Mr. Denning Drives North (1951)
The Denning Desperation.
Mr. Denning Drives North is directed by Anthony Kimmins and adapted to screenplay from his own novel by Alec Coppel. It stars John Mills, Phyliss Calvert, Eileen Moore, Sam Wannamaker and Herbert Lom. Music is by Benjamin Frankel and cinematography by John Wilcox.
A splendid collage of murder mystery, noir and thriller - with a slice of Hitchcockian black humour thrown in for good measure, Kimmins' film deserves to be better known. Plot finds Mills as the Mr. Denning of the title, who after accidentally killing his what he believes to be his daughter's unscrupulous boyfriend, dumps the body and then finds himself in a whirl of stricken conscience and panic.
To say more would be to spoil the fun for there are plenty of interesting roads on which the story travels, but it's safe to say the investigation of the missing body is gripping and has a delicious slice of ironic fate about it. Cast are excellent, particularly Mills, with the leads boosted by a roll call of British greats in supporting roles. Frankel provides a very lively musical score and Wilcox's photography has the requisite tonal accompaniments for the unfolding plot. Hats off also to Kimmins, who keeps a tight hold on things to let the drama flow naturally without histrionics.
From a nifty expressionistic opening to a very cheeky and fulfilling finale, this very much is one for murder mystery, noir, thriller fans to seek out. 7.5/10
The
Spikeopath

Hospital Number
217

Regarding
The Man Who Cheated Himself

• I'll be watching this tonight.
  I just finished
  Pushover
  and I watched
  Double Indemnity
  yesterday. Somehow, I end up watching these three together.

Proud to be Canadian!

Yeah.
Cobb
is from the
Steiger
school of acting, scenery chewers for sure but they sure could inhabit roles.
Glad you saw it and listen mate, I wouldn't be putting up a fight about
Wyatt
, she gets by in my book but I would much have preferred a whole host of noir lady actors to have done it instead.
The
Spikeopath

Hospital Number
217

Spike, after your nice review I watched it on youtube. I pretty much agree with your take on it. Best thing about is Lee J. Cobb who could save any movie just by his presence. John Dall was good in a nice guy role and obviously the San Francisco locations were beautiful.
Wyatt is just about convincing enough as a femme fatale
I actually thought she was completely miscast. Casting against type can work beautifully, here it doesn't. She is extremely histrionic in her scenes with both brothers when they come to investigate. With a different actress this film could have been a little gem.
The only time I thought she was convincing was in the last scene. A nice ending btw. Cobb has to realize he's been played for a sucker, his self-ironic smile says it all. His lady-love is already vamping her attorney to get off. For a second we wonder if she hadn't planned it like that from the beginning.
The picture would be a good candidate for a restoration.
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."

My copy of
Denning
is recorded from a Ch4 showing in the early 1990s, put on to disc with adverts edited out, great print
The
Spikeopath

Hospital Number
217

I hope you are having a good 2017 Spike,and it looks like you set the Noir fireworks off with these two. For Denning, Alec Coppel was well placed to work with Hitchcock later on the script for Vertigo,some doctoring work on To Catch A Thief and also write some Present eps. With only having seen some bits from a rough TV print,how did you find the new Network version?

WhoopsI should have replied to Spike!
Sorry 'bout that

Proud to be Canadian!

Haven't seen the film so cant comment on all that, MsEQ maybe someone upthread?
If to stand pat means to resist evil then, yes, neighbour, we wish to stand pat.

I watched this film again last night, and honestly, his character was a bit sloppy. For one thing,
why was he meeting his girlfriend so quickly after the murder? And once he was seen entering the bridge, why didn't he make up a reason for being there? Didn't he think that people might ask him? He should have also found another place to dispose of the gun, once he'd been seen.

Proud to be Canadian!

Nobody makes scenery chewing more compelling and dignified than Cobb. Love the guy in Thieves' Highway, 12 Angry Men etc. Also playing an Italian pappy at a young age in that boxing flick with Bill Holden, Golden Boy - Joe love-a music-a - ha ha. Fantastic performance as far as I'm concerned. He must have been great on stage?
If to stand pat means to resist evil then, yes, neighbour, we wish to stand pat.

Yes, not blessed with conventional looks, much like
Steiger
, but what actors. Both of course from the grand school of scenery chewing!
The
Spikeopath

Hospital Number
217

By the way, when I first heard that Lee J. Cobb is the star of this film, I wondered how he would have pulled off playing an older cop who has what it takes with the ladies. He sure didn't have the appearance for it! Yet he was very convincing. Great job here by a terrific actor.

Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen
=

Do. It's well worth a look. Great overlooked noir.

Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen
=

I still need to pop my copy in the dvd one of these days. Nice review.

and of course, I didn't mean to suggest that
Pushover
and
Double Indemnity
are identical. But there is something about both films (besides the leading man) which makes me associate the two movies with each other.
Great review, by the way!

Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen
=

Big fan
Money isn't dirty. Just people.
Pushover is directed by Richard Quine and adapted to screenplay by Roy Huggins from stories written by Bill S. Ballinger and Thomas Walsh. It stars Fred MacMurray, Phillip Carey, Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone and E. G. Marshall. Music is scored by Arthur Morton and cinematography by Lester White.
Straight cop Paul Sheridan (MacMurray) is on the trail of the loot stolen in a bank robbery where a guard was shot and killed. He is tasked with getting to know Lona McLane (Novak), the girlfriend of the chief suspect in the robbery. But once contact is made, and surveillance set up over the road from her apartment complex, Sheridan begins to fall in love and lust with the sultry femme.
Comparisons with the superior Double Indemnity are fair enough, but really there is enough here, and considerable differences too, for the film to rightfully be judged on its own merits. Also of note to point out is that one or two critics have questioned if Pushover is actually a film noir piece? Bizarre! Given that character motives, destinies and thematics of plot are quintessential film noir.
A good but weary guy is emotionally vulnerable and finds his life spun into a vortex of lust, greed and murder. Yet the femme fatale responsible, is not a rank and file manipulator, she too has big issues to deal with, a trophy girlfriend to a crook, she coarsely resents this fact. The cop who never smiles and the girl who has forgotten how too, is there hope there? Do they need the money that has weaved them together? What does that old devil called fate have in store for them? Classic noir traits do pulse from the plot. True, the trajectory the pic takes had been a well trodden formula in noir by the mid fifties, where noir as a strong force was on the wane, but this holds up very well.
It isn't just a piece solely relying on two characters either, there's the concurrent tale of Sheridan's voyeuristic partner Rik McAllister (Carey), who has caught the eye of Lona's next door neighbour, Ann Stewart (Malone). Both these characters operate in a different world to the other two, yet the question remains if a relationship can be born out from such shady beginnings? The presentation of relationships here is delightfully perverse. The visual style wrung out by Quine (Drive a Crooked Road) and White (5 Against the House) is most assuredly noir, with 99% of the film set at night, with prominent shadows, damp streets lit by bulbous lamps and roof top scenes decorated sparsely by jutting aerials. The L.A. backdrop a moody observer to the unwrapping of damaged human goods.
Cast are very good, all working well for their reliable director. Novak sizzles in what was her first credited starring role, she perfectly embodies a gal that someone like Paul Sheridan could lose his soul for. MacMurray is suitably weary, his lived in face telling of a life lacking in genuine moments of pleasure. Carey, square jawed, tall and handsome, he is the perfect foil to MacMurray's woe. Malone offers the potential ray of light trying to break out in this dark part of America, while Marshall as tough Lieutenant Eckstrom and Allen Nourse as a copper riding the noir train to sadness, score favourably too.
It opens with a daylight bank robbery and closes in true noir style on a cold and wet night time street. Pushover, deserving to be viewed as one of the more interesting 1950s film noirs. 8/10
The
Spikeopath

Hospital Number
217

Oh yes, I've mentioned that film on this board in the past.
Glad you liked it!
I recommend
Pushover
(1954) as well, if you haven't seen it.

Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen
=

It was you who jogged me into seeking it out
The
Spikeopath

Hospital Number
217

I like that film! It makes me think of both
Double Indemnity
and
Pushover

• someone in a position of power/trust helps a
  femme fatale
  to commit a crime, and then he has to cover his (and her) own tracks.

Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen
=

Hi,I've created a new Noir page on Reddit,details are on the post at the top of this board.
Thanks,MDF/Chris.

No, it's definitely not Lansbury. She's miscast as a sexy, alluring femme fatale but at least she can act. Her co-star Keith Andes can't (at least not in this movie), and there is zero chemistry The story is also really pedestrian, and the overall directing and cinematography is mediocre at best. At least it has a ridiculous ending involving a door leading to almost literally nowhere, but still
I enjoy low/no budget B-noirs, and some are pretty bad Objectively speaking, they're probably worse than this movie. But I struggled to finish this movie, more than any other noir I've watched so far.

Ouch. What exactly is so bad about it? Is it just Lansbury?
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."

A Life At Stake
is in my top 5 worst noirs list. I've not yet watched the other 4
I exaggerate But it's pretty bad.

Oops, that's the one I meant. Talk about odd casting choices, Angela Lansbury was cast twice as femme fatale. In
Please Murder Me
with Raymond Burr which I've seen and in
A Life at Stake
which is still on my list. I guess she pulled it off, barely though.
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."