On DVD: Faye Emerson and Zachary Scott in the Twisty Noir Danger Signal (1945)

One of my suspense genre pet peeves is the plot that requires the protagonist to miss obvious red flags and continue to plunge into danger. It’s hard to root for someone who doesn’t have a lot of common sense. Danger Signal, which recently made its DVD debut from Warner Archive, manages for the most part to avoid falling into this trap. Here the predictable and the novel co-exist in an interesting film with a solid cast of players who didn’t often get star treatment.

Faye Emerson is Hilda Fenchurch, a serious-minded stenographer who falls for her mother’s (Mary Servoss) mysterious new boarder Ronnie Mason (Zachary Scott). This much to the dismay of a shy scientist at her office, Dr. Andrew Lang (Bruce Bennett), who has a crush on her, and to the curiosity of the sophisticated Dr. Jane Silla who employees her (Rosemary De Camp). Then her kid sister Anne (Mona Freeman) returns home from a stay in a sanitarium to treat tuberculosis, further complicating the dynamic at home with Ronnie.

The film begins with a mysterious scene, in which a woman is seen collapsed on a bed, while the hands of a man are shown removing her wedding ring and taking a large wad of cash out of her wallet while the landlady pounds at the door. The man is Ronnie and he jumps out the window just in time to escape the repercussions of whatever he has been up to in that room. Given this information up front, it’s easy to assume that Ronnie will keep whoever he meets in the dark until the final climax.

That isn’t the case though, because Hilda is a remarkably intelligent heroine. While she initially gives in to Ronnie’s smooth line, she quickly realizes he’s trouble. What’s refreshing is the way she thoroughly discards her crush, seeing the situation for what it is. This is not a woman to be brought down by passion. Emerson plays this even-handed character with steady elegance, granting her her flaws, but always showing the strength within her. She is a woman with a good foundation.

It’s almost amusing how completely Ronnie misses that he has met his match in Hilda. He’s so accustomed to destroying women that it hasn’t occurred to him that one could beat him at his own game. Every time he starts to lead the plot down a predictably menacing path, she steps in to take the action in a different direction. Bennett and DeCamp are equally intelligent, and that mental acuity gives them the means they need to help Hilda. They are a mighty team against Scott, who plays his role like he just came from doing the same thing in another film and is a bit shocked to see things aren’t playing out as usual.

Basically, this is what a suspense thriller looks like when it is dominated by intelligent, clear-thinking people. Freeman takes on the more traditional role of the easily flattered ingénue and Servoss plays a woman simply too good-hearted to believe in Ronnie’s evil. Otherwise, everyone else seems to know where the bodies are buried, which gives this sharp film and its pleasing cast an extra edge. This is an 'A' quality production, despite its 'B' trappings.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review. This is a Manufacture on Demand (MOD) DVD. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

On DVD: 1940s Joan Crawford in A Woman's Face and Flamingo Road

Image Source

The forties were an interesting time for Joan Crawford. In that decade she left her long time studio MGM for Warner Bros, finally won a coveted Oscar for best actress (Mildred Pierce [1946]) and her performance style matured beyond the movie star mannerisms upon which she'd relied so heavily in her early career. Two of Crawford's best titles from this era, A Woman's Face (1941) and Flamingo Road (1949), from MGM and Warner Bros. respectively, are now available on DVD from Warner Archive.

A Woman's Face (1941)

Crawford was in the last years of her long association with MGM when George Cukor directed her in the Hollywood remake of A Woman's Face (Ingrid Bergman starred in the Swedish original in 1938). She is Anna Holm, a woman made bitter by an ugly scar, that covers one side of her face, the result of a childhood accident. Unemployable, she runs a tavern as a cover for a large blackmail operation through which she takes pleasure in torturing ladies who have the kind of breathless, illicit romances she only dreams of having herself.

One night at her establishment, she hosts the charming and wealthy Torsten Barring (Conrad Veidt). Though he can have any woman he wants, he is intrigued by Anna, connecting with her darkness. She is stunned by the attention, and falls in love for the first time.

When Anna is caught in the midst of blackmailing unfaithful wife Vera (Osa Massen) by her plastic surgeon husband, Dr. Gustaf Segert (Melvyn Douglas), the doctor insists on fixing her face. In some respects it is a matter of pride for him to attempt the surgery, but he also claims that he wants to know if she will remain ugly inside if she becomes superficially beautiful.

The operation is a success and Anna's whole life changes, but in her new beauty Torsten sees only the means to achieve his own dreams. He convinces her to take a job as nanny for his nephew, the only person who stands between him and a large inheritance, so that she may kill him. She takes the job, and under Dr. Segert's watchful eye, struggles with what ugliness remains in her when faced with a kinder, more welcoming world.

It is thanks to Cukor that Crawford seems to have matured overnight as an actress here; this is a transformative role for her. He insisted, with her agreement, that she drop her movie star act and truly become her character. Together they worked to make Anna angry, humble, tender and conflicted. It is one of her most complex performances and one of the first times the actress truly got lost in a role.

The film itself has plenty to say about women, and how their self-worth and value in society is tied to beauty. As an actress beginning to be seen as past her prime, Crawford must have felt Anna's turmoil deeply. She also was seeing her value decline because of age, though she was on the cusp of achieving some of the best, most unaffected performances of her life.

Special features on the disc include the short You Can't Fool a Camera, the cartoon Little Cesario, two radio adaptations of the film, one starring Ida Lupino, the other Bette Davis, and a theatrical trailer.

Flamingo Road (1949)

Crawford was well into a successful run at Warner Bros. Studios when she made Flamingo Road with director Michael Curtiz. She had won the Oscar and achieved some of the best performances of her career in films like Humoresque (1946) and Possessed (1947). 

It was also the start of a period where, while the actress was maturing as a performer, she continued to take parts for younger woman, which sometimes gave an odd feeling to a film. This small town drama is one such occasion, where she plays a carnival showgirl who should be in her late twenties or early thirties, but 40-something Joan, who was at least aging gracefully, makes it work.

As dancer Lane Bellamy, Crawford is tired of skipping out on hotel bills and constantly traveling with the low-class carny set. She decides to settle in a Southern town, attracting the attention of deputy sheriff Fielding Carlisle (Crawford's Mildred Pierce costar Zachary Scott), who buys her a meal and gets her a job. This is all to the chagrin of Sheriff Titus Semple, who is grooming Carlisle to one day serve as his puppet governor.

Semple bullies everyone, this is a man who becomes angry if he is not given a separate chair for his hat, but he is hardest on Lane. He gets her fired, has her picked up for soliciting and does everything in his power to get her out of town. Yes she is not good material for a politician's wife, but Temple also seems to find it unnerving the way Lane has of detecting and speaking the truth, something he works very hard to conceal when it proves inconvenient. Years on the carnival circuit have toughened Lane though and she refuses to back down.

As she builds a life for herself, finding work, and eventually marriage and a home, Lane faces constant pressure from Semple. He treats everyone with contempt, calling Fielding "Bub" as if to continually reinforce that he considers the younger man beneath him, and only a tool for his use. While while he presents an exterior of smooth, psychopathic evil, from the way he guzzles milk instead of liquor it seems he is suffering from ulcers, a sign of a man who is more tormented than he lets on.

Flamingo Road plays like a melodrama, but has the look of a film noir. Even on a sunny day, long shadows haunt Semple's porch, a constant reminder of the grime beneath the cheerful exterior of the town. Lane is set up at every turn to be the victim of that darkness, but she is stronger than the easily blackmailed men who give the illusion of being in control of that town.

Special features on the disc include the featurette Crawford at Warners, the cartoon Curtain Razor, a radio adaptation of the film and a theatrical trailer.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review. This is a Manufacture on Demand (MOD) DVD. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

On DVD: The Counterfeit Plan (1957) and Slander (1957)

This week I watched a pair of new releases from Warner Archive, both made in 1957. They differed so much in sophistication that it was hard to believe they hit theaters the same year.

The Counterfeit Plan is the less glossy of the two, a brisk Warner Bros. release featuring the reliably sleazy Zachary Scott as Max Brant, a convicted murderer who escapes the gallows ready to commit a new crime. In a brutal opening scene, his convoy is attacked on a road in the French countryside. With his captors dead, Brant flees to a waiting plane with one of his rescuers and is flown to England.

There they invade the estate of former partner-in-crime Louie Bernard (Melvyn Johns). Brant blackmails the world-weary retired criminal into setting up shop again. He needs his forgery skills to start a large-scale counterfeiting operation.

It's remarkable the amount of effort this thug puts into the project too. He's clever, hardworking and ambitious. It's difficult to understand why he didn't just go legit in the first place, but then this is a killer. He has trouble in his blood. It's clear that there's no way this risky scheme could go on for long, but Brant and his associates plug ahead, quickly finding buyers for their fake cash and setting up a distribution network.

Bernard's daughter (Peggie Castle) shows up unexpectedly, reminding Max that he hasn't left much time for play. Repulsed by his leering and the revelation of her father's criminal past, she puts all her resources into escaping. She finds quite the match in the nasty Brant.

The Counterfeit Plan is reminiscent of many crime flicks, but it has character, avoiding the rut of its clichés. This is mostly due to Scott, who is magnetically evil, though never a bit attractive or sympathetic. He speaks in this hypnotically deep voice with a nasty little rattle at the back of it. As rotten as he is, you understand why he has won the loyalty of his men. He's reliably clever and he never panics, because he always has a plan.

It's great fun to see Scott released from the studio settings of many of his more famous films. He's an edgy actor, full of well-compressed energy. It makes more sense to see him outdoors occasionally, with the wind blowing in the trees and unexpected sights like a random shot of a feral cat strolling by in the background.

The movie also takes its subject very seriously, sharing many details about the complex work of counterfeiting. It's amazing how exhilarating it can be to learn about paper pulp, chemicals, ink and watermarks when it is presented at the right rhythm. It makes the shock of its violent moments more surprising. This is an engrossing little crime flick.

While Slander is in a fashion just as brutal as The Counterfeit Plan, the MGM production feels almost childish in its lack of complexity. In an atypically subdued performance, Steve Cochran is H.R. Manley, publisher of the Hollywood Confidential-style tabloid Real Truth.

The magazine's motto is displayed in large letters on an imposing sign in Manley's office: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." He lives by this too. Despite the title, there is no actual slander to be found in this film.

Manley is plenty of trouble though. Not all psychopaths are serial killers; Cochran plays the publisher with an unrelenting coldness that leaves no doubt that he will not have a charming change of heart by the final scene. He ignores any truth that doesn't please him, anything that threatens his feeling of control. His own mother, whose life he has planned to the minute, can see the evil in him.

Faced with declining sales, Manley looks for dirt about a Broadway star with a spotless reputation. Scott Martin (Van Johnson), a children's puppeteer on the rise was a childhood friend of the actress and he knows her secrets. He also served four years for a violent crime he committed as a youth, desperately trying to help his poor and sick mother. The publisher tries to strike a deal, Martin gives him information, he doesn't print the story about his troubled past.

Martin is too decent to betray the actress to save himself. Manley follows up on his promise and the puppeteer is ruined, losing a prestigious television gig. His wife (Ann Blyth) and son (Richard Eyer) stand by him, but they suffer.

Slander moves along grimly, tight with tension, but oddly not very suspenseful. After Martin is exposed, he and his wife are hit with a string of hardships, some expected, others shocking. The worst of them feels off, giving a certain inevitability to the outcome that's a bit deflating.

In a more compelling film, that misfortune could have had some weight, but Slander's message is too simplistic, almost scolding. It makes it clear that scandal sheets are bad, but doesn't offer much more commentary. In a downbeat situation with nothing to mull over, it's difficult to maintain enthusiasm.

Though Blyth and Johnson are a bit stretched in their borderline melodramatic roles, they are deeply sympathetic. Neither of them are particularly powerful performers, but they exude an appealing strength and decency. It was also fascinating to see the usually blowsy Marjorie Rambeau in a quiet, but intense performance as Manley's mother.

Slander is an adequately engaging drama, appealing enough for fans of the stars.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing copies of the films for review.

Book Review--Zachary Scott: Hollywood's Sophisticated Cad

Zachary Scott: Hollywood's Sophisticated Cad
Ronald L. Davis
University Press of Mississippi, 2006

Zachary Scott came from money. He was pampered, even a little spoiled, though he was always pleasant and grateful for his parent's generosity. His biography answers the question: what happens to a movie star in decline when survival is not an issue? The result is predictable; money doesn't solve everything, but it certainly helps. Still, Scott's story is fascinating, partly because of the man we get to know, but also because of the parts of his life that remain a mystery.

Though superstars get the bulk of attention when it comes to actor biographies, they only represent a small part of the Hollywood experience. We can't be blamed for wanting to admire the glitter of those who became movie legends, but the people who supported them, and those who grabbed the odd leading role and managed to keep working, are more numerous and they represent a more commonly shared view of acting life.

Zachary Scott was that kind of star. He's well known to people who love classic film, his performance as Joan Crawford's straying husband in Mildred Pierce (1946) ensured that, but he never ascended to the widespread, enduring fame enjoyed by actors like James Cagney and Cary Grant.

He was one of the gems of early Hollywood, unhappily typecast as a villain, but always memorable. An actor with some demons who nevertheless managed to maintain a reputation as an elegant, generous and talented performer. In films like Flamingo Road (1949), Ruthless (1948) and The Southerner (1945) (where he played beautifully against type as a struggling farmer), he demonstrated consistent ability and intense magnetism.

Though Scott often struggled to stay active in his profession, he never hit the lower depths, most likely due to his solid background. He came from a loving, wealthy Texas family. His attentive parents raised their son to be a gentlemen and they maintained close ties throughout his life. Though many who knew him said he had the manner of a rather precious prince, he was never a snob. This was a guy who could make fast friends with a garbage man. He saw the value in everyone he met.

While Scott's upbringing helped him to navigate life with grace and confidence, his parent's money both saved him and held him back. He rose to fame during World War II as a replacement leading man for established stars who had gone overseas. When these men returned home, and a new crop of actors bloomed post-war, Hollywood lost interest in Scott. Increasing absences and troubles with alcohol, primarily brought on by his frustration at the monotony of his roles, didn't help his reputation.

Scott turned to the stage, which offered better variety, but the money was not as good as with film. Still, he insisted on maintaining his lavish lifestyle of fancy clothes, expensive dinner parties and collecting art. Where many actors would have slid into poverty, Scott simply relied on his parents, often asking for loans or outright gifts of money. They seem to have always been willing to help their son and he never loafed, always finding work on television, in regional theater or traveling with summer tours.

Scott may have suffered another significant torment. Rumors of his being homosexual followed him throughout his adult life. His insistence on wearing a single gold hoop earring must have done much to inspire whispers, though he always had an explanation for this eccentricity. If he did have these yearnings, he kept them hidden well.

Davis speculates that Scott may have had one or more homosexual experiences as a young man, when he went to London to study acting. There he met several influential men who warmed to him quickly upon his arrival on the Continent. His relationship with producer Edward Laurillard was especially close, and his classmates were alarmed when he was chauffeured to class in the older man's Rolls Royce. It's probable that Scott had opportunities to try same-sex relations and possible that he gave sex with men a try. Many of his loved ones noticed a mysterious change in his manner when he returned from his trip, but as it was his first time abroad alone, any number of things could have affected him. As intriguing as it all is, Davis wisely keeps the speculation light.

Scott married twice, both times to actresses. Unusually for a star in his position, he was scrupulously faithful to both. His first wife Elaine left him, after fourteen years of turbulent, but essentially happy marriage, when she fell for John Steinbeck. Second wife Ruth Ford was more devoted and the two remained happily together for the rest of Scott's life. Though often absent from their lives, he seemed to be loving in his way to his daughter Waverly from his first marriage and his adoptive daughter Shelley from his second.

It's the tension between Scott's essentially stable family life and the inherently turbulent profession of acting that keeps Zachary Scott: Hollywood's Sophisticated Cad lively. So many things came to the actor easily, and when he did work hard, he thrived, and yet he was tormented. Perhaps because he felt he had to live up to the legacy created by his wealthy father, maybe there was something else. Whatever the case, this talented, charming man made his mark in a brutal profession and without sacrificing his dignity. He was unique in his field and in the way he lived. Davis has explored this complex man with compassion and solid storytelling.

Many thanks to the University Press of Mississippi for providing a copy of the book for review.