The Silk Noose

The Silk Noose, or Noose, as it is also known, from 1948 is a British film starring Carole Landis as a fashion writer for a newspaper.

It's post-war Britain, and despite the war being over, there are many items that are hard to get. An Italian black market racketeer, Sugiani (Calleia) runs an operation in black market goods. So far, the police haven't been able to get them.

A fashion writer, Linda Medbury (Landis), is determined to bring down the gang, although her publisher would rather she stick to clothes. The front for the group, The Blue Moon Club, winds up with a corpse, which sends Linda's reporter tentacles high.

Linda finds herself in danger as does her source. Her fiance is determined to protect her and bring down Sugiani at the same time. It won't be easy.

Sometimes this film seemed like a comedy, particularly with the rapid fire dialogue of Nigel Patrick as a cohort of Sugiani's, and a woman losing her dress toward the end of the film. The last twenty or so minutes has a lot of action.

This was the beautiful Landis' second-last film. What a waste of talent. She gives a vivacious, likeable performance here. Unfortunately, her career fell on hard times when she ended her relationship with Darryl F. Zanuck. Unhappy with her career and misguided in her search for love, she committed suicide. Life in Hollywood for a woman was always extremely difficult, and she was one of its victims.

American journalist Linda Medbury may be on the staff of a London newspaper to cover the fashion column but this is not going to stop her covering other stories that she comes across. However when she gets onto the extensive racket run by Sugiani, nobody can convince her of the plain and simple fate that has come to anyone who has gone toe-to-toe with his operation. So while Linda continues to work to expose Sugiani for who he is, her military boyfriend Captain "Jumbo" Hyde gathers many men as he can from his associates to protect her in place of a police force defeated before they begin by corruption.

This summer the BBC delivered a season of British films and, to their credit it was not the usual parade of Dam Busters, Zulu and other Bank Holiday favourites but rather an interesting mix of films that are rarely seen. With 26 votes to its name on this site, it is perhaps fair to say that The Noose was one of these. The style of the film is a bit mixed. At times it appears to be every inch a British version of the American gangster film but then at others it is more of a comedy with cheeky chappy clichés kicking around in the shadows. As a result it doesn't totally hang together and I found myself distracted and my interest broken up by the inconsistent tone.

However it is still of interest and does have scenes of value. We do get moments that are easily comparable with the strongest from American noir and we do get amusing characters that remind us where we are but again, these things seem to be working against one another. Gréville's direction is good in regards working with his cinematographer but in terms of solving the issues over the narrative flow, he cannot. Nor can the cast either, and many of them seem to be in different films unfortunately. Landis is enjoyable in the lead – she has what the experts would call "spunk" and it brought a bit of spark to the film. Farr is no more than serviceable and sadly the film sags when he is the focus. Calleia is a solid villain but the problem is that he isn't playing it straight and tough and he has an air of flamboyance about him. There is nothing wrong with him in this regard it is just that, within this film it is Nigel Patrick that dominates that sort of area with a wonderfully comic caricature that he works well.

An interesting film to see then for its attempts to do what it does within a British context but it is the inability to either hold a consistent tone or blend the different ones successfully that sees it be a lesser film than I would have hoped. I would have liked to be able to praise it on account of it being obscure and thus me looking cool but as it is it is interesting but not all that great.

NOOSE is a well-plotted but oddly uninspiring little crime film which deals with efforts to bring down an Italian black market racketeer operating in London following WW2. His sheer breadth of power means that the authorities are powerless against him, until a lone female reporter decides to write a scoop that brings him out of the woodwork and up against her.

There's some great material in the narrative here, including a completely amoral villain who enjoys using knuckle dusters to beat up women! The stark gang violence makes ahead of its time, but it's a pity that the execution is less than stellar. The film plods when it should grip, and it only really gets going in the last twenty minutes or so, with an unusual and rather powerful climax. It's one of those rare films where the women are both empowered and sexualised, leaving the men looking weak by comparison.

The tragic Carole Landis stars in her penultimate acting role before her untimely suicide and very good she is too: bright, brassy, and running rings around the menfolk. Joseph Calleia and Derek Farr are rather uninspired as the rival protagonists, though we do get the likes of Stanley Holloway in support, and even a brief cameo for Michael Ripper. Nigel Patrick is something of a scene stealer as a loud-mouth spiv, and although his telephone manner is absolutely hilarious, I found his brash character ended up being too over the top for his own good.

I rated this film with 6/10 mainly because the final punch-up by the boxers with the mobster gang was inconsistent, being almost comic slapstick with what had gone before involving which involved killings.As is commonly known Carole Landis had been a girlfriend of Rex Harrison and possibly through blighted affection committed suicide the same year as this film aged 29.Nigel Patrick plays an immoral cockney spiv not so ruthless as his partner an Italian gangster played by Joseph Calleia who is prone to lapse into "Don Giovanni" by Mozart occasionally.Stanley Holloway as the detective plays his part without any of the humour found in many other of his film portrayals.Derek Farr gives an unremarkable workman-like performance as the fiancé of Carole Landis.

I was surprised to find this full length 1948 film on Youtube probably because it is in the public domain and therefore out of copyright.

Joseph Calleia and Nigel Patrick have built up a massive and occasionally underworld organization. When one of their murders comes to the attention of reporter Carole Landis, she begins a series of newspaper articles. Their increasingly threatening reaction does not faze her, but it leads her boyfriend, Derek Farr, into organizing an armed rebellion. In the meantime, slogging police inspector Stanley Holloway is closing in from his own end.

The script is by Richard Llewellyn, based on his stage play. It's been properly opened up for the screen. The problem is that it's shifting tone, from comedy to drama, never quite works. Joseph Calleia, fine actor that he is, is saddled with a heavy accent and tries to be simultaneously funny and terrifying. Patrick's character spends a lot of time as a fast-talking Cockney, more interested in performing his comedy bits on the telephone, until he decides to suddenly take matters into his own hands and take charge.

The result is a movie that is never quite sure what it wants to be, and tries to distract the audience from that uncertainty.