Garden of Evil (1954)

“I guess if the earth were made of gold, men would die for a handful of dirt.”

            Ever wanted to know what a Film Noir that takes place in the west would look like? All you need to do is watch Garden of Evil. I did not find it as thrilling as a traditional Noir or Western, though.

            A ship breaks down. Two men from the ship Hooker (Gary Cooper) and Fiske (Richard Widmark) are taken to the nearby island of Porto Miguel. They are told that the ship will take weeks to fix. The town looks like a ghost town. The only lively place is the local bar but there are not that many people there either.

            After a while in the bar a woman named Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) comes in looking for people to help her. A long way off in a mine her husband has become trapped in a cave in and she needs the help of a few men to get him out. Leah tells the men that she will pay them each a thousand dollars. Not many of the locals sign up to go because they are superstitious about the Apache Indians that roam the hills destroying villages of invading peoples. Hooker and Fiske sign up along with a guy named David and a local named Vincente.

            The group is fortunate to not have run into any Indians on their journey to the mine. The only opposition they face is each other. David cannot control his lust for Leah which leads to a big fight between him and Hooker. Hooker winds up punching him up and then talking to him calmly.

            At the mine, Leah’s husband is still alive. He is dehydrated and has a fractured leg. When Fuller comes to a bit he is very angry with Leah. He says it is her fault he got caught in the mine because she wanted things. Leah says that is true and a few other ramblings that I cannot remember and for some reason that kind of pisses Hooker and Fiske off… at least I think it does, my attention started to wander at this point. Leah comes up with the idea for the men to leave that night and she will stay behind to tend to the fire to make it look like to the Indians that they are all still at the house. Hooker and the other men think Leah is crazy. Hooker has enough of her stoic crap and he punches her out so he can place her on the back of his horse.

            Fuller needs to get off his horse and rest. David is not happy about the rest he wants to keep going to not be spotted by the Indians and to get back to Porto Miguel as soon as possible. Fuller knows he is bothering David and he is willing to go on ahead by himself to let the others have a chance to keep clear of the Indians. David gets Fuller onto a horse. Hooker sees what is happening but he is too late to stop them. David for some reason freaks out on Hooker but before too much can happen David is shot by an Indian arrow and dies. Further in their travels they come by an abandoned burned out church. They find Fuller has been killed and tied to a cross.

            Not long after leaving the church the Apaches begin attacking the small group. Vincente is killed first. Fiske and Hooker try to be the hero and stay behind to shoot at the Indians while the other leaves for safety with Leah. Hooker wanted to stay behind but Fiske is willing to make a bet with him. Since Gary Cooper is the main actor in the film he gets to leave with Susand Hayward while Richard Widmark gets left behind.

            If you cannot guess the ending then you have obviously never seen any movie in your life.

            So many reviewers on IDMB really liked Garden of Evil. Some even said that it is one of the best and most underrated Westerns. I thought Garden of Evil was just alright. I was not too crazy about the story (well, it was a good example of a story about greed since all the characters were greedy with certain things) and there were parts that definitely dragged. The main cast of Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, and Richard Widmark was great. Hayward was the perfect actress to play a tough, determined Western woman. I can see where some reviewers were saying the film is a cross between a Noir and a Western. As I said at the beginning Garden of Evil is not as thrilling as the traditional form of the genres. The film is worth seeing for the cast and the color in Cinemascope. Garden of Evil is available to view in full on YouTube. 

Night and the City (1950)

“Harry, do you know what you're doing? You're killing me. You're killing me and yourself.” 

            I have a whole list of films that if I were to ever become a film teacher I would show to my class. I have everything from silents to Pre-Codes to war films to cheesy sixties films. Most importantly I would show my class Film Noirs. There are so many Noirs from the forties are my absolute favorite especially Laura, Leave Her to Heaven, The Blue Dahlia, This Gun for Hire, Out of the Past, and The Killers. I have added a new Film Noir to my list with Night and the City. I am guessing it is not a very well known Noir unless you are a fan of the genre or are a Gene Tierney fan because this film should be shown in film classes. Night and the City should actually be one of the top examples of a Film Noir even though there is no femme fatale and no one dies from a gun. The cinematography and the direction are Noir perfection.

            Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is being chased through a section of London. He manages to get away from his pursuer making it inside his girlfriend Mary’s (Gene Tierney) apartment. He sees she is not around and starts going through her bag looking for money. Mary catches him and he covers for himself saying he was looking for cigarettes. She tells him she has been worried about being away for three days never telling her where he is. Harry replies that he was in Birmingham for a business opportunity opening a racetrack. He asks Mary for three hundred pounds (the film takes place in England) to get the racetrack started and asks her for some. She refuses she helps him out enough. Mary knows he was being chased for money and gives him two pounds towards paying some of the money back. She tells Harry they used to be happy and that he has gotten himself into too many things.

            Harry and Mary work for a man named Phil Nosseross and his wife Helen. They run a nightclub where Mary sings and entertains. On the side they run a con business. Harry is part of that con to get money out of people. He winds up at a Greco-Roman wrestling match when he hears an old Greek man named Gregorius yelling at his son Kristo that what he is watching is not wrestling and is really made at what his son is running. Harry comes up with an idea on the spot. He goes out into the lobby where Gregorius is walking out and yells at the man at the ticket counter that he is appalled by what is seeing it is not wrestling. Of course he does this to catch Gregorius’s attention. He manages to get the old wrestler on his side and plans to take over wrestling in all of London.

            Harry needs four hundred pounds to get the business started. He goes to Phil. The man knows Harry is no good but Helen convinces her husband to match Harry’s two hundred pounds if he can come back with.  Harry goes all over town asking everyone he knows for the two hundred pounds. No one will give it to him they think it is just another scam he is running. He finally gets the money from Helen who wants to open a place of her own and needs Harry’s help. When Harry goes to Phil. Phil walks to his closet to get a fur he had just bought his wife but it is not there. At that moment he knows where Harry got the money.

            As soon as Harry opens his gym and business things begin to go wrong for him. He quickly has a price put on his head and he runs and hides throughout London to get away from Kristo.

            The entire cast was perfect. Richard Widmark played Harry so well you can believe he was a good man who just wanted to be somebody but got himself mixed up in things out of his control. Gene Tierney looked beautiful and acted amazing in her few scenes. I think he got top billing because she was one of 20^th Century’s biggest stars. Whatever the reason Tierney commands your attention when she comes on screen with her acting and her beauty. The actor who played Phil reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock if Hitchcock was a dirty disgusting old man.

            The location shots were cool to see. I stayed in London for a month for a study abroad program three years ago. I had a good time seeing all the sites again like Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, and St. Paul’s.

            Jules Dassin’s direction was flawless. One reviewer on IMDB wrote that the direction and cinematography take away from the viewer paying attention to the story. I fully agree with this reviewer. You get so lost in the direction and the cinematography and even the acting that it often becomes a bit tedious to pay attention to the story. I mean this in a good way because the film all around is just brilliant. Dassin’s direction is one of the best I have ever seen in a film I loved watching his angles and camera work.

            Night and the City should be shown more in film classes. It should just be ranked as one of the best Film Noirs. Night and the City is so sadly underrated. If I were to ever be a film teacher Night and the City would most definitely be a film I would show.

 

Don't Bother to Knock (1952)

“Are you the girl in 809?”
“Why, yes. Who's this?”
“I'm the guy in 821.”

            When you her Marilyn Monroe’s name I bet the first thing that comes into your mind is of her being the dumb blonde or the “Blonde Bombshell” in her films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot. When I hear her name those are the first films of hers I think of and how she was not the greatest actress ever that she more of an icon than anything else. But with the last two Marilyn Monroe films I have sat through she has been so much more than the blonde, ditzy girl she was made out to be. She was fabulous in The Misfits as the lonely divorced woman looking for a place in the world. I thought she was great in The Misfits but she absolutely blew me away in one of her first dramatic films Don’t Bother to Knock.

            Jed Towers (Richard Widmark) is a pilot who comes to a hotel to find his girlfriend Lyn (Anne Bancroft). Lyn wrote a letter to him saying how she wanted to break things off with him. He really likes her but wants to know why she does not want to be with him. She tells Jed that he is not very caring or has the heart. Jed is upset so he goes back to his room. Lyn can be heard singing on the radio and he angrily turns it off.

            Nell Forbes (Monroe) has recently come to New York for a new change of scenery. She was recently in the hospital recovering from something. Her uncle Eddie works as an elevator operator at the hotel and gets her a job babysitting a little girl for the nigh. Nell puts the girl Bunny to bed and goes into the other room and puts the mother’s rob, earrings, and perfume on.

            Jed sees Nell in the window across from his room. He finds her attractive and calls her up. He asks if he can come over and she hesitantly says yes. Nell right away lies to Jed saying that she is in the hotel room with her sister for the weekend before they leave for South America. Eventually Jed finds out she is lying when Bunny comes out of her room.

            Nell quickly goes from being a little eccentric to being full out disturbed. She thinks Jed is her dead fiancé Phillip who died over the Pacific flying his plane. When Nell goes to kiss him he grabs her wrists and see she tried to kill herself. After Phillip’s death Nell was so upset she slit her wrists and after that her parents put her away at an institution for a while. Eddie comes to check up on her and she thinks he is like her parents holding her back. She hits Eddie on the head and later on locks him in the closet to keep him quiet when two nosey guests come by to check on things.

            Things get really bad for Nell to where the police are called after her and she steals a razor to hurt herself again. Jed had told Lyn about Nell so when Nell is in the lobby with the razor Lyn is there for the woman to calm her down. Jed gets to her too and talks to her to remember Phillip and that he himself is not her lost love. The police come to take Nell away to a hospital.

            Lyn sees that Jed really does have a heart that he did deeply care for Nell and she is willing to give their relationship another try.

            Many reviews will describe Nell as psychotic but that is totally unfair she is not psychotic she is just very, very disturbed and sick. Monroe was amazing. Nell’s parents were not that great so when she finally found a man that was and he died she just lost it and never got over that loss. Monroe had an immense talent for drama that is not often seen which is a total shame. You can sincerely feel her character’s hurt and loss. All you want to do is help her you know she is not insane you know that all she needs is real help. Monroe had to heave really reached down inside her to get out those emotions she played. I have nothing negative to say about her performance she was flawless.

            Richard Widmark was great. I like his character who was frustrated over his girlfriend telling him he was uncaring and in the end he did care for someone. He saw how upset and sick Nell was and he wanted to help her. Now Widmark will no longer just be the bad guy from Murder on the Orient Express to me. Come to think of it he was actually kind of handsome.

            This was Anne Bancroft’s first film. I am insanely jealous of her because not only was she fantastic actress she was twenty-one years old when she made this film. Her scenes with Widmark were great and I really liked the scene at the end when she finds Nell and speaks to her.

            Don’t Bother to Knock is flawless. It is an extremely well acted drama filmed in the Noir style. This is a Marilyn Monroe film that should be more well known she was amazing and she never looked better. I have no complaints whatsoever about Don’t Bother to Knock it is one I will be showing all my friends and feel that every film lover should see.