Death of A Scoundrel (1956) Sleazeball Noir

"Business is the art of getting something for nothing"(Thorstein Veblen)

Written and Directed by Charles Martin, Cinematography by James Wong Howe, Music by Max Steiner. Cinematography by  James Wong Howe, Music by Max Steiner. 

The film stars George Sanders multiple Classic Noir vet) as Clementi Sabourin, Yvonne De Carlo (three Classic Noir vet) as "Miss" Bridget Kelly, Zsa Zsa Gabor (Touch Of Evil) ) as Mrs. Ryan, Victor Jory (four Classic Noir vet) as Leonard Wilson, Nancy Gates (two Classic Noir) as Stephanie North, Coleen Gray (Nightmare Alley, Kiss Of Death) as Edith van Renssalaer, John Hoyt (Classic and Transitional vet) as O'Hara, Lisa Ferraday as Zina Monte, Tom Conway (Noir vet)  as Gerry Monte Sabourin, Celia Lovsky as Mrs. Sabourin, Werner Klemperer (Hogan's Heroes) as Herbert Bauman, Justice Watson as Henry. 

George Sanders as Clementi Sabourin

 Yvonne De Carlo as Bridget Kelly

Zsa Zsa Gabor as Mrs. Ryan

John Hoyt as O'Hara

This one starts off with a dead body. Clementi Sabourin, discovered in his mansion by Miss Kelly his associate and his butler Henry. 

A gunshot wound killed him. The police are called. Miss Kelly is questioned and we get the whole tale told in flashback. 

Bridget Kelly: He started his career only a few years ago in Europe. It doesn't seem possible, he could have accomplished so much in such a short time.

Clementi Sabourin, a Check citizen was held in an internment camp for three years. After the end of WWII he heads from the camp where he was held to Trieste, where his brother Gerry was supposed to be protecting his money and his fiancé Zina from harm. 

Late Night. When Clementi arrives at the address of Gerry Sabourin he finds an antique shop specializing in furniture and silverware. 

He bangs on the  door. Gerry is in bed with Zina. 

Gerry opens the door. Gerry tells Clementi that "He thought that he was dead." When Clementi asks about his money his brother tells him he bought the shop and it's contents with it. Then Clementi tells him that at least he took care of Zina. 

Yea he took care of her all right. For extra effect Zina shows up in a nightgown behind Gerry. Gerry's been boning her. She is his wife. Gerry told her Clementi died in a concentration camp.

During this meeting between brothers it's also revealed that their mother is still alive but stuck behind the "Iron Curtain."

For anybody curious, Trieste was, right after the close of WWII a free territory, and a key goal for a seven year period on the eastern European escape route from communism.

The Free Territory of Trieste was an independent territory between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council. For a period of seven years, it acted as a free city until 1954. 

I was there just afterwards when Trieste became a city, like Berlin, split into an Italian side and a Yugoslavian Communist side. I remember the border gate. It was topped with coils of barbed wire that ran across the middle of a square, the large building dominating the far side had a big red star on it's roof. My father told me that he swam from the Yugoslav side to the Free Territory of Trieste when he escaped from Yugoslavia. 

Back to Death of a Scoundrel. So, of course pissed off after finding both his money and his fortune gone, Clementi heads to the local police station and rats out his own brother as an illegal alien with forged papers sitting on a fortune of looted antiquities, in exchange for an French passport and passage on a ship to America. His brother Clementi finds was killed while resisting arrest.

Cut to a brief shot of a steamship, then a shot of Clementi speaking with Leonard Wilson a Canadian oilman as they steam past Manhattan skyscrapers and then to the custom station at one of the steamship docks that used to be on the Hudson River side of New York City. 

At the Exit from the customs station Bridget Kelly a "B" girl grifter is looking for a mark to pull a badger game on with her ex husband. 

She and Clementi exchange glances just about the time that Leonard Wilson unknowingly drops his wallet on the floor. Bridget zeros in on the wallet. She walks over and drops her purse on top of the wallet. She bends over picking up both. Clementi watches the proceedings and follows Bridget to the Waterfront Cafe. 

Bridget's badger came partner is her ex husband /pimp. We catch glimpses of him at the customs pier, at the bar. in the street. 

At the cafe Clementi offers to by her a drink. 

Bridget Kelly: Did you just get off the boat?

Clementi Sabourin:  Yes. How did you know?

Bridget Kelly: It shows all over.

Clementi is suave. He pays for Bridget's drink and a cognac for himself. With a big bill, that of course Bridget notices. 

Clementi has dropped the bait. Now he gives it some jigs.

Bridget Kelly: Where you from?

Clementi Sabourin:  France.

Bridget Kelly: Where did you learn to speak English so good?

Clementi Sabourin:  I studied at a place called Oxford.

Bridget Kelly: Oxford - I ought to go there.

Clementi Sabourin:  They'd be more likely to study you there.

Bridget Kelly: You being insulting?

Clementi Sabourin:  No. I just meant that you'd make a fascinating course in anatomy.

Bridget Kelly: Thanks!

This is great dialog from Charles Martin. 

About this time Wilson and the cops show up. Wilson, missing his wallet has told the police that Clementi was the last person he spoke with while he still had his wallet in his possession. Clementi submits to the search. They do not find it. But we learn from Clementi's convo with Wilson is that the wallet had about 500 cash, an important document, and a cashiers check for 20,000, but the check he can stop payment on. During all this we get great reaction shots of Bridget reacting to the police and Wilson.

Bridget Kelly: How come you just get off the boat and head straight for a bar?

Clementi Sabourin:  Looking for company.

Bridget Kelly: What sort of company?

Clementi Sabourin: Your sort.

Bridget Kelly: How do you know what my sort is?

Clementi Sabourin:  Well, you're not a school teacher.

Bridget Kelly: Oh, I don't know. I could teach you your A-B-Cs.

Clementi Sabourin: In that case, I might be a willing pupil.

And writer director Charles Martin cleverly inserts some subtext there for the cognoscenti in the know. Bravo. 

Clementi Sabourin: Let's get out of here.

Bridget Kelly: Were will we go?

Clementi Sabourin: Anywhere.

Bridget Kelly: I know the perfect place.

We cut from the bar to Bridget and Clementi coming out of the subway kiosk, of course unfortunately it's all Hollywood backlot New York City and at this date it looks it. By 1956 we had so many New York City set Noir that actually had location work shot in the city that the backlots are now obvious.

Being a native New Yorker I can tell you that pretty much all the transatlantic steamships docked on the Hudson River side of Manhattan island. So I can surmise with the two clues given, i.e., that the ship docked in the Chelsea Piers section (and the Grace Steamship Lines used piers 58 and 59) The Waterfront Cafe  had to be near 10th Ave and 14th Street, and Bridget and Clementi were closest to what was then called the 14th Street - Canarsie subway line. So when we see them coming out of the kiosk it was probably either 3rd Ave., or the 1st Ave. station stop, which makes the neighborhood that Clementi reacts to the Lower East Side. 

We watch as Bridget and Clementi head into a tenement. Chuck Kelly, Bridget's badger game partner is out on the sidewalk watching. 

The way the badger games works is that the female lures the mark up to an apartment, gets him into a compromising position with the female usually partially disrobed and at that point the "husband" shows up unexpectedly. The mark afraid of either his wife, a beating, or of a scandal agrees to give the husband money to back him off. 

Of course the apartment is way too spacious for a New York tenement or an old converted townhouse. A space that big would have a partition wall put in to split it and make another apartment. Its a Hollywood set.

So Bridget and Clementi are up in the apartment. They are having drinks. There's a banging at the door, it's Bridget's partner, on cue, but she yells to him that it's OK rather than letting him it. (Here is more subtle context - is the "it's OK" the signal that she's going to make more money being "friendly" and also out for herself knowing that she's already got $500 in the stolen wallet?)

Bridget explains that its just her ex husband who lives down the hall. Clementi suggests that they go out for a bite. Bridget tells him that she wants to freshen up leaves the room. 

While she is out of the room, Clementi makes a beeline to her purse where she stuck Wilson's wallet. He grabs it picks up his suitcase and splits, while Bridget is changing into a new dress. 

When Bridget goes back to where she left Clementi she finds both him and the wallet gone. She starts screaming for Chuck her ex husband, he comes out and runs after Clementi. 

They fight in an alley and Chuck pulls out a gun. He shoots Clementi as he pushes Chuck out into the street, where Kelly gets run down by a truck.

He's dead, and Clementi with a crease in his side takes off. Bridget runs to the scene of the accident and wails for Chuck.

We cut to watch a scene where Clementi gets treated for the gunshot wound  Here he finds out about about a wonder drug penicillin from the Doc, and its usefulness to combatting infection since the end of WWII.

He asks the company's name that's making it and the next day he's at the stock exchange buying twenty thousand dollars worth of shares on Wilson's cashiers check. The stock goes up and makes money. 

Mrs. Ryan, to whom Clementi is simultaneously schmoozing with and hitting on makes a bundle on Clementi's tip.

 

Clementi has to retrieve the cashiers check back from the bank before the fraud is discovered. He asks Mrs. Ryan to give him a loan for $20,00 with a check for $20,000. 

Clementi wants to replace the fraudulent check with Mrs. Ryan's good one. Clementi offers O'Hara five thousand dollars to retrieve the check from the bank. 

O'Hara knows an employee at the bank who he can work with. When O'Hara meets as pre arranged with Clementi 'Kara he has the check but he knows it was fraudulent and instead of five G's he now wants half of the company. Clementi agrees, he's got no choice.

Bridget also becomes a "partner." 

Once Clementi makes his bundle, we leave behind the Noir stylistics for much of the bulk of the film.

Clementi becomes a shady business man, consorts with a lot of different rich women and uses them. He  produces a play to try to get into starlet Stephanie North's pants. Heads to Canada with Bridget to not only bring Wilson back his cashier's check and his wallet but also to make a deal for his oil company because Clementi knows its cash poor and needs investors. 

 At this point we are about 1/3 of the way through the tale.

Noirsville

It's all interesting enough to keep you watching. The dialog is excellent. The darker Noir atmosphere of the opening of the film finally returns for the final denouement. Zaza Gabor has two Classic Noir's under her girdle this and Touch of Evil. She is good and convincing as Mrs, Ryan in her role. John Hoyt is great as his equally shady business partner and Werner Klemperer as their lawyer.

Even though he's great in the part George Sanders is not really convincing as being a Cech citizen. He  explains this away by informing Bridget that he learned English at Oxford. This part would have worked a bit better with someone like Paul Henreid, Vittorio Gassman or Paul Lucas. 7/10.