Film noir started out as a distinctly low budget, B-movie phenomenon. In the forties and fifties, studios cranked out a seemingly unending series of cheapo thrillers to fill out the bottom of double bills. Many of these flicks were shot in a matter of weeks, or sometimes even days, and often barely cracked an hour in running time. While a lot of these one-hour toss-offs were instantly disposable and immediately forgettable, scattered among the dunghill were some diamonds.
When low-rent quickie assignments were put into the hands of talented filmmakers, in fact, the results were often more interesting than the big-budget two-hour A-list pictures which they were ostensibly designed to support. With minimal budgets and featuring only second-tier stars (or third- or fourth-tier “stars”), filmmakers found they had a great deal of creative freedom. If no one in the head office cared about the finished product, it stood to reason, then you could do what you wanted so long as you came in on time and on budget. In this fly-by-night world where less money equaled less oversight, film noir grew unimpeded by the usual restrictions on style, content, and moral turpitude.
Here then is an introduction to some of the most interesting entries on noir’s roster of one-hour mini-gems:
2. The Devil Thumbs A Ride-(1947)-62 minutes: Another psycho hitchhiker flick, this time courtesy of b-movie specialist Felix E. Feist. Ted North plays an affable traveling salesman who stops to give a lift to wild man Lawrence Tierney and, in true noir fashion, has his kindness repaid in misery. Tierney commandeers the car, picks up some dames, runs over a cop, and strangles a girl in a lake. That’s before he steals North’s identity and tries to frame him for murder. This thing moves like a bullet and features real life nutjob Tierney’s definitive performance. Quentin Tarantino, who directed Tierney in Reservoir Dogs, once said “Devil Thumbs a Ride should really be called The Lawrence Tierney Story.”
4. Talk About a Stranger-(1952)-65 minutes: What a weird little movie. Talk About a Stranger is an unlikely, and uneasy, blend of a film noir and a children’s movie. A strange little boy growing up in the orange groves of Southern California becomes convinced that his neighbor is hiding something, maybe even murder. The movie’s secret weapon is cinematographer John Alton. The king of noir visuals, Alton turns this boy’s misadventure into something truly insidious and creepy.
6. Armored Car Robbery-(1950)-67 minutes: Let’s start with that title. Has there ever been a less poetic name for a movie? Probably not, but it’s a perfect title for this movie because Armored Car Robbery is about as poetic as a kick in the teeth. It’s a hard, lean little thriller, and it’s every bit as nuanced as its title would suggest. Cop chases armored robbery gang. Heists get pulled, asses get kicked. Director Richard Fleischer also made Follow Me Quietly.
8. My Name Is Julia Ross-(1945)-65 minutes: A young woman gets a job as a caretaker for a kindly old lady with a weirdo son. Two days later she wakes up in another house in other town with everyone calling her by a different name. Directed by the great Joseph H. Lewis and shot by ace noir cinematographer Burnett Guffey, this is an English mystery rendered in the noir style.
Jake Hinkson, The Night Editor
I actually watched Detour this weekend and thought it was horrible. For an hour long movie, it felt like it lasted forever.
Detour is something of a litmus test. It’s noir in its purest form, like smoking Heisenberg’s blue crystal. Sorry to hear it didn’t agree with you. Perhaps a shot of Lawrence Tierney will be more to your liking.
I also find I have to be in just the right mood for stuff like these movies… We do “bad movie night” regularly in my house–stuff like “Megashark vs. Giant Octopus” is our staple fare–but they aren’t always the right thing for the day.
Laura- That’s funny–though, just to be clear, I don’t think any of the movies on this list have much camp appeal. People might love em, might like em, or might hate em, but I don’t think anyone is going to enjoy something like Armored Car Robbery on a camp level. It’s a hardboiled crime flick, a precurs0r to films like Heat or The Town. And Detour is an existential masterpiece, one of the truly essential noir films, as dark and unsentimental as any novel by Thompson or Goodis.
That pic from Follow Me Quietly looks an awful lot like DC’s The Question. Looks like the movie predates the character, wonder if there is something there…
JACK REACHER IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES!!! WHAT
COULD TOM CRUISE POSSIBLY HAVE IN COMMON WITH HIM?
PLS DON’T TELL ME ANYONE WOULD CONSIDER CASTING CRUISE
IN THIS SUPER-MASCULINE PART????????
Jake –
No, I didn’t mean that they were campy, just that sometimes you’re in a specific mood. A hard-core mood, a campy mood, an action-flick mood…and sometimes you just want to be entertained. But if you are not in the mood for the right thing, it won’t appeal, even if it might be just right on a different night.
Judi – do a search on “Cruise” in the search box at the top of the page and you’ll see the whole series of articles about Cruise playing Reacher.
LKC- Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m pretty happy trolling Noirville most nights, but every so often I get in this weird mood to watch something where the main character doesn’t end up gutshot. Odd.