Saturday, May 13, 2017

Another Bad Cop Film Noir Coming Sunday (Mother’s Day) Morning, at 10, on TCM, starring the Great Van Heflin

By David in TN

This Sunday, May 14 at 10 am ET, TCM has another Bad Cop Film Noir, The Prowler (1951).

Van Heflin stars as a cop who plots to kill a man for his wealth and his wife.

I read once that Van Heflin was called “another Spencer Tracy” when he started his career.

N.S.: Apparently being called “another Spencer Tracy” meant that a man was a great actor, but homely. They said the same thing about James Whitmore, early in his career, and Whitmore actually bore a vague resemblance to Spence.

Folks, these films noir have their own host, a guy I’ve never heard of, but who is vastly superior to Josh Mankiewicz, who has no connection to pictures, except that his great-grandfather and great-uncle were brilliant moviemakers.

When I see Mankiewicz talking, I assume he’s reading someone else’s script, and the scripts are only o.k., to begin with. But this guy, Eddie Muller, who founded the Film Noir Foundation, is hilarious, and sounds like he wrote his own scripts. He called Edmond O’Brien the king of perspiration (paraphrase).


3 comments:

David In TN said...

Oh, Eddie Muller writes his own scripts all right. He's a professional writer with around 10 published books. Two are noir type novels, both good reads.

in the last decade, Muller has done 20-25 DVD commentaries on DVD's of Noir films. He does an excellent job, extended versions of what you hear on his TCM show.

His most recent ones are for Woman on the Run (1950), 99 River Street (1953), and Deadline USA (1952). Eddie Muller does his best commentary on these three, IMO. During 99 River Street, Muller tells what happens (in a legal sense) when a pro boxer hits (it happens in the plot of the film) a citizen.

Anonymous said...

I never heard of the movie,The Prowler until I read about it on this site.I watched it & found The Prowler to be such an engaging, entertaining film.I agree,Eddie Muller does an excellent job presenting classic film noir.

David In TN said...

TCM's Film Noir for Sunday, May 21, is Crime of Passion (1957). Barbara Stanwyck plays an advice to the lovelorn columnist in San Francisco who helps crack a murder case. She then falls in love with Los Angeles detective Sterling Hayden.

They marry after a quick romance. She finds suburban married life boring and pressures her husband to climb the promotional ladder more quickly. Her scheming to advance this end in murder.

Also starring Raymond Burr (just before he became Perry Mason) and Fay Wray. One of Stanwyck's femme fatale roles.

Back in 1957, this was part of a double feature.