Pressbooks (Non-Horror)

Take One False Step is not a standout for noir crime movies, but it has William Powell (of Philo Vance and Nick Charles notoriety) and Shelley Winters. She is always etched in my mind after watching the 1975 episode of Johnny Carson where she dumped her drink over Oliver Reed’s head after his misogynistic comment to her. You didn’t diss Ms. Winters, who won academy awards and played her own woman in her strong Hollywood career. Her role as the ill-fated Willa in The Night of the Hunter (one of the best noir horrors directed by Charles Laughton, his only time as director), which leads to a chilling and surreal underwater scene of her dead body tied to a Ford Model T is classic and unforgettable. One wonders what other cinematic delicacies Laughton would have provided to the screen had he continued to direct.

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Take One False Step (1949)
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Twenty pages of promotion for the Ministry of Fear, 1944, in a large format pressbook, does justice to this intriguing noir suspense thriller about a man who wins a cake but doesn’t have the time to eat it because of Nazi saboteurs. Ray Milland (as Stephen Neale) plays the perfect patsy for accidentally getting in the middle of spy-full things. Making matters worse for him are his recent release from a mental ward and his sincere confusion as to what he’s exactly mixed up in, real or not. Fritz Lang directs with sufficient gloom and shadows and unpleasant people. Given Lang’s background, fear and paranoia move throughout the movie, and the wartime London intrigue keeps the environment tense. “The use of low-key lighting and oblique camera angles heightens tension and mirrors Stephen Neale’s psychological turmoil” (Movie Star History). I would add that Ray Milland’s eyes and face convey it all. See him in The Uninvited (1944) and The Big Clock (1948) too.

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Ministry of Fear (1944) PressbookRead More »

I’m a sucker for flashback noirs, I admit it. Give me D.O.A and I can watch it over and over again, though sometimes the dialog gets too syrupy. Give me Murder, My Sweet, with William Powell, and you can wipe the drool from my lips because I’ll be too busy watching Powell’s Philip Marlowe, private detective, getting squeezed like a tangerine by Mike Mazurki (as Moose Malloy), while Moose gets squeezed by memories of Velma (Claire Trevor), who Moose he hires a reluctant Marlowe to find. Moose may be short a third rail but he can squeeze real good. And Marlowe keeps getting squeezed by everybody, which makes this version of Raymond Chandler’s Farwell, My Lovely, a knockout punch. Powell, a musical comedy actor who yearned for more dramatic roles, bit off all he could chew with the role, and, aside from Robert Mitchum, makes the perfect onscreen Marlowe. This movie set the bar for noir movies to follow, with its snappy dialog, dreamy visuals, and characters that moved between dark and light with their desires in the urban environment. I became a Raymond Chandler, Rex Stout fan, having read their novels, between midnight and dawn, while working at Casablanca records as a night guard back in the 1970s in New York City. Now if Hollywood can actually do a decent Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin movie, I’d be aces.

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Murder, My Sweet (1944) PressbookRead More »

Orson Welles had a column in the New York Graphic (sic), called “Orson Welles’ Almanac,” in which he wrote: “Plant things that grow above the ground today, and go immediately to the Strand Theatre in Brooklyn and see a “B” minus picture called When Strangers Marry. It’s A plus entertainment but because it’s a quickie without any names on it, When Strangers Marry hasn’t had much of a play. Making allowances for its bargain-price budget, I think you’ll agree with me that it’s one of the most gripping and effective pictures of the year. It isn’t as slick as Double Indemnity or as glossy as Laura, but it’s better acted and better directed by William Castle than either.” (Wellesnet)

Betrayed (aka When Strangers Marry) is a William Castle revelation. We usually peg Castle as the carnival midway-styled showman and director who gave us memorably classic (albeit cheaply) rendered movies promoted with theater gimmicks. But Castle, who was smart enough to nab film rights to, and desperately yearned to direct, Rosemary’s Baby, and who collaborated with Orson Welles on Lady From Shanghai (a noir that beats other noirs silly), was one hell of a director without the gimmicks too. He also was greatly disappointed to find out he wouldn’t be directing Lady, although he had nabbed the film rights to that one too. Not only was he a good director, he also knew a good movie prospect when he saw one.

In Betrayed, Robert Mitchum, Kim Hunter, and Dean Jagger stretch the noir shadows when the obscenely rich guy wearing the Lion’s head mask and flashing thousands of dollars he hated to go home with winds up dead. Castle keeps the short running time (61 minutes) ticking by with suspense and creative use of the camera as it prowls around the threadbare sets and setups. His foreshadowing nods are a master class; simple but direct. With three (“without any names”) killer actors to help him, and a filmed story that stays razor-focused, and a nice-touch Hitchcockian cameo by Castle, this movie deserves more respect and inspection. Here’s the pressbook from Monogram.

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Betrayed (1944) PressbookRead More »

Secret passageways, creeping stalkers prowling at night, love triangles complicating relationships like guys and gals had nothing else to do, and intrepid women reporters, tough as nails, always screaming on cue. Ah, the early days of mystery and intrigue. Oh, and toss in that crazy scientist conducting brain experiments (which was a scripting go-to back then for some reason), a “Thing” kidnapping that spunky reporter (through those convenient sliding panel beckoning hidden passageways), and that close-by sanitarium as the main hideout. Don’t you also miss those days of naming actors with catchy nicknames like “Big Boy” Williams in the credits? I don’t recall women ever getting nifty nicknames, do you?

One more thing (no, not that Thing). I mention The Phantom because it is recognized as having influenced the horror genre and was an early independent film (Artclass Pictures Corp.) with horror elements. (See The Phantom (1931): Hollywood’s First Independent Horror Movie for a critical analysis.)

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The Phantom (1931) PressbookRead More »

You can thank the Spaghetti Westerns (1960s and 1970s) for the movies and streaming series that took the wholesomeness of early cowboys roaming the range (with happy songs, a chaste behavior under those big hats, and their trick horses), and made them all gritty, grimy, and bristling with beardy machismo and sweaty violence. So when you cringe at the uncivilized behaviors and dirty faces in American Primeval, don’t forget to blame Italy for moving the genre into a blood-running prone, over-realism that gave Clint Eastwood his big break.

God Forgives…I Don’t from Italy, courtesy of AIP, involves the script staples of a train robbery and stolen gold. Mayhem follows. Not quite at the level of Sergio Leone, but still an enjoyable dusty romp. The pressbook highlights the “exotic beauty” of Gina Rovere and how the western reflects American folklore. The poster art is quite a beauty too.

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God Forgives…I Don’t! (1967) PressbookRead More »

The Spider Returns 15-chapter serial brings the pulp hero, The Spider, to the big screen for a second time. This sequel to 1938’s The Spiders Web, is a bit more tongue-in-cheek with the usual fisticuffs and mayhem delivered by the Gargoyle, another crimelord with Fifth Column connections, with his usual assortment of ruffians to do his bidding. The movies embellished on The Spider’s (played by Warren Hull) wardrobe by giving him a spiderweb pattern across his cape and head disguise. Otherwise, he’d be the spitting image of The Shadow, another popular pulp hero dressed all in black, who hit the movies starting in 1941. It is interesting to note the Newspaper Slants – School Tips page suggests contacting schools to hype the movie.

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The Spider Returns (1941) PressbookRead More »

Edmund Lowe starred in Chandu the Magician (1932), against Bela Lugosi’s evil villain, Roxor. In 1934, Lugosi took over as Chandu in the 12 chapter serial, The Return of Chandu, while Lowe starred in Bombay Mail. Although set in Bombay, it was actually filmed on various sets that included several railway stations and a studio-built Imperial Indian Mail train. Lowe learned his trade in vaudeville and silent films. Although the quintessential Hollywood leading man at that time, as he grew older Hollywood relegated him to Poverty Row productions.

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Bombay Mail (1934) PressbookRead More »

Lloyd Bridges only movie serial, Secret Agent X-9, also featured two actors who played Charlie Chan’s sons in that popular movie series, Key Luke and Benson Fong. Going after a synthetic fuel formula provides the motivation for thirteen chapters of action and cliff hangers. Universal was unique with their serials by not providing the traditional chapter recap of the story so far. Instead, they had characters in a following chapter recap, through their dialog, what transpired in the previous chapter (as noted in Gripping Chapters: The Sound Movie Serial, by Ron Backer, BearManor Media). Universal did a Secret Agent X-9 serial in 1937 too. That storyline centered around stolen jewels. Both serials were based on the comic strip character of the same name written by Dashiell Hammett and drawn by Alex Raymond.

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Secret Agent X-9 1945 PressbookRead More »

This may be the oldest herald (and pressbook, posting soon) in my collection. While the 1921 The Secret Four movie serial is now lost, it looks pretty darn exciting. This herald is about 22 inches long and 9.5 inches wide, so quite a herald to be handing out to movie patrons. The movie was 15 episodes across 30 reels, silent of course, and filled with great chapter titles like The Creeping Doom (8), Floods of Fury (13), and the Dive of Despair ((5). Maybe it’s me (okay, sure, it usually is), but looking at this herald, and with the movie filled with “international intrigue to seize world power by gaining possession of hidden oil deposits in the United States (IMDb),” I’m reminded of the pulp hero, Doc Savage, who first appeared in the 1930s. I wonder if this may have been one source of inspiration for the character.