Welcome
August 20, 2024
Film Noir Flashback/Road House
December 12, 2024
I post reviews (here) of Film Noir movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age of Noir, the 1940s and 1950s. I write as an amateur film noir enthusiast, but not an authority as such.
Maybe, like me, you are looking to enjoy films which are different, or of a different era. Films you may not have seen, ones encompassing cynical detectives, seductive femme fatales, flawed sidekicks all tossed together into intricate plots. (Not forgetting the snappy dialogue too).
Backstory: Film Noir has its roots in German expressionist cinematography and American crime fiction. During the 1930s Hollywood became a perfect storm of film artists fleeing the threat of Nazi Germany, emigrating to America, and specifically to the Film studios of Hollywood. This included great directors such as Fritz Lang, Jaques Tourneur, Michael Curtiz and Robert Siodmak.
This new dramatic visual style combined with American hardboiled crime stories (noir fiction), emerged during the Great Depression, and produced many classic noirs. Some of these writers included: Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Jim Thompson and Mickey Spillane.
I hope to showcase some of these memorable noir movies here for you. And advance apologies for a mixture of British and US English occasionally. I have applied the link below, to the Amazon.com DVD of today’s featured film. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases).
Inspired by hardboiled detective stories and film noir, I have written a, Sterling Private Investigator Series, set in London. I have also posted a link to my books at the bottom of the page.
Today’s film is:
New York Confidential
(#AD) DVD – https://amzn.to/3VtJw5Z
“Loyalty – that’s something you can’t buy.”
Film Studio: Warner Bros 1955/B&W
Director: Russell Rouse
Original Music: Joseph Mullendore
Cinematography: Eddie Fitzgerald
Film Editor: Grant Whytock
Screenplay: Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse
Written by: Jack Lait, Lee Mortimer
Produced by: Clarence Greene, Edward Small
Main Actors: Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, Anne Bancroft,
Run time: 88minutes
Preview
Inspired by a book of the same name by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer. This film hovers somewhere between a crime thriller and a film noir. Though I’ll leave the more qualified to make the exact distinction. It is however, a film that provides a bridge to later films such as, The Godfather. Of course, Richard Conte who stars in New York Confidential, also stars in the 1972 film.
Conte appears in another noir: The Big Combo the very same year (1955). Broderick Crawford featured in Human Desire the year before, in 1954, and Anne Bancroft went on to win an Academy award for The Miracle Worker in 1962. Marilyn Maxwell an American actor, and entertainer of radio and film, plays Iris Palmer, Lupo’s girlfriend here.
In New York Confidential, we have a world of corrupt politicians and mob bosses running the show. And the cops don’t seem to get a look in… Though, things are starting to change with the D.A. and Judge Kinkaid trying to apply the heat in efforts to incarcerate the mob bosses.
Synopsis
An assassination goes awry, whereby two innocent bystanders are killed putting organised crime proponents under the spotlight.
Charlie Lupo (Broderick Crawford) is the head of the New York crime Syndicate (the mafia of its time). A hit man called Nick Magellan (superbly played by Richard Conte) has been requested to go to New York to conduct a reprisal killing. Just as he promises, the killing is neat, clean and with no loose ends.
Lupo was great friends with Magellan’s late father and is impressed with Nick, and he becomes like an adopted son. Lupo finds a place for him, initially as his bodyguard after a recent threat on his life.
Lupo, although a widower, is very much a family man, he lives with a nervous mother (“mama”) and his adult daughter Kathy. Nick rebuffs advances from Kathy out of respect for his boss. Boyfriends have come and soon gone, when they discover Kathy’s family connections. She decides to fly the nest, in attempts to rid herself of her (tainted) family name.
Magellan is soon in the middle of a squall which involves protecting his powerful crime boss from a newly opened investigation by the Feds. Three men are ordered to kill a lobbyist, but mess up, leaving one police officer dead, and plenty of witnesses able to link the killing to Lupo.
This is where Magellan’s handy skills come in again: being that deadly hit man. He is ordered to rub all three of them out. Though, of course, things don’t go according to plan. And two out of three in this case, actually is bad… One of them, Wendler, foresighted, escapes and goes into hiding offering to turn States Evidence to Judge Kinkaid with the offer of bringing Lupo down.
Things to like
Even working in the brutal underworld of organised crime, Nick Magellan comes off as loyal and someone you would root for. He is unsentimental but not without charm.
Kathy trying to flee her family name and mobster boss, father. She turns in a strong rebellious and intense performance; she has everything (clothes, the best education money can buy etc.) but has nothing of value because she is tainted by the Syndicate, and by the “Lupo” name. She leaves a lot of nice dresses behind.
Two nervous killers travelling in the busy hotel elevator as it finally descends to the garage and a shootout which is well choregraphed.
Lupo’s meeting with a colleague. “Collections are 2% down in the Brooklyn district,” says the Syndicate’s accountant. Lupo fleetingly questions the honesty of the associate, then says, “He’s got dames on his mind – too many dames!” You suspect it will be another job for Magellan to sort out, to get those figures back up. We are already anticipating his actions.
Quotes
Charlie Lupo: “Loyalty that’s something you can’t buy. Half the pigs that work for us can’t even spell it.”
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Kathy Lupo (to her father): “You’re still a hoodlum, you’ll never be anything else.”
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Kathy: “You really believe everyone is out for what he can get?”
Nick: “No-one’s handing out free lunches in this world, Kathy.”
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Kathy: “… it’s as though I have a disease. I’m a freak because I’m Lupo’s daughter.”
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Nick: “When I make a hit, I don’t like a lot of company, specially blonde dames.”
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Nick: “I guess Lupo appreciates real talent.”
Must see scene
Early in the film we see the ruthless side of Nick Magellan. The out-of-towner (from Chicago), flies to New York to make a reprisal killing requested by the head of the NY Syndicate, Charlie Lupo.
Magellan attends a meeting with Lupo’s subordinates; all there to discuss an elaborate plan for the upcoming hit. Though Magellan is barely watching as Arnie Wendler enthusiastically chalks car positions, streets, escape alleys with white crosses on a blackboard. Magellan tells them he will make the killing his way, requesting a silencer for his gun. Wendler, resigned, tells his colleague to, “Get him a douser.”
In the next scene, we see the back of Magellan sitting casually at a table in a little cafe. The POV is from his (unknowing) adversaries who are looking across from the bar. They want him to leave, before the imminent arrival of a colleague (so they can talk in private). They ask Magellan to finish up and leave, before frisking him. However, Magellan is too shrewd for them… Cool, calm, and collected we already know this guy (Magellan) is going to rise in the ranks of the Syndicate.
Summary
Son of a gangster, Nick Magellan (Conte) drives this film. He is loyal and carries out orders without question. Kathy (Bancroft), is the other shining light for her impressive performance as the mob boss’s daughter. The central theme: acquiring the American Dream by way of crime and corruption is flawed. And we watch things slowly disintegrate. Like a sinking ship, others are thrown overboard for their own survival; everyone is dispensable; the continuation of the Syndicate is paramount. And everyone who signed up for this, knows the score. No one more than Magellan himself.
Catch this one if you get the chance!
Film Noirs & Pullman Cars (paperback): https://amzn.to/3ZDurkw
Film Noirs & Pullman Cars (eBook): https://amzn.to/4gmbTe8
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