The Human Jungle (1954) Cop Shop Noir

I love it when I find a diamond in the rough.

So again, I'm going down a list of classic era Film Noir titles that, I either could not ever find any way to view, or they didn't, from reading the short blurbs that accompany the title, catch my interest this go round.

Besides the blurb, other weigh points are director, cinematographer (I'm visually oriented), then actors (for some I'll watch anything they are in at least once), location (I'll take real locations over studio sets every time), then story (does it sound interesting?), occasionally the production studio may be a minor factor but never a deterrent, and usually music last (though some films may only be interesting for their soundtracks).

Usually most the music in studio Classic Noir is somewhat homogeneous studio orchestra string pieces. Off the top of my head I an readily remember music from what I call the "Street Scene" Noirs, from Out Of The Past and pieces from Bernard Herrmann and a handful of others, but not much else unique except those noirs that began to incorporate jazz and blues into their soundtracks.

In my quest of following that Noir "high" I've come to appreciate a lot of low budget flawed films that an still deliver it. Flawed films that have some archival footage of locations that just don't exist anymore but on that particular film. Films that have a great cinematographer, but a knackered screenplay. Or a great director with no budget. Or a film with one good professional actor and the rest amateur. Film that have preserved the style of burlesque/stripper routines, the come-ons of carnival barker or the quasi professional performance of a night club torch singer.

So getting back to The Human Jungle. The director Joseph M. Newman didn't readily ring any bells so looked him.up. Newman is responsible for 711 Ocean Drive, and a recent discovery Death in Small Doses. Both pretty good Noirs. He also directed the studio bound Dangerous Crossing and later some twilight Zone episodes. The cinematographer Ellis W. Carter did a couple of Noirs I've never heard of Big Town After Dark and Waterfront at Midnight. The well polished screenplay was by Daniel Fuchs and William Sackheim.

Fuchs has a pretty good pedigree in noir responsible for The Gangster, Hollow Triumph, Criss Cross, Panic in the Streets and Storm Warning. Sackheim adapted 3D Noir Man in the Dark.  The music was by Hans J. Salter.

Garry Merrill as Police Capt. John Danforth

So who starred in it?, is probably your next question. Garry Merrill he really impressed me with his portrayal of wise ass hood Tommy Scalisi opposite Dana Andrews in Where The Sidewalk Ends.

He didn't have to go over the top like Widmark doing that other Tommy, "have a nice trip down the stairs Mrs. Rizzo," Tommy Udo. Merrill sold Scalisi with his cool delivery and his stance. He sold it and you bought it. What Merrill does here is portraying his range. He's equally believable to me as a smart hard as nails police reformer Police Capt. John Danforth. Then watch his broken on the wagon wino in the Transitional Noir The Incident.

What also makes you wonder why The Human Jungle isn't more well known is the equally exceptional performances of rest of the cast.

Jan Sterling plays a stripper/hooker Mary Abbott, I've never seen her look better and she was a veteran of seven noirs prior to this role (she is also in The Incident). Regis Toomey fits the part of Det. Bob Geddes like putting on an old pair of comfortable slippers.

Jan Sterling as Mary Abbot

 Regis Toomey as Det. Bob Geddes

Chuck Connors as Earl Swados

Chuck Connors really sines as meathead, gang muscle Earl Swados. Then you have, perennially popping up as a cop, Emile Meyer as Police Chief Abe Rowan and the equally adept James Westerfield as Police Capt. Marty Harrison.

Emile Meyer as Police Chief Abe Rowan

James Westerfield as Police Capt. Marty Harrison. 

Claude Akins is the mob connected owner of the Hutch, George Mandy.  The rest of the cast just add to the realism. Lamont Johnson as Det. Lannigan is great and looks amazingly like Tom Hanks, Patrick Waltz as Det. Strauss, Paula Raymond as Pat Danforth, Gary Merrill's wife. The rest, George Wallace as Det. O'Neill, Chubby Johnson as Greenie and, Florenz Ames as Leonard Ustick are equally believable.

Florenz Ames as Leonard Ustick and Claude Akins as George Mandy

Its a well executed film from Allied Artists, and when you're not expecting too much going into it you get a pleasant surprise with what was achieved.

In the fictitious Jefferson Heights precinct in Big City, Somewhere, USA  (actually Shot in Hollywood)

Dead Stripper/Hooker

The story is more about cleaning up a troublesome police precinct than solving the crime of who bludgeoned the floozy in the alley. The atmosphere of a lackadaisical precinct full of cops who don't give a shit is well executed. An old New York Times review from 1954 mentions that the film was full of "generally unfamiliar faces." It's full of faces that subsequently became quite famous and familiar on TV.

Captain Danny Danforth a good cop, is about to quit the force after passing the bar exam. He wants to make something of himself. Both he and his wife are tired of the daily grind of police work and being an attorney will be a big step up.

Danforth visits Abe Rowan the chief of police to see if he can just take off his last two moths off. However, while making his spiel to Rowan, they get interrupted by an urgent all. Another murder has been committed in the Jefferson Heights Precinct. Rowan tells Danforth to come with him down there and they can continue their conversation in the car. At the Heights, Rowan convinces Danforth to take over from the ineffectual Capt. Marty Harrison for his last two months.

Paula Raymond as Pat Danforth

Danforth agrees and tells Pat his wife that the assignment is just temporary. His transfer is at first resented by the ops at the precinct, but his hard nosed measures and the results they achieve begin to win them over. Danforth and Geddes make the murder of the stripper top priority. Their main suspect is Earl Swados the strippers boyfriend. His alibi is another stripper Mary Abbott.

Other distractions arise when one of the detectives in the new zeal to deter crime accidentally kills a civilian while stopping a tire robbery at a filling station, and when the mob stages a police brutality rap against the department. Both headlines make Danforth look bad.

Danforth puts pressure on Abbott to turn states evidence. He assigns a few undercover detectives to go to The Hutch the strip club where she works and they arrest her for soliciting. While they are holding her in jail they bring in Swados again and tell him that she's squealing. Swados is not the sharpest tool in the shed and he begins to sweat.

Swados is let out on a Habeas Corpus and he goes and tells his boss at the club, Mandy, and the local crime boss Ustick about Mary. They tell him not to worry that the police are just bluffing.

Danforth decides to put Mary under full police surveillance when they have to let her out, and let her be the bait hoping that Swados will make his move on her.

Noirsville

An anonymous  New York Times review at the time, goes on to say that "Unfortunately, the color of this hard-bitten canvas surpasses its substance. Mr. Merrill's campaign is valiant but predictable, hinging on the inevitable platinum blond cutie, excellently played, as usual, by Jan Sterling."

This just goes to say that back in the day (the 50s) they were churning out these cops and criminal features like they were going out of style. From 1949 to 1954 they produced 52 in '49, 57 during high water mark  '50, 39 in 51 then 26, 21, and back up to 26 in 1954. That's 221 Crime features a lot of the great Film Noir. It's easy to see how this gets lost in the shuffle.

The Times also went on to say "And Emile Meyer, Regis Toomey, Chuck Connors and most of the other supporting roles are expertly ticked off."Sounds like he's writing a four star review. He goes on "Furthermore, for once we get a rather unorthodox façade for evil in Florenz Ames' chilling milquetoast."

I think the final lines display a somewhat jaded attitude "Alas, none of them, including Mr. Merrill's hero, is particularly intriguing. For all the picturesque puttering and sputtering, "The Human Jungle" lodges unimportantly somewhere between "The Asphalt Jungle" and "Detective Story.""  Its important now because of the new interest in Films Noir, and sitting between The Asphalt Jungle and Detective Story ain't to shabby a spot, don't ya think?

It's not so much about solving a crime as it is about the change in the characters getting there. From Allied Artist originally Monogram Pictures. Its a bit studio bound and could have used more location shots. 8/10