Man In the Dark (1953) 3D Noir

This was the first stereoscopic 3-D feature ever released by a major American studio, Columbia Pictures.

Directed by Lew Landers (Crime, Inc. (1945), Danger Street (1947), Inner Sanctum (1948)) the film is a remake of the 1936 Ralph Bellamy crime film The Man Who Lived Twice (1936). The adaptation was by William Sackhein the screenplay was re written by George Bricker and Jack Leonard from the story by Tom Van Dycke and Henry Altimus. The cinematography was by Floyd Crosby (High Noon (1952), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), The Cry Baby Killer (1958), I Mobster (1959), Night Tide (1961)).  The music was by Ross DiMaggio, musical director, and the Music Department.

The film stars Edmond O'Brien (eleven Classic Noir) as Steve Rawley, Audrey Totter (eight Classic Noir) as Peg Benedict, Ted de Corsia (six Classic Noir) as Lefty, Horace McMahon (Blackboard Jungle (1955), and Naked City TV Series (1958–1963)) as Arnie, Nick Dennis (Sirocco (1951), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), and Kiss Me Deadly (1955)) as Cookie, Dayton Lummis (four Classic Film Noir) as Dr. Marston, and Dan Riss (nine Classic Film Noir) as Jawald.  

No way was I going to be able watch this in 3D on my home screen.  Incidentally, it worked just fine in 2D. However, even without it's 3D technique, Man In The Dark with the majority of it's cast so well steeped in Classic Film Noir can definitely be considered your basic a "meat and potato" Noir. Its has it all, the cinematic memory, your classic amnesia story, this time with a medically induced twist, the forgotten cache of stolen loot, the skirt with change of heart, the iconic denouement with a roller-coaster, and all done 70 minutes.

Steve Rawley (O'Brien) is in stir. Doing a dime. Christmas Eve Armed Robbery. Armored car payroll. He was carrying the loot. The swag, never recovered. He stashed it right before he got caught. His gang Lefty (de Corsia), Arnie (McMahon), and Cookie (Dennis) want it. Steve's gal pal Peg (Totter) wants him out.

Steve (O'Brien)

Peg (Totter)

Left to right, Lefty (de Corsia), Steve, Cookie (Dennis), and Arnie (McMahon)

Jarwald (Dan Riss)

Steve agrees to an experimental procedure developed by Dr. Marsden (Dayton Lummis). The guinea pig gets immediate parole. It sounds awfully close to a lobotomy. Steve emerges from surgery happy gentle but also with amnesia. He doesn't remember who he is, what he did or more importantly, to an insurance company rep Jawald (Dan Riss). what he did with the un-recovered $130,000.

wiseguy 

the operation

the operation 3D

nice guy

His gang also wants the moola. Everyone, except his doctor, believes Steve is faking.

Steve's blissful existence of gardening and oil painting is suddenly shattered when Lefty, Arnie, and Cookie kidnap Steve out of the institution.

They hole up at an apartment near Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica. They want their money. When the gang recounts to Steve the details of their daring daylight robbery we see it in flashback. Their hopes are dashed when Steve still tells them that he doesn't know anything, he's a man in the dark. Peg gets Steve alone, she tells him to give up his act and they can split with all the cash. she gets friendly he's unresponsive. Steve doesn't recognize her.  Lefty begins to get tough and Steve is roughed up. He still cant tell what he doesn't know.

the kidnapping

roughing Steve up

Peg begins to believe Steve. They both flee the apartment. Steve begins to have dreams. Fragments of his forgotten past begin to return. He remembers a post office, and the amusement pier. When they search his old apartment they find a piece of paper taped to the bottom of a drawer. On it are four numbers. Is it a combination, a deposit box, an apartment?  It's Noirsville.

Noirsville

 

3D cigar to the eye threat

Cookie (Dennis)

3D gun effect

the robbery flashback sequence

Pacific Ocean Park's Fun House - Laughing Sal 

 flashback sequence

 flashback sequence

3D flower pot off the fire escape, coming at ya

dream sequence

The film is a neat little time waster, all the principles have been in better Noirs but this one delivers what it promised. Worth a look, and a even a purchase for the  whip dream sequence and Pacific Ocean Park, High Boy (Sea Serpent) roller coaster denouement, screen caps are from a TCM presentation. 6/10

Sylvia (1965) Ascent From Hell Woman's Noir

Here is an interesting movie, based on the novel Sylvia by Howard Fast (published as E.V. Cunningham). Fast had been blacklisted by the  House Committee on Un-American Activities, because of his biographical novel Citizen Tom Paine, synopsis here which BTW J. Edgar Hoover ordered all copies destroyed. This was in 1951. If you read the synopsis you wonder WTF was going on in this country back then. He was a script writer, also known for Spartacus (1960), and Mirage (1965).

Directed by Gordon Douglas who gave us Walk a Crooked Mile (1948), Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950), Between Midnight and Dawn (1950), I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. (1951), and later known for Westerns (some of my favorites are Rio Conchos (1964), Barquero (1970) and Skin Game (1971)), and Crime films including Sinatra's Tony Rome (1967), The Detective (1968), and Lady in Cement (1968).  The screenplay was written by Sydney Boehm who has eight film noir to his credit.

Sylvia (Carroll Baker)

The cinematography was by quadruple-Oscar-winner Joseph Ruttenberg who gave us a handful of noirs (Crossroads (1942), Gaslight (1944), The Bribe (1949),  Side Street (1949), and Cause for Alarm! (1951)). The music was by David Raksin who began his career in 1936 with Chaplin's Modern Times, was the composer responsible for Laura (1944) and for the soundtrack for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) among many others.

A meeting

The film oozes cinematic memory starring a plethora of Noir, Neo Noir and TV actors. Carroll Baker (Baby Doll (1956), Something Wild (1961), Bad (1977), Ironweed (1987)) as Sylvia West aka Sylvia Karoki. Peter Lawford (The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Ocean's 11 (1960)) as Frederic Summers. George Maharis (Naked City TV Series (1958–1963), Route 66  (1960–1964)) as Alan Macklin.

Supporting cast consists of Joanne Dru (Red River (1948), All the King's Men (1949), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), Hell on Frisco Bay (1955)) as Jane Phillips, Viveca Lindfors (Backfire (1950), Dark City (1950), Brainstorm (1965)) as Irma Olanski, Edmond O'Brien (thirteen Film Noir) as Oscar Stewart, Ann Sothern (The Blue Gardenia (1953)) as Grace Argona, Jay Novello (Phantom Lady (1944), Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948), Sirocco (1951),The Sniper (1952), and Crime Wave (1953)). Aldo Ray (Nightfall (1956), Psychic Killer (1975)) as Jonas Karoki, Lloyd Bochner (was in To Serve Man one of the Iconic Twilight Zone Episodes, and in Point Blank (1967)) as the sadist Bruce Stamford III, Anthony Caruso (Night Editor (1946), The Blue Dahlia (1946), The Undercover Man (1949), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Hell on Frisco Bay (1955), A Cry in the Night (1956)) as bouncer "Muscles,"  Paul Gilbert as Lola Diamond the barracuda, Nancy Kovack as Big Shirley, and Paul Wexler as Peter Memel.

The story is Sylvia West (Baker) is about to marry California millionaire Frederic Summers (Lawford) who has proposed to her. She is gorgeous, smart, financially independent, writes published poetry and seems to be the perfect woman.

Macklin (Maharis) and Summers (Lawford)

home movies of Sylvia

But Summers is cautious and hires a P.I. Alan Macklin (Maharis), to do a background check on his fiancee. From a clue in Sylvia's book of poetry a professor tells Macklin that he should start his search in Pittsburgh, PA. From a spinster librarian (Lindfors), he strikes a spark with the name Sylvia. Sylvia is Sylvia Karoki from a Pittsburgh Ghetto.

Pittsburgh

Librarian (Lindfors)

She takes him on a tour of Sylvia's old neighborhood. He finds out that Sylvia was raped by her drunk, of a stepfather, Jonas, (Ray) and then, when she ran away terrified from her tenement house she's drawn to the light of a storefront mission. There the a travelling preacher who calls himself "Peter The Healer" takes her under his wing .and unfortunately we find out soon, also between her legs. Nice guy, He drives her all the way to Mexico and sells her into a whorehouse. A white slaver.

Flashback Rape

Jonas (Ray)

teenage Sylvia

More like Peter The Shit Heel than Peter The Healer

The creepy preacher

Baker as Sylvia plays both her adult self and a teen in the flashbacks. Macklin then travels to Mexico where he gets more of Sylvia's story with the help of little kid tourist hustler named Pancho (Manuel Padilla) who takes him to a priest Father Gonzales (Jay Novello).

Macklin and Pancho

Macklin and Father Gonzales (Jay Novello)

From Father Gonzales Macklin finds out that a travelling dress salesman Oscar Stewart (Edmund Obrien) picks her up from the whorehouse and makes a deal to drive her to New York City for the privilege of driving dangerous curves across dirty sheets at night. Macklin next tracks Stewart down in New York and threatens to let his wife know about his shenanigans if he doesn't give out with what he knows about Sylvia.

Macklin and Oscar Stewart (Edmund Obrien)

Stewart tells Macklin that Sylvia next worked in a Times Square/Broadway penny arcade making change and bunking with another change booth girl named Grace Argona (Ann Southern). Macklin visits Grace next.

Penny Arcade

Grace (Ann Southern) and Macklin

Grace tells Macklin over an expensive dinner that she really liked Slyvia. She tells him that she would pick up men for kicks and extra bucks/ She tried to convince Sylvia to do the same. But Sylvia wouldn't do it, pretty much just staying at the apartment reading.

Penny Arcade Flashback 

Sylvia,"Muscles" the bouncer (Anthony Caruso) and Stewart

Eventually Sylvia does leave, and Grace hears later that she was busted for prostitution with a couple of other girls and spent 30 days in the slammer with three of them. One of those girls Big Shirley (Nancy Kovack) now works as a stripper, and Macklin questions her about the next phase of Sylvia's life.

Big Shirley

Sylvia, Shirley, and Jane (Joanne Dru) worked in a whorehouse for a madam named Molly Banter (Connie Gilchrist) who the girls called "Mother." Shirley didn't know what happened to Sylvia but she did hear that Jane made it big, married a banker named Hurbert Phillips. Macklin next tracks down Jane.

Dinner with Jane and another piece of Sylvia's puzzeled past comes together

Whorehouse

Molly Banter's "Mother" whorehouse

Mother (Connie Gilchrist) center

Jane fills in the whorehouse and raid aftermath details telling Macklin that Sylvia and herself decided after 30 days detention that they would quit the life. They worked as waitresses for four months and were hassled seven different times by vice cops, and afterward they'd invariably get fired and have to find new jobs.

waitresses

One day Jane gets hit by a truck breaks both legs and is sent to the hospital. To get her a private room and pay for her care Sylvia goes back to being a whore and works as a high priced "hostess" to turn tricks for a cross dressing Pimp/Madam Lola Diamond "the barracuda" (Paul Gilbert) who runs a sort of escort service out of his nightclub where he sings torch songs.

Lola Diamond

Lola (Paul Gilbert)

Sylvia the High Class Hooker

When Jane is about to be released Sylvia turns one last trick who turns out to be a wealthy sadist named Bruce Stamford III (Lloyd Bochner) who beats her up. Sylvia threatens to call the police. Bruce agrees to cough up ten thousand dollars to keep her quiet. Jane ends up marrying a banker and her husband is able to invest Sylvia's money, growing it up to seventy-thousand dollars.

Bruce Stamford III (Lloyd Bochner)

 

Calling the police

With the seventy thousand, Sylvia splits New York and and heads to The City Of Angels. She changes her name once again to Sylvia West buys a nice house invests the rest and grows prized roses and writes poetry. As you can guess by now Macklin has become obsessed with Sylvia.

Noirsville

"To prepare herself to play the heroine with a checkered past, Carroll Baker actually worked a shift in an all-night diner (where she went unnoticed), made change in a penny arcade booth, visited a Tijuana brothel and so forth - publicity stunt "research" that was documented in a lengthy February 27 1965 Saturday Evening Post picture story called "The Lady Was A Tramp"." from IMDb

Maharis is OK in the role of the dogged PI, Baker is also decent in her complex portrayal. However they don't really shine. The rest of that cast is good, carrying the tale along with interesting cameos. Both leads had their problems, Maharis had a couple of vice squad sexual perversion busts, one with a male hairdresser no less, that sidetracked his career, and Baker's next film Harlow was a flop. Baker relocated to Italy in 1966 while she was having legal problems over her contract with Paramount, along with a dispute with Joseph E. Levine. In Italy Baker starred in Italian Giallos including Umberto Lenzi's Paranoia (1969) and Knife of Ice (1972). In 1977 she was a character actress in  Andy Warhol's Bad (1977).  Paul Anka croons the title song. Screencaps are from an online streaming version of the film. It's worth a look, a café au lait Noir 6.5-7/10