VICTOR MATURE AND LAIRD CREGAR IN 'I WAKE UP SCREAMING'

Title: I WAKE UP SCREAMING Year: 1941 Rating: ****

Originally named HOT SPOT since we begin with Victor Mature, noisily and rudely interrogated by detectives and, with that bright light in his eyes, this title describes anyone being heatedly interrogated...

And while the source novel I WAKE UP SCREAMING might have fit the pulpy page, it has nothing to do with this story involving Mature as a talent promoter who, after attempting to turn a beautiful nowhere waitress into an overnight sensation, is blamed for her murder...

Victor Mature drives Carole Landis in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

So the pressured present-time juxtaposes expository flashbacks as Mature, along with a sophisticated writer and has-been veteran actor, woo Carole Landis into a doomed, short-lived career...

In which she quickly dumps Mature, unintentionally leading him to find a more befitting love-interest in leggy blonde Betty Grable... her own little sister, and comparably the girl next door...

Victor Mature drives Carole Landis in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Scenes where Mature shows her around the bright-lit city, part of a breezy Pygmalion-style opposites-attract romance, are awkwardly oblivious to creepy yet vulnerable, deliciously-neurotic crooked cop Laird Cregar's attempt to shift the lethal blame (intensely stealing scenes like he'd do for THIS GUN FOR HIRE)...

Uniquely blending cult and mainstream while randomly flanked by two instrumentals... from the crime-suited STREET SCENE to the preposterously unnecessary SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW... eclectic director H. Bruce Humberstone's I WAKE UP SCREAMING is an offbeat film starring the always subtly-intense Victor Mature — smoothly coasting with the perfect girl while vibrantly clashing with the perfect villain.

Victor Maure under the HOT SPOT in I WAKE UP SCREAMING with Laird Cregar

Laird Cregar in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Carole Landis in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Betty Grable and Carole Landis in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Betty Grable and Laird Cregar in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Victor Mature and Laird Cregar in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Victor Mature and Laird Cregar in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Betty Grable and Carole Landis in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Which Was Originally Titled HOT SPOT

Betty Grable and Victor Mature in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Victor Mature doesn't wake up screaming in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Laird Cregar in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Laird Cregar in I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Laird Cregar in I WAKE UP SCREAMING with Victor Mature

Betty Grable in I WAKE UP SCREAMING