YOUNG CASSIDY (1965)

This biopic of the early years of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey never mentions his real name, calling the main character John Cassidy, though it uses the real name of his first play, The Plough and the Stars. In researching the film, I discovered that the movie is based on O'Casey’s autobiographical writings, which were written in the third person, using the name John Cassidy for himself. It seems to fit the recent term ‘autofiction,’ for a memoir that is, to some degree, fictionalized. In early 20th century Dublin we meet Cassidy (Rod Taylor) as a rough and tumble young man, living with his mother and sister. He seems to have talent as a writer but he works as a ditch digger. Soon he falls in with some revolutionaries and at the instigation of his friend Mullen, starts writing pamphlets at night for the Irish Citizen Army (the IRA, I assume), an underground group looking to throw off the tyranny of the British. During a strike riot, he escapes arrest by darting off with a young beauty (Julie Christie) with whom he has a brief affair. But he also begins a longer relationship with Nora (Maggie Smith), a bookstore owner. She catches him stealing books and takes them from him, but later sends him the books as a gift. Though Nora seems a bit chilly and staid, she warms up as they begin dating. The episodic narrative follows Cassidy's life over the next several years (it's difficult to say how much time is passing as the movie goes along); his sister dies, basically of extreme poverty; his brother, an actor, joins the British army; Mullen, who becomes his roommate, eventually deserts Cassidy; Cassidy himself comes to abandon violence, channeling his fervor for Irish independence into a play which comes to the attention of the founders of the Abbey Theater, the poet Yeats (Michael Redgrave) and Lady Gregory (Edith Evans). Despite an audience uprising at its opening—it's seen as vulgar and insulting to the Irish, with one woman yelling, "There are no prostitutes in Ireland!"—Yeats and Lady Gregory continue to encourage him, and he finds international fame, though in the final scene, Nora decides that he no longer needs her and stays behind as he heads overseas. 

I knew nothing about O'Casey before I watched this, and I’m not sure I know much more now, though paradoxically I do feel like I know the fictional John Cassidy. In the person of Rod Taylor, Cassidy does come to life as a fairly rounded character: handsome, husky, energetic, boisterous, loyal, intellectual, and capable of tenderness. But based on the biographical bits I've read about O'Casey, this doesn't strike me as very revealing of the real man. Taylor is, if I'm not mistaken, in every scene in the movie and he does a smashing job holding the center. I always like Taylor but this might be his best performance. Maggie Smith (pictured at left with Taylor), before she became a superstar, is delightful as the complex Nora, managing both the aloof and earthy aspects of the character. Redgrave and Evans are fine in what are basically star cameos as the only identified public figures in the movie. Other cast standouts include Flora Robson as Cassidy's mother, whom he mourns deeply; Phillip O'Flynn as Mullen who casts off Cassidy because he doesn't have the courage of his convictions; and Jack MacGowran as Archie, the brother, played as mild comic relief. The Irish situation that forms the political and historical background for the film is left ambiguous at best (another reason why I don't think this is a success as a movie about O'Casey), so the more you know about the times, the more centered you'll be. The movie is serious but has many lighter moments including a bar brawl, a 15-minute fling Cassidy has with a married woman, and a scene in which the Irish Army members argue about uniforms. The opening credits call this a John Ford film, though it was directed by Jack Cardiff; Ford shot a few days of material, but was too ill to continue. Some critics lament the fact that it doesn't have the feel of a Ford movie, saying he would have made the action scenes longer and more compelling, but as it stands, I find it quite watchable and would recommend it. [TCM]

OPERATION ATLANTIS (1965)

This goofy chunk of 1960's Eurospy adventure begins in Rome with George Steel, our handsome American James Bond stand-in, having his Japanese vacation derailed by agreeing to work with the RIU, an international uranium research group. Somewhere in North Africa there is a plot of land rich in uranium and an evil mastermind named Ben Ullah has plunked himself and his cohorts (including a kidnapped research scientist) down on the land and surrounded it with a radioactive forcefield. Descendants of the mythic land of Atlantis also live there and possess some futuristic devices like a gun that encases people instantly in ice and then disintegrates them. Steel is supposed to defeat the baddies and get the land for the RIU. That is pretty much it for the plotpoints I was able to follow. As usual, I took fairly copious notes as I was watching but I realized halfway through the movie that my notes were incoherent so I stopped. (I think, but I’m not sure, that the Atlanteans were just a Communist Chinese scam.) Still, I got some enjoyment out of this mess. For starters, there's John Ericson (pictured) as Steel; he's handsome and moderately hunky, and he looks like he actually knows what's going on throughout the story. There are at least three sexy women whose roles in the adventure remained ambiguous to me, and whose names I couldn’t quite figure out. The first is a busty blonde stewardess whom we see at the beginning and the end (and I think a little bit in the early middle). The second is a woman possibly named Fatima (Maria Granada) who is with Steel the most and who seems to switch from good to bad and back. There's a Queen of Atlantis figure (maybe played by Erika Blanc?). 

There's a thug who kills people with a gigantic metal claw device—nifty but a bit unwieldy to cart around. There's a previously unknown element called Rubidium, native to the asteroid belt, that can make people temporarily insensitive to pain and heal wounds instantly and is used as a torture device. People, including two of our hero's women, get packed into trunks and flown in the baggage hold of passenger planes. Clunky spacesuits are worn by the good guys to get past the forcefield, which itself is sometimes deadly and sometimes not. Steel has a radio transmission device implanted in his elbow. There's a mild catfight scene which Steel watches with a bemused and possibly aroused look on his face. I think this happens twice. Steel gets spritzed, in public at a nightclub, with a knockout drug and carried out, raising  no one's suspicions—I think this is when he gets packed in a trunk. There's an OK car chase. Near the end, there's even the destruction of Atlantis, ineffectively presented, followed by a concluding scene. The print on YouTube, in faded color, has no subtitles and the dialogue is occasionally murky which is why I was unclear about some of the names. I almost gave up on this a couple of times but John Ericson pulled me through. Your mileage will differ. BTW, IMDb spells the hero’s name as Steele, but in the movie, he spells it out as S-T-E-E-L, so that’s what I went with. [YouTube]

ELLERY QUEEN AND THE PERFECT CRIME (1941)

Storms and flooding threaten the South Valley Power Company dam. John Matthews, head of the company, gets word that the dam will break. He lies to stockholder Ray Jardin and tells him that the dam is sound, but Matthews then sells his stock and that of his son Walter. The next day, after the dam bursts, Walter, who is dating Jardin's daughter Marian, finds out that because of what his father did, Jardin has lost his life's savings, as did his valet Henry. Walter verbally attacks his father, then using the money he saved, goes to the auction of Jardin's estate and, with his friend Ellery Queen as a front, buys it all to give back to Jardin. The next day, when Walter goes to visit his father to try and make peace, he finds him dead in his study, a knife in his chest, and he himself is knocked unconscious. Ellery's dad, a police inspector, suspects Walter because of the bad blood between father and son. But in Matthews' house, there are two other suspects: Matthews' flighty sister Carlotta (whose life seems to revolve around her pet monkey Togo) and Matthews' lawyer Anthony who claims that Matthews was in the process of disinheriting Walter and leaving everything to Carlotta, who happens to be Anthony's lover. Good motive, right? But the police discover that the knife wound didn't cause Matthew’s death, poison did, and that he was probably killed out on a patio and dragged into the study, which puts Walter back under suspicion. There is also a sinister looking Chinese servant around. Even the monkey comes under suspicion. Can Ellery work with his dad, clear his friend and find the real killer?

Of all the lead characters in the continuing detective series of the classic era, Ellery Queen is perhaps the most generic. He's basically a playboy who unofficially helps his inspector father solve cases. Queen was created by two authors who used the pseudonym of Ellery Queen, and in the books, he is known as a writer who writes about the cases he works on. Here, he just seems to be helping out an old friend. Ralph Bellamy, who did not impress me as Ellery in the same year's PENTHOUSE MYSTERY, is again not especially impressive—he does nothing to put a unique stamp on the part. Charley Grapewin, again playing the father, is equally bland. It's up to the supporting cast to liven things up, and to be fair, Ellery doesn't seem to have much more screen time than anyone else. Spring Byington, always a delight, is the dotty Carlotta who may not be as dotty as she leads people to believe. Sidney Blackmer, a low-key old reliable who frequently looks like he has something devious on his mind, comes close to stealing his scenes as the lawyer. Old timer H.B. Warner is good as Jardin, and Douglas Dumbrille is fine in his limited time as Matthews. Margaret Lindsay (pictured with Bellamy) has a couple of nice moments as Queen's sidekick secretary, and John Beal is Walter. Not to spoil things, but one of the big plotlines winds up disappointingly being a red herring, and the actual solution is a bit of a letdown. As for the monkey, I've never understood the appeal of sidekick monkeys in movies (or on TV as in Friends). I understand their presence in jungle movies, but even there, they usually irritate me more than they entertain me. Of all the Ellery Queen actors I've seen, including Bellamy, William Gargan, Eddie Quillan and Donald Cook, the best is probably Jim Hutton who played him on TV. [YouTube]

LOVE AND DEATH IN THE GARDEN OF THE GODS (1972)

An ornithology professor has rented a villa in the country and, while out birding, finds some discarded and tangled audio tapes. He takes them back to the house, plays them, and pieces together, through flashbacks, a sordid tale involving the previous tenants. Flame-haired Azzurra is living in the villa with her new husband Timothy, a concert pianist. Her handsome brother Manfredi stays with them, but the situation in the house grows uncomfortable as we see Azzurra and her brother engage in flirty behavior, including a kiss. Manfredi leaves but returns weeks later with Viola, a blonde girlfriend. As a mutual indifference grows between Azzurra and Timothy, Azzurra starts spending more time with Manfredi. At some point, Azzurra tries to kill herself in a bathtub but is saved by Viola. Soon Azzrurra and Viola are on the verge of getting physical. Azzurra starts seeing a therapist named Martin (the tapes the professor is listening to are recordings of their therapy sessions) who, it's made clear, is attracted to her. The chronology of the narrative is fractured, so I was sometimes unsure of what was happening when, but in the last fifteen minutes, a brutal revenge plot of murder plays out that comes to involve even the professor. Between the broken timelines, the incest, the insanity and the blood, this is surely crazy-ass cinema. I'm saying that mostly as a positive thing. It's Italian and has sex and murder, so it's often considered a giallo, but until the end, it didn't feel like one to me. It's more a kind of Gothic melodrama (without a Gothic look). The leads are all attractive and acting-wise are adequate. Erika Blanc, an actress associated with giallo, plays Azzurra; Orchidea De Santis is Viola; Rosario Borelli (aka Richard Melville) is Timothy. Best is the handsome German actor Peter Lee Lawrence, who later made a name in spaghetti westerns before his untimely death at 30 of brain cancer, as Manfredi, the most interesting character, though it must be said that character is not a strong element of the plot. I'm not sure if this is a spoiler or not, but at one point, Azzurra tells Manfredi that he is not her blood brother, but a bastard who was brought to live with her family. This may or may not be true, but it doesn't lessen the incest vibe, since they did indeed grow up living as siblings. The fragmented chronology is confusing and probably unnecessary, but the general plot outline is discernable, and a creepy vibe is sustained nicely. Is this really giallo? I feel it’s not, but it's maybe giallo adjacent. Pictured is Peter Lee Lawrence. [YouTube]

TARZAN THE FEARLESS (1933)

In an African jungle, we first see Tarzan (Buster Crabbe), the legendary and mysterious white man raised by apes, horsing around with chimps up in the trees. When he sees a young deer tied up and being used as bait by a tribe to catch a lion, he swings down on vines, kills the lion and lets the deer go free. Tarzan is buddies with Dr. Brooks, a scientist doing research in a jungle shack (what he's studying is never made clear). Meanwhile, Brooks' daughter Mary and her boyfriend Bob are searching for Brooks, whom they assume is missing, guided by Jeff and Nick. However, Jeff has an ulterior motive for the trip: he has been sent by the Greyfriar family in England to bring back proof that their heir, apparently lost in the jungle as a child, is actually dead so they can clear up snags with the family inheritance, and he has been promised a large reward for doing so. But wait, Jeff and Nick have another mission: to find the fabled Emeralds of Zar which belong to a hidden tribe (who dress like ancient Egyptians). While Mary is swimming in her scanties in a river, a crocodile comes after her and she is saved by vine-swinging Tarzan, and the two hit it off. Jeff figures out that Tarzan must be the missing Greyfriar son, but as he plots to shoot Tarzan out of the trees, Tarzan saves him from an attacking lion. In the middle of a storm, the group finds Brooks' shack but the scientist has headed out to the Caves of Zar. The group plans to follow him and soon all wind up being held captive by the High Priest of Zar, who is fearful that if let go, they will tell the world about his tribe. Jeff steals a huge emerald from a large statue of Zar as they escape, then tells Mary that he will kill Tarzan unless she agrees to marry him. But with the Zar tribe on their tail, there's no guarantee that any of them will ever make it back to civilization, unless Tarzan can save them.

That summary is a little sketchy and here's why. This was originally made as a 12-chapter serial which is now considered lost. This version is an 86-minute feature film condensation which is, like many such serial shortenings, choppily edited and missing entire subplots and cliffhanger scenes. Sources indicate that this is basically the first four chapters and the last two cut together. The print viewed, a Platinum Corporation DVD from 2004, is splicy and a bit murky, with chunks of dialogue muffled by badly mixed background sound. Though some of the plot details may be off, it still follows the plots of most of the classic-era Tarzan films: our hero saves white folks tramping through the jungle (some with good intentions, some with bad) from attacks by natives and animals, and falls for the heroine whose current beau is sent packing. Johnny Weissmuller is the gold standard Tarzan for the 1930s, but Crabbe does a decent job playing the character in a lighter tone. He's lithe and handsome, and shows a good deal of butt in his skimpy loincloth. His vine and rope swinging scenes are impressive, even if some of them are performed by stuntmen. There's a nicely done scene of Tarzan falling into a lion trap pit and an elephant getting him out. His jungle bellow is strained-sounding, but his fights with animals are pulled off nicely (again, certainly with stuntmen involved). My favorite comic relief scene involves Tarzan getting freaked out when a portable phonograph starts playing—the last scene in the film shows chimps dancing to the record. Crabbe had played a Tarzan-like character a few months earlier in KING OF THE JUNGLE so he had some practice going into this. His love interest, Jacqueline Wells, later known as Julie Bishop, is fine, as is Edward Woods as the nice-guy but passive boyfriend who we know will lose her to the jungle man. Philo McCullough mostly sneers and looks suspicious as Jeff, and Mischa Auer is effective as the high priest. A much better looking print is available on YouTube. A semi-restoration of the serial is on DVD—it adds in footage from two previously missing chapters along with stills and title cards, in the fashion of the restored LOST HORIZON. This is perhaps the best of the non-MGM Tarzan knock-offs of the 30s. [DVD]

THE GHOST CAMERA (1933)

John Gray is driving through the English countryside on his way home from a vacation. When he passes a hillside castle, we see (but he doesn't) someone throw a camera from the castle cliff which lands in his back seat. At home, he complains to his valet Sims that he's tired of boring vacations, then is excited to discover the camera, thinking he has a mystery to solve, as in, how did it get there and who does it belong to? He exposes one picture, thinking it will be beach vacation shots of "proud parents and vacuous progeny," but it seems to show a man stabbing another man. Distracted by the doorbell, Gray leaves his darkroom and someone enters and takes the negative and the camera. When he discovers the theft, Gray thinks he might be in the middle of an adventure, though he tempers that somewhat by suggesting that he and Sims are talking "like characters in a mystery melodrama." He develops another picture which shows a young woman in a doorway; he recognizes the neighborhood, finds the house and meets the woman, May Elton. The camera belongs to her brother Ernest who took a road trip through the countryside to take some "snaps" to enter in a competition and hasn't come back. With May as his sidekick, adventure is officially afoot, especially after they learn that Ernest is wanted by the police as being an accomplice in connection with a robbery at a jewelry store where he worked. They stay the night at an inn where Ernest stayed before he went missing and they trace his trail to the castle ruins, Norman Arches, which we saw at the beginning of the film. Soon enough, one of the jewel thieves turns up dead, Ernest is found and arrested for the murder, and John and May keep playing detective as they slowly fall in love. Despite its title, this is not a horror movie, nor is there anything supernatural going on, though the scenes in the darkroom and later in the castle are nicely creepy. It's a romantic comedy hidden in a traditional mystery, and it's entertaining. Directed by busy B-filmmaker Bernard Vorhaus, the most striking things about it are the camerawork (by Ernest Palmer) and the film editing (by the future director David Lean) with jump cuts and some intended shakiness, breaking the film out of the early sound rut of static shots and leisurely pacing. Henry Kendall is fine as John, the somewhat nerdish hero, and Ida Lupino, who was only fifteen at the time, is good—and unrecognizable—as May. British stalwart John Mills, 25 at the time, is Ernest, and Victor Stanley has a couple good moments as the valet. One of the better of the British B-movie quota quickies of the era. Pictured are Kendall and Lupino. [Streaming]

SEA OF SAND (1958)

It's October, 1942 as the British army prepares for a major offensive against the Germans at El Alamein in Egypt. The soldiers from a Long Range Desert Group are harassing Rommel's men, disrupting communications and supply lines. The group, led by Capt. Cotton (Michael Craig, pictured), operates in fairly non-standard ways which the newly assigned Capt. Williams (John Gregson) from the corps of engineers isn't completely comfortable with. Their next mission is to destroy a German petrol dump. Cotton, who should be taking leave, stays, perhaps needing distraction because of a recent break up with his wife. The two are at loggerheads for a time, but as war movie buffs will know, they'll eventually come to respect each other. Given the fairly large number of characters, it's surprising that they aren't more distinctly differentiated. The two we get to know most are Brody (Richard Attenborough), the snarky bloke who sneaks brandy in his canteen—even spitting brandy in the face of a German soldier at one point—and Matheson (Barry Foster), the young recent recruit with a new baby back home he hasn't seen yet. Behind enemy lines, they mostly manage to avoid the Germans, and when a German patrol goes past them while they're on the side of a road, Williams manages to con them by speaking German. There's an interesting scene in which a lone German armored car approaches slowly; the Brits think it might go right on by but it does engage them in a short battle. The attack on the depot is successful but getting back to base is crucial as they have important information about hidden German tanks to pass on. Their trek becomes quite dangerous with several casualties and one critically wounded man (Percy Herbert) who ends up with the most compelling storyline of the characters. There is despair and sacrifice in the hot desert as we wonder if any Desert Group survivors will make it back to base. One reason I liked this movie is that it reminded me of the 1960s TV show The Rat Patrol which was also about a group of Allied desert disrupters. There were only four men in the Rat Patrol (3 Americans, 1 British) but there are nearly a dozen soldiers who have at least some dialogue here. I wouldn't say there is a lack of stereotypes but they are downplayed a bit, and the sometimes bumpy camaraderie of the men feels right. It was filmed in Libya, giving the locations a look of realism. Acting is solid all around, with Michael Craig and John Gregson largely underplaying to good effect. Attenborough is perhaps a bit showier and Percy Herbert is a standout as the doomed wounded man. (Others are doomed as well.) This British film was released in a shortened version in the States as DESERT PATROL. Quite watchable. [YouTube]

THE TIGER WOMAN (1945)

Private detective Jerry Devery goes to the Tiger Club nightspot thinking he's been summoned to meet a cop but instead he's met by Sharon Winslow, wife of the club's co-owner Fred. Sharon knows that gambling kingpin Joe Sapphire is about to put out a hit on Fred for his huge debts and she asks Jerry, a friend of Sapphire's, to negotiate an understanding, despite the fact that she is in love with Fred's business partner, Steve Mason. Jerry summarizes the case as, "Wife wants to keep hubby intact to keep boyfriend out of trouble." Jerry finds out that the hit is off, as Fred has recently made a big payment to Sapphire which may have been embezzled from the Tiger Club. Sharon plans to tell Fred about Steve, but Fred is found dead at his study desk, a suicide note next to him. To ensure that Sharon gets the insurance money, Steve burns the suicide note, and when the cops declare it murder, Sapphire worries that he'll be a suspect, though Jerry assures Sapphire that he is Sapphire's alibi since they were together at the time of Fred's death. A cleaning lady says a desperate young woman named Carrington was the last person to see Fred alive, and soon the cops are after her. Steve starts feeling guilty about the innocent woman being framed, but we find out (and have suspected for some time) that Sharon is the actual murderer, and she's not about to risk losing her insurance money for anyone. This is a nifty little hour-long B-film, sometimes referred to as film noir because it involves a femme fatale. The various twists in the plot are good ones, and though some are predictable, they are still fun to follow, and a couple are surprising. Kane Richmond, handsome and underrated B-movie star of serials and mysteries, is very good as Jerry, who comes off as pretty smart but still a half-beat behind the bad girl, Adele Mara as Sharon, also very good.  The two have good chemistry even though you know it won't last. Familiar faces include Richard Fraser (Steve), Gregory Gaye (Sapphire—it's nice to have a gambling thug who is a bit civilized), and Cy Kendall as the cop, who doesn't have a lot to do but is always a welcome face. The plot is tricky but easy to keep track of. Don't get this confused with the 1944 serial with the same name—there are no literal tigers here, and no jungle goddesses. Still, entertaining. Pictured are Mara and Richmond. [YouTube]

HELL-BOUND TRAIN (1930)

The Hell-bound train is always running and its engineer, the devil himself, is always on duty. This hour-long silent film was made by James Gist, a Christian evangelist, and his wife Eloyce, and the two would take this and other short films on the road to show in churches and at revival meetings. This one doesn't actually have a narrative; instead, it's a series of episodes showing people engaging in bad behavior that ensures them a ride on the train. The sinning in the first coach is triggered by dancing, which inevitably leads to drinking and bootlegging and sex and adultery and babies. When a jealous woman stabs another to death after too much dancing, the devil (a man in a Halloween devil costume) hops up and down with joy, and we see the title card, "The devil rejoices" for the first of several times. In the second coach, drunkenness prevails, leading to rape. In the third, it's jazz music which drives children mad and causes a woman to collapse. Someone yells out, "Stop the blues and bring the hymn book!" but it’s too late—she's dead. Thievery is the next sin as we see two street kids steal food from a grocer and get sent immediately to work on a chain gang. Murderers, gamblers, adulterers, and liars get their due, with a whole coach devoted to hypocrites and backsliders who strayed from the church. One man is asked to join the church, declines the offer, and dies of a heart attack. Playing pool is bad, as is talking back to your parents. One woman takes "medicine to avoid becoming a mother" which is "murder in cold blood." Finally, we’re told that "the good time midnight life crowd will be lost in Hell," as we see the train, full of sinners, enter a tunnel and burst into flames, undoubtedly a representation of the flames of hell. 

Almost a hundred years after its production, this film is fun to watch and easy to mock, but the sincere tone mitigates a bit against it being seen as camp. (Of course, a sincerely made movie can still be campy, as with the notorious MANOS THE HANDS OF FATE). Though the outcomes for the sinners seem exaggerated, the acting isn't, except for the prancing devil; that guy (there are no credits) is having a really good time rejoicing over sin. Filmed mostly in a Black neighborhood in Indianapolis in wintertime, as there is frequently snow on the ground in exteriors, the only existing print of this film was cobbled together from a number of sources but it makes a satisfying whole. The camera work is rough and ready, but that also adds to the appeal here, as the camera is almost always on the move. Claims have been made that this movie is "visually stunning" and a very important find. Those are exaggerated claims, though the film was chosen for the National Film Registry in 2021. The genre of non-professional religious films is surely an underrepresented one and I'm glad to have seen this. [Criterion Channel]

NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES (1948)

One night, Jean Cortland tries to kill herself by jumping in front of a train, but her boyfriend Elliott Carson saves her. She says she feels like the stars are watching her. At a nearby diner, Elliott and Jean meet up with John Triton, a clairvoyant who foretold her death. In flashback, we learn that Triton used to be a fortune telling con man, the Mental Wizard, who worked with confederates Jenny and Whitney to trick his audience, until one night in 1928 when he got a legitimate vision of a woman’s children being endangered by a house fire. The woman gets home in time to save her children, but Triton is freaked out by this new power. At first he uses it to predict horse race winners and stock market results. Later, he has a vision of a newsboy being killed in a hit-and-run accident and isn't able to stop it. Then he sees the death of Jenny, his fiancée, in childbirth, and he breaks up the act and leaves. However, Jenny marries Whitney and, in fact, dies in childbirth. Whitney grows rich in the oil business (because of a vision of Triton's) and raises his daughter who is Jean Cortland from the opening scene. Triton has kept an eye on them from afar, but recently predicted Whitney's death in a plane crash. When the crash occurs and seems to have been the result of sabotage, Triton is under suspicion by the police. In the present, he predicts Jean's death, at night under the stars, at 11 p.m. Triton tries to protect her, but we've seen that it's difficult to stop fate.

Based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich, this is an interesting if not always successful blend of film noir and fantasy. Noir often deals with death and destiny and with protagonists who try against great odds to change the course of the future. Unlike most noirs, and unlike most Hollywood movies of the era, the supernatural is real here—there is no other explanation for Triton's power, and we never learn how he got it. The two elements don't always fit together well, especially in the last third when we lose some atmosphere and it turns into a cops and crime film. But the movie does sustain a nice element of dread, if not exactly horror (the film is sometimes labeled as horror which I think will be misleading to horror fans) and the noir look is handled nicely, with most scenes taking place at night. Edward G. Robinson carries the movie even through its bumpiest spots as Triton, a sympathetic figure who lives in fear of his weird gift. Gail Russell (Jean) is fairly bland, leading me to not care all that much about what happened to her; John Lund (Elliott) is a bit better, but both are overshadowed by Virginia Bruce (Jenny) and Jerome Cowan (Whitney) from the flashback story. William Demarest is fine as a cop. Favorite line: Robinson, explaining what it's like to foretell deaths: "I had become a reverse zombie—the world was dead and I was living." Pictured are Lund and Robinson. [TCM]