Hi all
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Spikeopath — 9 years ago(January 03, 2017 12:49 PM)
The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
She's no good, but she's good for me!
The Man Who Cheated Himself is directed by Felix E. Feist and written by Seton I. Miller and Phillip MacDonald. It stars Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, John Dall and Lisa Howard. Music is by Louis Forbes and cinematography by Russell Harlan.
Ed Cullen (Cobb) is a cop who is having an affair with wealthy Lois Frazer (Wyatt). When Lois, in a fit of panic shoots dead her husband, it cause Cullen no end of grief. You see, he was there as well, a witness to the crime
Don't forget to change your will.
This is a film noir entry that contains most of the elements that form that brand of film making. Something of an under seen - and undervalued - piece, it manages to rise above a few minor itches to play out as potent. Cullen (Cobb excellent) gets spun into a vortex of self inflicted trouble on account of his eye for a dame, essayed by a cast against type Wyatt. Both are unfaithful, she's unreliable and he's quick to break his own laws with dishonesty and a corruptible soul.
Things spice up when Cullen's younger brother, Andy (Dall), himself a police officer, joins his brother in investigating the "now" mysterious murder case. So we have a family crisis brewing as the younger Cullen tries to crack the case, all while his elder brother tries to throw him off the scent of his own complicity. Wonderful, because like a few other great noirs (Scandal Sheet, The Big Clock et al) we have a protagonist effectively investigating himself. And with the brothers being polar opposites in life values, it keeps things simmering nicely in the intrigue pot.
The dialogue is often clippy and the police procedural aspects are finely played with believable strokes. Close calls come and go as the detective work lurches from almost solved and closed to "hang on a minute something smells fishy here" , while tricky collusion's smile like a Cheshire cat. The great Russell Harlan (Gun Crazy/Riot In Cell Block 11) continually keeps things moody with shadows and low lights, whilst simultaneously bringing to life the splendid San Francisco locations. None more so than for the finale filmed out at a derelict and decrepit Fort Point, a perfect setting for noir if ever there was one (Hitchcock and Boorman thought so too!)
Wyatt is just about convincing enough as a femme fatale, but you can't help but ponder what one of the true noir actresses could have done with the role. While you can't get away from the fact that really both Cullen and Frazer simply had to front up for a self defence case at the beginning and there would have been no hassle. But as weak as that aspect is, there wouldn't have been this noir tale to tell, all of which is helmed with careful and knowing hands by Feist (Tomorrow is Another Day). 7.5/10
The
SpikeopathHospital Number
217 -
Jessica_Rabbit69 — 9 years ago(January 03, 2017 02:29 PM)
Still haven't seen it. It's on youtube so I will rectify this mistake soon. I'm interested in seeing Jane Wyman as femme fatale, it seems to be odd an casting choice.
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." -
Jessica_Rabbit69 — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 12:43 PM)
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." -
XhcnoirX — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 03:44 PM)
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. -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(January 03, 2017 03:04 PM)
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 = - someone in a position of power/trust helps a
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Spikeopath — 9 years ago(January 09, 2017 06:29 AM)
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
SpikeopathHospital Number
217 -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(January 09, 2017 02:48 PM)
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 = -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(January 06, 2017 06:37 PM)
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 = -
Manton29 — 9 years ago(February 07, 2017 02:12 PM)
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. -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 9 years ago(February 08, 2017 11:45 AM)
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!