Girl on the Run

Carny noir concerns 1950's vice rackets. The basic mystery is "Who killed George" but there are a lot of noir type character relationships intertwined in the story. It is tough and cheap, fitting to the 1950's carny world.

Rosemary Petit is svelte and effective and appears to be a legit b-film actress. On the opposite end of the film babe spectrum is French tart Renee De Milo who believe me still delivers plenty of va-voom to the screen after all these years. While by no means great, "Girl on the Run" is a hard boiled film that held my attention. Noir enthusiasts will need this in their collection.

Extras on the Alpha DVD include a goofy trailer for "The Girl in Gold Boots" which extols that "for Buzz, the answer was a gun!" and also some other cheesy stuff.

This film beautifully points up the great difficulty there is in justly evaluating films in peripheral categories which have rather different values and value from mainstream films. All reviewers are unanimous that it is an excellent film and I am not going to disagree with the, It is a first-rate film in a fourth-rate category - the lowly "low budget" "B" film. It is not quite in the class of a film like Ullmer's Detour, which is a masterpiece, but it does magnificently capture the sleazy atmosphere of the equally fourth-rate carnival it portrays. Forget the purely nominal film noir plot. It is really about this grubby and grotesque but actually surprisingly charming little world to which a "straight" man and a "straight" girl on the run have to adapt themselves and come after a fashion to appreciate its values and its value. Like the nominal plot, they are the nomivnal stars. The real performances come fom Chares Olander as the hard-bitten, blackmailing, lecherous - but actually fundamentally decent - dwarf who runs the carnival, Frank Albertson as the baker and Edith Petit splendid as Lil in charge of the dancing girls, themselves only a knife-edge away away from a life of prostitution. The writing is tense and clever and the cinematography by the unknown Victor Lukens is superb. Don't bother to look out for Steve McQueen. If you blink you'll miss him. I must have blinked.

The French phrase in the title means "down there if you find me" (when one wants to get rid of someone, in slightly old-fashioned but delicious slang, one tells them to go and look somewhere else to see if one is there). It was also the title of a long-running radio programme, the last to defend committed investigative journalism in the interested of the underprivileged - those "down tere". And it is precisely that empathy with the world "down there" (see if am not there) that is the great quality of this film. Standing up nobly for the fourth-rate!

Never heard of the directing duo, but they certainly owe a debt to Fritz Lang and Wiemar cinema in general. With an nod to Tod Browning for ambience.

Best viewed as a gestalt. Ignore such conventions as plot, acting and dialogue. The reward is in the esthetic. The evocative cinematography in particular. Cf, the mechanical clown that opens and closes the film. A stunning and memorable image.

A third string "C" Film Noir that actually may be the best of the Carney based Film Noir.

As much as I like Nightmare Alley (1947), this carnival film never leaves the midway much like Todd Browning's Freaks (1932). It's a great capture of the gritty atmosphere of a traveling carnival of tent and plywood, lit by strings of bare light bulbs. Victor Lukens cinematographer, creates a gritty claustrophobic carny setting, with convoluted passageways between tents, the midway, plywood arcades, cramped backstage warrens, along with trailers, and other equipment.

Most of the cast are playing carnies, Charles Bolender shines as the Carney Boss Blake, a cigar chomping little person who runs the show. Bolender deploys great ways of evening the keel whenever he has to deal with other people often ending up higher and looking down on them. Veteran actor Frank Albertson (Mantrap, Nightfall, Physco, Shed No Tears, They Mane Me A Killer, It's A Wonderful Life) plays the local cop Hank on carnival duty. Harry Banister a early TV vet plays the local corrupt politician Reeves.

Veteran TV Western Actor Richard Coogan (Vice Raid) is Bill Martin, a falsely accused of murder reporter who takes refuge at the carnival. Rosemary Pettit (Walk East On Beacon) plays Janet his girl who gives off a Gene Tierney vibe. She is forced to hide out with a chorus of carnival strippers, the de-facto "Girl On The Run" mothered by veteran early TV actress Edith King (Calcutta). Pettit is great as the good girl who has to be a quick study learning how to jiggle along with the rest of the strippers.

Rounding out the rest of the cast John Krollers and other un-credited actors play carnival barkers, you can see a bit of Phil Silvers, or Bud Abbott in the parts, for all I know I wouldn't be surprised if they were real carnival barkers.

A shout out to Renee de Milo (her only credit) where ever she may be, she plays the headliner stripper Gigi. She does a complete dance and is so good at it that I suspect that she was an actual carnival stripper. She does her act without removing her bikini type costume but she's got the moves down that you can easily imagine what she'd display. Check out Carnival Strippers - Early Years (1971-1978) by Susan Meiselas for a reference work.

The film also has an early Steve McQueen as an extra.

The score is carnival music inter-spaced with jazz for the dance routines. This low budget Noir delivers, I go as high as a 6.5-7/10. If it did have A list actors for the two lovers, and say Bud Abbott or Phil Silvers as the barkers it could have been an 8/10.

Richard Coogan ('The Californians') stars as Bill Martin, an ace reporter who's framed for the murder of his editor. He takes it on the lam with his devoted girlfriend Janet (Rosemary Pettit, in one of only five credits for her), and they hide out in a traveling carnival. There, he finds work as a pugilist and she learns how to do some exotic dancing. All the while, they have to prove that criminal big shot Clay Reeves (Harry Bannister, "The Girl of the Golden West") is the one responsible for the killing.

"Girl on the Run" is zippy, engaging Carny-Noir, shot through with plenty of seedy carnival atmosphere, and featuring enough padding to give us a real assortment of the sights and sounds of this place. It comes complete with typically stark photography for the genre (done by Victor Lukens), and an amusing script by Cedric Worth and co-director Arthur J. Beckhard. Some of the dialogue is pretty entertaining, and quick pacing results in a tidy little movie that runs just a little over 65 minutes. There's enough footage of sexy dancing girls to entice viewers, as well as the sight of Coogan in the boxing ring.

The characters are at least reasonably interesting, with Bannister making for an effective heavy. Coogan is a likeable hero, Pettit an appealing heroine, and Edith King ('The Phil Silvers Show') provides solid support as the matronly Lil, but the show is often stolen by the diminutive Charles Bolender ("Dark Intruder") as carny boss Mr. Blake. Star stripper Gigi is played by Renee De Milo, whose dancing is so good it's likely this was really what she did for a living (this was her only acting credit).

However, as most people will tell you, the real curiosity value is in spotting a very young Steve McQueen, as an extra at the carnival. It was the future stars' big screen debut, and he's not too hard to spot (pay close attention to the opening several minutes).

Seven out of 10.