cult film freak: robert keith

Showing posts with label robert keith. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 9/08/2023 / No comments / action , body count , crime , don siegel , drugs , eli wallach , fifties , film noir or melodrama , mary laroche , richard jaekal , robert keith , TV adaptation , william leslie

DON SIEGEL'S NOIR-THRILLER 'THE LINEUP' STARRING ELI WALLACH

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6UBG4paAhvU9p6uHYJRUdnS7ZnxBUflZXGEfjVgNFt6X7j44pxaYjpr5paoQ4xJgfGaU0c58Pz_6CBjQ0jjRr4eYxqmjFBqSyOHrv4SEe1VvjHG09lfMhNrw4GJsD-y8F4HwWlJhznvSluTXtKKIeOTTVb-ekIcAIkwecyDuQpRyKeo8aO18i7A09XPQI/s400/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="368" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6UBG4paAhvU9p6uHYJRUdnS7ZnxBUflZXGEfjVgNFt6X7j44pxaYjpr5paoQ4xJgfGaU0c58Pz_6CBjQ0jjRr4eYxqmjFBqSyOHrv4SEe1VvjHG09lfMhNrw4GJsD-y8F4HwWlJhznvSluTXtKKIeOTTVb-ekIcAIkwecyDuQpRyKeo8aO18i7A09XPQI/s320/1.jpeg" width="294"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Year: 1958 Rating: ****1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Brazen and bizarre crime flick beginning with a police investigation of what turns out being heroin smuggled through antiques from a cruise ship before focusing on the criminals who collect the stuff: the first fifteen minutes a police procedural based on the television series its named after, also known as SAN FRANCISCO BEAT, which was a Bay Area DRAGNET from the early part of the sparse Eisenhower decade, in which this edgy theatrical adaptation came out in the hipper/jazzier crest of...Eli Wallach, as the crazy, insecure yet sometimes charming lead thug named Dancer, shipped in from Florida with a tan intact, follows subtle "orders" and educationally-inclined etiquette lessons from elder partner Robert Keith... Making for a unique and twisted partnership that could be called MY FAIR SOCIOPATH: both (along with "dipso" getaway driver Richard Jaeckel) going from the various oblivious "mules" to either take the hidden heroin, or their lives. Often both...And director Don Siegel keeps the suspense on par with the snappy Noir dialog, and there's even some homoerotic stuff thrown in, way, way ahead of its time... THE LINEUP exceeds the very limited series it's loosely derived (there's even a Lineup scene in the beginning to attempt retrofitting the title). Thank Don for that... who fought to make this LINEUP his own way: where the peripheral cops are but a Greek Chorus for the central killers.

action, body count, crime, don siegel, drugs, eli wallach, fifties, film noir or melodrama, mary laroche, richard jaekal, robert keith, TV adaptation, william leslie

DON SIEGEL'S NOIR-THRILLER 'THE LINEUP' STARRING ELI WALLACH

Year: 1958 Rating: ****1/2 Brazen and bizarre crime flick beginning with a police investigation of what turns out being heroin smuggled thro...

SUSAN HAYWARD AND DANA ANDREWS STIR 'MY FOOLISH HEART'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: MY FOOLISH HEART Year: 1949 Rating: ***</td></tr>
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J.D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was adapted, to his chagrin, and with Dana Andrews discussing the titular rabbit getting into and out of trouble, it's contrived, cinematic symbolism for Susan Hayward, flashing back and forth from pre-War to post-War... a glib lush unhappily married to Kent Smith (hanging with her best friend and dealing with an introverted daughter) in the present while reminiscing about the nostalgic affair with Andrews... 
 
The best scenes occur before the before the war; that is, when Dana's dapper, handsome stranger meets our insecure college girl at a dance, defends her against a bullying deb, takes her home for a drink, and later gets her thrown out of college for kissing in the dorm elevator. And just as their romance gets interesting, the next scene Dana's wearing a baggy military uniform, about to fly overseas but before that, to meet her parents...

adaptation, dana andrews, drama, forties, j.d. salinger, kent smith, mark robson, melodrama, robert keith, romance, susan hayward

SUSAN HAYWARD AND DANA ANDREWS STIR 'MY FOOLISH HEART'

Title: MY FOOLISH HEART Year: 1949 Rating: *** J.D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was adapted, to ...

DANA ANDREWS WITH FARLEY GRANGER IN 'EDGE OF DOOM'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PzFAsx4v-EVguq04ofxZb45-RXlp9I5y7MGnhzzcs4YupXPCch-kpGElpSs9iDO0jeERi9vL9W-6oxEUKWN6llibXYSeaGlNvNvAbq5VAdmDuSsnqWguayBD5Vsc5kCVVnIldtk_iZNOz1AZ0uwwwW9rcqU4OFbTAHFVB4wyI1duWmbAMOQTZcRIL9qg/s1498/514941129_1412931453686518_8372849479591904166_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="1498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PzFAsx4v-EVguq04ofxZb45-RXlp9I5y7MGnhzzcs4YupXPCch-kpGElpSs9iDO0jeERi9vL9W-6oxEUKWN6llibXYSeaGlNvNvAbq5VAdmDuSsnqWguayBD5Vsc5kCVVnIldtk_iZNOz1AZ0uwwwW9rcqU4OFbTAHFVB4wyI1duWmbAMOQTZcRIL9qg/s16000/514941129_1412931453686518_8372849479591904166_n.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: EDGE OF DOOM aka STRONGER THAN FEAR Year: 1950 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>The idea of a Catholic Film Noir isn't so strange being that the "genre" and the religion are both full of guilt, and this above-average crime melodrama in the fashion of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT stars super-guilty-looking Farley Granger (equally as ashamed of his murdering-self in Alfred Hitchock's ROPE), who kills an old cranky priest that didn't give his long-dead father last rites because he'd committed suicide instead of — like Granger's beloved mother that he wants a lavish funeral for despite their shabby apartment-dwelling reality — dying more naturally, and with dignity... 
 
Enter Dana Andrews... not as the doomed priest but the young, more open minded Father with the normally Jewish last name of Roth (Hollywood obviously wanted to please everyone): he's called in for Ma's last rites instead of the old man, dealing with his own pointless personal family issues...

adele jergens, dana andrews, farley granger, fifties, film noir or melodrama, mala powers, mark robson, paul stewart, robert keith, thriller