Hi everyone
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mgtbltp — 9 years ago(November 02, 2016 06:47 PM)
Speaking of Fiorentino, I can't believe she didn't get more mileage out of her performance in
The Last Seduction
, so I watched
Bodily Harm
(1995) it's on Youtube BTW where she plays a homicide detective, but the character is more reactive than proactive it's just not what you'd expect. It's not her, or what you expect from her, if you know what I mean.
I suspect that
Jade
1995 and even Dahl's
Unforgettable
1996 may have been more of the same. There is also talk that she was difficult to work with.
It's almost too bad, she had lightning in a bottle. She could have been an iconic type of personality.
It's like say Clint Eastwood, he made
A Fistful Of Dollars
,
For A Few Dollars More
, and
The Good The Bad And The Ugly
, and rode that Man With No Name persona for years. -
gordonl56 — 9 years ago(November 04, 2016 05:56 AM)
I had the good luck to see this on the big screen. Fabulous movie from start to finish. Fiorentino is excellent.
I was also lucky enough to see John Dahl's Red Rock West on the big screen. I just caught an episode of Ray Donovan that Dahl directed.
Nice write up. -
morrison-dylan-fan — 9 years ago(November 17, 2016 12:52 PM)
Hi Mgt,I want to say thank you for the superb review which has just led to me ordering the movie! With you mentioning You Kill Me,I was wondering if that title is a return to form from Dahl? (whose Duel-style Thriller Joy Ride I've also found to be a good late movie by him.)
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Jessica_Rabbit69 — 9 years ago(November 02, 2016 08:46 AM)
For 16 years Ive been living in dirt, and take it from me, some of its bound to rub off on you. You get to hate people everyone you meet. Im sick of them Im through with them all.
Shield for Murder
is an unpretentious Noir, co-directed by its star Edmond OBrien.
Embittered and crooked veteran cop Barney Nolan (Edmond OBrien) has come to the conclusion that the straight and narrow is the path to nowhere and decides its time to get a piece of the action. He wants his slice of the American Dream, a suburban model home with a two-car garage and backyard BBQ. Instead of saving, he opts for the easy route: he kills a bookie for $25,000 which should buy him the middle-class domestic bliss hes been longing for with his girlfriend Patty (Marla English).
Unfortunately the 25G was mob money, and the mob wants it back. On top of that, a deaf mute old man saw Nolan commit the crime, and Nolan knows he cant leave any loose ends
The 50s saw several dirty cop Noirs, that dealt with police corruption in one way or another (
Rogue Cop
,
Private Hell 36
,
The Prowler
,
Pushover
), hit the screen.
A decided shift in tone could be noticed compared to the 40s. It was less about powerlessness in the face of pre-ordained fate, more about moral corruption, with emphasis on personal culpability.
Shield for Murder
is a good example of that type of movie, but its neither the most stylish nor the most hard-hitting of its kind. The photography is slightly uninspired, and the storytelling is straight-forward and not overly imaginative, its nuts and bolts. It offers nothing particularly new in its depiction of disillusionment and dashed dreams. A bit more polish and subtlety may have elevated it to A status, what it does well though is realism.
Unfortunately, it plays too much like a morality play, OBriens character would have benefited from a little more moral ambiguity.
OBrien though, who was by then in his character actor phase, is absolutely believable in his role as burned-out cop. His everyman good looks were gone. He is sweaty and bloated, and its easy to believe the anger that is seething in him. Killing doesnt lie heavily on his conscience. In his view the people he goes after are not dead because he killed them, theyre dead because they didnt deserve to live.
Bitter and hateful, hes been working the streets too long and his attitude on the job has become more and more vicious over the years. Hes been sliding for a long time, the precinct is well-aware of his less than orthodox methods. A while ago he shot two Mexicans for no particular reason at all. Even before he killed the bookie, brutality and strong-arm tactics were his MO.
But interestingly, he is not a loner but a man in love. Only his girlfriend is able to mitigate his cynicism somewhat. She is the reason behind his rather banal suburban Dream.
It is telling that we only ever see the housing development with the model home at night, it is nothing more than a pre-fab dream in the darkness, a promise that doesnt come true.
Just once do we get a glimpse of the man Nolan used to be when a young man is brought to the police station who has been arrested for stealing a bag of groceries. One look at him tells Nolan it was the kids first crime and that he did it to feed his family. He lets him off with a warning.
He still is capable of understanding and compassion. It's a quick flashback to the man who became a mentor to his young friend on the force, John Agar, himself a former street kid.
Later the same night Nolan brutally pistol-whips two private dicks who were tailing him at a bar, to the horror of the patrons watching.
As the conflicted protagonist, the audience should be on Nolan's side but its hard to identify with him. His crook is not human enough for that, Nolan is not a basically good man gone wrong. He's firmly in bad guy territory. In the end we think he gets his just deserts, dying on the lawn of his dream house in front of a phalanx of squad cars.
Marla English plays OBriens finance. She looks fabulous in her cigarette girl outfit and those two make a strange but intriguing couple. She is attracted by his strength, but gets more and more scared by the out-of-control brutality he shows. Beauty and the Beast in Noir country.
Carolyn Jones (as a blonde) has a small role as a flirty B girl in a bar who throws herself at Nolan and whose preferences seem to be a bit on the kinky side.
Unpretentious but effective B Noir. Recommended.
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." -
Jessica_Rabbit69 — 9 years ago(November 02, 2016 03:02 PM)
I bought the DVD. Remastered, it looks good. Are there different formats? Edit: Rubbish, of course there are. I misunderstood the question. Ignore it.
https://www.amazon.com/Shield-Murder-Edmond-OBrien/dp/B01DEEVJ6C/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1478123889&sr=1-1&keywords=shield+for+murder
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." -
gordonl56 — 9 years ago(November 04, 2016 05:59 AM)
Well done Jess. I have seen this half a dozen times and have never got around to doing a review for some reason. It is one of my personal O'Brien favs. For a low-renter, it sure pushes all the right buttons. Again, well done!
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morrison-dylan-fan — 9 years ago(November 06, 2016 04:32 PM)
Hi Jess,I want to say thank you for the excellent review (with that quote being SO hard boiled)and you do very well at expressing how the movie shows signs on breaking out of the "B" zone,but falls short.I was wondering if you have seen O'Brien's other directed title Man-Trap? (Gordon gave it 8/10)
www.imdb.com/board/10055134/ -
Maddyclassicfilms — 9 years ago(November 03, 2016 12:59 PM)
Been looking forward to catching this for a while. Really enjoyed it and I liked that it kept me guessing until the end.
I've never been a fan of Linda Darnell, but I was very impressed with her tough gal performance here. Love the scene where Dana Andrews orders a hamburger and she gets it instead of him.
Great to see Anne Revere show up too.
Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly
. -
morrison-dylan-fan — 9 years ago(November 07, 2016 03:21 PM)
Hi Maddy,I hope you had a fun bonfires night,and it sounds like you had a terrific time catching up on this Noir.With Andrews,I recently got the chance to catch him in a very good,lesser known (non Noir) movie of his called Night Song:
www.imdb.com/board/10039659/ -
mgtbltp — 9 years ago(November 03, 2016 04:39 PM)
Directed by Joseph M. Newman (
711 Ocean Drive
(1950),
Dangerous Crossing
(1953), The Twilight Zone (TV Series)). Written by Irwin Gielgud (original screenplay), and William Bowers (additional dialogue). Cinematography by William H. Daniels (
Brute Force
(1947),
Lured
(1947),
The Naked City
(1948),
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
(1958).
The film Stars Dennis O'Keefe (
The Leopard Man
(1943),
T-Men
(1947),
Raw Deal
(1948),
Walk a Crooked Mile
(1948),
Woman on the Run
(1950)), Gale Storm (My Little Margie (TV Series)), Marjorie Rambeau, Raymond Burr (twelve classic Film Noir), Will Kuluva, Jeff Chandler (
Johnny O'Clock
(1947),
Female on the Beach
(1955),
The Tattered Dress
(1957), ), Meg Randall (
Criss Cross
(1949)), Jeanette Nolan (
The Big Heat
(1953), and Mike Mazurki (
Murder, My Sweet
(1944),
Nightmare Alley
(1947),
I Walk Alone
(1948),
Night and the City
(1950)).
Moving along at a good pace Abandoned makes use of numerous Los Angeles' locations. The iconic LA City Hall looms ominously. A young woman Paula Considine (Storm) arrives at the Missing Persons Detail in search of her missing older sister and her baby. There she meets reporter Mark Sitko (O'Keefe) who takes it upon himself to assist her, it doesn't hurt that she is cute. Stiko spots a man tailing her who turns out to be a PI named Kerric (Burr).
When Paula and Mark check the morgue's Jane Doe's they find her sister but not the baby. Through various channels, old newspaper articles and various tips they discover a black market baby racket that is protected by the mob.
Their next stop is the "Sally Ann" the Salvation Army where they discover that her sister was there, and after talking to one of her acquaintances discover that she hooked up with a woman who promised that she would find a home for her baby. Going to the district attorney they get the assistance of Chief MacRae (Chandler).
Gale Storm is quite adequate as the girl from Beaver Brook searching for her sister. Dennis O'Keefe, comes off as your typical Film Noir hero. Chandler is good but underused as the D. A. Baby racket head, Marjorie Rambeau will remind you of Margaret Dumont. Will Kuluva, is mobster Little Guy Decola who bestows protection to the scheme with Mike Mazurki his enforcer. Raymond Burr, is in his trademark "heavy" role as a sleazy private dick, but it's interesting to note the Mazurki is even bigger than Burr.
Its an entertaining film especially if you are not expecting much, could use a restoration. 6.5-7/10.
Review with screencaps from a multigenerational avi file here.
http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/11/abandoned-1949-black-market-babies.html