Matinee Memories

More thoughts on Gangsters Galore A couple of winters ago I wrote for Turner Classic Movies' Community Forum a set of three blogs on "Gangsters Galore," a highly informal survey of films and TV shows about movies dealing with the bad old days of 1920s and '30s criminals that developed into a multi-year fad with audiences. This period extended from late 1957 with the release of the independently-made BABY FACE NELSON to the last episode of THE UNTOUCHABLES in the spring of 1963. Its popularity was based in part on exposes of organized crime throughout the '50s that probed the historical roots of racketeering that came to form the back stories of AL CAPONE (1959) and MURDER INC. (1960), and a fascination with the outlaw element of the Dillinger-type crime sprees that terrorized the nation's southwest and mid-section during 1933-1934. The latter inspired a series of biopics, such as Roger Corman's MACHINE GUN KELLY (1958) and PORTRAIT OF A MOBSTER (1961),...

Pre-Code and loving it: The World Gone Mad (1933) Prior to the strict oversight and enforcement of the Production Code on the content of Hollywood films in 1934, producers' approach to modern mores, sex, crime and other aspects of contemporary life was fairly free-wheeling, not simply salacious for the heck of it (these movies still had to play in Peoria, so to speak) but a recognition of the adult understanding of the Depression-era movie audience. People went to the movies for escapism, but accepted contemporary concerns as part of the viewing experience; the reality-based movies produced by Warner Bros. such as I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG, WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD and HEROES FOR SALE (1932-1933) were popular because they were about issues and social problems seen in the newspapers. With them came a certain frank appreciation of human behavior, from social attitudes to even profanity, the latter not overdone but still there and usually limited to "damn." In a way...

Or, how to make a horror movie out of a beloved classic of mystery fiction. This isn't such a stretch because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES strongly suggested the supernatural as the root of the curse that had haunted the Baskerville family and estate on the lonely expanses of Devon, near Dartmoor Prison. The mystery at hand, and ultimately the legend of the seemingly spectral hound that spells doom for the Baskervilles is resolved by the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his associate, Dr. John H. Watson, as the work of all-too human and present-day cunning. A creature of rational thinking, Holmes' dismissal of the fantastic and other-worldly is not surprising. But his creator, whose non-Holmes literary output includes a number of horror and science fiction works (notably, the 1912 novel THE LOST WORLD), manifested a fancy for the incredible. And it is the atmosphere of lurking terror on the moors and the swampland known as the Great Grim...

    Some actors came to film noir uniquely equipped to play against the treacherous background of emotional intrigue that leads to crime and doom. Robert Mitchum's laconic, sleepy-eyed presence masking a keen intelligence and cynicism about the human condition represented a new kind of hero, while Dick Powell's rakish good humor and prior experience as a light leading man made him expert at comeback in verbal exchanges with good and bad guys (and women) alike.    More in the Powell mode is Dennis O'Keefe, who rose through the ranks working at roles ranging from dashing daredevils, pleasant secondary leads, Irish tough guys and everyday Joes to become a noir icon thanks to a brace of movies he made in the late 1940s and intermittently into the mid-'50s. Unlike Powell, who for a time specialized in noir portrayals in film and radio, O'Keefe varied his screen roles to star in comedies, adventures and other kinds of action entries. Alternately intense and breezy,...

   Thanks to YouTube and TCM, I have recently become reacquainted with some movies from the classic period in Hollywood that I haven't seen for decades. Such encounters with films enjoyed as a youth have proven disappointing as time and viewing experience changes our perspective; what was great when I was a teen hasn't been so wonderful four decades later. The three productions discussed here were, upon seeing again, supportive of my original positive opinion of them. These three are indicative of my taste for melodrama and genre entries, but retain qualities that should make them better known. And so, without further introduction, let us once more appreciate... A MAN BETRAYED (1941) Also shown as Wheel of Fortune -- the title under which I initially saw this on New York's WNEW-TV in the early 1970s -- A Man Betrayed was not only an ambitious project for its studio, Republic Pictures, but an important step in John Wayne's rise to superstardom, acquitting himsel...