That sulfurous smell wafting down Hollywood Boulevard this month is not some municipal gas leak, nor the malodorous consequence of an egg yolk turned bad, but rather another by-product altogether, the hard-boiled blackness of the human hearts on display in this months festival of classic Noir films playing at the Egyptian Theater.
The programmers have served up an eclectic menu of murder and mayhem, including some rarely-screened, never-on-dvd prints of films that won't be found on many film noir best-of lists and barely rate a mention even in Todd McCarthy's seminal "Kings of the B's" guide to cut-rate cinema.
Movies like the Sam Katzman produced and William Castle directed "The Houston Story" and "New Orleans Uncensored" are fun to watch today for their extreme low-budget "ripped from the headlines" social commentary and their on-location photography which afford a documentary pleasure in showing us a world long gone.
In one laugh-out-loud moment, the morality-free chanteuse played by Barbara Hale (soon to become famous as Perry Mason's sidekick Della Street on television) drops a dime on her lover Gene Barry, giving away his location to the two gunmen sent to kill him, while the good girl waitress from the Derrick Diner (this being a Houston scam involving corruption on the oil fields) who actually loves Barry, phones the police, hoping they can get there in time to prevent his murder.
"Thanks, lady, you just saved the state a lot of money" is the lead detective's budget-conscious reply.
And where else will you find dialogue like:
"What's a flunky?
"A hood with a social security number."
Castle is famous for "The TIngler" and other '60's era exploitation movies, but "The Houston Story", while nothing spectacular, was a solid little programmer, almost innocent in its quite modest ambitions and economical style.
Also modest was the motley group of hard-core noir cognoscenti who turned out for the double-feature. "What a collection!" I whispered to my wife as I looked around the theater. "What are you talking about, you're one of them" was her noir-ish wise-crackin' reply.
And she was right!
Enjoy!
william
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