Haggai
01-26-2010, 01:34 PM
Saturdays are now double-double-bill territory at Noir City, with two movies in the afternoon session followed by two different ones in the evening. This afternoon featured two Robert Siodmak rarities. FLY-BY-NIGHT, from 1942, stars Richard Carlson and Nancy Kelly in a breezy adventure about a medical intern wrongly accused of murder who forcibly brings an attractive sketch artist along for the ride. Sparks fly between the couple as they race to solve the mystery of the spy ring that keeps closing in on them. Basically a B-movie version of The 39 Steps, it hums along with fun dialogue and a few impressive stunts, including a high-speed transfer from a moving car to the back of a loaded car carrier.
The audience enjoyed the banter and chemistry of the leads, plus some broadly drawn supporting characters and farcical situations involving a fake quickie marriage. My favorite line was when he first drops in to her room and hides, begging for help to escape the cops, but she sends them right after him when he takes cover. After he evades them by hanging out the window on a tree, he comes back in and says, "Thanks for the haircut, Delilah."
Next up in the afternoon was DEPORTED, a gangster drama filmed in Italy, with Jeff Chandler as an exiled crime lord who gets mixed up with black market food distribution and with the fetching young widow who only wants to help her countrymen. The beautiful locations showed up particularly well in the good-quality print, as did the gorgeous local babes, Marta Toren and Marina Berti.
The evening session centered around the premiere of the restored print of CRY DANGER, with supporting actor Richard Erdman in attendance. A sweetly appreciative note from co-star Rhonda Fleming was read on-stage just before the show, thanking the FNF for preserving the film and expressing regret that she couldn't be there to see it. A favorite with the festival audience a few years ago, even when it was shown in 16mm, it went over big again, thanks to the endless supply of withering barbs in William Bowers' script, plus all the great performances from a cast that made the most of their chance to get so much personality across. Erdman gets the best lines in almost all of his scenes, as an incorrigibly hard-drinker--probably a version of the writer himself, as the actor mentioned afterwards--including "Occasionally, I always drink too much," and "You've got to start early in the morning when you drink as much as I do." The restoration was top-notch, showcasing the striking Los Angeles locations and all the deftly crafted visual work of director Robert Parrish and cinematographer Joseph Biroc.
Erdman came on stage after the screening to share some stories with Eddie and the audience. He told some anecdotes about his agent, Ingo Preminger (brother of Otto), including one that may have come as close as anything possibly could to being too raunchy for Noir City. Another story about getting to swap cars (and thus drive a nicer ride than he was used to) for a brief time with co-star Jean Porter, whose husband Edward Dmytryk was in jail as one of the Hollywood Ten, was a lighter side note about what was obviously a tough time period for so many people in the film industry. The audience welcomed him with a standing ovation and warmly appreciated the personal connection with the classic Hollywood era.
The night wrapped up with another Robert Parrish/Bill Bowers collaboration, THE MOB, starring Broderick Crawford as a detective who goes undercover as a dock worker to bust up a killer crime organization. Running into an array of colorful characters along the way--desperate longshoremen, violent toughs, and other undercover agents--Crawford eventually discovers the real Mr. Big behind the whole setup, but can he protect his suddenly endangered fiancee from the deadly crossfire?
Another fine supporting cast delivers the Bowers touch, including Ernest Borgnine, John Marley, and Neville Brand as excitable hoods, Richard Kiley as a sharp-tongued laborer with a secret, and even Charles Bronson with a few lines as a put-upon longshoreman who's seen enough corruption to know how it all works. The crowd enjoyed the cast and the fast-moving script, with my favorite line being Crawford's explanation of his new assignment to his girl: "I have to go underground. You know, like gophers and communists."
The audience enjoyed the banter and chemistry of the leads, plus some broadly drawn supporting characters and farcical situations involving a fake quickie marriage. My favorite line was when he first drops in to her room and hides, begging for help to escape the cops, but she sends them right after him when he takes cover. After he evades them by hanging out the window on a tree, he comes back in and says, "Thanks for the haircut, Delilah."
Next up in the afternoon was DEPORTED, a gangster drama filmed in Italy, with Jeff Chandler as an exiled crime lord who gets mixed up with black market food distribution and with the fetching young widow who only wants to help her countrymen. The beautiful locations showed up particularly well in the good-quality print, as did the gorgeous local babes, Marta Toren and Marina Berti.
The evening session centered around the premiere of the restored print of CRY DANGER, with supporting actor Richard Erdman in attendance. A sweetly appreciative note from co-star Rhonda Fleming was read on-stage just before the show, thanking the FNF for preserving the film and expressing regret that she couldn't be there to see it. A favorite with the festival audience a few years ago, even when it was shown in 16mm, it went over big again, thanks to the endless supply of withering barbs in William Bowers' script, plus all the great performances from a cast that made the most of their chance to get so much personality across. Erdman gets the best lines in almost all of his scenes, as an incorrigibly hard-drinker--probably a version of the writer himself, as the actor mentioned afterwards--including "Occasionally, I always drink too much," and "You've got to start early in the morning when you drink as much as I do." The restoration was top-notch, showcasing the striking Los Angeles locations and all the deftly crafted visual work of director Robert Parrish and cinematographer Joseph Biroc.
Erdman came on stage after the screening to share some stories with Eddie and the audience. He told some anecdotes about his agent, Ingo Preminger (brother of Otto), including one that may have come as close as anything possibly could to being too raunchy for Noir City. Another story about getting to swap cars (and thus drive a nicer ride than he was used to) for a brief time with co-star Jean Porter, whose husband Edward Dmytryk was in jail as one of the Hollywood Ten, was a lighter side note about what was obviously a tough time period for so many people in the film industry. The audience welcomed him with a standing ovation and warmly appreciated the personal connection with the classic Hollywood era.
The night wrapped up with another Robert Parrish/Bill Bowers collaboration, THE MOB, starring Broderick Crawford as a detective who goes undercover as a dock worker to bust up a killer crime organization. Running into an array of colorful characters along the way--desperate longshoremen, violent toughs, and other undercover agents--Crawford eventually discovers the real Mr. Big behind the whole setup, but can he protect his suddenly endangered fiancee from the deadly crossfire?
Another fine supporting cast delivers the Bowers touch, including Ernest Borgnine, John Marley, and Neville Brand as excitable hoods, Richard Kiley as a sharp-tongued laborer with a secret, and even Charles Bronson with a few lines as a put-upon longshoreman who's seen enough corruption to know how it all works. The crowd enjoyed the cast and the fast-moving script, with my favorite line being Crawford's explanation of his new assignment to his girl: "I have to go underground. You know, like gophers and communists."