Noirsville Tune of the Week

More Tom Waits

 

Noirsville Neo Noir Images of the Week

Leonard Freed - Louisiana Prison

    Down Under the Manhattan Bridge - DUMBO

 

Butte Montana - Unknown

Brigitte Bardot

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Times Square Hooker

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Prostitute

Early 1960s and Hot to Trot - Unknown

Vivienne Gucwa

Lovegrove

Prostitute

Shoshone Trailer Park

Unknown

Trailer Trash? 

Unknown

 

Eye Spy - Unknown

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Ivar Theater?

Ivar Theater

Ivar Theater ?

Live Nude Show - How Noir of Them?

Ivar Theater - Hollywood

Condom Dispenser - Ivar Theater - Noir - Unknown

Camera Night - Ivar Theater?  - Hollywood

Bourbon Street - New Orleans - Unknown

Vintage Cuties

 Frédéric Fontenoy

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Jason Tannen 

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In Your Face - Unknown

Leonard Freed 

Subway - Bruce Davidson 

Noirsville New Pulp Art

     Real Men Magazine Illustration

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Mark Alfrey Collection

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Glen Orbik

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Mark Alfrey Collection

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Signed Above

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Reign Of Terror (1949) An 18th Century Cloak & Dagger Adventure Noir

Directed by Anthony Mann 

Mann's notable Films Noir in order are The Great Flamarion, Two O'clock Courage, Desperate, Railroaded, T-Men,  Raw Deal, He Walked By Night, Reign Of Terror, Border Incident, Side Street, then Western Noir The Devils Doorway, and Period Noir The Tall Target. Some of his other Westerns can probably thematically tip Noir The Naked Spur, The Far Country, and Man Of The West. For me, the taxi cab - police car chase in Side Street shot down at the tip of Manhattan is classic. The precursor to the great urban car chase scenes in Roadblock, The Lineup, Bullitt, The French Connection, The Seven Ups, To Live and Die In L.A. and Ronin.

I can even say that as a kid I actually saw two of Mann's films in Lowe's grandiose Triboro Theater. A theater that had a red and gold Rocco throne room with oversized thrones for a lobby. The theater itself was was like walking into the back garden of a Italian Baroque palazzo at twilight, the ceiling was painted realistically azure to resemble a faux sky that, as the lights dimmed turned into a starry milky way with twinkling stars. The side walls had protruding balcony like boxes alternating with niches filled with statuary  

Lowes Triboro Theater Lobby

Upper hall outside balcony

The Lowes Triboro Theater with it's outdoor sky ceiling

So, the two Anthony Mann flics I saw here were color epics Spartacus, and El Cid, and the tickets came with souvenir booklets about each film, and there was an entr'acte aka intermissions on these long films.

Reign of Terror was written by Philip Yordan and Æneas MacKenzie, from a story by the same two. The excellent cinematography was by John Alton (The Crooked Way, T-men, Raw Deal, The Hollow Triumph, Mystery Street, to name a few). Music was by noir vet Sol Kaplan. 

The film stars Robert Cummings (Kings Row, Saboteur, Flesh and Fantasy, The Chase, The Accused, Dial M for Murder) as Charles D'Aubigny, Richard Basehart (He walked By Night, Tension, La Strada) as Maximilien Robespierre, Richard Hart (Green Dolphin Street) as François Barras, Arlene Dahl (Scene Of The Crime, No Questions Asked, Slightly Scarlet) as Madelon, Arnold Moss (Border Incident, Viva Zapata) as Fouché, Norman Lloyd (Saboteur, Spellbound, Scene of the Crime, M) as Tallien, Charles McGraw (Roadblock, The Killers, The Narrow Margin, T-Men, In Cold Blood)  as the Sergeant, Beulah Bondi (Street Scene, It's A Wonderful Life) as Grandma Blanchard, Jess Barker (Scarlet Street, Shack out on 101) as Louis Antoine de Saint-Just. 

Robert Cummings as Charles D'Aubigny

Arlene Dahl as Madelon

Richard Basehart as Maximilien Robespierre

Arnold Moss as Tallien

Beulah Bondi as Grandma Blanchard

Jess Barker as Louis Antoine de Saint-Just.

Charles McGraw as the Hussar Sargent

With Wade Crosby as Danton, John Doucette (Ride the Pink Horse, I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes, Criss Cross, The Crooked Way) as Pierre, and Russ Tamblyn as Pierre's oldest son. 

I first watched this years ago as a kid and just couldn't figure out what was going on, I realize now that I missed a key plot point right at the beginning which would have cleared everything up. (See below) 

Story

The French Reign Of Terror. 1793-4

We get a Voice Over with a rundown of the conditions in France at the time, in a montage that besides introducing some of the main characters also displays a very effective guillotine sequence. (below).  

We cut to a small seemingly insignificant loan figure on horseback, riding across a stark landscape dominated by a big cloud filled sky, the horizon giving an impression of the curvature of the earth. From small things can come monumental changes.

We see from a window the rider approaching a château. It's the Austrian Netherlands. The rider is a patriot of the revolution named Charles D'Aubigny. He's there to meet the Marquis de La Fayette who is sitting in exile in the Austrian controlled territory. The Marquis explains to Charles that he has a  mission for him and that is to end the Reign of Terror in France.

Lafayette gives Charles his ring. Showing his ring will allow him access to his network of spies and agents in France. 

With ring in hand Charles heads back across the Netherland frontier back into France. His rendezvous is at a windmill. Inside the door he's confronted with a dagger until he displays Lafayette's ring. 

The challenger sees the ring and tells Charles that the plans are all set, and that he came just in time. Another cut and we see him in silhouette galloping away from the meeting.  

We cut to Maximillian Robespierre leading the Committee of Public Safety, and he was targeting perceived enemies of the Revolution, counter revolutionaries, traitors and anyone who opposed the Jacobin party. 

Danton after his "trial"

The Committee Of Public Safety 

The film picks up at the very end of a meeting of the Committee of Public Safety where Robespierre condemns the former head of the committee Georges Danton to death. 

We follow him as he departs, as he brushes off the pleas of Danton's wife in a hall, and when Robespierre enters the office he keeps at the Committee, he meets Fouché the head of his secret police, sitting at "his" desk. 

Maximilian Robespierre: That's *my* chair you're sitting in, Fouche.

Fouché: I just wanted to see how it fits.

Maximilian Robespierre: Danton liked to sit in that chair, too.

Fouché: And to think that he had supper with us only last night. It's amazing how fast you lose friends these days.

Maximilian Robespierre: And you never know who's next on the list, Fouche.

Fouché: It must be quite a thrill, making out your death list every night.

With designs of becoming dictator, Robespierre summons the only man who can nominate him  François Barras at the National Convention to the office. The door opens and Barras is announced by St. Just who reveals to us later he is Robespierre's "shadow."

François Barras: I arrived just in time to see Danton on his way out. Exactly as you planned, wasn't it?

Maximilian Robespierre: Danton was my friend, not yours. Why should you feel badly about it?

François Barras: Because Danton was a good soldier. Without him, France would have been overrun by the armies of Europe.

Maximilian Robespierre: That was yesterday. Like all good soldiers, he outlived his usefulness

Robespierre hands Barras a piece of paper.  Barras reads the statement Robespierre wants him to make.

François Barras: This would make you dictator of France.

Maximilian Robespierre:  Yes.

François Barras: We didn't storm the Bastille to make any man dictator.

Maximilian Robespierre:  I'm not "any man".

Barras walks out, Fouché sarcastically tells Robespierre that he handled that well. Robespierre replies that he'll come around when all his friends start dying. Fouché tells him that even he isn't that brave to attempt that. 

By the end of the scene Robespierre is standing by the window of the office, throwing corn to pigeons that look like they are obviously being thrown down by stage hands to the window sill. When they land they aren't interested in eating at all. Tame pigeons. subtext.

Maximilian Robespierre: There's a man in Strasbourg who isn't afraid of anything. A man named Duval.

Fouché: Duval?

Maximilian Robespierre: You know him?

Fouché: No, but I know his record. Five hundred executions in a single month. That's almost as good as yours, Max.

Maximilian Robespierre: I've sent for Duval. He arrives at the Blue Goose Inn tonight. You go there and bring him to the bakery. I'll meet him there.

Fouché: How will I know him?

Maximilian Robespierre: As one snake to another, you'll smell each other out.

Night. The Blue Goose Inn. A carriage arrives. A well dressed man steps down out of it. He bangs upon the inn door with his cane. Watching all this from the street is a woman in a black bonnet and dark travelling cloak. Her name is Madelon.  (Arlene Dahl in a nice shadowy intro.) 

Madelon

After the inn keeper leaves, we watch as a right arm silently reaching out into the frame. Reaching out towards Duval. It grabs Duval by the throat and pulls him back and down. As Duval struggles, we see a dagger raised, and then brought forcefully down with a finality out of frame that we there's no doubt Duval is dead. 

Charles' assignment was to assassinate Duval, the Prosecutor aka "Butcher" of Strasbourg. He is then to assume Duval's identity, since no one in Paris knows what he looks like, As Duval he can report on, and foil, whatever Robespierre has planned.

This is the plot point I missed when I first watched the film long ago as a kid, and the reason I couldn't figure out why it wasn't making any sense, lol.

Madelon knocks on the inn door, the innkeeper opens it to let her in. He tells her that there are no rooms left. 

Madelon replies that she must see Duval. When she climbs the stair to the protests of the innkeeper, she threatens to wake up the whole inn if he doesn't tell her the room. He acquiesces. 

She knocks on Duval's door. We see Charles closing a louvered shutter. Charles puts out the candle and asks who is there. 

Madelon tells him she has a message from Paris. Charles unlocks the door and steps behind it  Charles asks her to tell him the message. She says that it is written so she must have some light. 

In the dimness we can see Madelon clutching a lethal orrnate hairpin. 

Charles then asks who the message is from? Madelon replies that there are only two people who can send messages out of Paris. Robespierre and Barras. She then asks Charles who would he like one from? 

When Charles says Barras all the tension is released. 

Apparently since Charles showed up at the last minute, Madelon was acting on plan B, which was to kill Duval herself.

When Charles lights a candle so that they can see each other, they both realize that they were former lovers. Madelon asks where is Duval's body? Charles replies he already passed it down to his men waiting outside the window.

Charles bitterly reminds her that she stood him up. It's a semi cute meet. 

Madelon gives Charles instructions to report any information when he can to her at the Cafe des Morts Vivants. She leaves just as Fouché and the innkeeper are climbing up the stairs. They take her for a prostitute. 

When the innkeeper opens the door to the room he's startled a bit when he sees Charles. He looks as if he doesn't recognize him.  

Fouché  notices his reaction but Charles, questions the innkeeper sharply about why is he so interested in his appearance, all the while flipping the real Duval's powdered wig around.  The innkeeper, startled a bit, replies defensively that it must be because he's not wearing his wig.

On the carriage ride to meet Robespierre, Fouché and Charles are attacked by a gang either trying to rob them or they are another group of patriots trying to attack Fouché and Duval. They fight them off and arrive at the bakery where Robespierre has his office. 

He's ensconced in the bakery's basement that's accessed by a winding stair. Muskets with attached bayonets line the steps giving you an impression of balusters and the shadows they throw.  In his hole Robespierre, sits at a desk with an additional rack of arms behind him. 

After exchanging pleasantries, Robespierre dismisses Fouché  and explains what he wants from Duval. Robespierre reveals that his black book containing his lists of the names of the enemies of the state up for execution, has gone missing and that he is giving Duval the authority over everyone except himself to search for and find it.   

Of course it's gonna go Noirsville. 

Noirsville

Anthony Mann and John Alton craft a tight paced 89 minute beautifully filmed inky black Noir. 

Robert Cummings is excellent, he far exceeds expectations. I was imprinted with his cheesecake photographer character from the "Love That Bob" aka The Bob Cummings Show a TV Series that ran 1955-59. So I later was impressed when I saw him in Saboteur, and Dial M for Murder, and then later in the 1966 version of Stagecoach. I didn't catch him in The Chase until far more recently and it was a poor quality copy. I've seen a better print since, but it needs a rewatch.

Arlene Dahl is beautiful and mysterious as the spymistress, Basehart is believably maniacal in his quest for dictatorship, Arnold Moss is delightfully slimy, while Charles McGraw is very menacing as the Hussar cavalry sergeant who doubles as Robespierre's enforcer and torturer. Jess Barker is good as Robespierre's "shadow" and since St. Just lets Charles know that Robespierre doesn't like women there may be some subtext there. 8/10