Red Light (1949)

The reunion between trucking tycoon John (George Raft) and his army chaplain brother is cut short when father-brother is plugged as revenge against brother John. The secret to the killer’s identity is apparently inside a missing hotel bible. John puts his business on hold to locate the bible and exact revenge. Virginia Mayo is brought in to assist with the search.

The movie plays out with Raft’s John obsessively getting closer to the bible while the presumed antagonists slowly reveal their hand. Many of the conventions of film-noir are dispensed with. There is no love interest nor femme fatal. And the religious subtext feels out of place. More on that later.

All-around nice guy Gene Lockhart plays John’s faithful company guy. Gene's daughter June recently turned one hundred. Our prime suspects include Raymond Burr, playing to type, and Harry Morgan playing opposite. Lucy’s wacky neighbor Fred Mertz (William Frawley) has a small role.

Based on a short story titled “This Guy Gideon”, it was renamed Red Light because the producer liked it better. I’m not really sure how the new title fits into the narrative. Revenge is bad, so stop? The religious overtones are a bit much, so much so that TCM host Eddie Muller joked that it could be called Biblical-noir. And the Virginia Mayo character was inserted as if they wanted a love interest element, without actually having one. Also, the brotherly love angle bordered on becoming a creepy folger’s commercial.

Red Light is a bit of a disappointment. The tone was almost there but it falls short. If you watch noir and wish there were more bibles in it, maybe this is for you. For me, however, AMRU 2.5.

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) grows bored with her studies when she sees the White Rabbit (Bill Thompson). Curious, she decides to follow him down the rabbit hole. Thus begins her Adventures in Wonderland.

Loosely based on both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, it features the most characters of any Disney cartoon. It also differs from many Disney animated films in that there is no romance element. Nor is there really a hero’s journey. It’s just a series of crazy adventures. I found this refreshing.

Truth be told, I never read any part of Lewis Carroll’s books, so I can’t speak to how faithful the movie is in tone nor content. I do understand the doorknob character was invented by Disney. I started reading about Carroll's life but it went down a dark path rather quickly.

Ed Wynn is quite memorable as the Mad Hatter. The character’s likeness was modeled on him. His line “Mustard? Don’t let’s be silly!” was ad libbed and Disney liked it so much he had the animators add it in. Later in his career, Wynn's son Keenan convinced him to move to dramatic acting.

Alice in Wonderland is a fun film. As someone who is less than enamored with Disney, I found this unconventional classic most enjoyable. AMRU 3.5.

This Gun for Hire (1942)

A hired killer (Alan Ladd) is double-crossed and sets out for revenge. Pretty Ellen (Veronica Lake) is caught in the middle. World War II propaganda is shoehorned in.

Here is the second of seven films that paired Ladd and Lake. Ladd was a talented actor with leading man good looks, but at only 5’6” there were few leading ladies he could play opposite. Lake, at 5’2” or shorter, fit the profile. Here they are not a romantic pair, Lake’s Ellen was with Detective Crane (Robert Preston).

A box office success, This Gun for Hire made Ladd a star, affording him the opportunity to take hero roles. Friends but not romantic in real life, Ladd and Lake had much in common. Both struggled with substance abuse and died at fifty.

Life has been (and will continue to be) busy, so it has been about a month since I saw this film. I did enjoy it but I had to do some reading to refresh my memory. Perhaps that in itself isn’t a great sign, but I did like it.. Anyhow, AMRU 3.5.

Murder She Said (1961)

Jane Marple (Margaret Rutherford) witnesses a murder from her train window but the police find no evidence. So she poses as a domestic in a fancy manor house and does some investigating.

Joan Hickson plays a cook in a very small role, and would later go on to play Miss Marple for the BBC. I recently watched all of those episodes which includes a version of this story.

In the original story (4:50 from Paddington) and the Hickson BBC version the witness on the train, the investigating domestic, and Miss Marple are three different people. Combining them into one character is classic Hollywood and a reasonable cinematic decision, I think. The love interest part had to be removed for obvious reasons.

Murder She Said is the first of four Rutherford Marple films, and a box office success. Despite the lack of mystery, I rather enjoyed it. It’s a fairly complex story and the filmmakers did a good job of condensing it into a 90 minute runtime without watering it down. Rutherford's force of nature is a very different Marple than Hickson's accidental helper, and I’ll likely see more of them. AMRU 3.

Act of Violence (1948)

Former POW Joe (Robert Ryan) stalks his war hero CO Frank (Van Heflin) because of things that happened during the war.

Young Janet Leigh is Hero Frank’s wife. She turned 21 while filming. Mary Astor has a small but interesting role as a helpful hooker. Six years after The Maltese Falcon, romantic lead roles are squarely in the past for her now.

I had only seen Heflin in Shane but Ryan will show up occasionally as a villain. Barbara Billingsley is uncredited in a voice only role. I didn't catch it so I can't confirm whether or not she was speaking jive.

Neither Heflin nor Ryan make for a traditional protagonist. As we learn about Frank’s history, it becomes problematic to root for him. And with Joe giving off Night of the Hunter vibes, he is a hard sell as well. It’s only Leigh’s Edith we really feel for. The studio wanted Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart in the lead roles. That would be an entirely different film.

Act of Violence is an unconventional and fascinating noir. I don't imagine that 1948 audiences were particularly keen to see war hero's depicted in less than glorious light, but this film successfully pulls off a story with complicated characters. AMRU 3.5.