It's been a race to try and see all the films leaving Criterion this month that we want to see. Except for one personal choice each this month we have only been watching films that are leaving Criterion January 31st. Usually there are half a dozen such films each month we want to see, but January was exceptional. Mubi does the same thing, but luckily for us hardly any films were leaving that streaming service in January. The four briefly discussed below are all in b & w and from the 1950s.
Cry of The Hunted is from 1953 and was directed by Joseph H. Lewis. Starring Vittorio Gassman, Polly Bergen, and Barry Sullivan, we watch as a man (Gassman) escapes from prison and heads back to the Louisiana bayou where his wife awaits him. An obsessed detective (Sullivan) tracks him down, and a tense cat and mouse game plays out in swampy no man's land. With some strange backwoods people, including an old woman who hangs out at a lonely and abandoned cemetery crying "Raoul" into the dark night, this is an offbeat and pretty effective film. Oddest of all is that it has a happy ending, something almost unheard of in crime films from the era. Recommended.
Next came a 1958 film directed by Irving Lerner called Murder By Contract. A man works his way up to being a top assassin for hire, but finally meets his match when he is expected to kill a woman. Men, no problem. This is the most B of B pictures, kept alive by its lead actor Vince Edwards, as well as a fine and quirky performance by Herschel Bernardi as one of his two sidekicks, put there by the big boss to see that the jobs get done. The musical score often consists of or two repeated notes on a guitar. Quite memorable and intense viewing.
Next came Nightfall, a 1956 film directed by Jacques Tourneur and Starring Aldo Ray and Brian Keith, along with an unglamourous but very effective Anne Bancroft. Ray and a friend of his are camping in the Wyoming mountains in late fall when they see a car go off the road and down an embankment. They rush to try and help. However, the car contains two armed and dangerous bank robbers, who kill Ray's friend. They accidentally leave their money behind (they pick up the wrong bag). Ray, who is shell shocked by the murder of his friend, grabs the money and takes off into the bush. Eventually, back in LA, the two robbers catch up to him. An insurance detective is also trying to track down the money, and the climax takes place back in the mountains near the campsite. Ray is great as a low key innocent man caught up in a nightmare, supported by Bancroft after a little mix-up between them when he suspects her of working with the two hoods. Some great location shooting in snow covered mountains. The ending is overly dramatic and a bit silly, but overall this is a very decent film.
The Sniper is from 1952 and was directed by Edward Dymtryk. At the beginning viewers expect to see a film about sex crimes, but it turns to out be a sad case of a guy with some serious mother issues when he was growing up. Released from an asylum against his will, when he feels urges to kill come on he tries to contact his previous doctor there. No luck. Then he purposely burns his hand on a stove element, hoping he'll be put in a psych ward for that. No luck. Poor guy. He tries to fight his urges, but to no avail. He kills with a rifle and a scope, usually from a distance. The police are helpless to find him, and the pressure on city hall mounts. Unlike the assassin in Murder By Contract, this guy only kills women, especially brunettes that remind him of his mother. She must have been a piece of work. Good San Francisco locations add to the atmosphere. This kind of guy is just a bit too prevalent these days, making the doctor's pitch in the mayor's office rather prescient, especially as it falls upon deaf ears.
Leaving Criterion January 31st.
In weather news, Winter appears to be making an early exit. Though we still have February to get through, the week ahead looks well above average for temperatures, and not much in the way of winter weather except for Saturday. We will rebound on Sunday and for the rest of the week. We had 19 days in January where the temperature did not rise to or above freezing. So we had many cold days, and many of those were breezy. The coldest day was the 21st, where the temp only rose to 9 F, and the night dropped to -2 F. Looking forward to some snowdrops later in February.
Mapman Mike
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