WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS!
This is a film about two (IMHO) innocent people who think they’ve done terrible things and take to the road to escape capture by the cops, who they assume are after them.
The movie opens with Bill Clark (played by would-be Elvis impersonator Steve Cochran) being released from prison, where he just spent 18 years after being convicted of murder. This is after shooting his abusive father at the age of 13. How this kid ended up in an adult prison given the circumstances demonstrates how fucked up the law can be hard cases make bad law unjust the justice system can be.
On his own (and having grown up in fucking prison), Clark wanders about, trying to catch up with changes in his own home town. He takes a welding job where he earns the princely sum of $2 an hour—or was it a day? Whatever it was, it was 1951 and chili and beans only cost 25 cents.
So Clark heads to New York City (after being used a somewhat slimy member of the Fourth Estate takes advantage of him), because in a small town, he doesn’t stand much of chance to start over, I suppose.
In New York, Clark looks more lost than ever, as he wanders through the bright lights of the big city at night. Oh, this is definitely a film noir, you think.
He ends up going to a dime-a-dance place—the things people did before Tinder!—so he can meet girls, because it would be really nice to have a first date at age 31.
Naturally, he’s drawn right away to Cathy “Cay” Higgins, a (bewigged) blonde taxi dancer with a tart tongue, but a grudgingly soft heart, who grabs his attention with lines like, “This is a refined (deliberately mispronounced ‘re-feened’) place for ‘re-feened’ people.” She agrees to sit and talk with Clark, though it’ll cost him in dance tickets.
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After giving him a whirlwind tour of New York that seems to involve a visit to the Empire State Building, it’s clear these two will end up together. However, when he walks her home, there’s a man with a gun inside her place, who’s not happy to see Clark with Cay. The man and Cay apparently have a relationship. We don't know much about that. All we know is that bad things are about to happen.
The men fight, because that’s what guys do in these movies. Never try to approach a problem like an adult when you can pull a gun and demand that a guy leave the room. As a result, Clark and the man get into it. Clark gets hold of the gun, then gets knocked out. Cay grabs the gun and the man, George Conover, moves toward her in a way that suggests he’s not looking for a hug. She shoots him in self-defense. Although he’s wounded, he practically shrugs it off, stumbling a bit, but walking as he leaves to catch a cab to the hospital.
So far, so noir, right?
Thing is, she’s afraid of the consequences of her actions. So, when Clark.wakes up, the last thing he remembers is having the gun. So Cay kinda leaves out the part about who shot Conover and he kinda assumes he did it, so both of them have reason to leave town. Did I mention that Conover’s a cop? Yeah, that’s an interesting twist. Were they just dating or was she ...? She's not a gold digger. Those dames go in for rich, criminal types. Unless, of course, the cop was on the take or ...? What is their deal, anyhow? In any case, all three are in an awkward position, publicity-wise. So, the two of them hit the road.
If this were a typical noir, Cay would be a complete femme fatale and lay all the blame squarely on Clark. But Cay’s silence comes at a mental cost, and you can see it in every scene with Ruth Roman, who plays Cay. She’s depicted as strong and capable, but hardly a threat. More like a partner, one whose secret creates tension throughout the story. Is it coincidence that Cay dyes her hair brown before Clark asks her to marry him? She would have dyed her hair, anyway, because she’s no dummy. Besides, that wig must get hot imagine the ordeal of touching up the roots, while on the run. Nonetheless, I’m sure someone can earn a PhD in feminist studies about this movie. Like most films noir.
Anyway, while they’re on the road, hopping trains and bumming rides, the movie suddenly goes from They Live by Night (or, in this case, Married and on the Run might be the better title) to The Grapes of Wrath.
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They’re picked up by the Joads the Dawsons—husband, Henry (played by Ray Teal), wife, Stella (played by Lurene Tuttle), and their young son, Johnny (played by Robert Hyatt). They’re on their way to Salinas, where the hubby will pick lettuce, his wife will work the assembly line of lettuce strippers, and the kid will stay home reading lurid “true crime” magazines. This is after they arrive at the work camp cabins where the workers live. Well, Clark fits right into that scenario, what with his manly torso and his Presley hair, he works up a cinematic sweat that makes you wonder why he didn’t just keep looking for welding work or do anything other than pick lettuce.
Cay also works on the lettuce stripping assembly line. She and Clark would both like something better, but it's clear that they're in this (whatever "this" is) together. Then, she learns she's pregnant, news that elicits a smile from the Convicted Killer.
After a brief tour into the Depression on Film, we head into Melodrama Territory, with tension building high enough to make it a psychological thriller.
Let’s just say that the real antagonist here isn’t the cops. It’s the press tabloids true detective magazines. Doing “their job”—attracting reader eyeballs—and not giving a damn about the consequences.
Which leads up to an end, which is apparently too happy for a film noir.
So what about Mildred Pierce? No one’s questioning its film noir credentials, despite Mildred’s possible reconciliation apparent continued friendship with her ex-husband at the end.
Even Pickup on South Street offers hope of a possible happy ending. What other film noir offered that to Richard Widmark?
*****
Director: Felix E. Feist
Producer: Henry Blanke
Screenwriters: Art Cohn and Guy Endore (Story by Guy Endore)
WARNING! THIS VIDEO IS A TOTAL SPOILER!
PS: I enjoyed the movie, no matter what genre it is. 🙂
And who thought it was a good idea to give every major character in the initial triangle a name starting with C?