Movie Review: Nob Hill (1945)

A mixture of romance, politics and music in a quasi-western setting, Nob Hill defies any one genre but still provides decent if rough-around-the-edges entertainment.

The setting is the early 1900s in San Francisco, known then as the "Paris of the USA". In the working class Barbary Coast neighbourhood, Tony Angelo (George Raft) runs the large and lavish Gold Coast nightclub, where his romantic interest Sally Templeton (Vivian Blaine) is the star performer. Tony is an astute but also kindhearted businessman, and agrees to care for young Katie Flanagan (Peggy Ann Garner) after she arrives alone from Ireland only to discover her uncle already deceased.

At a church service Katie and Tony meet Harriet Carruthers (Joan Bennett), who resides in the elite Nob Hill neighbourhood overlooking the city. Sparks immediately fly between Tony and Harriet, much to Sally's disappointment. But Harriet may have an ulterior motive: her brother Lash is running for election as District Attorney and needs Tony's support. Romance and politics get entangled, threatening Tony's business.

Colourful, rowdy, and packed with people and incidents, Nob Hill never lacks energy and momentum. But the film is also short on polish and tonal consistency, director Henry Hathaway and star George Raft an uneasy fit in a musical milieu. Vivian Blaine carries the load to perform several songs surrounded by a gaggle of can-can style burlesque dancers, jugglers and back-up singers. The Twentieth Century Fox production lacks smooth choreography and stylish staging, settling instead for a choppy, throw-everything-at-the-show approach.

The plot compensates with multiple themes. The romantic triangle featuring Sally, Tony and Harriet crackles with envy, deception and hidden agendas. The class divide between Nob Hill and Barbary Coast is either a permanent schism separating the riffraff from the snobs, or an exaggerated creation in Tony's head. The election sub-story reveals neighbourhood dependencies but also the potential for pragmatic exploitation in search of political gain. And Katie's arrival in the new world is a window to the hopes, dreams, and risks embedded in the immigrant experience.

Nob Hill benefits from four memorable characters. George Raft aims at a Rick Blaine vibe and gets close. As the town's prime entertainer Vivian Blaine shines on stage but is otherwise given little to do. Joan Bennett's role is smaller but more manipulative as Harriet wields the charm weapons available only to the rich. And young Peggy Ann Garner steals the show, injecting wide-eyed tender innocence and no shortage of courage as she first seeks to understand the adult world then strives to make it better.

It may not always be the talk of the town, but Nob Hill is still worth the climb.



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Movie Review: Invisible Stripes (1939)

A gangster drama, Invisible Stripes examines the lingering stigma of prison and the ever attractive shortcuts to riches offered by crime.

Cliff Taylor (George Raft) and Charles Martin (Humphrey Bogart) are released from New York's Sing Sing prison on the same day. Cliff still has a year on parole, but regrets his criminal past and is intent on living a straight life. Charles has a more jaundiced view of society and quickly seeks out his old mobster buddies and reenters the crime world.

Cliff reconnects with his mother (Flora Robson) and younger brother Tim (William Holden), a car mechanic who is engaged to Peggy (Jane Bryan). Tim is financially struggling, hot headed and eager to live the good life. Cliff has to talk him down from thinking about crime as a quick pathway to riches, but Cliff himself finds life as a parolee difficult, as employers are unwilling to trust him. The option of joining Charles' criminal exploits becomes more difficult to dismiss.

The title refers to the stench of prison garb enduring upon release, and what Invisible Stripes lacks in originality it more than makes up for in polish. This is Warner Bros. studio at their absolute sweet spot, director Lloyd Bacon delivering a straightforward and compact crime drama with a mix of established and future stars. Morality, repentance, family, social barriers, bank hold-ups, shootouts and the eternal dilemma of choosing between good and evil are wrapped into a tidy 80 minute package.

The film is based on a novel by real-life warden Lewis E. Lawes, a proponent of prison reform, and Invisible Stripes invests well-meaning effort in exploring the tricky seam between good intentions and societal barriers. Both the warden and Cliff's parole officer are on his side and want him to succeed, but trust for an ex-con is in short supply among business owners, factory workers and yard bosses. Despite Cliff's best intentions and notwithstanding the Taylor brothers' short tempers, he is more pushed back rather than pulled into the orbit of crime in order to survive.

The cast members easily fit into the material. George Raft is in his element and immediately convincing, while Humphrey Bogart generates his own electricity fuelled by abrasive resentment. In his second major role, William Holden is relatively bland and superficial compared to his more weathered co-stars. Jane Bryan as his generic girl gets one scene to shine, bumping up against the dreams and reality of rich society.

On a sour casting note, Flora Robson is asked to play Raft's mother despite being six months younger, and there is an ickiness to the excessive nuzzling between mother and son.

The stripes are invisible, but the film's overall slick proficiency is on clear display.

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Movie Review: Some Like It Hot (1959)

A madcap comedy and romance, Some Like It Hot is a brilliantly constructed celebration of romance at its most complicated, incorporating gender politics, criminals on the loose, and an audacious anything goes, nothing to lose attitude.

It's 1929 in Chicago. Penniless friends and musicians Joe (Tony Curtis), a risk-taking saxophonist, and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), a more cautious double bass player, narrowly escape a police raid on an illicit nightclub run by mobster "Spats" Colombo (George Raft). Still reeling, Joe and Jerry are next unwilling witnesses to a St. Valentine's Day-type massacre perpetuated by Spats on informant "Toothpick" Charlie (George E. Stone) and his men. Desperate to leave town to avoid Spats' wrath, Joe and Jerry dress up as women, adopt the personas of Josephine (Joe) and Daphne (Jerry), and join an all-girls music band heading to Miami.

Jerry: [in high heels] How do they walk in these things, huh? How do they keep their balance?
Joe: It must be the way the weight is distributed. Now, come on.
Jerry: It's so drafty. They must be catching cold all the time, huh?
Joe: Will you quit stalling? We're gonna miss the train.
Jerry: I feel naked. I feel like everybody's staring at me!
Joe: With those legs, are you crazy? Now, come on.
[They see Sugar Kane]
Jerry: Look at that! Look how she moves. That's just like Jell-O on springs. She must have some sort of built-in motors. I tell you, it's a whole different sex!
Joe: What are you afraid of? Nobody's asking you to have a baby.

On the train, they meet singer and ukulele player Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), and both men fall madly in love with her. Sugar confides in Josephine and reveals all her hopes and aspirations, including exactly what she desires in a man. Joe uses the information to take on the new persona of young intellectual millionaire Junior, heir to the Shell Oil fortune, and starts a serious pursuit of Sugar. Meanwhile Jerry (as Daphne) finds himself the target of lecherous eldery millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown). With Spats still seeking to eliminate witnesses to the Chicago killings, Joe and Jerry frantically try to sort out their increasingly complex romantic entanglements and save their lives.

Jerry: Dirty old man...I just got pinched in the elevator.
Joe: Now you know how the other half lives.
Jerry: Look at that. I'm not even pretty.
Joe: They don't care. Just so long as you're wearing a skirt. It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
Jerry: Really. Well I'm sick of being the flag. I want to be a bull again.

Directed by Billy Wilder, who also co-wrote the script with I.A.L. Diamond, Some Like It Hot is one of Hollywood's perfect comedies. The laughs are derived from the ridiculous situations, the wild pacing and lust made troublesome by mixed-up genders. The dialogue is filled with zingers, the cast is deep with talent, and the script finds a loony groove and does not stop. The two hours are filled with frantic moments, and the antics of Joe and Jerry keep piling up. By the end of the film Joe has three personas, Jerry is still pining for Sugar but being pursued by both a millionaire and a bellboy, gangsters are at war with each other, and somehow it still all makes sense.

Osgood: You must be quite a girl.
Daphne: Wanna bet?

With the 1950s about to turn into the 1960s, Wilder and Diamond push the boundaries of sexual innuendo well past typical expectations for the era. With the plot device of an all-girls band providing the excuse for plenty of barely-dressed women to parade past Joe and Jerry in drag, Wilder deploys Marilyn Monroe as his weapon of mass distraction. Although apparently a horror on the set due to pill addiction, Monroe has never looked or acted better as the explosively innocent woman unaware of her impact on men. As an added bonus she also performs three songs at her breathiest best. For most of the second half of the film Wilder dresses her in daring possibly see-through dresses (impossible to tell in black and white) with just enough coverage to get past the censors.

Sugar: Water polo? Isn't that terribly dangerous?
Junior: I'll say. I had two ponies drowned under me.

And with Joe-as-Junior pretending to have lost interest in women and daring Sugar to cure him on Osgood's yacht, she needs no further invitation to unleash all her expertise to get a rise out of the millionaire of her dreams. Meanwhile, back on shore Jerry-as-Daphne and Osgood dance up a storm all the way until dawn to the tango tune of La Cumparsita, and in the morning Jerry is quite convinced that he will be marrying Osgood.

Jerry: Have I got things to tell you!
Joe: What happened?
Jerry: I'm engaged.
Joe: Congratulations. Who's the lucky girl?
Jerry: I am!
Joe: WHAT?!
Jerry: Osgood proposed to me! We're planning a June wedding.
Joe: What are you talking about? You can't marry Osgood.
Jerry: Why, you think he's too old for me?

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon have rarely been better and perfectly complement each other. Curtis as Joe is more cerebral, more adventurous and much more likely to get the pair into trouble, while Lemon as Jerry is more of a worrier but also more willing to follow along and complain about it. George Raft provides the counterbalance by playing it straight as mobster Spats, and Wilder again breaks ground by mixing comedy with brutal massacres and Tommy gun violence.

Some Like It Hot has fun at the expense of both genders and all ages. The film ends with a classic exasperated admission that while love can be hot and messy, no relationship and no one sex is perfect, which is exactly why there is so much fun to be had.

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Movie Review: Manpower (1941)

A romantic triangle drama set in the rough and tumble world of electric power line crews, Manpower boasts a terrific cast and some gritty locations and cinematography. But the human conflicts at the centre of the film are often contrived and less than convincing.

In California, Hank McHenry (Edward G. Robinson) and Johnny Marshall (George Raft) are best friends on a power line installation and maintenance crew that includes fellow workers Jumbo (Alan Hale) and Omaha (Frank McHugh). Hank likes women but is hopelessly incompetent when it comes to romantically wooing them. When he suffers a serious leg injury and is no longer able to climb the towers, Hank is promoted to foreman.

Pop Duval is a popular member of Hank's crew, but dies in a accident involving iced power lines. Hank is immediately attracted to Pop's troubled daughter Faye (Marlene Dietrich). She has served time in prison for theft, and upon her release has defaulted to life as a trashy hostess at a sleazy clip joint. Johnny doesn't trust Faye's intentions, but Hank is undeterred and ignoring Johnny's advice, proposes marriage. Faye never professed to love Hank but anyway tries to make a go of their marriage, but an injury suffered by Johnny signals the start of trouble ahead.

A rather uneven mix of drama, comedy, romance and conflict, Manpower is good but leaves the impression that it could have been better. Certainly the trio of Robinson, Raft and Dietrich is potent, and the performers generate and maintain an admirable level of intensity and engagement. Director Raoul Walsh is less successful when it comes to the comic relief, with the continuous stream of humour supplied by the numerous sidekick characters sometimes threatening to take over the film.

Primarily this is a dramatic love triangle set in a unique context, and the background of the men as members of a power line maintenance crew provides an undercurrent of danger that is well-exploited by Walsh. Setting aside atrocious worker safety practices, there are some quite effective scenes portraying the men getting on with their work on the high towers in inclement weather conditions including severe rain storms, thick fog (near an airport with planes landing nearby), and grappling with iced wires.

Also good is the smoky, sordid atmosphere at the Midnight Club, the clip joint where Faye washes up after her stint behind bars. The club is filled with desperate women hoping for one last break in life but instead being taken advantage of by both the club's disreputable management and the scuzzy customers. If working on the power lines is dangerous for Hank, Johnny and their men, working at the Midnight Club is just as precarious for Faye and her friends.

The tension that emerges in the relationships between Hank, Faye and Johnny is adequate without properly resonating. Only Robinson as Hank has enough character material to play with, and his naive, generally pleasant but easily combustible personality rings true. George Raft as Johnny has less of an arc and hides behind a cogent if ultimately predictable wise-cracking stoic persona. Faye is almost too easy for Dietrich, as she gets the shortest of scenes to reveal some background but otherwise plays the jaundiced victim of fate with barely any effort. The cast also includes Eve Arden and Ward Bond in small roles.

The film is famous in Hollywood lore for a couple of incidental reasons. Apparently Raft and Robinson came to blows on the set. Some sources attribute the tension between the men to arguments about Dietrich, while others mention Raft resenting Robinson's late addition to the cast, which diminished Raft's profile. Manpower is also known as the film Raft elected to appear in rather than The Maltese Falcon, which proved to be a classic and Humphrey Bogart's biggest career break.

Regardless of the background stories, Manpower is a decent effort. It never fully lights up, but does occasionally sparkle.

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The Movies Of George Raft

All movies starring George Raft and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Scarface (1932)

Invisible Stripes (1939)

They Drive By Night (1940)

Manpower (1941)

Nob Hill (1945)

Whistle Stop (1946)

Outpost In Morocco (1949)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Ocean's 11 (1960)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: They Drive By Night (1940)

A rough and tumble story about independent truckers that morphs into a film noir, They Drive By Night is always engaging but suffers from some lack of cohesion.

Brothers Joe and Paul Fabrini (George Raft and Humphrey Bogart) operate an independent long-haul truck on the west coast, scrapping for jobs, driving for dangerously long hours, and always running the risk of being jipped out of their pay by unscrupulous shippers. Paul is married to Pearl (Gale Page), but their domestic bliss is threatened by his frequent long absences. Joe meets sassy waitress Cassie (Ann Sheridan) and they start a friendship that turns into romance.

Just when it seems that the brothers are getting ahead and paying off their debts, a disaster on the highway interferes with their progress, forcing Joe to park his ambition and accept a more secure management job with the trucking company of jovial tycoon Ed J. Carlsen (Alan Hale). But Carlsen's wife Lana (Ida Lupino) is bored with her marriage and has her lecherous eyes on Joe. When Lana realizes that Joe is serious about Cassie, an evil murder plan is conceived.

They Drive By Night is two almost distinct stories wrapped into one film. The first part is a relatively unique look at the world of truckers living a life on the road, pushing to find and make the next delivery, and stopping only to drink enough coffee to keep themselves awake. It's a greasy, dark, and desperate occupation, as men like Joe and Paul chase the next paycheque, and dream of owning their own truck and expanding the business beyond the limits of their drooping eyelids, all while staying barely one step ahead of the bill collectors.

The second half of the film shift gears and heads purposefully towards frantic but less kinetic film noir territory, quickly piling on unrequited lust, jealousy, murder, a conniving femme fatale losing touch with reality and finally a courtroom showdown. It's an abbreviated crime drama, captivating enough by itself, but not sufficiently connected to the truckers' life established in the first 45 minutes. Director Raoul Walsh ensures that the quality never flags and delivers both sides of the film with verve, but there is a definite sense of truncated business, the script (by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay) perhaps running out of ideas to properly feed the initial on-the-road story of Joe and Paul.

With Raft at his peak and Bogart rapidly climbing towards the top, They Drive By Night enjoys two tough men in fine form. Raft takes the lead and is sympathetic as a well-meaning and ambitious man striving to better his lot. Bogart supports with a more conflicted personality, Paul torn between loyalty to his brother and trying to appease his worried wife.

The leading ladies put on a strong showing as well, Ida Lupino dominating the second half of the film with her turn as the bored and jealous Lana, a role that starts flirty, passes through steely determination and then slides towards destructive irrationality. Ann Sheridan is more prominent in the opening half, her Cassie tough enough to fend off hordes of leering truck drivers but sweet enough to melt into a relationship with Joe once she gets to know him.

They Drive By Night finds two different roads to navigate, and despite the rather abrupt transition, the drive is enjoyable on both.

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Movie Review: Outpost In Morocco (1949)

A B-movie straining hard to join the A-list, Outpost In Morocco cannot overcome its suspect foundations. The story of French Foreign Legion troops confronting a tribal insurrection in Morocco boasts impressive location shooting, but has limited content and is hampered by decidedly mediocre talent.

Captain Paul Gerard (George Raft) of the French Foreign Legion in Morocco is a notorious womanizer, but is nevertheless assigned by headquarters the mission of escorting the headstrong Cara (Marie Windsor), the daughter of tribal chief Emir of Bel-Rashad (Eduard Franz), across the desert to her father's city. Predictably, Gerard and Cara initially clash but the journey ends with them very much in love. The Emir thanks Gerard for delivering his daughter, but also hints that the tribes are restless and tired of being ruled by the French occupiers.

Gerard and his men stop at the nearby Legion fort of Commandant Fronval (Damian O'Flynn) and Lieutenant Glysko (Akim Tamiroff). Gerard sneaks back into Bel-Rashad's compound and discovers preparations for a rebellion in full swing, with modern rifles being distributed to hordes of tribesmen. With Gerard and Glysko back at headquarters reporting on what they found, the tribes attack Fronval's fort, killing the Commandant and all his men. Gerard, Glysko and strong reinforcements take over the fort and retaliate by raiding the Emir's palace and taking Cara hostage. A siege ensues, the Emir attempting to force Gerard to surrender by cutting off the fort's water supply, but Gerard holding Cara as a potential bargaining chip.

Outpost In Morocco was filmed with the rare cooperation of the Foreign Legion, and although the location scenery is impressive and the film does carry authentic boot dust and uniforms stained with sticky sweat, it's difficult not to notice the hamfisted glorification of the Legion, particularly with the dopey ending.

But the film's problems are bigger than the tone-deaf approach to colonial obtrusiveness. George Raft, at 54 years old, is many years past being able to pull off a Captain Gerard role with any conviction, either as a romantic lead or as an action hero. There is nothing in the story to suggest the possibility of a genuine romance, as the characters of Gerard and Cara jump from edgy bickering to doltish loving in an astonishing instant. Worse still are clumsy attempts to portray a disguised Raft as an athletic soldier sneaking up on his enemies and acrobatically making an escape, the actor's laconic, I'm-not-Bogart-but-I'm-trying persona clashing with the role's physical demands.

A miscast Marie Windsor does not help at all, her stiff screen presence confirming her "Queen of the Bs" title, nothing in her performance suggesting that she is anything but a second tier starlet awkwardly playing dress-up as the daughter of a desert tribal leader without knowing the first thing about what that may mean. Tamiroff's animated Lieutenant Glysko emerges as the most committed performance.

French-American director Robert Florey does the best with what he has, focusing more on the characters, creaky as they are, and less on action, probably more for budgetary reasons than any higher order artistic ideals. With none of the characters afforded any depth, the result is a film that drags somewhat in its second half, despite the compact 92 minutes of running length.

Outpost In Morocco is not short on ambition, but unfortunately short in most other areas.

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Movie Review: Whistle Stop (1946)

A faltering film noir of sorts, Whistle Stop stretches to reach some appealing dark and seedy ingredients but does not quite achieve the right mix.

After two years in Chicago, Mary (Ava Gardner) returns to her humble small hometown of Ashbury located by the rail tracks. Two men immediately vie for her attention: Kenny (George Raft) is an ex-lover, an altogether unimpressive and unemployed loser who spends most of his time playing cards. Lew (Tom Conway) is Kenny's rival and a successful businessman who runs the local hotel and bar. Gitlo (Victor McLaglen) is the popular bartender who works for Lew but is good friends with Kenny.

With Mary attracted both to Kenny's genuineness and Lew's riches, Gitlo tries to get Kenny involved in a plot to get Lew out of the way and steal some of his money, using the annual town fair as cover. But Lew has dark plans of his own to disrupt any chance that Kenny has to find happiness with Mary.

Whistle Stop suffers from the absence of any sympathetic characters to ground the turgid drama. Mary is the catalyst but she is unfortunately sidelined for the second half of the movie as the men engage in a distasteful battle of wills to assert dominance. While Kenny is supposed to be the anti-hero worth cheering for, his character seems quite beneath Mary, while Lew is boorishly unlikable. Mary seems best off with neither of them, and yet the film hinges on the battle for her affection between two unworthy men. When Kenny and Lew start plotting against each other, the only conclusion is that they both deserve to lose.

Russian - French director Léonide Moguy never quite made it in Hollywood, but here he does create some limited ambience in a rather depressing small town where evil thoughts can find the desperation to grow. Ava Gardner's presence and performance are several notches above the material, although she suffers from dubious character motivations. Why Mary left Chicago is never explained, and what she could possibly see in a loser like Kenny is even more difficult to fathom. George Raft, Tom Conway and Victor McLaglen do what they can, but the shallow script constrains all the performances.

The soundtrack by Dimitri Tiomkin adds some much needed class to the film, but Whistle Stop is simply drowned out by roaring indifference.

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Movie Review: Scarface (1932)

Produced by business magnate Howard Hughes with a money-is-no-object attitude and directed by Howard Hawks, Scarface is an early milestone in the history of cinema as a whole, and specifically the gangster movie.

Ambitious criminal Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) teams up with mobster boss Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins) and they eliminate rival gangster Louis Castillo (Harry J. Vejar), taking control of the illegal alcohol distribution business on the South Side (the City is unnamed, but presumed to be Chicago). Tony's ambition is unlimited, and he lusts after the luxuries of life as well as Poppy (Karen Morley), unperturbed that she is Lovo's girlfriend. He also sets his sights on taking control of the North Side business, controlled by the powerful O'Hara, despite Lovo's protestations.

Tony's weakness is his insanely protective attitude towards his sister Cesca (Ann Dvorak). While Tony allows himself total liberty to commit all crimes, he does not want Cesca to even be seen with a man. With the help of smooth assassin Guino Rinaldo (George Raft), Tony eventually makes his move for total dominance of the City and eliminates O'Hara, sparking a brutal round of reprisal killings and shootings. Gaffney (Boris Karloff) emerges as Tony's main adversary, and as the body count rises and the police move in, Tony faces his destiny from the top of the criminal world.

Dancing on the edge of celebrating the criminal lifestyle and wildly violent with numerous murders, drive-by shootings and even a depiction of the St Valentine's Day Massacre, Scarface opens with a perfunctory warning that crimes are dominating society and the government should do something about it. But the rest of the film presents a glamorous view of the riches up for grabs in the gangster world, and draws the easy message that living well and dying young is an attractive choice. Tony drools over his ability to wear each tailored dress shirt for just one day, and celebrates the arrival of the hand-held machine-gun as a game changer in his ability to dominate the streets.

This appeal to the dark side was all good for business of course, and Hughes had the resources and independence to battle the fragmented censorship regimes of the day to place his vision squarely in front of eager audiences. The success and notoriety of Scarface was one of the prompts that brought in stricter national enforcement of the Hays Code by 1934.

Hawks' directing is taut, and the film's visuals pack a punch with plenty of car chases and drive-by shooting action scenes. The Ben Hecht script (adapting the Armitage Trail book) includes ample character development scenes that round out Tony's rapid rise and inevitable fall. Paul Muni brings a manic magnetism to Tony, his eyes conveying a greed that will only be satisfied with the rapid pace of criminally accumulated riches, and a lust after Poppy that will only be quenshed when his mentor Lovo is crushed. George Raft makes a strong impression as the suave Guino, perpetually flipping a coin as he coldly goes about the business of killing.

Scarface may be muddled about its patched social responsibility in the face of the joyfully rampant excess on display, but there is no doubt the high entertainment quotient combined with ambitious production values influenced the early evolution of the movies.

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