I caught that movie on TV a couple of days ago. A great Film Noir, IMO. In B&W, of course.

If you liked Basehart in that movie, check out:
He Walked By Night.

A nice little film noir that I've seen many times, and one that contains a scene which I routinely point to as perfectly indicative of tough male attitudes in the immediate postwar error. More about that in a minute.

Let's see- we've got the great Audrey Totter as the femme fatale of this film. Ms. Totter made quite a few films noir: The Postman Always Rings Twice, Lady in the Lake, Alias Nick Beal, The Unsuspected, High Wall, and The Set-Up, with those last three films being highly recommended by me.

We've got Richard Basehart as the milquetoast drugstore clerk with the soft name of 'Quimby' married to the cheating Audrey Totter.

We've got beautiful Cyd Charisse as the film's redemptive female, and Tom D'Andrea as the voice of conscience to guide poor Richard Basehart. Some of you will know D'Andrea as the helpful cabbie in Dark Passage.

So, Audrey Totter leaves Richard Basehart for a big, strappin' hairy-chested guy who has a house on the beach. Basehart drives out there to ask his wife to come back home. The big guy smacks Basehart around, knocks him down, breaks his glasses and humiliates him.

Here's the scene I point to when I'm trying to convey why film noir's popularity exploded after WWII. Keep in mind that we'd just been through the biggest war in world history. Men were toughened up and their atitudes reflected it and this came through in film noir.

That night, a dejected Basehart is at the drugstore telling Tom D'Andrea about all of this. D'Andrea, who also works at the drugstore is behind the counter opening a large can of orange juice. He has an eight inch kitchen knife in his had, gripped like a dagger.

D'Andrea: She wouldn't come back, would she? What happened?

Basehart: He beat me up.

D'Andrea: Beat you up?? (he puts the tip of the blade on the top of the can) No guy could do that to me. (he smacks the pommel of the knife, driving it into the metal can) I'd kill him. (Basehart smiles meekly. D'Andrea repositions the blade on the can and smacks the pommel once again, then looks at Basehart) I mean it, Mr. Quimby. I'd kill him.

And then you can see the wheels turning in Basehart's head. Imagine how many WWII veterans were in the audience in 1949 when this film was in theaters, and imagine how many of them smiled and nodded when they heard D'Andrea's lines in that scene.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

We've got beautiful Cyd Charisse as the film's redemptive female;

You mean Tula Finklea?

She was actually a relative of mine. Before my Grandmother passed away she told me how we were related but I forget. I wish I would have recorded a question and answer session I had with her when she was alive. So much history lost.

quote:

...D'Andrea as the helpful cabbie in Dark Passage.

And Jim Gillis in the 1950's TV sitcom "Life of Riley".