amtrak to head home. Though I'm sorry to not to be seeing some of the films in the days we'll miss, it's good to be home.

The festival itself was unique and enjoyable overall, and I'm certainly glad we went. I will give detailed reviews of some of the films in later posts, to try and give you an idea of what the festival had to offer.



As stated in earlier posts, my disappointments with the experience as a whole had little to do with the films chosen, and everything to do with the way things were run. I've already talked about how the too-lengthy introductions often were filled with filler, and did nothing but stretch time to the breaking point. Our last night there, we skipped the second film of the evening (which we had already seen, but not on the big screen), because we knew, after a week's worth of experience, that between the intros and the slightly longer running times of the two movies that night, it would have meant that we'd have missed our last bus home if we'd stayed.

So, please, noir folks, rein in your urge to talk and talk and talk. Less really, really is more - as in, more time for the actual films. Also, showing commercials for some Australian noir comedy web series might have seemed like a good or amusing idea, but as a paying customer, I'm here to tell you it added nothing positive to the experience. We bought full passes to see movies, not commercials.

On the plus side, I do appreciate the purist approach in terms of showing the films on film whenever possible. Film is different from video, and film is better than video. Out of over two dozen films in the festival, apparently only two were scheduled to be shown on video - and only then because there was no other way to show them. Having once had my own film series, and having dealt with the many and varied problems that can come up with securing prints of American-made films, I have a great appreciation for the efforts that went into finding and shipping prints of the many older foreign films shown this year.



And speaking of older foreign films...Perhaps I'm naïve, but I have an image of the audience for such films. Given their age, and their non-domestic provenance, I envision the audience for them as being more intelligent, more refined, more cultured, than the average American movie audience. But that image was most surely tested during this festival, when day after day we witnessed these supposedly refined and cultured people trashing the historic theater we were all inhabiting. Judging from the great mountains of popcorn that often littered the floor, many members of the audience had great difficulty getting their popcorn from the bag to their mouth without major spillage. And given that almost everyone just walked out of the theater without taking their popcorn bags (or cups or wrappers) with them, it seems like an awful lot of people in San Francisco are very used to having "someone else" clean up after them. (Did anyone else other than my wife and I notice the nice Latina lady cleaning up the theater after, say, Border Incident? Somehow I don't think so.)

Though I was never a Boy Scout, I have always followed their rule for camping - leave the site better than you found it - when it comes to going to the movies. If you packed it in, people, then pack it out. To do any less is shameful and rude.

But it's entirely possible the audience was simply reflecting current San Francisco norms and mores. The city is clearly awash in money, with lots of construction and gentrification occurring at a rapid pace. Downtown and Market Street are taller than ever before. The private (and controversial) Google Buses were a regular sight. And where there used to be coffee shops and record stores everywhere, they have now been greatly pushed out by expensive bars and even more expensive day spas and salons. So yeah, it's entirely believable that a lot of people attending Noir City 2014 were well-to-do and used to letting-someone-else-do-it. If so, how nice for them. But still, despite the obvious and unmistakable influx of tech money into San Francisco, never before has the entire city smelled so much of urine to me. I mean everywhere. It doesn't make for a particularly film noir experience, but it sure does smell bleak.



Anyway, despite the current flush of big tech money into town, it was barely on display at the festival itself. The crowd was very much an older crowd (present company included), with those who looked under, say, thirty being a very small minority. I can count the number of actual kids I saw there on the fingers of one hand.

So, in terms of longevity, I don't know that the prognosis for Noir City is very good. Without efforts to engage newer, younger audience members, I don't know if there will be a Noir City in ten years. Can San Francisco still be the Noir City once it's all lit up with bright cash and splash? And can old movies on a big screen attract a younger audience that's used to watching whatever's new, new, new on a screen the size of a postage stamp?

I don't pretend to know the answer to these questions. But as someone who was born in San Francisco, and has always viewed it as a cinema-centric place, I will be interested to see how things play out.

Report from Noir City 2014 - Part IV

Opening night of the festival, there was a rumor running through the crowd that Jack Black was there. His supposed presence made no sense to me, and no Jack Black was seen.

But tonight, I did spot a familiar face in the crowd before the first show. I wondered, "Is that..?"   

So I ventured over and said, "Johnny?" And sure enough, Johnny Legend it was. Johnny Legend...the inspiring rockabilly singer. Johnny Legend...the co-writer and director of the cult film My Breakfast with Blassie (1983) that starred Andy Kaufman and wrestler Freddy Blassie. Johnny Legend...whom you may have seen as "Skinny Corpse" in 1989's Bride of Re-Animator. Johnny Legend...all-around talented and offbeat guy, not to be confused with the boring singer John Legend. Yes, it was the real Johnny Legend standing there in the lobby of the Castro Theatre tonight. 

When I lived in San Francisco years ago, I saw Johnny and his Rockabilly Bastards play many, many times. The crowds would always dress in 1950s era clothes (much like many in the audience here are dressed in period clothes), and there would always be some truly acrobatic and talented dancers in attendance, hurling each other around. 

One of the best nights I ever had out was when Johnny Legend played the DNA Lounge. The evening started with a showing of the obscure 1968 movie, The Monster and the Stripper, which starred singer Sleepy LaBeef as "The Swamp Thing." Then a great local rockabilly group called the Honky Tonk Angels played. (I can still recall the song "Never No More.") Then Johnny acted as referee in a Mexican style monster wrestling match. And then, to cap the evening off, Johnny and his band played a smoking hot set (featuring special guest vocalist Tony Conn) with old sci-fi and monster movies clips projected behind them. Best of all, the entire evening was free, because the DNA was trying to compete with a sold-out Mudhoney show next door. 

So, it was nice to have an honest-to-goodness celebrity sighting at the film festival, and it was great to be able to personally thank Mr. Johnny Legend for the many times I've enjoyed his performances. He was gracious, we chatted for a minute, and then he hit the snack bar.

As for the movies tonight, one from Spain and one from Norway, they were both winners. As with the others, more to come in a few days...

Report from Noir City 2014 - Part III

File under general thoughts and observations...Overall I've enjoyed the films I've seen thus far, though I would say that not all of them are actually film noir. But they have been interesting and engaging, so I'm not complaining. 

Compensating for the lack of a full-on noir effect at the festival, we've had a nicely noir (is that possible?) trip to San Francisco. Given that films noir generally deal with crime and death in some way, we've been with the program from the start. We're staying with a friend who works in the morgue (I'm writing this while sitting in her living room underneath her embalmer's license from the State of California), and when we arrived at her place, the nearest intersecting street was blocked off by police cars. Ah, yes, we're getting in the spirit of things. 

Today, we're heading into day five of the festival here, and some patterns have emerged that I think should be noted. Maybe some of the folks putting on the festival will see these notes, and take them to heart. 

First and foremost among my observations, and annoyances, frankly, is the way the noir folks just let time slip away from them. Allow me to explain. Now, perhaps I'm being old-fashioned about seeing these old movies, but, in my world the published start time for a movie is meant to indicate the time the movie will start. 

But here it has meant that you still have five or ten minutes to wait for someone to come out to introduce the film. Said introductions have been running around 10 to 15 minutes each, with a lot of that time being eaten up by descriptions of, and come-ons for, the film we're just about to see. I mean, the shows have all been sold out, the theater is full, we're all here already. This means, noir folks, you don't need to waste our time trying to sell the film to us. We're here, we're ready, and you're actually standing between us and the movies. Less is more, people.

Saturday was the worst case of this, with a full five movies on the schedule. The last movie of the day was scheduled to start at 9:30PM, but didn't start until 10:15PM. Seeing five movies makes for a long day no matter what; adding nearly an hour to that doesn't add anything to the film festival experience except annoyance. Especially for those of us who start getting worried that we might miss the last bus back to our beds. 

Also, Eddie Muller, Mr. Noir, has displayed a disappointing casual sexism whenever this year's Miss Noir has shared the stage with him. Last night, he made at least two comments about her that clearly made her uncomfortable, and I think made members of the audience squirm a little, too. Yeah, Eddie, she's an attractive, (much) younger woman in a form-fitting dress - but that doesn't mean she's just an object. Grow up.

On a related note, every single time - and I do mean every single time - that someone from the Film Noir Foundation has been on the stage to speak, they've made jokes about drinking, comments to encourage the audience to drink, etc. Yeah, I know I sound like a real prude but, come on. For one thing, it shows a lack of creativity, and gets old really fast. For another, I have no doubt that there are film noir fans in the audience who are struggling with addictions and/or recovery and who don't appreciate this kind of would-be hipster "humor."

Anyway, please don't take these comments to mean that the actual celluloid content of the festival hasn't been good - it has. And I will expound on that later in detail. But I just felt I needed to give a little taste of the off screen portion of the festival as well. As stated above, I'd hope that the festival folks will rein in some of these...issues next time, to make for a smoother, more enjoyable experience for everyone attending. (It would also help if they could add about a dozen restrooms to the Castro, but...)

Report from Noir City 2014 - Part II

Day two of the festival was a south of the border whirlwind consisting of five films - four of which were shot in and/or set in Mexico. The two films from Mexico - In the Palm of Your Hand (1951) and Victims of Sin (also 1951) - were noteworthy and then some, and both contained some audacious moments that I will attempt to do justice to in a later, longer posting. 

But perhaps the big event of the day was the public debut of the newly restored, hasn't-been-seen-in-decades version of 1949's Too Late for Tears, starring those film noir royals Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea. This too warrants a longer, more in-depth write up, one that will have to wait until later, as we're still in the thick of the festival, and time is at a premium. 

One quick story though...We wound up having a young woman who was visiting San Francisco from China sit next to us during Too Late for Tears. She was just in the city for a day, and, somehow, happened to wander into the Castro to see the evening show. In talking to her, she explained that in China, they don't ever show old movies, and she has never seen any old American films either. So her first exposure to any sort of classic film was watching Dan Duryea and Lizabeth Scott lie, cross and double-cross each other for nearly two hours. 

After that, I guess she'd absorbed all the new-old media she could take. Though she had said that she was planning to stay for the evening's second feature, a new, restored print of The Hitch-Hiker (1953), she excused herself after Too Late for Tears and headed back to her hotel. 

Maybe Dan Duryea doesn't make such a good international ambassador? 

Report from Noir City 2014

The first night of the Noir City 2014 film festival in San Francisco...And our visit is off to a pretty good start.

Spent the day wandering around Chinatown, where I found some very interesting DVDs that I'm excited about (more on those later, I'm sure). Went by Lucky Creation Restaurant, a place I've been going for something like 25 years, though it's been years since I've been there. Still, just walking by, one of the waitresses there recognized me through the door, and came to say hello and shake my hand, which was pretty heartwarming and unprecedented. She looks like she's aged about six months in the last 25 years - amazing.

We also went by the three - former - movie theaters in Chinatown. The Great Star, which was the main stem of Hong Kong movie viewing back in the 90s, is still closed, but at least there's now a sign out front with a phone number so if someone wants to rent the theater...Of the other two former Chinese theaters, one is still closed, and the other has been torn down. It's always sad to see a closed movie theater. Given the use-specific design of them, they're hard to repurpose, so they either sit vacant or get torn down. 

Anyway, we got to the very much thriving and alive Castro Theater a little after 6PM, and there was already a line up the block of people hoping to buy tickets. Since we had a pass, we went right in, and got our seats - dead center - right away. The Castro is such a beautiful theater. It's always a real treat to be there, and last night it was especially abuzz with energy and excitement - much of it coming from guys in period suits and dames all dolled up. 

Around 6:30PM, the entertainment started when the Fly Right Sisters, a vocal trio, came out to sing songs from the 40s and 50s. What was cute and charming for 3 or 4 songs got to be a real drag after 30 or 40 minutes. Oh well. 

Then, my favorite part of seeing films at the Castro kicked in, when organist David Hegarty came rising up out of the pit playing the mighty Castro organ. More than a sound you hear, the Castro organ literally vibrates your whole body, and, at least in me, produces something close to a euphoric feeling. Hegarty played four or five songs, finishing with a spirited version of San Francisco, and got everyone clapping and, being that it was 7:30PM - showtime! - ready for the movies to roll. 

But no movies rolled. Instead, San Francisco's Mr. Noir, Eddie Muller rolled out onto stage and talked for 20 minutes. He also introduced Ms. Noir 2014, who was lovely, but then just had to stand there while Eddie gabbed. It could have been a lot shorter, a lot cleaner, Eddie. 
And so, finally, at 7:50PM, the lights went down and Journey Into Fear (1943) started. It's a slight, short film, with a troubled pedigree, but it's fast and fun. I would argue that it's not even film noir, and the way the sell-out crowd was laughing at parts, it played more like comedy. 

Still, what's the difference? We were in a grand movie theater, part of a huge, excited crowd, seeing a classic film on the big screen. What's not to like? 

We ended the evening tired, but happy. And now, we're off to see five more movies today and tonight. It should be a great day.