I Wake Up Screaming (1941)

“When I get all my evidence together, I'm gonna have you tied up like a pig in a slaughterhouse.”

            Happy Noirvember my fabulous followers. Ah, Film Noir, a fantastic genre (is considered a genre? So many things I have read say different things). Most of my favorite films are Noir. I just love the dark undertones and sleazy characters. I love the fact that in a hand full of the Noirs I have seen even the good guys and dames have a sleazy side to them. Why the hell not no one is ever really all good and innocent everybody has a dark side (cue Kelly Clarkson!).

            I hate to say that I Wake Up Screaming will be my only post for Noirvember. I wish I could participate every year but every year since becoming an Old Hollywood fan I have been ass deep at the end of a semester in college. This year I am in the last semester of college ever!! I am currently completing my Masters degree and I have only a few weeks left to finish my thesis so I can finally graduate and get a real job! Hopefully next Noirvember I will be able to fully participate and be in Film Noir heaven. But for this month and this year here is my review for I Wake Up Screaming from 1941.

            Frankie Christopher (Victor Mature) is being interrogated by a group of detectives in the basement of police station. They have him under heavy lights as they try to make him confess to the murder of a young girl named Vicky Lynn. Frankie swears up and down that he had nothing to do with the girl’s murder he was trying to help her become famous. He is a promoter he would never do anything to someone he was trying to promote. The police have him go over the day he met Vicky. He was with a few of his friend at a restaurant. Vicky was their waitress. He thought she was pretty and smart enough to be promoted as the next big thing. Sometime later Frankie took Vicky out to a club where society people frequented. She soon became a new high society girl and was offered jobs for modeling and acting.

            Jill (Betty Grable) is Vicky’s older sister. She came down to the station to discuss what happened. She recalls the night Vicky went out with Frankie for the first time. She had been sleeping on the couch waiting for Vicky to come home. She thought Vicky had stars in her eyes and tries to talk some sense into her.

            The police learn that Vicky had been given a long term movie contract out in California. She got the contract after doing a screen test and she did not tell Frankie about it. The police try to play the angle that Frankie was furious with her for going behind his back since he made her famous. They then ask Jill if there had been any other men in Vicky’s life. She tells them there was a man that was stalking Vicky from the time she was a waitress. She had gone to the restaurant to walk home with Vicky and she saw a man looking in the window at her and then on the street. Jill mentioned it to Vicky and she just brushed it off. The police do not believe Jill they think she is throwing them off to protect Frankie and she is the one who killed Vicky. As Jill is walking out of the room a detective named Cornell comes in. She points him out as the one who was stalking Vicky.

            The night before the murder, Vicky, Jill, and Frankie took a drive together. Vicky was going to be leaving for California the next day. She mentions that Jill will be glad to get rid of her so she can be with Frankie. Vicky could see that Jill has feelings for Frankie but her sister will not admit it. The police found out about this exchange. They ask Jill what happened the day of the murder. Jill responds that she had come home early from work. She felt there was something wrong when she got off the elevator and the door to their apartment was open and music was playing. When she got into the apartment Frankie was standing over Vicky’s body.

            The police chief lets Frankie go and he tells Frankie and Jill they believe the switchboard operator at the apartment was the one who killed Vicky because he was jealous. That night Frankie wakes in the middle of the night to Cornell sitting in a chair in his room. Cornell is convinced Frankie is the killer and he will do anything he can to bring him to justice. The following day Frankie tries to call Jill at the apartment but she is moving out. Henry picks up the phone he was never arrested or questioned.

            Cornell starts to put the squeeze on Jill. He believes she killed her sister and tries to make her confess to the murder and to loving Frankie. When Cornell leaves her alone in her apartment Jill takes down a painting and in the back she keeps a letter Frankie had written. She gives him a call and they go out.

            After spending time together they want to run away to get away from the cops. Unfortunately they cannot get away from the cops they are always on their backs. Frankie and Jill decide to take matters into their own hands and find the real killer.

            The cast was very good. Betty Grable in a drama was interesting. It was nice to see her acting outside of a comedy or musical.  Victor Mature I have not seen in very many films. I liked him in this he fit into the male Noir role. He played the typical sleazy male at the beginning and then turned into this good, really caring guy. Carole Landis I have never seen in a film before. I liked her I would definitely like to see her in more films.

            I Wake Up Screaming was a good Film Noir. It was not very suspenseful and I had the killer figured out the moment he was shown. The title of the film is misleading there was no one screaming or really waking up from a bad dream. I Wake Up Screaming is a Film Noir I recommend seeing. I was not upset that this was the only film I could watch for Noirvember.

 

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

“All my life ever since I was a little girl I've always had the same dream. To marry a zillionaire.”

            I think it is every girls dream to marry a millionaire. Well in today’s world a millionaire ten times over. Good lord what I would NOT do with a few million at my disposal! First thing I would pay off my student loans and get my Masters in Art History and get a degree Anthropology and photography (two of the most random things right?). Then I would buy myself an awesome car… wait why would I buy a car when I can just have someone drive me around all the time? My dream is to have an apartment on Fifth Ave in New York City right across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art so I can go there whenever I feel like it. Oh and pay to get into the most awesome events that go on in NYC. 

            But then there is another side to all this as there always is. In the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire three women are on the prowl for rich men who will take care of them and buy them all the diamonds and mink coats they could ever want. They meet these rich men and begin to find that they are not the types of men they could ever be happy with.

            Model Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall) buys a fully furnished penthouse apartment. The man who owns the apartment is on the run for tax reasons. She looks like she can afford the penthouse without a problem as she hands the realtor two thousand dollars for the first two months of rent. As soon as the realtor leaves she calls over her friend Pola (Marilyn Monroe). Pola gets off the elevator and cannot see a thing she is no nearsighted. As soon as she puts on her glasses and looks at the apartment she loves it. Pola tells Schatze she knows another woman nicknamed Loco (Betty Grable) who wants to go in on the penthouse too. Loco comes over with groceries only the groceries are being carried by a man named Tom. When Tom walks into the penthouse and sees Schatze he immediately falls in love with her.

            Over hotdogs and champagne on the balcony the three women talk over their strategies to snag a millionaire. The whole reason Schatze rented the penthouse was so they could entertain rich men. Schatze firmly tell Pola and Loco not to fall in love with common men with no money they will only have their heartbroken like she did.

            They find out that there is to be a meeting at a hotel where a lot of rich oilmen will in attendance. Each woman snags a man. Pola and Loco are clearly not too happy on their dates but they bear it because the men have so much money. Pola’s guy has an eye patch and acts really weird. Loco’s guy is just crazy and talks about how he cannot stand his family especially his wife. Schatze is the only lucky one out of the three. She meets a nice older man named J.D. Hanley (wonderfully, fantastically played by William Powell). They get along perfectly. That night Schatze dreams of all the diamonds she can buy and Pola dreams of going to some far off country in the Middle East where a king just gives her handfuls of diamonds and jewelry. Loco hysterically dreams of food.

            Meanwhile, the audience finds out that Tom is a very rich man with a building named after him. He keeps calling Schatze to give him a chance to go out with her but she just thinks he is a gas jockey and will not give him the time of day. He never tells her about his money. But when J.D. goes back to Texas Schatze breaks down and goes out with Tom and they become very close.

            As Schatze goes through her thing with Tom and J.D., the other two women come to realizations. Loco is on vacation up in main the guy she met at the conference. He is a bore and a moron and she has no fun with him. While the guy is laid up with the measles Loco goes out with a local man named Eben (Rory Calhoun). He is handsome, young and charming. She has mixed feelings about him at first and it is not until after she leaves that she realizes she loves Eben. Pola was supposed to get on a plane down to Atlantic City to see her man but she was stubbornly not wearing her glasses and got on the wrong plane. On the plane she happens to meet the owner of the penthouse Freddie Denmark. Freddie wears glasses and tells Pola there is not shame to wearing glasses that she actually looks nice in them.

            J.D. comes back and asks Schatze to marry him. She does love J.D. but she is having second thoughts. Schatze has such a great time with Tom. On the day of her wedding to J.D. Tom comes to the penthouse. They have a talk and realize they should be together. Besides all this drama Pola comes back married Freddie and Loco has come back married to Eben. All three of them turn out not marrying for money… well except Schatze who does not find out that Tom has money until they are out at a burger joint for dinner and they see Tom pull out a wad of thousand dollar bills. At this site Schatze, Pola, Loco all faint off their chairs.

            I remember I started watching this film with my roommate who is a legitimate Marilyn Monroe fan (I say legit and mean it she really does like Marilyn and does not treat her like an icon she has become) put this on one day. I was curious to see it because Lauren Bacall is in it. I cannot remember why I did not sit through the whole film but what I saw I really liked and asked for it on DVD for Christmas. I think I got the DVD two years ago and have now just finally sat through the whole thing. I am glad I sat through it now because I really liked everyone in it and I was able to appreciate Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and of course William Powell.

            Lauren Bacall was great as the head of the group. She looks natural in the role of the leader and the determined woman who really wants to marry a millionaire. I am always surprised whenever I see Marilyn Monroe in a film and her acting is fantastic. She did not annoy me one but she was so adorable and really funny. Betty Grable I have never seen in a film before this and I am so looking forward to finding more of her films. She was hilarious I loved how her character was always eating or thinking of food because that is exactly what I do. William Powell I love and adore to no end. I could not stop thinking about how handsome he was. Powell was sixty by this time and looked more handsome than ever. He looked especially amazing in color. He played such a sweet character, gentlemanly character. Powell played this type of character countless times in his career but he was so great in those roles that they never get boring to see him play. The entire cast had such great chemistry you can believe them all being friends. 

            How to Marry a Millionaire is a fun film to watch. The story is cute and there are some excellent funny moments and some lines that are just too good to give away. How Marry a Millionaire is a great film to watch when you need something light and funny to cheer your day up.