Review: Anthony Mann Double Bill

Every year, the Film Noir Foundation comes down to Los Angeles to present Noir City, a collection of movies most of which aren't on DVD. It's always a great series and you can discover some real gems as well as catch up on titles that you've always read about, but never seen.

This year included a double feature of rare Anthony Mann movies from his early career. So without further ado:

O'Clock Courage (1945)
starring: Tom Conway, Anne Rutherford, Jane Greer, Richard Lane, Emory Parnell
dir. Anthony Mann

This is one of those films that shows signs of what Mann will become, but isn't fully formed. The opening shot as our hero Tom Conway walks down a street and leans against a signpost looking dazed is a classic hard edge Mann shot that would come into common use in a few years when working with John Alton. The rest of the film is rather visually plain as it deals with our hero battling amnesia, aided by cutie taxi driver Anne Rutherford to help prove that he may or may not be a murderer. The film moves fast and furious as it introduces characters and we try to piece events together along with our heroes.

Its a fun film, but not a great one. It has a lot of humor, which is nice, but you could punch holes through the plot at any moment if you take the time to do any thinking. It's a blast though to watch each conversation add one more small piece to the puzzle. Rutherford is adorable and fires off one liners with an ease and playfulness that never falls into cynicism. She brings a lot of energy to the piece and that's a good thing since most of the movie hinges on her performance. Conway is workable and plays well with Rutherford, but when on his own seems to lapse into mannerism rather than performance. With a running time of 67 minutes, it's an entertaining little B-movie that is well worth the time.

8 out of 10

Desperate (1947)
starring: Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, Douglas Fowley, William Challee, Jason Robards Sr.
dir. Michael Mann

Just prior to starting his string of classic B's, Railroaded (1947), T-Men (1947) and Raw Deal (1948), Mann made some leaps and bounds with this first great film. Some may argue that his first great film was Strange Impersonation (1946), but it falls a little too much into melodrama and has some pacing problems to be considered a great noir.

Steve Brodie plays a trucker who accidentally gets involved with Burr's fabulous baddie and ends up running from the mob as well as the law with his pregnant wife in tow. They find a place to start over, all the while everyone is closing in on catching him. Brodie and Long are great as the couple on the run and the rest of the cast is just fantastic, especially Fowley as a scumbag PI out to find the couple.

The real star through is Mann's direction. It is filled with imagery and compositions that really show off Mann's talent for making a lot out of very little. Cinematographer George Diskant deserves some major kudos for his work here and would go on to do other great noir like On Dangerous Ground (1952), The Narrow Margin (1952) and Kansas City Confidential (1952) before moving into a lengthy career in television.

When it comes to stunning visuals, two scenes in particular come to mind. The first, when Brodie is being beaten up by Burr and his cronies in a basement. A single overhead light swinging back and forth creates monstrous images, casting moving shadows and hard light on faces that become ghoulish when struck. The second is a tour de force in editing and sound as minutes tick down before Burr is going to execute Brodie in the final act. The sound of the ticking clock overpowers as they cut slowly between faces that get tighter and sweatier until all we see are eyes piercing through the screen. It's Sergio Leone 20 years before Sergio Leone! The knock at the door that finally breaks the tension sounds like an explosion of relief as the viewer can finally exhale.

It's a great piece of underrated work and is shocking to think that it's not available on DVD. It's a seminal piece in Mann's canon and should be celebrated more. If you get an opportunity to see it, drop everything and go.

9 out of 10