Some Anthony Mann noir for November.

Railroaded! (1947), directed by Anthony Mann. John Ireland plays the heavy who perfumes his bullets. Hugh Beaumont plays the detective who smells a rat. These two and not the hapless fellow who finds himself railroaded for a crime he did not commit are front and centre in this classy noir that has a touch of the procedural about it. We have some scenes in which the police forensic fellow explains his findings, including a perfumed bullet taken from one of the early victims of Ireland’s hoodlum. This is vintage noir with the dark shadows, the brutal violence, the death of innocents and innocence, the city streets, dark rooms, night clubs, and duplicitous characters. This film features a fight between two women that is more vicious than the one in Destry Rides Again. Most of the characters are cast in shades of grey. Not so John Ireland whose bad guy is as ruthless and self-serving as they come. He smirks from his hiding place as he watches the women fight, tracing their movements with his pistol. He disposes of men and women without compunction. He even seems to enjoy getting rid of people. His moll runs a beauty salon; she is also a bookie who runs a gambling joint in the room back of the salon. This film has aggressive males and dangerous females, and a young man who is helpless to extricate himself from the frame-up in which he finds himself entrapped.

 

T-Men (1947), directed by Anthony Man, cinematographer John Alton. This is a semi-documentary noir with an annoying voice -over that guides us through the Treasury Department’s various areas of interest. The plot concerns a counterfeit ring operating in Detroit and Los Angeles, and two undercover agents who infiltrate the ring. About half way through things pick up and we have familiar noir touches such as brutal slayings and beatings, the dark city night locations, and the interest in gangland’s big bosses. One especially gruesome scene has one of the undercover agents watching his partner get killed in cold blood. What sets this film apart from run-of-the-mill noirs is its cinematography. John Alton made two more noirs with Anthony Mann, and he also shot one of my favourite noirs, The Big Combo (1955). He won an Oscar for An American in Paris (1951). Here he gives us great shots inside steam baths (one of the major characters dies in a steam bath), and camera angles that twist our vision. Made on a miniscule budget, T-Men makes us squirm in that second half.

 

Raw Deal (1948), directed by Anthony Mann. Once again the cinematographer is John Alton. This noir serves up earth, air, fire, and water. It is elemental. The anti-hero Joe (Dennis O’Keefe) longs for a breath of fresh air. His adversary Rick (Raymond Burr) plays with fire, even tossing a chafing dish of flaming Cherries Jubilee in his girlfriend’s face. The two women, Pat (Claire Trevor) and Ann (Marsha Hunt) enjoy camping in the woods on the damp earth. And then there is water on which a boat waits to take our two fugitives away from all their troubles. Joe begins in prison, breaks out, finds trouble and more trouble. Early in life he had saved some kids from a raging fire. In the end he will save a woman from a raging fire. He saves the woman, but gets burned in the act. This is noir at its most dark and pessimistic. None of the characters, with the possible exception of Ann, is what you might call “good.” They are criminals all. Alton shoots Raymond Burr from floor level to accentuate his bulk. He also keeps the lighting menacing and action takes place mostly at night, even in the countryside. Along for the ride is a creepy John Ireland who is as cold as they come. Like many noirs, this film has a voice over narration, only here the voice is not that of the male lead. The voice we hear is that of Pat (she notes sarcastically that she is a Patsy), Joe’s girlfriend (until Ann begins to tickle his fancy) who has helped him escape from prison and who plans to take that boat with him to South America. She speaks in a quiet monotone that nicely captures the mood of this story of fog and cigarettes and bursts of violence.

 

Border Incident (1949), directed by Anthony Mann. Once again, the cinematographer is John Alton, he of the sharp contrast, darkly lit monochrome. This is a film about the smuggling and exploitation of migrant Mexican farm workers who work in California. Everything about the look of this film spells noir, despite the absence of city streets. This is something of a noir/western cross, with the landscape of westerns and the closed in feel of noir. Perhaps the “canyon of death” serves as metaphor for this story. The canyon of death is a closed in area in the desert with a thick pool of quicksand-like bog that slowly draws disposable workers to their deaths. As they are dragged under, they suffocate. They also conveniently disappear. As these workers, desperate to make a living, are drawn into their life of slavery, they suffocate and many die. The film has Mann’s penchant for brutal violence, one person dying in a field of lettuce as a combine crushes and slices him. The two heroes are a Mexican policeman (Ricardo Montalban) and an American policeman (George Murphy). Both go undercover to discover the person at the head of the smuggling organization. Bad guys include two of Hollywood’s stalwart creeps, Charles MacGraw (he of the distinctive gravel voice) and Jack Lambert. Given recent news of a wall on the Mexican/American border, this film resonates even after 71 years. It is also a fitting segue into the series of westerns Mann will begin the following year with Winchester ’73. This film is also something of a precursor to one of the last as well as one of the finest noirs, Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958).

 

Side Street (1950), directed by Anthony Mann. The film opens with a helicopter shot of the Manhattan skyscrapers and maze-like streets. It ends with more aerial shooting as small cars below chase through the narrow maze of streets. Down below we have unassuming Joe Norson (Farley Granger), part-time mailman whose wife (Cathy O’Donnell) has recently given birth, driving wildly followed by police vehicles. In the car with him is the body of a murdered woman and a thug with a pistol aimed at Joe's head. Shots ring out, tires screech, Joe’s vehicle overturns, and things come to an end. Oh, Joe is okay, don’t fret. But before this thrilling finale, we have a story of young Joe, who lives with his pregnant wife and in-laws, and his moment of weakness when he steals what he thinks is $200 from a shady attorney, but what turns out to be $30,000. Trouble ensues as Joe finds himself on the run and sought by the police for murder. Joseph Ruttenberg’s cinematography is masterful, delivering documentary-like shots of the streets of New York that feel gritty and authentic. The action in the first half of the film takes place in daylight, but as things move along, shots become darker and more expressionistic as Joe sinks farther into the morass of evil. Mann delivers some brutal action before everything plays out. As film noir goes, this one is gripping. Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell had starred in Nicholas Ray’s They Live By Night (1948), and the two of them play young innocents well. In Side Street, Granger is the hapless veteran just trying to make a living for his growing family, and O’Donnell is the sweet trusting young wife anxious to save her marriage. Paul Harvey, as the police detective, provides voice over for the proceedings.