Showing posts with label Michael Gordon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Gordon. Show all posts

The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)

The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)
is a pressure cooker ensemble cast prison break snow-bound gang on the run innocent-man-accused Western movie with film noir tendencies aplenty and a few side comments too on the social roles of men and women, as such relate to heroism, homesteading and justice.

The 1951 Western The Secret of Convict Lake emerges as a unique entry in the genre, distinguished by its noir-inflected atmosphere and an unusually strong female presence. 

Directed by Michael Gordon, the film tells the story of a group of escaped convicts who, after enduring a harrowing journey through the snow-covered Sierra Nevadas, stumble upon a remote settlement populated solely by women. 

The Web (1947)

The Web (1947) is a fast-moving entertaining late-early period and slightly preposterous but fun film noir filler, with Ella Raines, Edmond O'Brien, Vincent Price and William Bendix, so that is certainly a stern and select noiresque collection of faces to do the actin'.

The Web (1947) is in effect a Private Investigator film noir (P.I. Noir) although the character played by Edmond O'Brien is supposed to be a lawyer, although he functions entirely as a P.I,. being hired to be a bodyguard, carrying and using a gun, hanging with his coat collars up in alleyways, and more and more traditional and common P.I. behaviours.

He doesn't get down to none legal work, that is for sure. Other than the top and tail styling back of his maligned blue collar character, played by Tito Vuolo, with typical Vuoloism.

The Lady Gambles (1949)

The Lady Gambles (1949) is a gambling addiction, social and moral descent romance women's film noir starring Barbara Stanwyck, turning in a stunning and brutal performance as a woman who is overcome with addiction, so as to the point of ruination.

As the film opens prepare to see Barbara Stanwyck punched 11 or 12 times in the face by three mooks in an alley, each bruising face-breaking blow leaving a great ouch across the style. It has to be one of the more terrifying noir beatings.

This leads to a hospital managed by a cynical hard smoking medical stoic played by John Hoyt, and the whole flashback, fading screen, voiceover here-is-how-it happened commences, and Double Indemnity style, the story unravels, although it ain't such a hot story.

Woman in Hiding (1950)

Woman in Hiding (1950) is a woman against the world lousy husband flashback murder and female seeker hero film noir, starring Ida Lupino as a wife on the run, escaping from a murderous marriage and finding love on the run in the form of lackadaisical magazine and cigar seller Howard Duff.

Corporate villainy also appears in this car smashin chase and hide thriller in the form of Stephen McNally playing an industry boss who is going to be appropriate screen material for the 1950s, straight outta war and into world domination, starting with mob behaviour in the boardroom.

I would seem from the Wikipedia entry on Woman in Hiding (1950) that not everybody agrees that this is a film noir. The works that are cited are the super-seminal and all-ruling guide to the subject of film noir,  Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton (2002). A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953), and Ian Brookes Film Noir: A Critical Introduction