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...