What Film Noir did you see?:November/December Edition.

* This review may contain spoilers ***

Being a fan of Hammer Horror and the Giallo sub-genre I started talking to a friend about Horror flicks to view in October. Whilst being aware of Hammer's late Psycho-Thriller/Giallo era,I was surprised to get told of a Hammer psycho which co-starred Peter Cushing,which led to me fearing the night.

The plot:

Preparing to move to a secluded boys' boarding school that her husband Robert Heller will be working at,Peggy is attacked by a stranger wearing black gloves.Waking up from the attack,Peggy finds no proof that an attacker was in the house,and starts to wonder if she is imagining things. Going to the school with Robert,Peggy meets headmaster Michael Carmichael,whose quiet behaviour puts Peggy on edge. Attacked (and knocked out) again,Peggy wakes up to find Robert asking what she thinks might be causing her to faint.Fearing her sanity,Peggy decides to relax and walk round the school.Hearing the sound of school children,Peggy walks into the school and is horrified,when she finds it to be completely empty of kids.

View on the film:

Reaching the screen after originally being written in 1963,co- writer/(along with Michael Syson) director Jimmy Sangster gives the horror a sly middle class shell,dressed in crisp surroundings and prim clothes which allow for the psychological terror to lurk underneath. Dissecting Hammer studios major theme of female hysteria with Giallo black gloves,the writers brilliantly mix haunted Gothic Horror memories of a past that has long gone with a rich Film Noir pessimism.Tearing Peggy Heller away from being a "Scream Queen",the writers use the disbelief in Peggy's visions to cast her as a Film Noir loner,whose hysteria over what she is experiencing is clouded by the meek middle class façade Robert covers her eyes with.

For the final Hammer Horror he would direct, Sangster and cinematographer Arthur Grant set the mood tranquillity,by giving the opening morbid,stilted camera moves casting a shadow of something long forgotten. Cosying up in the Heller's house, Sangster sits in with corned shots on the household which lock Peggy in and make the sudden shots of violence smash the image of Peggy's life with a mighty Hammer.

Also making his final Hammer outing, Ralph Bates gives a wonderful performance as Robert,whose mature manner Bates makes just that bit eerily off. Joining in on the Giallo Horror game, Peter Cushing walks a fine line in his performance as "The Headmaster" whose gentlemen manner is undermined by Cushing blinding him with shards of cold emotion across his black glasses.Delivering a scream with fear to match the best of Hammer's Girls,the elegant Judy Geeson wonderfully turns Peggy into a burnt-out Film Noir loner,whose chirpy middle class heart is worn down by Geeson into a hysteria which leads to Peggy being numb to the outside world,as Peggy discovers that fear is the key.

Directed by Joseph Pevney. Written by Nat Dallinger (story), Martin Goldsmith, Alfred Lewis Levitt and Don Martin (story). Cinematography by Irving Glassberg. It was a UI release.

The film Stars Howard Duff as Jack Early, Brian Donlevy as Nick Palmer, Peggy Dow as Ellen Bennett, Lawrence Tierney as Colton, Bruce Bennett as David Glover, Anne Vernon as Lita Palmer, Charles Sherlock as Sam, Rock Hudson as Ted, the nightclub Doorman, Peggie Castle as Hat Check Girl, and Joseph Pevney as Keller the Reporter.

The San Francisco Bay Area tale begins with a shadowy figure running across a waterfront railyard. He got three wiseguys on his ass. He runs across tracks and around the end of a boxcar. He drops off a camera on the coupler of the boxcar then speeds off.

The three goons close in. At the edge of the bay, they catch up to the man they are chasing. They grab him but not before he tosses a camera identical to the one he dropped off at the boxcar, into the drink. The wiseguys still beat the *beep* out of him and leave him lying unconscious across a street railway track with a steam switcher locomotive chuffing down towards him. He regains his senses and drags himself out of the way. Recovered even more, he walks over to the boxcar and retrieves the real camera. All this happens within the first two minutes.

Howard Duff plays a savvy photographer Jack Early, who is obsessed and desperately trying to break into the big time. He's not interested in just selling pictures, he wants a newspaper job. He gets some sympathy and a serious come on from a blonde female employee Ellen Bennett (Peggy Dow), who invites him to dinner at her place.

Ellen plays it hot and cold when Jack makes some feeble moves on her. She's engaged she tells him to Dentist in Portland, and tells Jack that he better leave. Shot out of the saddle Jack makes some small talk at the door, he then leans forward to kiss Ellen she raises her lips, but Jack does the unexpected kissing her on the forehead as he leaves. A slightly disappointed Ellen leans up against the door.

Hopping into a cab Jack lucks into another story as they follow a wildly careening car to its plunge into San Francisco Bay. Jack gets another exclusive picture of the victim who he has leaning out of the car window for a picture. He does the same at a fire where he stops a woman from jumping out of the burning building in order to get the pic. Jack is basically a jackass. Jack's only bump in the road in Newspaper Editor David Glover (Bruce Bennett).

So the paper hires him and he gets a big break when he convinces a "Dapper Dan" mobster, Nick Palmer (Donlevy) to let him take his picture. Nick takes a shine to Jack and invites him over for dinner the next day. Nick gives Jack a tip about a rival gang's upcoming bank job, Nick will pay Jack a $1000 down to take a picture of the robbers and another $1000 after the picture is published. The bank job is being executed by a goon named Colton, (Lawrence Tierney) he runs his operation out of a bowling alley. Jack is there at the bank to take pictures. He gives the newspaper the one where the gang's faces aren't easily identified. but he goes to Colton with the really damning photo and demands part of the take to keep quiet. Colton gives in. Jack while all this is going down gets the hots for Nita, Palmer's wife. Everything starts to escalate as you'd expect into a typical Noirsville spiral.

Howard Duff is great in this, it's so far, his best roll, that I've seen, Lawrence Tierney also gets high marks for his performance as the hood Colton with Brian Donlevy also putting in a nice turn as Nick Palmer.

Shakedown sorely needs a restoration, as is an 8/10. Review with the fuzzy screencaps from a multigenerational AVI file here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/10/shakedown-1950-ace-in-hole-meets.html

And needless to say, a tick is on the way. Good job.

Excellent film imho. Your review is spot on.

Good review. I really wanted to watch this when it was on rarefilmm, but the copy was so bad unfortunately that I didn't. I hope it will get a cleanup sometime.

Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."

It's in better shape than The Come On was.

That too I wanted to watch. Neither of them seem to be out on DVD as a clean copy.

Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."

Another good review. Never heard of this one, but looking forward to checking it out sometime.



Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .